freediver wrote on Aug 11
th, 2010 at 8:20pm:
Quote:PS the NSW coalition promised to abolish 2 marine parks and review the zoning of the remaining ones.
Tell me more about this please PJ. I would hate for people to think you were a naive sucker getting screwed by the coalition once again.
Can you make a point without being so crude and obnoxious? Actually it's not much of a point anyway. Do you agree that we have to be guided by what a party is promising prior to an election? Getting back to the federal election, besides promising to delay the planning process for further Commonwealth marine parks they will use the delay to have a proper consultation process with fishermen. They are pointing to outcomes like the Tasmanian marine parks which had very little impact on recreational fishermen.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/coalition-fishes-for-coastal-votes-over-marine-parks-plan/story-fn59niix-1225897727616
LABOR is at risk of losing key coastal seats around the country as a result of a grassroots campaign by fishermen.
The fishermen are angry over the government's plan to create a large network of marine parks.
The issue has sparked an underground political movement driven by blogs and social media pages, targeting marginal seats in coastal areas.Tony Abbott's pledge yesterday to put the parks on hold shows the Coalition is convinced this could be a pivotal issue in some seats.
The Opposition Leader pledged only to suspend the creation of the parks before consulting stakeholders, not to stop them altogether. But that was enough to trigger a favourable response yesterday among bloggers, a Coalition source said.
Environment Minister Peter Garrett has promised to consult further before making a decision next year, but fishing groups claim the consultation is not genuine.
Mr Garrett has proposed a network of marine parks covering an area of more than five million square kilometres, or 38 per cent of Australia's fishing zone.
Some of the parks would allow fishing to continue, but Mr Garrett wants a vast Coral Sea park covering one million square kilometres to be a no-take zone.
Complicating the issue is the creation of coastal marine parks by state governments. The NSW government is accused of consulting with fishermen about where they fish, and then shutting down the most popular areas.
In NSW, the bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro, held by Labor, has extensive coastal areas, as does the marginal seat of Page in the north, also held by Labor. And four seats in Queensland affected by the Coral Sea park would be lost to the Coalition with a swing of less than 2.5 per cent.
Opposition spokesman for fisheries Richard Colbeck has been in contact with commercial and recreational fishing groups around the country. He said the recreational fishermen were "pretty filthy, quite animated" in their opposition to the NSW government's handling of the issue, and were "highly organised" in coastal seats.
Senator Colbeck said the Coalition would go ahead with the marine parks, but its consultation would be more inclusive.
"We will still be putting in place marine parks," he said. "But let's put a hold on this process, put in place bioregional panels, then start developing boundaries and a management plan based on the information on the table."
Senator Colbeck said the groups he had been in touch with were not opposed to marine parks, but they wanted to be part of the process and "have a genuine say".
Tasmania had proved it was possible to create marine parks and achieve a win for both the environment and fishing.
Senator Colbeck said his experience of the Tasmanian process five years ago had shown that with proper consultation the state government had created an even bigger marine park area, while cutting the impact on fishing by 90 per cent.In Queensland, the Townsville-based seat of Herbert, which is held by just 0.4 per cent, would be left with a narrow corridor for fishing, the no-take zone starting 200km offshore and then stretching for about 1000km to the edge of Australia's maritime frontier.
The Gladstone-based seat of Flynn, held by 2.3 per cent, would also be affected