What political parties represent prospectors like us?

Can anyone provide any history on the political representation or lack of it that prospectors have had in Australia?
I know we had Eureka Stockade. But that is a long time ago and Peter Lalor is dead.
I also know that areas are being locked up or made difficult to use because our interests are not taken into account. That is with the exceptions, it seems, of Victoria where the PMAV has been pretty successful in defending their patches; and WA where they understand mining.
However as a recent series of post would indicate:
Tasmania is in trouble
Cape York is at risk or lost due to Wild Rivers
Northern Territory is problematical hence Jef’s petition
As a relative newcomer to detecting and prospecting I would like it be getting easier to undertake our sport – not harder.
I notice the NSW Shooters and Fishers Party has policies that could potentially take account of our needs and to try to give them a voice.
Does anyone know if they are interested in our collective or have ever been approached about it?
The big challenge we face is that we are all so independent that there is no collective voice.
In the age of interest groups we are going to lose every time unless we get our Sh.t together!
Collectively our votes have to be worth something to a party that cares about what we think.
Of course we can all reach for another beer and leave it to the gold gods. But that won’t save us.

hi IDM, Sorry to burst your bubble, but we, the great plebian, unwashed, are the MINORITY in Society.
they don,t like US! the rich hierarchy don,t like it if we compete with them. who will shovel the s#@#, scrub their toilets, [ which smell like roses, of course ! ] and work 10 hours a week for $15 hr. ? '' your HIGHNESS, the peasants are revolting ! '' yes they are, and they smell bad too. '' REVOLT? your joking ! what with, pitch forks ?
the sooner we learn are true place in SOCIETY, the better off ? we will be, and the mega,s will be happier and fell safer too. THANK GOD. they don,t want us to get rich from gold mining like their ancestors did, hence we make it harder to mine/prospect for youse peasants. AMEN.

peter lalor was the only 1 i know of,,,, but he s dead////////////////

I don't think detecting or prospecting is a problem with any political party here in Victoria. We've got the right to dig regardless of politics. I'm greenish, and happy to detect and dig (and fill) anywhere in Victoria where it's allowed.

I've only ever had a problem when other detectorists carry on about politics and get all angry and agressive about 'greenies' or the like. It would make it a lot easier for us to use the detectors in lots more spots if people with strong political opinions would just keep quiet. Sheesh, is that too hard?

goldsniff wrote:I don't think detecting or prospecting is a problem with any political party here in Victoria. We've got the right to dig regardless of politics. I'm greenish, and happy to detect and dig (and fill) anywhere in Victoria where it's allowed.

I've only ever had a problem when other detectorists carry on about politics and get all angry and agressive about 'greenies' or the like. It would make it a lot easier for us to use the detectors in lots more spots if people with strong political opinions would just keep quiet. Sheesh, is that too hard?

well hell yeh it is GS. greenies also have their own political agenda, and us digging holes is,nt one of them.
pleeeeaaaaasee!

Gday

Most politicians have their own agenda's and for the best part are self serving and only interested in what results something will have for them, never really thinking further that the term of their office usually and what short term effect it will have that will benefit them, in reality we are only a very small minority group and we dont in our small number carry much weight, in order for us to be of political interest to any politician we would have to form and alliance with other outdoor user groups such as 4wd clubs, shooters, and others that are using the bush, this would benefit all of those groups as they are under threat the same as us.

What politician in their right mind would want to be the voice of a group of people who are hell bent on detroying themselves and actually in some cases aiding the wowsers to tie the final knots on the noose, so its our attitudes that have to change, and fast.

Hate to burst your bubble but its a fact that our hobby is slowly being regulated to death, and one of the main problems is that it is us the detectorist that is causing the gates to be shut, this issue has been discussed at length regarding the holes/damage/rubbish that uncaring nitwits leave behind, this has given people apposed to what we do the ammunition to get our rights deminished, we have shot ourselves in the foot so to speak.

The very people who are bleating the loudest are just as likely to have done their bit to cause most of this in the first place, from my experience the people who make the most noise are usually the ones who are the worst offenders, and well as for the rest, some of us are passionate about standing for our rights the vast majority just sit on the fence and let everyone else get their hands dirty, or simply bury their heads in the sand, once again our attitudes simply have to change.

If we dont start taking a stand now and making ourselves heard then it can go only one way and its going to be bad for us, but if you dont want to do anything then dont complain when its all gone, and you cant even sell your detector because there will be no where for anyone to be able to use it.

cheers

stayyerAU

The Greens do not support our interests!
They wish all of the public land to be made in to National parks, with huge Restrictions, Prospecting of any sort an absolute NO NO!
The ALP are closely alligned with the Greens, as they are both Socilaist Parties, in Victoria as long as i have been a prospector, 26 years our rights are being slowly but surely
taken away from us!

The Liberal / National, Country Allience & shooters party have better support for outdoor recreation!
For me this is the issue i give my Vote on!

Why not make our own party, APFP - Australian Prospectors & Fossikers Party for example.

Start it up in one of the major areas of WA or VIC (ie : unions and already exist) and then just get the ball rolling into other states... An example being the ASP (sex party!).

If you want to make a party count my vote i,m in but live in TAS cheers Mick

I think you only need about 100 members to register a new political party i,ll check on it tonight

to form a political party not as I said before you need 500 members details below , if we could get that many it does not matter which state they are in then it could possibly be a goer , I for 1 would consider standing up for the cause Regards Mick
Eligibility

To be eligible for registration a party must be:

Established on the basis of a written Constitution that sets out the aims of the party and; either
a parliamentary party, which is a political party with at least one member in the Parliament of the Commonwealth;

or

a political party that has at least 500 members who are entitled to be on the electoral roll and are not relied on by any other party.

Applications

Applications for registration are made to the AEC’s National Office. For parliamentary parties they may be made by the party secretary or all the parliamentary members. For other political parties the application must be signed by ten members of the party of whom one is the secretary of the party.

The application must set out the name of the party, its abbreviation (if any), its registered officer's name, address and signature and whether the party wishes to receive election funding. It must be accompanied by a copy of the party's Constitution and for non-parliamentary parties 500 individually signed membership application/declaration forms, a membership list and a statutory declaration confirming party membership of those who had signed the forms.

Parliamentary parties must include a Statutory Declaration from the secretary of the party affirming the Parliamentary members as members of the party, and also letters from the Parliamentary members that state they are members of the party. These letters must be on Parliamentary letterhead.

An application cannot be processed by the AEC in the period between the issue and the return of the writ for a Commonwealth election or by-election.

A $500 fee must accompany registration and change of name or abbreviation applications.

Notification and Objection

When the AEC receives an application for party registration it publishes a notice in the Commonwealth Gazette and major newspapers in each State and Territory. This notice invites objections on the grounds that:

the application does not meet the legislative requirements;
the party is not an eligible political party;
the name is one which should be refused by the AEC.

Any person or organisation may object to a party being registered on these grounds by submitting reasons in writing to the AEC during the month after the date of notice. The AEC will refuse to register a party if the name or abbreviation of the party:

comprises more than six words;
is obscene;
is the name or abbreviation of the name of an unrelated recognised party;
closely resembles the name or abbreviation of an unrelated recognised party;
comprises the words Independent Party, or contains the word Independent together with the name of an unrelated registered party.

The term recognised refers to a Parliamentary party, a registered party or a party registered or recognised in a State or Territory that has endorsed candidates in the last five years.

Deregistration

The AEC may de-register a party on the following grounds:

the party has ceased to exist;
the original registration was obtained by fraud or misrepresentation;
a non-parliamentary party has failed to endorse candidates for election for a period of 4 years;
the registered officer did not comply with a review notice;
the party has less than 500 members and no Parliamentary members; or
at the request of the party.

I think the best party that would represent us all in Parliament would be the PMAV. They have already got contacts with members of Parliament. Already got the member following and got people that know what they are talking about. All we need is someone from this organization to stand for Parliament either State or Federial and we will be in.

Wombat

Hallelujah Goldslugger great to see someone still has his marbles in the right spot, if only the we can all get together and unight with the shooters/fisherman and 4 x 4 clubs and respect the the land we live on with out the rubbish that goes behind close doors like our so called parties that really care about usssssss

you get the fishers ,the shooters the 4xs, prospectors and any other active bush using group, put them all together, and you have BUSH USERS GROUPS or "BUGS".
And for the green gent that says be quite and it'll all go away, we should be doing a lot of whinging and make huge exagerations like Bob whathisname,their full of it, remember, the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

Good to see action on this post and also that moderators remained moderate!

My original question was what, in any, effort has been made to represent our concerns through a political party or at the political level?

Do they know about us? What do they think about us? Does anyone have links to the Shooters and Fishers ?

PMAV is doing a great job in Victoria. But they have been around a long time and as Wombat says, they know what they are on about. They are successful lobbyists. And I wish we had them in NSW and in every other state.

Starting from scratch is a very difficult proposition especially for a small and select group like us. We have no immediate issue that can galvanise public opinion. I think it would be therefore better to enter an alliance with other like minded people such as the shooters and fishers.

(Note: By way of disclaimer -- I have no affiliation with Shooters and Fishers or any other political party).

However, when I looked at their website over the past couple of days I think there is a natural alliance here. Damn it! I fish and I have a 4WD as well! Although I doubt they would want to change their name to “Shooters, Fishers and Prospectors” (SFP). Although to be honest it sounds pretty good.

All we really need is for them to understand what we seek and work to have it as part of their policies to help raise our voice. Maybe they are interested, maybe not. But there is potentially a good bloc of votes here and we would have more influence then we have now.

There is a bit more information about them below:

http://www.shootersandfishers.org.au/about-us

Wikipedia shows they have been actually quite successful in the political space. In the 2007 New South Wales state election, the Shooters Party received 2.8% of the primary vote for the Legislative Council (↑0.8%) to elect lead candidate Roy Smith to the Upper House. As a result, the party now holds 2 seats in the NSW Upper House.
At the 2011 New South Wales state election, the Liberal/National Coalition took government but with three seats short of a majority in the upper house. The Shooters hold two seats along with the Christian Democratic Party, with the balance of power shifting from the Greens to the two parties.[3] The Shooters have reportedly created a list of demands in exchange for legislative support for the government, however the government has "ruled out" any deals with the Shooters.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooters_and_Fishers_Party

well done to all. especially mick starr for the info.all very constructive and succint. it is very difficult to be objective and focused with such topics as religion and politics, yet we are moving in the right direction.
you do not need to believe in the various conspiracy theories to see where we, as the public, and individuals are being herded. '' it is only when you, and your interests are affected that you will fight back ''.
apathy, comfort zone, what-ever, the spin doctors of the government know this, and capitalise upon it
remember the fishing quotas and proposed bans, the outcry and BACKLASH WAS HEARD IN CANBERRA. perhaps we are not as strong as that forum, but collectively we will have a voice. it,s happening in the northern territory and some what in W.A. whose next? here in S.A. WE ARE ALREADY OVER RESTRICTED. MINING RIGHTS, well not many for us as individuals. cheers.

I am pretty heavily involved in the 4x4 scene.
We had an issue with some major changes that the RTA was proposing that would effect Modifying passenger vehicles / 4x4's in NSW.
To cut a long story short, the current Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner took on our cause and fought hard to get the proposed rules overturned, which were in the end.
Pollies do tend to do things based on how many votes are in for them, but in the start we only had the same numbers as the NT Partition had he still took it on, so I think if anyone is going to be sympathetic towards out cause, he would be....

Phone (02) 9228 5209
Fax (02) 9228 5970
office@deputypremier.nsw.gov.au

He is the member for Oxley


Phone (02) 6562 6190
Fax (02) 6563 1355
oxley@parliament.nsw.gov.au

Pollitical Parties are only for themselves. They grow fat on Massive wages,Bonuses,Early Pensions/Pensions for life that are far above the pittiful ammount given to HARD WORKING Pensioners.
Time for a Massive kick in the shorts for the Main 2 pollitical parties in Australia. Time to stop the Rot.
Time for a real Party run by the People,for the People. Time for us to stand up and say" Were as mad as Hell,and we aint gunna take it anymore!"
I will get off my Soap Box now,end of rant.........

Gus wrote:Pollitical Parties are only for themselves. They grow fat on Massive wages,Bonuses,Early Pensions/Pensions for life that are far above the pittiful ammount given to HARD WORKING Pensioners.
Time for a Massive kick in the shorts for the Main 2 pollitical parties in Australia. Time to stop the Rot.
Time for a real Party run by the People,for the People. Time for us to stand up and say" Were as mad as Hell,and we aint gunna take it anymore!"
I will get off my Soap Box now,end of rant.........

Sadly its all been tried before and it will never be adopted........ to many people with to many agenda's both pollies and public
The main trouble is, a lot of the voters are in it for what they can get, and as a result will vote for whoever they think will give them something for nothing...... which they do....and then down the track the money dries up and the problems set in.
If everyone took a good long look at what is best for us as a country, rather than whats in it for me, we would all be better off in the end.

Harb wrote:
If everyone took a good long look at what is best for us as a country, rather than whats in it for me, we would all be better off in the end.

Thats the Golden sentance there Harb. Too many people looking for Handouts rather than thinking about making this Country a better place for future generations. The `ME,ME` youth of today will bugger it for all in the years to come. They dont care for anyone else,its all about them

I think it can be done,but there are too many small parties soaking up votes and handing them out in the Preference system.

Hi all
Read the posts by StayyerAu and Harb they get right to the nitty gritty of all the problems too many out there not doing the right thing and won't admit it. we need a code of ethics and every last one of use need to abide by them one or two loose cannon out there and this is only a dream as the Jack system is alive and thriving. We are only human after all and this also may be part of the problem but hey maybe there is still hope.
Wilpow

ahhh, THE GOOD OL politics debacle. politicians spend OBSCENE amounts of our tax dollars to buy spin doctors = propagandists, to get away with things that would put the average '' joe '' in prison. '' their agenda is not to support we, the great unwashed, rather their college ''BUDDIES'' and related hierachy. australia won,t even sign the human rights charter! SAY WOT no wonder your guns were taken away. [ sure, old news ] not until politicans are legally accountable,will things change , course the big boy Q.C.,S and supreme court judges, are their drinking mates. add to this things happening away from public scrutiny, well good luck. i for one, am afraid, and feel sorry for the up-coming generations. THEY, will prevent any form of disssent and related public uprising . their existence would be threatened.