TransientObjectException: object references an unsaved transient instance - save the transient instance before flushing: package.path.Contact

I have a persistence object "Affiliate" that has a child object "Contact".

This is shown in my contact object as

@OneToMany(fetch=FetchType.LAZY,cascade=CascadeType.ALL, mappedBy="contact")
 public java.util.List<Affiliate> getAffiliate() {
 return affiliate;
 }

I am populating a contact object and attaching to the affiliate object and trying to persist by running

em.persist(affiliate);

it compiles and deploys fine.. but when i run it i get the above error.

Any ideas what this might be? or how i can solve it?

Regards
Dan