Pirate Congress 2013/Constitutional Amendments

= Constitutional Amendments =

Constitutional amendment proposals must be presented to the National Council a minimum of 28 days before the National Congress, which this year is June 15.

Positions on issues not within platform
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
Add a new subarticle to Article 4:

4.x Positions on issues outside of Platform


 * 1) No member of the Party may imply that a private position on issues outside of the scope of the Party principles, platform or policies is the position of the Party.

Justification
This clears up any ambiguity on what is allowed for officers of the Party when formally representing the Party. Our officials are elected to represent the policies democratically determined by the Party.

Enshrine seven day voting period
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
Add an item to Article 5.1:


 * All officer elections, constitutional amendment proposals, platform amendment proposals and policy amendment proposals that pass a majority vote of those present at the National Congress must be ratified by a majority vote of all Full Members using an online voting system.
 * The voting period must not be less than seven (7) days.

Justification
For the last three congresses, we have traditionally used a seven-day online voting period to determine a majority and quorum for proposed constitutional and policy amendments. In order to ensure that this tradition continues, I propose that this is enshrined in the Party Constitution.

Conflict of Interest Declaration
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
Add an item to Article 8.1:


 * Candidates for any electable position or appointment within the Party must present a declaration of any potential conflicts of interest prior to the election or appointment taking place.

Justification
No member should be elected or appointed to a position of power within the party under false pretences, and this clause would allow the National Council to make a determination against an official in the case where an undeclared conflict of interest is deemed abhorrent to the Party.

Sponsorship/Joining Organisations
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
Add an item to Article 5.1:


 * Only the National Congress has the power, by majority vote, to allow the Party to merge with, affiliate with or unaffiliate with any other organisation.

Justification
This stops the National Council from joining or sponsoring an organisation without permission of the entire membership. I believe that it should be up to the entire member base to determine whether or not the party should consider formal associations with other organisations, or political internationals such as Pirate Parties International, as these arrangements cannot be easily undone by consecutive National Councils.

Preselection Meetings
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
Add a subarticle after Article 5.1:

5.x Preselection Meeting


 * The National Council will organise the Preselection Meeting.
 * The Preselection Meeting may be an independent meeting, or may coincide with the National Congress or another meeting.
 * Multiple Preselection Meetings may be held where deemed appropriate by the National Council in the lead up to an election.
 * The National Council may determine that a separate Preselection Meeting may be held for each specific geographic area.

Replace item 1 of Article 5.2 with:


 * All Members seeking to stand as candidates for election to Federal Parliament must be nominated at a Preselection Meeting and seconded by another member.

Justification
The current Party Constitution requires that a Preselection Meeting is held at the same time as a National Congress. Our first ever Preselection Meeting could only have happened due to passing an emergency temporary Constitution amendment at the last National Congress, that allowed the meeting to be run separately. This had to be done due to time constraints and due to the reality of Federal politics in Australia.

The clause stating multiple meetings may be held allows the National Council to have meetings on different dates for different regions depending on their requirements. This year we ran a Preselection Meeting in April, and will be running a second meeting that coincides with the National Congress for WA, SA and Tasmania due to those states lacking candidates.

Taking into account our experience, this would allow flexibility where necessary as to when we run preselection meetings.

National Council Structure: Create Article for National Council
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
Create an Article below Article 3 entitled "National Council".

Add the item to the new Article:


 * Members of the National Council shall be referred to as Councillors.

Move Article 3.5 under new Article, and rename to "Powers".

Rename Article 8 to "Officers, Councillors and Party Officials".

Move Articles 8.2 to 8.8 to a new subarticle entitled "Members" under newly created "National Council" Article.

Amend Article 8.1, Item 2 "a position on the National Council" to "a position on the National Council, working group or committee"

Justification
This lays out the Constitution in a manner that places all National Council matters in one position.

Currently, clauses relating to the National Council's structure are smattered throughout the Constitution. This moves them into one spot.

it also makes the distinction between ordinary officers, such as state coordinators and leaders of committees with that of the National Council members. This is further justified in the next two motions.

NC Structure: Fix two officer position clause
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
Replace Article 8.1, item 3 "No more than two officer positions may be filled by one member of the National Council." with:


 * No more than one National Council position may be filled by one member, except in cases where a position is subject to a temporary vacancy and pending a permanent appointment.
 * No more than two officer or councillor positions may be filled by one member of the National Council, committees or working groups.

Justification
There is very little justification for allowing a member of the National Council to hold two positions of authority except in the case where it is temporary due to an absence of another councillor.

This amendment allows a National Council member to also be a leader of one other committee, while allowing ordinary members to be a chair of up to two committees.

NC Structure: Replace Party Agent position with Registered Officer, give Treasurer duties of Party Agent
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
Rename Article 8.8 to "Registered Officer".

Replace the first paragraph with:
 * The Registered Officer fulfils the requirements and obligations of the position of the same name defined in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

Replace all mentions of "Party Agent" with "Registered Officer" in the second paragraph.

Add the paragraph to Article 8.6.1:
 * The Treasurer will act as Party Agent, so as to fulfil the requirements and obligations of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.
 * The Treasurer will act as Public Officer, as to the fulfil the requirements and obligations of the NSW Associations Incorporation Act 2009.

Justification
As we now better understand the requirements of the Electoral Act, the Party Agent has very few requirements under the Act except to receive funds in the case where the party receives more than 4% of the vote in the Senate.

It seems that the original intent of the position was for it to be the Registered Officer position, which is the role of managing all the documentation regarding candidates for election.

Given that Party Agent exists almost only to receive electoral funding, it makes more sense for this to be considered a role of the Treasurer, and not a unique position of its own. It should also be noted that Registered Officer is not a defined position within the Constitution currently, and as such, this gives clarification as to who will have that role.

It also adds the responsibility of Public Officer to the Treasurer, which is a required position under the NSW Associations Incorporation Act 2009, which is the structure that the Party is registered under.

NC Structure: Create two Councillor Positions on the NC
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
Add a subarticle to Article 8 (or under "Members" subarticle of "National Council" article if amendment passes):

Councillors without predetermined responsibility


 * 1) Two (2) Councillors will be appointed by election at the National Congress to the National Council.
 * 2) The responsibilities of the Councillors will be determined by the National Council.

Justification
In my experience as Secretary, I have found that there is significantly more work that needs to be done by the National Council than can be reasonably fulfilled by a team of seven people, of which none are working full time on the Party.

Given this, the National Council needs the flexibility of two more members that can have responsibilities delegated to them by the National Council such that the work of the administrative organ of the Party can be completed more efficiently and effectively.

It is worth noting that National Council positions are not paid positions, and that this motion would expand the National Council from seven (7) positions to nine (9) positions. The new positions would have equal voting rights to other National Council members at NC meetings.

National Council Absolute Majority
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
If National Council Structure motion passes: If it fails:
 * Add the following subarticle to the new "National Council" Article, with the title "Quorum":
 * Add the following subarticle to Article 5 as a paragraph:


 * 1) Unless otherwise provided within this constitution, no question regarding Party business is to be decided or resolved at a meeting of the National Council unless at least two thirds of the National Council are present.
 * 2) Voting requirements for majorities are taken to mean the entire membership of the National Council.
 * 3) Quorum may be considered to have been reached where express written consent is given on any particular issue by the member of the National Council.
 * 4) Written consent should be included within the minutes.

Justification
Often not all members of the National Council can attend a NC meeting. This motion would codify into the Party Constitution a by-law passed by the National Council with the very same content, except the phrase "unless at least five (5) members or two thirds of the National Council are present, whichever number is greater" has been changed to "unless at least two thirds of the National Council are present", as the five member statement is redundant.

As the National Council has already been following this policy, all this motion would do is ensure that future National Councils could not change the majority rule without raising a constitutional amendment at a National Congress.

Principles
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
In Part I, replace:
 * "Pirate Party Australia strives to achieve the freedom of culture, the protection of civil liberties and inalienable rights of the nation’s citizens and to protect the freedoms of the newly evolving global information society. It is these values that the party seeks to have embedded within the laws and institutions of Australia."

with:
 * "Pirate Party Australia strives to protect and expand civil and digital liberties, social equality and freedom of culture. We seek to safeguard the inalienable rights of all natural persons of Australia and the freedoms of the emergent global information society. The Party seeks to have these values reflected in the laws and institutions of Australia."

In Part I, replace:
 * "The Party does not seek to become part of the administration, but a mediator in parliamentary deadlocks, and to provide representation for the emergent information society, to guard the civil liberties of the citizen by utilising this power to further the party agenda, and as such intends to contest Australian Federal Elections in both the House of Representatives and Senate."

with:
 * "The Party seeks to offer a new form of politics driven from the grassroots and representative of the emerging digital society. We believe in exploring the potential of participatory and deliberative democracy, and finding new ways to promote trust between citizens and the state through greater transparency and open government".

Justification
The first item clarifies that human rights apply to all inhabitants of Australia, not just citizens. It also enshrines into the Constitution the culture of the Party regarding social equality such as not discriminating against somebody because of their sexuality, race, gender or other social criteria. This is reflected in our policies such as the Bill of Rights Policy and Marriage Reform Policy so makes sense to make it an enshrined principle of our Party. It also includes tweaks to wording to improve readability.

The second item changes the Constitution so it doesn't undermine possible determinations of the National Congress. The Party may decide one year that we would like to campaign directly to become the administration of the nation, and it does not make sense to undercut our possible ambitions in our Party Constitution. It also makes explicit the party's stance on a participatory democratic system and a deliberative democratic system. Participatory means that citizens should have access to government information and communicate with their representatives, and even being able to directly effect change such as through citizens' referenda. Deliberative means that our representatives should actually take into account research and work with others when determining legislation for our nation that takes into account all of the varying opinions and situations of their relevant stakeholders. The item will also include a reference to our support for open and transparent governance, which underpins everything else.

Membership Levels
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
TBD

Justification
We have to modify the Party Constitution to remove reference to the Founder Membership level, as that is no longer available, and enshrine two new membership levels: Associate Membership, and Free Membership.

Associate is for those who cannot be sent to the AEC for various reasons, such as being a non-citizen. Free membership is for those who do not wish to pay for membership, but will still count as a member for AEC purposes. Free members will not have voting rights and can only make motions through the sponsorship of a full member.

Note: all founder members are already considered full members for the purposes of the current Constitution, and that will not change.

State/Territory Parties
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
Add a subarticle to Article 2:

2.x State and Territory Branches
 * A State or Territory Branch is considered a subordinate organisation of the PPAU for the purposes of this Constitution.
 * Such branches would exist for the purpose of competing in state/territory elections, and relevant local elections of their region.
 * The National Council or National Congress may, at its discretion, opt to offer a mandate to form a state or territory branch to the State/Territory Coordinator of the given state/territory.
 * A State or Territory Branch may not contradict a Federal policy, but may expand their policy set beyond the scope of the Federal Party.
 * It is mandatory that members of the Federal Party are members of their local State or Territory Branch, and vice versa.
 * No State or Territory Branch may enact or enforce policies that contradict this Constitution.

Justification
This gives clarity as to when the Party how and when the Party will form state and territory branches, based on our experiences forming the ACT branch.

General Meeting Formalisation
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
TBD.

Justification
The constitution should state that the NC is required to run general meetings that allow the input of all full members.

Financial Structure amendments for non-banking non-signatory payment structures
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion
Add item below item 3 in Article 6.1:


 * All non-banking financial accounts (for example, PayPal) of the PPAU will:
 * be held separately from those of its members;
 * have multiple signatories/user accounts linked to the account, if possible;
 * move all funds into the bank accounts as soon as feasible; and
 * have all records published annually.

Justification
One of the realities of running any 21st century institution is that many mechanisms for attaining funding are not directly through banks anymore. We often use services such as payment gateways like PayPal to arbitrate these funds, and often these agencies do not allow multi-signatory accounts and do not amount to a bank.

It is therefore required that the Party Constitution stipulates mechanisms for handling these financial accounts in a transparent and accountable manner.

Consistent naming
Put by: Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer

Motion
To amend the constitution of Pirate Party Australia to replace all variations of the Party's name with "Pirate Party Australia" or "the Party" where appropriate, and to amend Article 1 (Name and Principles and Constitution) to the following:


 * 1 Name, Principles and Constitution


 * The name of the party will be "Pirate Party Australia", also known as "the Pirate Party". Pirate Party Australia may be referred to as "PPAU" internally. From hereinafter in this document, Pirate Party Australia shall be referred to as either "Pirate Party Australia" or "the Party". The principles and objects of Pirate Party Australia are stated in Part I, and are fundamental to the purpose of the Party. All party documents, members and policies are subject and subordinate to this constitution.

All instances of "the Pirate Party Australia" shall be replaced with "Pirate Party Australia" and all instances of "the PPAU" or "PPAU" with "the Party" or "Party", depending on grammatical context.

Justification
There has been some confusion among members and the public over our name. We are regularly referred to as the "Australian Pirate Party," "PPA," "the Pirate Party of Australia," "APP," "AUPP" and a number of other variations. It would be appropriate to clear this up constitutionally, bringing our naming regulations in line with with current practice and our details which have been registered with the AEC. Consistency, guaranteed by this constitutional amendment, would reduce confusion and also improve the grammatical structure of our constitution.

Removing grammatical errors
Put by: Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer

Motion
To amend Part 1 (Principles and Objects of the Party) of the Constitution of Pirate Party Australia to remove improper capitalisation so that it reads:


 * The basic tenets of this movement are free culture, civil liberty and intellectual rights reform.

As opposed to the current text which reads:


 * The basic tenets of this movement are Free Culture, Civil Liberty and Intellectual Rights Reform.

Justification
A political party should be a professional organisation. The closer to perfection our documents are, the more professional we as a party will appear. Grammatical conventions should be adhered to, particularly in fundamental documents such as the Party Constitution.