Just received an email from Keep Australia Fishing. I dont know if anyone else on here has a thread going and apologise if there is one.

This is the form letter to Tony Burke.

""Dear Minister Burke,

Don’t Lock Us Out!

We are writing to you because we are concerned you are locking Aussie recreational fishers out of more than 1.3 million square kilometres of our seas and oceans.

If this goes ahead, you will be responsible for the largest lock out of recreational fishers in Australian history. To date, you and your Government have not yet provided a single valid reason as to why this needs to happen.

With about 5 million Australians going fishing each year, we are the largest stakeholder group affected by your marine park lock up plans. These plans, if implemented, will have obvious and immediate impacts on rec-fishing opportunities and on the thousands businesses and communities that support us.

Despite this, your Government has already said it will not be compensating us for this loss, even though you are giving other affected user groups many millions of taxpayer dollars. We are also very worried about the precedents that will be set if you continue to ignore our concerns and lock us out.

This is just not good enough. Australian recreational fishers will not accept this sort of treatment.

Minister, you know full well that Australian recreational fishers are conservation minded and that we support scientifically based conservation measures including marine reserves. If there’s a good scientific reason to limit recreational fishing for the sake of the environment, then we accept this and will assist in the protection of these areas.

However, your draft management plans are discriminatory. You want to lock us out of vast areas of Australian ocean and seas yet you will leave these same areas open to thousands of divers, tourism operators, cargo ships, naval vessels and bulk carriers.

If these areas are so special and so environmentally sensitive, then why are these activities allowed while recreational fishers are locked out? How can you ban one user group and impose no restrictions on others, all without any valid scientific reasons?

As anglers are known as the guardians of the sea, a decision by you to allow recreational fishers to continue to access these areas will enhance the environmental outcome for the reserve network and increase the economic and social benefits for all Australians and future generations.

You know as well as we do that there are options and management strategies that you can implement to make this happen.

Minister, for the sake of all Australian fishos, Don’t Lock Us Out!

Sincerely, ""

I added this "I am a labour voter and have never changed. But this lockout under the Green's influence has now made me think Liberal. At least they arent half Green and stay true to their colours.
DONT LOCK US OUT"

With the election looming in September the Lab-greens will push harder to get these reserves through, and we should be heard now. Get behind it.

http://www.keepaustraliafishing.com.au/index.php/take-action/campaigns/campaign-1-don-t-lock-us-out

Dr. Neels Myburgh