Minutes/National Council/2021-09-02

National Council Meeting 2nd September 2021


 * Start time 20:38 AEST

Agenda

 * Previous minutes
 * https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Minutes/National_Council/2021-08-19
 * Economics and housing livestream debrief (JohnA)
 * NSW Fair Trading update (JohnA)
 * NatSec bill backlash (Miles)
 * Covid lockdown regulation during campaigning (Miles)
 * Merch update (Alex)
 * LQFB webinar (Dave)
 * Young Pirates event debrief (Miles)
 * Electoral campaign pre-planning (Miles/others)
 * NSW candidate SeanP
 * Party negotiations update (Miles/Brandon/Alex/JohnA)

Attendance

 * Miles Whiticker (chair)
 * Alex Jago (minutes)
 * Andrew Downing
 * Roger Whatling
 * John August (until 21:30)
 * David Kennedy
 * Fred Gerner
 * Brandon Selic (from 20:41)

Observers

 * maus
 * Star_Tube (from 21:02)

Economics Livestream debrief (John)

 * John, MarkG, thanks to Cameron Murray for coming along
 * Modest turnout
 * Cameron dominated discussion time a bit, ah well - he is the guest
 * Lots of interesting ideas discussed
 * Recordings going up!
 * "Mark made Cameron think" :)
 * The usual tech bugbears at stream start
 * Miles: "focusing on fewer topics might be better going forward"
 * Andrew suggests we should do some policy work against asset inflation - end result of nobody actually being able to afford a house

NSW Fair Trading update

 * John is now the public officer
 * HOORAY
 * Next step: prepare our financial statements and submit them
 * John, Alex, hopefully Mitch


 * "Why are we having to do more votes on the Constitution?" - Andrew
 * Fair Trading really want you to hold one "replace this with that" vote.
 * Also they don't know about recent CAPs
 * Also some things that our constitution should address but presently doesn't
 * Miles to forward his changes identified thus far, Andrew to look over

NatSec bill backlash (Miles)

 * "Identify and Disrupt" Bill has produced a lot of backlash
 * this is the one that says the cops can modify data on your device with an AAT warrant
 * "plant evidence" is a bit of a paraphrasing but it
 * 200+ new Discord members, some of whom are converting to formal members
 * Some promo mutual interference given John's talk last night
 * Miles wants to organise an AMA - John, Brandon, Tania Briese (all 2019 candidates)

Covid vs Campaigning (Miles)

 * We need to prepare for campaigning in lockdown conditions
 * "Have a plan"
 * Need people in each state to assess local conditions
 * We'll need a few contingency plans for different levels (light, medium, heavy)
 * Local bubbles are a possibility, so also need to think about localisation

Campaign pre-planning

 * Sean P is interested in candidacy
 * Younger and enthusiastic
 * "Frustration at the government is an important political driver" - John
 * Miles has been mentoring
 * Crystalised preparation thoughts for Miles


 * Some sense that the election won't happen until we've "beaten Covid"
 * "It's three months from last week, at the exact point all the minor parties get deregistered"


 * It's preselection time coming up...
 * John, Brandon happy to stand again, Roger interested
 * Miles wants to focus his time on national organising, not running his own campaign.
 * "Even without candidates we need to get candidates out and squash the notion that we are not ready to campaign. We are active and energised and we can do this!" - Miles

Inter-party negotiations

 * The 1500 members thing has happened, so us and the cousins are looking at each other
 * No commitments at this stage, but good feelings all around
 * Meeting scheduled for the 19th
 * StarTube asks if observers will be permitted
 * There is an element of confidentiality to the process while we hammer things out but we'll see
 * "For us to join anything or merge or whatever, we need to vote on it as a party anyway" - Alex

Liquid Feedback webinar (Dave Kennedy)

 * We can do 6pm AEST on either Tuesday or Thursday next week
 * Tuesday works for Miles and Andrew 6PM AEST, details TBA
 * Done

Merch Update (Alex)

 * About $25 away from target for the sticker drive
 * Closes on Talk Like a Pirate Day
 * Shirts are basically ready to go, just waiting to get over the line on stickers
 * "I want people to buy stickers" - Alex
 * Consider shirts soft launched
 * White-label dropshipper: Print Bar
 * https://piratepartyau.secure-decoration.com/
 * Todo: DNS as a subdomain, link it from the website, announce in the week leading up to TLAPD

Young Pirates debrief (Miles)

 * Moderate attendance and engagement
 * Minimal in-person attendance, Miles has submitted pizza receipt
 * Went pretty well technically
 * "In hindsight we need to start dropping some money on event ads and getting more professional about getting the word out further in advance." - Miles
 * Video is up :)

General Business

 * Election prep: volunteer and logistics wrangling is always hard
 * Need a better volunteer DB... and volunteers

Motions

 * MOTION: accept the minutes of the previous meeting on August 19th as presented.
 * Put by: Miles Whiticker
 * Ayes 7 (AJ, AD, MW, RW, DK, FG, JA)
 * Carried 20:40


 * MOTION: close the meeting
 * Put by: Miles Whiticker
 * Ayes 7 (AJ, AD, MW, RW, DK, FG, BS)