GetUp has urged volunteers to help win “a parliament free of homophobes” in a controversial campaign message targeting Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton.

The SMS message, sent on Wednesday evening, went to volunteers who took part in GetUp’s campaign to call voters and advocate a “yes’” vote in the 2017 marriage equality postal survey. “You stepped up to call voters for marriage equality and we won!,” it said. “Now, we’re a month out from the election – our chance to win safe schools and a parliament free of homophobes.

“Can you re-enter the fray and join the fight to boot out Tony Abbott, Peter Dutton, and other hard right pollies?” A GetUp spokesman said the campaign was “a peer to peer text, aiming to re-engage the people who made phone calls for marriage equality”. “We want their help to rid parliament of hard-right wreckers who have out-of-date views on LGBTQ issues and actively campaigned against marriage equality.”

Abbott, the former prime minister, was a high-profile campaigner against same-sex marriage, kicking off the campaign in 2017 by suggesting Australians concerned about religious freedom, freedom of speech and “political correctness” should vote no.

Dutton, the home affairs minister, also voted against same-sex marriage in the postal survey and once suggested that the gay chief executive of Qantas, Alan Joyce, should “stick to his knitting” rather than engage in public debate on same-sex marriage. Read more via the Guardian