Party Update: August 2018

Announcement
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Thank you all for your time and energy through National Congress weekend. A new National Council has been appointed, and new ideas are coming to the fore which haven’t been broached yet. As the new President of the Pirate Party, @miles_w was elected with the following platform:

  1. Launch a strong 2018/2019 Federal Election campaign
  2. Ensure women can feel fully comfortable participating in the party as part of an effort to grow
  3. Begin an outreach program with STEM/digital activism interest groups, pirate organised workshops and revitalise local crews

Anyone wishing to contribute towards those programs please message nationalcouncil@pirateparty.org.au or join the discussion on the forums.

The most immediate business before us is ensuring we have a functional party structure. At the conclusion of National Congress 2018 we had the following Council positions vacant:

  1. Deputy Treasurer
  2. Deputy Secretary
  3. Councillor

Additionally, the position of Policy Development Officer is vacant. We also intend to assess the other party offficer roles to ensure we are as active and vibrant as we can be.

To fill these four immediate vacancies, the party shall hold simultaneous by-elections for the 4 positions left vacant at the end of National Congress 2018. Nominations are open and will remain open until midnight on Friday 10th August. Submit your position nominations by editing the Wiki page at https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Pirate_by-election_August_2018.

If editing wikis isn’t your thing, don’t worry - just email iewg@pirateparty.org.au and we’ll help you.
Voting for those four positions will open on Sunday 12th August and finish on the 19th.

In the coming week we will also be voting on the four Policy Motions presented at the National Congress. This will commence on Saturday 4th August and finish on the 11th.

Finally, we will soon be opening preselection for Federal Election candidates. More on this once the current rounds of voting are concluded.

Oh, and my apologies for the lack of proper subject line in the email you all just got from Miles stating the above! Still getting the hang of Dada…

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Policy Motion (and financial report) ballots arising from Congress have commenced going out :slight_smile:

Thanks IEWG (primarily @Fletcher)!

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and… nobody puts their hand up…

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Congress voting results have been announced:

tl;dr everything passed.

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Policy Voting Results, National Council Vacancies, and the next Federal election

Hi Pirates -

Here’s some good news, some not-so-good news, and some things to think about.

Policy Motions

Firstly, I’m pleased to announce that all four Policy Motions were carried (i.e. passed) in the online voting this past week. The motion to accept the Financial Report was carried as well.

These results are archived on the Party wiki and on the Internet Archive.

National Council Vacancies

Less happily, we received no nominations for the by-elections to fill the vacant National Council and Policy Development Officer positions. As per part III 10.1(8)(d) of the Party Constitution, the National Council can now simply appoint applicants. If you’ve ever wanted to have an impact on the governance and administration of the party, now’s the time to step up.

We’re also seeking applicants for the emerging role of Equity Officer. More on that in this forum thread.

The Next Federal Election

The next federal election is due early next year (if nothing else, the last possible date for the Senate election is 18th May 2019). To contest the election, we need four main things. In approximate order of importance, they are:

  1. Candidates to run
  2. Volunteers organised into one or more Campaign Committees to support the candidates
  3. A strategy to follow
  4. Money to pay for it!

The time will soon be here when we work out who is running and where we will contest. Initial discussions on one potential aspect of our election strategy have already begun on the Party forums.

The process of Candidate Preselection will begin very shortly. Please expect an email announcing the full details in the next few days.

Re-energising the Party

Let’s face it: the Party isn’t particularly active right now. However, attacks on our principles and values are relentless. As I see things, we have two options: (1) give up, or (2) get ourselves into gear – and (1) isn’t very appealing.

So I have two questions for you:

1. What sort of Pirate-y things would you get involved with, if someone else organised it?

2. What sort of Pirate-y things would you be able to organise yourself (or with some guidance)?

I look forward to your responses.

Let’s Get Going!

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I’m in for socmed … fyi

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The next Federal Election: Candidate Preselection

Ahoy Pirates!

As promised earlier in the week, this post details candidate preselection for the next Federal election, which is due by May of 2019.

If you’ve ever wanted to run in an election, now is your chance to give Australian politics a shake. An election is a time to tell the duopoly what we think of them. It’s a chance to get our name and ideas out there, and just maybe nudge the country towards a better future.

If you’re interested in a challenge, we are putting a call-out for all prospective candidates to step forward and run for pre-selection.

Candidate preselection nominations are now open, culminating in a Preselection Meeting to be held on September 16th 2018 (tentative start time of 3PM AEST), on PirateIRC in the #ppau channel.

In the unlikely event that Turnbull (or his replacement) calls an election for this year, the Preselection Meeting may be brought forward.

We are primarily seeking Senate candidates, in all states. If you’re interested in running a campaign in either of the territories, or in the Lower House, we’d also like to hear from you!

Being pre-selected in your state/electorate is not a guarantee that the Party can or will fund and run a campaign in that state/electorate. But having candidate nominations is the essential first step, so please let us know if you’re up for the challenge.

There are a number of requirements for being a candidate - most famously, you can’t be a dual citizen! The ones internal to the Party are detailed on our wiki.

Email nationalcouncil@pirateparty.org.au to express interest and to submit candidate applications. Please do so by the 10th of September 2018.

All candidates will have the chance to shape their campaigns and get all the help the Party can give!

Helping Out

Of course, not everyone wants to stand as a candidate (and some legally can’t). What we also need is for each and every member to help out in some way or another.

Campaigning is about far more than handing out flyers on the day (although that’s still very necessary). To be an effective presence, we need people to know who we are and what we stand for – well before they walk into thepolling booth.

This is why we’re opening preselection now, even though the election might not be until May next year: candidates are the core of the campaign. For the big parties, campaigning for the next election starts the day after the previous one, so the least we can do is start now!

If you’re keen to help but aren’t sure where to begin, we have plenty of ongoing organisational roles within the party that are crying out to be filled – these roles, when filled, are the foundation of the campaign. The Pirate Bureau, the Press Team and the Social Media Team are just some of the groups that you could join.

We’ll also need to have people in logistical roles, to make sure all the signs, shirts and flyers end up where they need to be.

In conclusion, Pirates, I hope you’ve got your energy levels up for this next election, because it looks like it’s going to be a long fight and the stakes never seem to get any lower.

Get involved via the handy mini-site: https://pirateparty.org.au/gettinginvolved/

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Well, it’s been an incredibly hectic two days in Canberra.

At the time of posting, I believe that the chances of a general election in the next 2 months are very closely tied to the leadership drama. The politicians are all flying home to their electorates today and Parliament doesn’t resume until September 10th, so Turnbull might be safe until then.

If he gets rolled before that, we may yet need to have the Preselection meeting earlier. The last feasible date for a federal election this year is October 27 (any later overlaps with the Victorian election period).
Counting back, there’s a minimum of 10 days for nominations and 33 days for campaigning, which by pure coincidence happens to be September 16th. 23 days for campaigning, which is September 26.

Update: apparently there’s another partyroom meeting today (Friday)… hold onto your hats, people.

If we look at 2013, Rudd took just over a month from spill to election. If there’s a challenge today (Friday) that would give them just under a month.

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5pm Update: Ex-Treasurer Scott Morrison is the new Prime Minister of Australia. Malcolm Turnbull threatened to resign from his set if he was ousted however I have not heard confirmation this is happening.

if Malcolm Turnbull steps down, this may trigger an early election. We will need to move preselection forward and drastically step up our campaigning. We’ll keep everyone informed.