Firstly, a reminder that the Preselection Meeting is this Sunday the 16th of September, at 5:30PM Sydney time, on IRC in the #ppau channel.
This is the time to talk to our candidates for preselection, ask them interesting questions, and form your opinions before we go to a membership vote.
You’ll be able to view candidate statements here, and there’s a forum thread to ask questions outside of the meeting time here.
Please note that we previously and tentatively set the time as 3PM. It has now been changed to 5:30PM. This is to allow people to attend…
Sydney Speakers Corner & Meetup
Several Pirates will be attending Sydney Speakers’ Corner this Sunday, in the Domain at 2PM. If you’re in Sydney and aren’t busy on Sunday, I recommend going along!
There’s a forum thread to organise and discuss it all, found here.
National Council vacancies
We’re pleased to announce that David Read has stepped up and joined the National Council, filling the vacant Councillor position. David has served the Party as a Social Media Officer since 2016.
We still have two vacancies remaining - for Deputy Secretary and Deputy Treasurer. If you’ve ever wanted to help formally lead this organisation, now’s your chance. Email nationalcouncil@pirateparty.org.au to apply.
By now, members in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia should have received their online voting ballots over email. This is to choose which candidates we will endorse for the next Federal election. They’re a great group of people and I’m very excited to be working with them.
If you live in South Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory or the Northern Territory, nobody nominated for preselection in your area. The National Council is considering running a second round of preselection, so if you want to both see Pirates on your ballot paper and be that change in the world, this could be your chance.
Errata – NSW
It seems that I’m not very good at find-and-replace. As a result, those of you in NSW will have “VIC” splattered across your ballot. Don’t panic! Everyone has the correct candidates on their ballot – it’s just that yours has the wrong state name in a few places.
I apologise for this error, and for any confusion that it may have caused.
A good time was had. I dragged my daughter along with the lure of some time at the art gallery over the road from speakers corner, and she ended up joining the party. Much politics was talked, the occasional rant was had, and the mysterious history and ways of Pirate Politics was related to our new NSW preselection candidates over some cheap but excellent coffees from the nearby cafe and beers and food later at the pub.
Now that the voting period of preselection has concluded, I’m delighted to announce that the Party has endorsed candidates in preparation for the next Federal election!
In New South Wales, for the Senate ticket we have endorsed @SaraJoyce and @Kate_Bowman . For the House of Representatives, in Bennelong we have endorsed @JohnAugust and in Robertson, @Cizin .
In Queensland, for the Senate ticket we have endorsed @Brandon and @miles_w .
In Western Australia, for the Senate ticket we have endorsed @Clive_Myers . Two candidates are required for a Senate ticket, so we’ll either need to preselect a second candidate, or team up with another party and run a joint ticket.
If you live in South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT or the NT, the National Council has not ruled out running in your state/territory – it’s just that nobody nominated for preselection there. If you’d like to change that, please let us know.
Election Committee
To support our candidates and to provide detailed direction and oversight of the forthcoming general election campaign, the Election Committee has been reconvened.
The first meeting of this committee is scheduled for Sunday October 7th, 5PM AEDT (Sydney time). It will be held on PirateIRC in the #ppau channel.
Any member may join, and we invite all of you to do so! If you’ve ever helped run an election campaign before, your experience will be particularly valued.
Organisational updates
On an administrative note, we’re pleased to announce that Joe Furi has also stepped up and joined the National Council, as Deputy Treasurer.
How you can get involved
We still have one National Council vacancy remaining, for Deputy Secretary.
We also have vacancies for the positions of Policy Development Officer and Press Officer.
If you’re a writer or a designer, your talents will be valued in the Press Team or in the Pirate Bureau.
As always, I invite you to stick around this forum, to give your input on current events, interesting articles, and much more.
Send an email to nationalcouncil@pirateparty.org.au nominating yourself, plus some background and a brief description of why you would like to take on the role.
Usually NC roles are elected by vote of the membership at annual Congress, but this position was unfilled, so the NC can just vote to fill it themselves if a suitable candidate presents themselves.
We will have the Election Committee, which I hope you’ll join. I know you would be a great asset to it.
I don’t believe historically we’ve had a single Campaign Manager. The NC generally has to approve anything that involves actually spending money, which makes it difficult to give such a role any teeth.
(I see this as part of the ‘fun’ consequences of being in a party which values not having hierarchies.)
Alex. Yes. Please assume that I will volunteer any assistance required. I have been Campaign Manager and Fund Raiser in many ALP & Trade Union stoush’s and general elections. I am sure that I can help.