Just what an I wanting to achieve?

What we are setting out to achieve is to have our chosen political party holding the balance of power in the Legislative Council of the Victorian Government after November 25th. To be more explicit, we are working to let the ALP know that we will no longer put up with their "greenie driven" land management practices. We believe that the state of our remote country is of more importance than the nonsensical philosophy and policies of The Greens. If we can also persuade the Liberals that they will fare no better if they "suck up" to The Greens, that's good too.

We are NOT seeking to hold the balance of power in the Lower House (Legislative Assembly).

If outdoor recreation, industry and services are to have a hope of influencing the land management policies of the next Victorian Government after November 25th, there is a need to get a lot of first preference votes in the Upper House (Legislative Council) so that our chosen political party holds the balance of power and works to achieve our environment agenda. Our aim is 500,000 votes overall. One "quota'" is about 60,000 votes so if we can get 500,000 we will have elected eight MLC's and that should be enough to make our point to the big "L" parties.

If those that we back don't listen to our demands regarding environmental management they will only have themselves to blame when we prepare for the next election in 2010. They know that.

Fifteen of the forty seats available are in three country regions, East, North and Western and twenty five seats are in the Melbourne Metropolitan area.

It is not considered practical to run candidates in the five metro regions but if there were two Independents standing in a Metro region, we could ask our supporters to vote for them in the hope that we might influence a seat or two. The main thrust is to be in the three rural regions where we hope to obtain the major support. We have to break the stranglehold of the Liberals and Labor in the Upper House. Further, the members of the Lower House (Legislative Assembly) must recognise that the political party that we support has a clear mandate for excellent land management.

Whether we attract enough votes is dependent on a number of factors;

Will our members who traditionally vote Labor or Liberal be prepared to vote for our selected candidates in the Upper House? Our candidates will not be either Labor or Liberal.

A number of voters have, in the past, put in an invalid vote or, because they wish to discipline their traditional party, have voted for The Greens or Democrats or Australia First. If we are to attract those voters we need to appear as a real alternative to The Greens. This is the reason for the 'save our native animals' campaign of the Phoenix 4WD Club over the past year; the reason we have put so much effort into our researches into forest management. We can appear as a viable alternative to the green 'lock it up and leave it' philosophy and furthermore, our policies are supported by scentists and foresters.

We cannot stand on the I OWN A 4WD or I'M A HUNTER or I'M A FISHERMAN - AND I VOTE bandwagon. The floating voter will never be attracted to whatever we do if that is our attitude.

To achieve this ambition, we need to forget our past hang ups. This is a totally new 'ball game' and the rules have been changed.

As far as the election for the Upper House is concerned, please forget your past loyalties or hang ups. I'm really fair dinkum when I ask you to vote exactly as we will inform you, shortly before the 25th November.