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"Imagine it: a couple of corporate guys, whose entire careers hinge on keeping the corporation profitable and its image squeaky clean. Suddenly they're confronted with the reality of what association with abuse means for their company – legal liability; investors, banks and clients refusing to do business with them; and a plummeting share price. They gulped as we told them the only way out – exit the contract and free those imprisoned in the camps."

Together, we sent a shockwave through Australia's abusive detention regime.

Here's what happened.

Three months ago:

Ferrovial, a Spanish multinational, announces a bid to take over Broadspectrum, the corporation paid billions to operate Australia's offshore detention camps.

In the weeks following:

GetUp members back an ambitious plan to convince Ferrovial to walk away from the camps, and to force the government to bring the people they're imprisoning offshore to safety in Australia.

Thousands write to the company.

One month ago:

GetUp members up the ante, chipping in to expand the campaign to Europe.

Campaign representatives meet with Ferrovial's horrified investors and financiers, the people who Ferrovial listen to the most.

Two and a half weeks ago:

The message gets back to head office and Ferrovial gets nervous.

As the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court declares detaining people on Manus Island to be illegal,1 Ferrovial caves in, announcing it will ditch the camps – "in future".2 In this phenomenal move, Ferrovial concedes it is willing to walk away from billions in revenue, rather than have its reputation trashed by association with abuse.

According to the Australian Financial Review, the move "blindsided" the government.3 It's great news – but it's not enough.

Two weeks ago:

For the first time, Ferrovial agrees to meet with representatives of the campaign.

Thousands of GetUp members tweet, email and message the company demanding that it ends its involvement in Manus and Nauru immediately.

And that's the message we drove home in our meeting. Imagine it: a couple of corporate guys, whose entire careers hinge on keeping the corporation profitable and its image squeaky clean. Suddenly they're confronted with the reality of what association with abuse means for their company – legal liability; investors, banks and clients refusing to do business with them; and a plummeting share price. They gulped as we told them the only way out – exit the contract and free those imprisoned in the camps.

The message from the company is clear – Ferrovial hasn't made a decision about when they will exit the camps – but they are willing to listen.

We now have the opportunity to end these camps, so the next few weeks are about setting up high-impact tactics, everything from working with Spanish activists to run a campaign on Ferrovial's home turf, to exploring international and Spanish legal actions against Ferrovial.

And that's not all that's happening. Stay tuned in the coming days and weeks for news about how you can take action to support refugees and people seeking asylum. In the meantime, we just wanted to say thank you.

Matt and Shen for the GetUp team.


PS: The last day to enrol to vote or update your voter details is next Monday 23 May. An estimated 950,000 people (including half of all 18 year olds) are missing from the electoral roll, meaning their voices won't be heard come election day. Take two minutes to check your enrolment now, or help spread the word by forwarding this link to family and friends: http://www.aec.gov.au/enrol/


References
[1] 'PNG's Supreme Court rules detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island is illegal', ABC News, 26 April 2016.
[2] 'Spain's Ferrovial to walk away from Manus, Nauru detention centre operations', Sydney Morning Herald, 1 May 2016.
[3] 'Offshore Detention Shunned by Spanish', Australian Financial Review 1 May 2016.

GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you'd like to contribute to help fund GetUp's work, please donate now! 

Our team acknowledges that we meet and work on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We wish to pay respect to their Elders - past, present and future - and acknowledge the important role all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within Australia and the GetUp community.

Authorised by Paul Oosting, Level 14, 338 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000.