Port Stephens Marine Park Protest Rally

[Guest madsmc]

Hi Raiders, just wanted to remind everyone that $%^&* have a protest rally organised for this Sunday to protest against the proposed Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Park.

I will be attending along with some of my fellow Newcastle anglers. Hope to see you there too.

Further info on venue and time is below:

Sunday 13th August 2006

Newcastle $%^&* will be holding a Public Rally to Protest against the unscientific Marine Park Process, the complete lack of public consultation as well as a total disregard for local economies.

Make this Government aware of your opposition to this current deceptive policy to gain green votes by attending and offering your support, with other water user groups, to STOP THE LOCKOUTS.

Bring a sign with your personal comment.

Venue; Nelson Bay RSL

Time; 11am

Shane

[Guest madsmc]

No worries Stewy.

There are a few Newcastle anglers attending the day, and I'm sure there will be a huge turnout of Port Stephens locals.

This is my first opportunity to actually get to one of the $%^&* events, so I'm looking forward to it. Should be interesting to hear some of the speeches, and get the good oil from the people who will be directly effected by the Parks.

For those that are interested in what's happening, I will post up a report with some pics in the news section early next week.

Shane

[Hooky.]

Not one reply here on this post

Are anymore Raiders ATTENDING ?

A report on the days events would be great Shane

Cheers Swordfisherman

No offence Stewy and Shane but today is Thursday and Sunday is only 3 days away.

I'm sure most people would already have their weekends planned with other things?

First I've heard of this rally.

[Guest madsmc]

No offence taken Hooky. I wasn't expecting people to drive up from Sydney anyway.

I fish the Port Stephens area, along with the guys that I'm attending the protest with, so I'm taking the time out of my weekend to make objections on the marine park issue known.

Shane

[Guest Jewel]

Mate Im dissapointed that I cant make it up for the protest, but with all these protests some advance warning needs to be given. (not having a shot at you, just making a general statement)

If folks dont know about this type of event they become a non-event (the protest at Sydney town hall went in that direction)

PLEASE RAIDERS IF YOU HEAR OR HAVE DETATILS OF THESE SORTS OF ACTIVITIES POST THEM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!

We need to have numbers for notice to be taken of us.

Like politics or not guys, if you want to keep doing what we currently take for granted you will need to stand up and be counted.

Mick

[Guest madsmc]

I'm not taking any of this personally Mick, so no need to apologise.

I will be keeping an eye on the protest scene from now on, and putting up posts as soon as relevant details are available.

As you have pointed out, we need to have numbers in place at these protests to make our cause known amongst the people of NSW, particularly in the lead up to the next state election.

Shane

[Guest Jewel]

Cheers Shane,

Good luck on the weekend mate.

Every bit helps!

[Hooky.]

All is good.

Have a good day, the weather looks like it will be ok for the rally at least.

[Gibbofisho]

Good luck on the weekend mate!

[Yoda]

It was a great meeting, Geoff's speech was sensational, music to my ears was Duncan Gay's comment that on day 1 of gaining office all zoning plans will be scrapped. It became apparent at the end of the meeting that there was a lot of people there who were representing other groups as they were asking the information table for multiple copies of leaflets and forms to take back to their clubs (if anyone knows somebody from the Sydney Flyrodders Club, can they be asked to get in touch with me and I will send down more submission forms for them). We got a lot of new $%^&* memberships and TShirts were sold out. NBN News covered it as well. People came from as far away as Lane Cove.

Thanks to Duncan Gay, Robyn Parker, Craig Baumann, Geoff, Ted and Froggy. And may thanks to the people who took the time on a beatiful sunny sunday to attend and support the cause.

Edited August 14, 2006 by Yoda

[Guest madsmc]

It was an interesting meeting. The turnout was reasonable considering how nice the weather was, although I expected to see more.

Geoff, from Newcastle $%^&*, gave an excellent speech which filled in a few gaps in my knowledge on the subject, and really highlighted just how shifty the Labour Government and the Greens are when it comes to the Marine Parks.

I thought Duncan Gay's speech was quite good. It was refreshing to hear from a politician who actually goes fishing! As Yoda touched on above, the Liberal plan is to put an immediate stop to the Marine Parks process, and review every park that has been put in place. Changes will then be made based on proper scientific research and community consultation, unlike what is happening now.

One of the interesting points that Duncan made was on the topic of commercial fishing license buy outs. They are proposing a change so that if a commercial fisherman takes up the offer, then they are not permitted to purchase another commercial fishing license for 20 years. I hope that that will put an end to the farce that we have at present where they sell one license and use the proceeds to move to another area and buy a new license.

The fact that Ian McDonald is not willing to show his face at any meetings on this issue speaks volumes. Dictating terms to the people you are supposed to represent, rather than partaking in open, frank discussion is not how an elected official should behave. SHAME ON YOU IAN!

The Mayor of Port Stephens made his concerns felt about how the parks are going to have a detrimental effect on tourism in the area, and rightly so. I personally wouldn't bother to visit an area for a holiday if I couldn't fish the good spots.

The only down side for me was how the meeting sort of went off track a bit at the end with people using the question time to put in their own personal opinions, or push their own political party, rather than ask questions of the panel.

I expected to see a rep from The Fishing Party in attendance and they had their say, but there was also one rep from The Shooters Party? I don't know what that was about, and if there was any ulterior motive to him being there and putting in his two cents worth.

Overall it was worth making the effort to go along and find out for myself what is happening and give my support to the cause. The meeting made the local news so we can only hope that a few more people were made aware of what we are up against with Labour and the extremists.

As I said before, I will be keeping an eye on any further events like this and letting you all know about it. I strongly urge you to make the effort to go along and show your support, or become involved in whatever way you can. It's the future of our fishing at stake! If the Greens get their way with the Marine Parks now, then they will only increase in size in the future.

Shane

Edited August 14, 2006 by madsmc

[Grantm]

Sounds like an intersting day Shane. The Libs are certainly area trying to get in thier. Their message that they will cease and re-evaluate the parks is an intersting one. They were saying the same thing at the Central Coast rally a while back.

They specifically say they will wait for proper science to be brought forward before anything else is done. That is good but what does that mean ? I just hope its not a political tactic and is a genuine claim.

I like thier stance on the commercial buy outs too.

Good to see the locals come out in support. Its always a pity when some morons decide to make a mockery out of the open floor - happens every time.

Their message is a hell of a lot better than the alternative !!