Dear friends,

Exciting news!

Moments ago, the Environment and Fisheries Ministers held a press conference in Canberra to announce that the huge fishing super trawler, the Abel Tasman (a.k.a the FV Margiris), will be banned from Australian waters for two years.

The super trawler was readying to leave port, set to trawl our oceans with a net longer than the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

A huge congratulations to GetUp member, Rebecca Hubbard, who started the ‘Stop the Super Trawler’ campaign on GetUp’s community campaigning platform CommunityRun! Over the last month, Rebecca’s campaign grew to 93,864 petition signatures, over 18,000 emails to the Fisheries Minister, a series of rallies on the ground, and a huge national print advertising campaign calling on the Minister to stop the trawler. Thanks go to Rebecca, our allies at Environment Tasmania, Greenpeace, and the 14 other conservation and fishing groups who worked on this!

This is what GetUp is all about. As Minister Burke said in this morning’s press conference, “no doubt there has been a massive public focus on this”. He heard from politicians across Australia who responded to the community concern over the super trawler. Congratulations.

This afternoon, Minister Tony Burke will introduce legislation that bans supertrawlers for up to two years, and allow his office to conduct scientific research before approving or blocking such fishing in our waters in future. Fisheries Minister Joe Ludwig also announced a review of the 20 year old fisheries management legislation, in light of concerns about super trawlers devastating fish stocks.

Can you help GetUp members keep running campaigns like this one?

Rebecca’s campaign is one of hundreds powered by CommunityRun. It’s a new tool provided by GetUp, where members can start online campaigns, gather supporters and email them to raise money, run events, and contact politicians.

It’s a great website, but it’s more than that. Dedicated GetUp staff and interns provide support for campaigns where we can, on everything from writing emails to securing media coverage, booking ads and holding events.

The service is free to campaigners like Rebecca because it’s paid for by small donations from the GetUp community. The average donation is about $27, and every dollar helps us bring on more support for campaigns like this. Can you chip in?

http://www.getup.org.au/supportcommunitycampaigns

What the super trawler campaign proves is that we can come together on issues we’re passionate about – and we can win. Today we stopped a massive super trawler – who knows what’s possible tomorrow?

Thanks for being part of this movement,
Justine, for the team at GetUp and CommunityRun.

PS – Thank you Minister Burke, Minister Ludwig, and Melissa Parke MP for responding to the community and an unprecedented threat to our marine life and fisheries. If you’d like to congratulate them, tweet at @Tony_Burke and @jw_ludwig or contact Melissa Parke on facebook.

---

GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you’d like to contribute to help fund GetUp’s work, please donate now! If you have trouble with any links in this email, please go directly to www.getup.org.au. To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here. Authorised by Sam Mclean, Level 2, 104 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010.