Message from the Cairns Professional Game Fishing Association President Dan McCarthy:

As of last night the Australian Lifestyle and fishing party (AFLP) only needs 70 members to get over the line for registration with Aust Electoral Commission. We have just had the news that we have been given 1 week extension by the AEC for this to happen. The deadline is now 5 November. From there we need to keep the numbers going, the more members obviously the more power we have.

The latest news is a real let down; the commercial boats have sold out on us and left us in the trenches to fight our own battle to save the coral sea from being locked up.

PEW has announced also that the northern part of the Coral Sea is only stage 1 of the plans with Peter Garrett and that Stage 2 extends boundaries all the way down to Port Macquarie and within 3 miles of the coast line. Stage 3 onwards affects almost all the way around Australia.

And on top of all this we of course have the upcoming Bioregional Zoning to fight against.

Who the hell are these American radical green groups to come in and dictate to our government? (PEW funded oil and gas money). They dictate with alot of money behind them, money we cannot match so the only way forward is with a vote. There is over 10 million people in Australia who fish, so get it together and stand up to be counted.

The fact remains, they still don’t have a single bit of concrete scientific evidence behind there reason for wanting to lock it up. Because of this, the only way these radical groups can get Australians onside is to appeal through emotion based advertising campaigns ($200,000 TV and media advertisements with ‘Barry the Wrasse!’)

It’s now or never; please do not let this slip away from all of us. As Australians we have already had enough taken away. There is a bunch of us that have put in alot of time and effort in the last 12 months, but we cannot do it alone anymore, we need your help.

With the Australian Lifestyle and Fishing Party, we will have the ability to fight with votes, without it, we will have to beg and that will fall on deaf ears.

Membership is $40 for single person, $50 for families (each family member on separate forms) for 3 year membership. Basically stuff all for our right to keep fishing in our backyard, Australian waters!

Get a membership application form here.

The address to send it to AFLP, C/O Mitchells Marine, 303-305 Draper St, Cairns Qld 4870. Express post please! Time is running out.