At the CAWA public meeting there was some miscommunication.

I didn’t go but some people who did were worried that CAWA might not comprehensively oppose regulation of rock climbing. This worried me a lot and I called the access subcommittee. After talking to two of them, MT and MI, I am reassured.

The power point presentation shown at the meeting was based on information prior to the most recent CALM meeting. It was out of date. I was told that at the last meeting with CALM those present were given to understand that the draft regulations effecting climbing would be re-written to change or remove conditions imposed on CAWA and on private access to the rock.

The Access Subcommittee is currently waiting to see the new draft. Until this is available further discussion will be limited as we don’t know what we’re discussing. Work on a submission objecting to the current draft would continue, however, because it is not known for sure how much the current draft will change. The Access Subcommittee is marshalling legal assistance to write the submission (hooray , there are some lawyers who climb).

So, I believe that Cawa will oppose regulation of rock climbing as it effects private climbers and Cawa. Also I believe Cawa will not use it’s own safety standards and codes of conduct as negotiating chips in any watered-down form of regulation.

What the CAWA position will be, I don’t know. It may be necessary for the negotiating team to develop their position during the course of the negotiations. It might not be useful to involve too many people, better four negotiators than fifty.

I would imagine though that the position might be based on individual liberty. Australians have the right to do a lot of things without asking for permission, from barbeques to bushwalking to kite surfing to rock fishing (the old favourite). Discriminating against a specific group, such as climbers, might not pass a parliamentary review committee.

Whatever happens we’ll climb.