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Over the past two years, I have decided to devote myself to the defence of the rights and freedoms of outdoor Australians and particularly those that fish. I simply don't believe that Australians should be locked out of their own country.
Australians have lost their right to access public space at an alarming rate over the last decade. The main cause has been the increasing influence of the extreme green movement and governments' enthusiasm to embrace their ideology.
During the last Federal election, the Federal Treasurer described the greens as watermelons. Green on the outside with a "red" hidden agenda on the inside. A defining characteristic of extreme socialism is the erosion of personal freedoms. I just think they have a vocabulary that is limited to "don't do this, don't do that".
The greens think they have a monopoly on environmentalism. This is not true. Nearly everyone I know believes in ecological sustainability. You'd have to be mad not too. However "ecological sustainability" does not mean "lockout" and I believe that human beings are an essential component of any balanced ecosystem.
The greens have been very successful with their feel good approach. Despite the fact that middle Australia is environmentally aware, the greens still use the environment as their brand and have a big inner city support base. Governments are so desperate to retain office that they have literally married the greens and allow them a free reign. They have implanted extreme greens in many departments including Environment and Primary Industry.
Neither political party can ignore green preferences and hope to retain power. However, there are not many of them. There are far more outdoor people and the representatives we choose can and will take the balance of power from them.
Extreme greens are currently running riot. They are treating exaggerated environmental issues with religious fervour. For extreme greens, the end justifies the means and they have a full bag of dirty tricks to employ to achieve their aims. These include encouraging the appointment of stooges as government advisors, unashamedly distorting science, pulling the tear jerk argument, implanting sleepers into organizations, and misrepresenting themselves in the media to give their opponents a bad name.
All of these techniques have been used to discredit recreational fishing in recent times. I was interviewed by phone after a media release. Later we found out that the ABC had not contacted me at all. Extreme greens were trying to get into my head. This also happened a number of times at Cape Byron during the protests.
Distortion of facts and manipulation of science is a way of life for the greens and they have infected Government with the habit. 4WD's are being banned from beaches because they crush pippis. Their science says so. Give us a break! Then they say there are 23,000 snails, insects, shrimps and prawns per metre of beach. Above water level where we drive, turn it up!
The basis for our sanctuary zones is a consensus statement on marine reserves issued by a relative minority of the world's marine scientists. They claim that the only way to save the marine environment is to lock it up. The statement was referring principally to commercial mass extraction activities, predominantly in underdeveloped countries.
In Australia the consensus statement is twisted to justify the exclusion of recreational activities in marine parks just like they have already done in National parks. This is despite a CSIRO review of world scientific thinking that shows that recreational fishing in parks is OK and sanctuary zones simply don't work. See Ken Thurlow's contribution herein to see what good science says about all this.
The tear jerk is everywhere. The environment minister calls grey nurse sharks "Labradors of the sea". (Three out of the four shark attacks in NSW this year have been confirmed as grey nurse. Pity they were having a day off when the Minister was having his dive.) Cape Byron Marine Park was declared to save whales! (They are only passing through for ten minutes on the way north.) Whole areas are to be closed because someone saw a bird there once. (It's in the Manning Shelf biodiversity assessment!)
Perhaps the most despicable technique used to disable opposition to Government policies is to stack the advisory committees with sycophants who support their cause. They overpower the good reps we have there and our message never gets through. Then the Government has the audacity to say these committees represent recreational fishing. They certainly do not. They also plant their people into voluntary organisations. These people are easy to identify. They encourage apathy, they actively discourage dissent with government policy and when this fails, they are divisive and very disruptive.
Before I talk about divide and conquer, there is evidence that extreme greens aim to progressively restrict fishing and breed it out of society over 50 years. They are about 15 years into this program.
Ever wonder why the green lobby groups hardly ever oppose "catch and release"? The Government actively encourages "catch and release" and all the while restricts what you can take by denying access and lowering bag limits.
The most basic and justifiable reason for fishing is to eat. The right to fish is based on the right to eat. People who fish to eat cannot be challenged. Fishing is also a traditional right. We have as much traditional right to fish as indigenous people have. There have been wars fought over the right to fish. One war led to the Magna Charta, which has become our basic bill of rights. These principles underpin Westminster law.
. However, anglers can be challenged if they fish purely for sport. "Catch and release" can and will be twisted by the greens so that it resembles fox hunting. I forecast that when they have weened us off eating our catch, they will swing the attack around to discredit "catch and release".
Personally, I "catch and eat", but I still let go unwanted species. If it gets all too easy, I change to a better eating and more difficult species to catch. If I end up with a bit extra, I give it away to someone who doesn't fish or someone who has had a bad day. The State Government wants us to limit this to immediate family and exclude "old Mrs Jones" next door. They want to take away my right to make a gift and limit Mrs Jones' freedom in accepting it! This is social engineering at it's worst and comes from the very red heart of the Watermelon.
Regardless of my own views, I strongly campaign for all fishers to have the right to choose the way they fish. The defence of our rights and freedoms greatly outweighs the differences between us. However, it is very hard to continue to defend those who are continually attacking our own basic right to "catch and eat". This includes those people who challenge our right to weigh our catch on its way to the table. "You should be releasing your fish." "You should not be killing your fish blah blah. This is a slur and does nothing for these critics.
Fishing is a measure of the ability of a person to provide. Being a provider is a basic human characteristic. Having ones ability as a provider measured in a competition can be very confronting. Some like the challenge and some don't. There is nothing wrong with either view.
It's not wise for some to continually criticise "catch and eat". The critics are bound to be attacked for "catch and release" when the green agenda shifts. When it's their turn to be picked on they can hardly expect support from the much larger hunter fisher gatherer group if they persist in attacking us.
We should all recognise the main game is continued access to fishing grounds for all recreational fishers and the enemies are those who wish to restrict that right, not other fishermen and women.
While the extreme green agenda and their marriage to government is the cause of our problems, the real responsibility for the damage rests with us. If we don't care about the loss of freedoms of others, if we don't practice solidarity and, worst of all, if we just sit on our bums and do nothing, we will deserve every single thing that we get.