AUSTRALIAN politics oftens resembles the plot of a action movie, with enough twists and turns, intrigue and backstabbing to make a Hollywood producer proud.

Now an independent Australian political group have taken that idea and run with it, producing a spoof of a Hollywood-style movie trailer to bring attention to the upcoming Federal election campaign, complete with car chases, gun fights, a helicopter explosion and an on-screen kiss between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott.



The two minute clip produced by GetUp, a non-partisan, non-profit advocacy group, features Ms Gillard as the gun-toting, sword-wielding action hero Julia Goolia, going up against her nemesis Tony Abbott in a Mission Impossible-style movie plot. Former PM Kevin Rudd and Greens Senator Bob Brown also make cameo appearances.



GetUp! communications director Sam McLean said the new ad aimed to encourage people to enrol to vote and draw attention to the major issues of this election, including refugees and carbon pollution.



"Politics has been a bit of an action movie plot of late so we wanted to make sure people, especially young people, enrol to vote in the election," Mr McLean said.



"People are paying a lot of attention to politics at the moment and politicians are paying a lot of attention to voters so we thought now was a good time."



The clip, which was produced in-house by a video editor and a "small taleneted team" on a shoe-string budget, has had 16,344 views on YouTube over the past two days.



"We uploaded it to YouTube on Monday night and it has taken us by surprise - it went wild on Twitter and Facebook," Mr McLean said.



GetUp's campaigns are primarily conducted on the internet but they also use email and traditional media to target members, especially Gen Y voters. The group currently boasts 377,668 members and Mr McLean expects that number to increase in the lead up to the election.



"It's the first time we've gone for this concept but it is very important that young Australians get on the electoral roll," he said.



"It's (the YouTube clip) got links to the AEC enrolment form and lots of people have already clicked on it."



The Australian Electoral Commission also recently launched a campaign to encourage young people to enrol to vote, featuring famous young Australians including Jarryd Hayne, Dave Hughes, Ruby Rose, Eamon Sullivan, Laura Dundovic and Stuart Clark.



Enrol to vote at aec.gov.au





Originally published as Politics gets sexy