Thanks for your post yeeros et al. The real problem is that there are way too many "bodies" involved in rec fishing. Some of those involved have been there beating the same old drum for years and years.
There are national bodies RecFish, AFTA, AUF, ANSA and state branches of. There are other govt. organisations. There is ACoRF, fishing alliances, fishing clubs, action groups, rights associations, eco groups and the list goes on and on.
Fishraider is not a political vehicle. This is a forum for sharing fishing experiences and discussing all things angling. We have a section for Fisheries News and Politics for items to be discussed but we will not allow the forum to be drenched in political arguements. There are many, many forums devoted to doing just that. Having said that, fishraider is always willing to assist where possible. Fishraider is quite powerful in terms of site activity and membership growth. It would be the most active of all the forums at this point in time.
I have had talks with people involved in active lobbying to offer our resources. Most of these groups are still working as silos and not willing to come together to express the views of the ordinary rec fisho. I do email lobbyists and politicians and link them to worthy threads on fishraider. I have offered our chat room to host online meetings to no avail.
Yeeros, I do take offence at the suggestion that we do not take an active role in educating anglers and that we are not pro active. Do you have any idea of the time and effort required to plan and run such a project??? It is not about a bloody petition or having an odd public meeting here and there. It will take much more than that to get things changed. I have experience on national panels for health issues and let me tell you it takes a longggg time to get consensus and get things moving.
Fishraider admin aka Stewy and I have full time jobs and our life after work is spent running fishraider and we do not have the time or money to run a campaign. If anyone here has any ideas for "pro activity" please pm me or write to fishraider@iinet.net.au and we will certainly offer our resources to assist with any well organised and planned campaign. Perhaps that might be you Yeeros
This is now closed and moved to News and Politics
mrsswordfisherman