Pirate Congress 2017/Nominations

Adding a Nomination
If you wish to nominate yourself for a position, please create your nomination using the template below. If you need assistance adding your nomination, shoot an email to secretary@pirateparty.org.au and we'll help you out.

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Catty McCat
I am a cat!| How dare you question my justification!| I purr.| Maybe, I am a cat.| }}
 * None

= Nominations =

President
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Emily Sievers
As a Councillor I have worked alongside the incumbent President for the past twelve months and have insight into how the National Council operates. I have a track record of integrity and honesty and I make a point of being approachable. I am always keen to listen to my team, whether it be for brainstorming or complaints, and I act to remedy their concerns. That said, I have low tolerance for bullshit and will cut to the crux of an argument rather than waste everyone’s time on problems that only serve to shit-stir. I don’t consider myself a politician or a boss. I see myself as a regular pleb trying to make the country a better place. I stand for transparency and keeping the bastards honest.| Normally I would not make the bold move of nominating for President but as our illustrious leader has decided to not recontest the position I decided to put my money where my mouth is and go for it. I have exciting plans for the Party that would get Pirates more in the public eye over the next twelve months.| I was elected to the position of Councillor at last year’s Congress and in the past year I have been fairly active in my hometown of Brisbane running meetings and generally getting my merry band of local Pirates out and about. We faced a few obstacles last year getting ourselves off the ground but it speaks of the quality of Brisbane's Pirates that we have built a strong, dedicated team in regular contact. In the event of being elected President, I intend to carry on the good work at home and encourage Pirates nationally to put their best feet forward and get things done. I would be delighted to support members wishing to stand in upcoming elections. I also would like to see the Party more united on the issues and policies we currently have some disagreement on and intend to bring some coherence to the Party through healthy discussion and action.| I am fundamentally on board with the Party’s mission and constitution. I stand by my ideals and, while I am expertly diplomatic with people who disagree with me, I don’t back down or compromise on ideals when I am tasked with representing them. I have not been a member of any other political parties; however, back in my undergraduate days I had first forays into politics as a comradely helper to friends involved with the Labor Party at the University of Queensland.| }}
 * Sometimes I’m interesting on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emilythepirate/

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Luke Housego
Member of Pirate Party Australia since a little after its inception. Experienced in building organisations both internally focused and externally focused.

Pro science. Evidence and data is almost everything. Acts of will is the rest.

Charming, slightly smarmy, surprisingly nice in person, oddly enough a little humble when offline. Makes many mistakes, usually not shy of admitting it, nor shy of taking advice. Deeply respectful, despite many and vocal disagreements of efforts of previous executive leaders.

Professional strategist and communicator. Apparently in corporate psych testing profile things they make you take for some jobs I score exceptionally highly in verbal logic whatever that means.

Lawful Evil. The party needs strong leadership, a clear vision and someone to turn that vision into reality using a mix of inspiration, effective strategic engagement and hard pragmatism.

I am on record, excessively so for agitation towards accelerating internal improvements as a priority for the party. I stand by this, and this is the primary reason I think I am a necessary candidate. The party has made nearly no progress in the last twelve months. Who you vote into the executive is the choice you are making to change this.

Our current momentum is not good enough for what should be the pinnacle Australian political party for digital and civil liberty. Won preselection for PPAU senate candidacy for Victoria, but withdrew to other commitments. Other commitments no longer exist.

Came 2nd last year for PPAU Secretary in the most contentious election for a long time ("ever" was one tweet) for PPAU. It was twittered a lot.

Recently re-wrote vision statement of Pirate Party AU with help and guidance from Tom Randle. I recommend him, even over me should there be a choice for a position on the executive.

Please note as stated elsewhere I have not donated a cent to the pirate party, and am not poor nor miserly. This is still true. I do not donate to charities on principle, but do give support including financial to professionally run organisations that are pursuing important agendas. There is a difference.

Last year my secretary candidacy was strongly attacked, arguably the only one attacked with such vigour, and yet still secured a significant portion of the votes. I am a candidate that does not shy from controversy, nor from standing on their principles in the face of adversity. If you want a "Hold the door!" self sacrificing leader, your looking at one. I remain in the Pirate Party because its founding focus and culture I believe is fundamentally representative of my own core belief systems. I am left socialist leaning, but with economic pragmatism and believe more than anything that digital liberties are the most important issue facing us into the future.

I am a technology activist, and have been at times linked to various movements in that space. I do not however classify myself as an anarchist. Not here to smash the system, I'm here to make it better.

Formerly member of Australian Liberal Party (to see what its like from the inside, was offered factional support from the dominant faction to take secretary or president role for Richmond / Kew branch)

Formerly member of Australian Labor Party, Left Faction. Second to the then scarily effective backroom young Labor master deal maker, who was my mentor.

Built and led a Young Labor faction that took control of student organisations of Southern Cross university for 3 years.

Involved in helping a candidate running a Bill Of Rights campaign successfully get elected to the senate in NSW.

Involved in national and state elections as an organiser for ALP.

Involved in ALP and union activities and protests in an organiser perspective.

I do not ever apologise for my culture and being from the internet. This is often confused with being a troll, a chauvinist, homophobic, ignorant etc. I'm sane, educated, sophisticated, saavy even and still choose this culture.

Pirate Party Australia will remain named Pirate Party Australia while ever I am in it. We are the living tradition and culture of the earliest and most professional digital activists and we have never been more relevant to Australia than right now. }}
 * Pirate Party Forum https://discuss.pirateparty.org.au/u/edeity/activity
 * Linkedin linkedin.com/in/luke-housego-9a418bbb
 * Reddit https://www.reddit.com/user/edeity/
 * Twitter https://twitter.com/edeity1
 * I say a lot online, much in jest or parody. Even I don't agree with a lot of it. But it's there, I don't delete things I write because they are unpopular and always happy to discuss.
 * I say a lot online, much in jest or parody. Even I don't agree with a lot of it. But it's there, I don't delete things I write because they are unpopular and always happy to discuss.

Deputy President
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Simon Frew
I have been the President of the Pirate Party for the last couple of years. It is a high pressure role and I have other responsibilities, so rather than burn myself out trying to run the Party for another year, I thought it wise to step back for my own sanity. | I want to focus on getting the organisational side more together this coming term and spark more member involvement.| I have served in various roles for the party since its creation and have served as President for the last two years. I will continue to be involved in various party activities, if the next National Council is cool with it and there is time, I would like to make some inroads into NSW state politics. As mentioned above, I want to work on building member engagement and activity.| I support the Pirate Party platform and ideals and will do my best to uphold them into the future. I have been an activist for the last 20 years, so have participated in a wide range of movements and campaigns. I joined the Pirate Party in its very early days because it aligned with my beliefs and goals and joining was the best way I could contribute to politics in Australia. | }}
 * None

Deputy Secretary
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Tom Randle
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Registered Officer
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Alex Jago
Since 2014 I've been a reasonably active ordinary member. Now, I'm putting my hand up to be more involved still, and to take on some formal responsibilities -- if only to help spread the load! Outside of my life as a Pirate, I'm finishing up my electrical/computer engineering degree, and for several years now I've been a fundraising officer and now librarian for my choir. So I've got some skills in helping run an organisation. |

I'm running for Registered Officer and also for Councillor. Registered Officer is a quite well-defined position and the duties this year will likely be minimal (next federal election is expected about a month after Congress next year). I support the proposal to abolish the position in favour of having a third Councillor. If elected as RO, I will consider myself to be a third Councillor in spirit --- someone in an 'entry-level', generic position where I can help out others as needed --- just with some additional duties. |

I've been a part of both election campaigns in my area since I joined (Griffith by-election and 2016 general election). In particular, last year I contributed: my time on the day, money, memes, volunteer coordination, and evangelism in my other communities (when it's been relevant). This year I've regularly attended the meet ups that Emily S has been so diligently organising, and we'll be getting some uni-based promo done in the coming semester. I've drawn up a decent chunk of artwork and started an initiative to keep authorisation tags up to date.

As an active user of both our IRC and Discourse platforms, I believe I have a solid understanding of the current state of our internal culture. Our pressing task over the next year remains to grow not just in total members but active, engaged members. I don't pretend to have a magic solution, but as a councillor, I'll support things that seem like they'll help, with both my time and my influence. |

Yes. I've never been a member of any party except PPAU, and I hope that never changes. I've also helped out various Greens campaigns as an HTV-person, door-knocker and map-drawer. (The first two count as campaigning skills development.) |

I'm alexj on IRC; my Discourse profile is at https://discuss.pirateparty.org.au/u/alexjago and I'm @alexjago51 on Twitter.

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Councillor (2 positions)
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Alex Jago
See nomination details listed under Registered Officer. }}

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John August
I have stood for election in the seat of Bennelong at the last election. I have been interested in Pirate Party ideas for quite some time and sympathise with them. I have been active in political parties and activist groups for a great deal of time, and bring that experience to the position. |

The position of Councillor represents contributing the party at a higher level than just being a member, but does not suggest past involvement in the committee or familiarity with details of Pirate Party process. I am putting myself forward for the position partly because of the encouragement of other members and the president to make a contribution; it is not something I am wedded to and would be happy for all the positions ( including this one ) to be filled by other people. |

I have stood for election, and have taken an ongoing interest in party ideas and turning up to pub and other gatherings. At the same time as I am impressed with pirate party ideas, I'm frustrated that they do not have more prominence in the broader community. That is a challenge I hope to put my mind to and contribute to discussions and initiatives in this area, though I acknowledge my plans are not well formed. |

I strongly identify with pirate party ideas, as is referenced by my writings in flyers at the last election and also on my own website ( see later). I've been in the Secular Party of Australia and the Abolish State Governments Party. I'm also currently involved with numerous activist groups, including the NSW Humanists and the Sydney Outdoor Lighting Improvement Society. I also host a program on community radio, Roving Spotlight. |

My website is at johnaugust.com.au

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{{CandidateRef| |

Simon Frew
See nomination details listed under Deputy President. }}