Pirate Emergency Congress 2017/Constitutional Amendments

Constitutional Amendment Proposals must be submitted to [mailto:secretary@pirateparty.org.au secretary@pirateparty.org.au] before Saturday 7th October 2017 9:00am (AEDT)

Proposals to change the Constitution are Special Resolutions under the NSW Associations Incorporation Act 2009.

{{CAP|0|Constitution|Tom Randle| That the Constitution of Pirate Party Australia Incorporated, as presented to this meeting which serves the purposes of a Special General Meeting under the NSW Associations Incorporation Act 2009, be adopted in whole as the Constitution of Pirate Party Australia Incorporated in substitution for and to the exclusion of Pirate Party Australia Incorporated's existing Constitution.

Documents
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 * Web version: https://pirateparty.org.au/constitution-enc-2017/
 * PDF version: ENC 2017 proposed constitution.pdf
 * At the July 2017 Annual National Congress all Constitutional Amendment Proposals lapsed due to low participation during the online vote.
 * The Constitution in the form presented here is the complete Constitution of the Party as it would have been following the July 2017 Annual National Congress, including all changes ratified at previous National Congresses.
 * This Constitution proposal includes clarification of National Councillor terms, required as part of recent NSW legislative changes to the NSW Associations Incorporation Act 2009 and regulations.
 * All 6 of the Constitutional Amendment Proposals at this year's July 2017 Annual National Congress had greater than 95% support from those members who cast a vote.
 * The exact wording of the lapsed Constitutional Amendment Proposals from this year's July 2017 Annual National Congress can be viewed in an easy to read format here https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Pirate_Congress_2017/Constitutional_Amendments
 * The exact wording of the lapsed Constitutional Amendment Proposals from this year's July 2017 Annual National Congress can be viewed in an easy to read format here https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Pirate_Congress_2017/Constitutional_Amendments

Further information
The National Council has endorsed this proposal and recommends the members of the Party adopt the motion.

Questions related to the proposed Party Constitution
Term limits, Section 3 (2)

"What is the reason this clause has been added?"

As mentioned in the rationale for CAP-0:

"This Constitution proposal includes clarification of National Councillor terms, required as part of recent NSW legislative changes to the NSW Associations Incorporation Act 2009 and regulations."

Specifically, NSW Associations Incorporation Act 2009, Schedule 1, 7 (b1) creates a requirement for the Party Constitution to define whether term limits exist for National Councillors. As there has previously been no term limits, this is the status quo. Should Party members wish to consider or propose the merits of term limits for National Councillor positions this can be done at any future National Congress meeting.

National Councillor duties, Section 3.2

"Do the changed National Councillor position duties which begin in 2018 conflict with existing duties?"

No. CAP-2 from the July 2017 National Congress proposed changes to position duties to begin from the start of the 2018 term of the National Council.

CAP-0 at the Emergency National Congress implements these changes by stating "Duties and Responsibilities" as they exist until the end of the 2017 National Council term, followed by "Duties and Responsibilities as from the start of the 2018 National Council term" (emphasis added). There is no word "Additional" here, the duties defined in the "Duties and Responsibilities as from the start of the 2018 National Council term" replace entirely those aforementioned duties for each position where changes were proposed in July 2017.

"Why not just replace it now instead of leaving the old duties in there?"

The Party Constitution must be a single correctly ratified consolidated document, any transitional arrangements between different versions of the Constitution must be explicitly written into the Constitution, ratified by the membership of the Party, and then repealed or cleaned up after the changes have taken effect. Otherwise changes intended to take effect from a future date, as in the case of CAP-2 from the July 2017 National Congress, would instead take immediate effect from the moment the Constitution has been correctly ratified.

CAP-0 at the Emergency National Congress has been purposefully written such that it does not introduce new changes not previously put to the membership, i.e. adopting the CAP-0 proposal does not change the intentions of July 2017 National Congress proposals which lapsed.

Secretariat

"Does changing the Party Secretary and Party Deputy Secretary position titles create new unfilled positions?"

No, renaming a National Councillor position's title in the Constitution does not make the position vacant.

Should there be any dispute regarding the interpretation of changes proposed in the Emergency National Congress CAP-0, members should make reference to the written intention and rationales for the changes as they were put to the July 2017 National Congress for any further clarification.