As in previous years, the Party will be running a democratic preference process.
As per 2016 I expect we will list five other parties on our Senate HTVs, to match the ballot instructions to number six squares above the line.
As per our established practice, we’ll run at least one round of preference balloting - one for determining a default initial ranking, and a second round to ratify any deals. I don’t intend to entertain offers from anyone we rank lower than 10th.
All but 3 registered parties have received the following email. I will be collating responses in this thread:
Email
Dear {name} -
Pirate Party Australia is dedicated to transparency and democracy. This includes how we will allocate our preference recommendations in the upcoming Federal election.
We intend to preference people who share our goals. Please peruse our policy platform at the link below. If our parties have common ground, please outline how we seek to advance the same objectives.
In late March, we will hold a ballot of our membership to rank all registered parties. This ranking will form the initial basis of our preference recommendations.
If your party is ranked highly, we are willing to discuss further preference arrangements with you, modifying the initial ranking. Any such arrangements will also be put to our membership for ratification.
All results and communication will be published on our website, so that all Australian voters can make an informed choice.
Oh, we’ll include them in the voting like everyone else (and I hope that everyone WILL put them last) - I just couldn’t bring myself to communicate with them.
The Pirates and Science tend to take a different angle, but ultimately have a similar idea of what a better society and a better economy look like.
We’re with you a lot of issues. Here’s the medium-length list of crossover from our federal policy platform:
Close the offshore detention centres. Engage honestly with the problem of forced migration and look for regional solutions to resettle people fleeing persecution.
Treaty or Treaties with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Repeal overbearing legislation enacted in the name of national security. We’ve made submissions to parliamentary inquiries (including on metadata retention, citizenship loss, and assistance & access) arguing that our government is generally too eager for control over communication, and that these bills are often rushed and threaten civil liberties. We’ve been discussing what an Australian Bill of Rights might look like.
We strongly support public education and public health care – a lack of cash shouldn’t mean someone gets substandard education or medical attention. Basic dental should be added to Medicare.
Decriminalise drug use and treat addiction as a health issue. Drugs should be better researched and more easily prescribed for medical use where the evidence supports it.
One thing we’d review and remove as far as plausible is welfare traps. We’re currently formalising our support for raising the rate of income support in line with expert recommendations and ending cashless welfare and robodebt.
Replace payroll tax, council rates and stamp duty with a broad-based land value tax. End the capital gains tax discount (replace the discount with indexation). We’re not opposed to sin taxes in principle, but think their rate should be set so as to cover their negative externalities.
Government must be secular and accountable. We support a federal anti-corruption body similar to the NSW ICAC, and for parties/candidates: no corporate donations, and real-time disclosure of donations over $1,000.
And of course we want to see greater support for scientific research, including doubling public funding for research and development.
FTTP for business, healthcare, education and personal connectedness.
Investment in rail infrastructure, including an east coast high-speed line.
Introduce a carbon price and protect biodiversity.
Thanks for getting in touch. The Science Party has always done how-to-vote cards wherever it’s had federal candidates in the past, and we base those on candidates’ values and policies.
I suggest we should reach out to the Reason Party and the Liberal Democrats. PP is more aligned with the former, however the latter would also be preferable as we align on some key principles.
Yes, Reason and LDP have been contacted last week. Additionally @miles_w has been in contact with people from both those parties for several years now.
[We] have always admired the ideals of PP – and as much as ODD or CAIAAP would love your endorsement but truth is as for policies – we have no policies and only one goal, to use the internet, to improve democracy by giving people the ability to endorse the party’s position (this implies that policies must be well considered, robust and explained to the public). Maybe what a modern day Australian Democrats might be like.