Pirate Congress 2014/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 Friday 20 June 2014 at 11:59 pm (AEST) as per By-law 2013-03. Proposals submitted after that date will be held over until the following National Congress. Please email your proposals to [mailto:secretary@pirateparty.org.au secretary@pirateparty.org.au].

If you wish to propose a change to anything here: please open a discussion topic on the forum, directly contact the person who put the amendment, or alternatively contact the Secretary at secretary@pirateparty.org.au to put you in contact.

Once the deadline for proposals has been met, unless specified by the relevant by-law, amendments may only be made by formal motion at the National Congress.

CAP-1: Non-profit clause
Put by: Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer, on behalf of the National Council

Motion
Insert the following as Article 1(2):

Rationale
In January the National Council enacted this as a temporary operational amendment to the Party Constitution to ensure we met the requirements of a non-profit organisation for banking purposes.

It codified the existing practice. At present no member of Pirate Party Australia is paid or reimbursed, except where they incur genuine expenses on behalf of the Party. Therefore, we are already a non-profit organisation in practice.

According to Article 8.4(2) this must come before a vote at the National Congress, and it will lapse if it does not pass.

CAP-2A: Extend time between National Congresses
Put by: Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer and Brendan Molloy, on behalf of the National Council

Motion

 * Replace "twelve months" with "thirteen (13) months" in Article 2(3).
 * Replace "12 months" with "thirteen (13) months" in Article 6.1(2).
 * Replace "twelve (12) months" with "thirteen (13) months" in Article 9.1(1).

Rationale
In April the National Council enacted this as a temporary operational amendment to the Party Constitution in order to provide more flexibility when choosing the date of the National Congress.

Extending the time out to 13 months allows for the date of the National Congress to be selected according to other considerations. For example, this year the venue was not available on the chosen date, and vital organisers were not available on the original date we had hoped for. Bringing the date forward to the end of June would cause possible conflict with exams for many of our student members, and pushing it back to the end of July was unconstitutional. The temporary amendment was passed for this reason, which is why we are able to hold it closer to the end of July this year.

This amendment will provide the National Council with greater flexibility when it comes to setting the date of the National Congress.

According to Article 8.4(2) this must come before a vote at the National Congress, and it will lapse if it does not pass.

CAP-2B: Clarify term lengths
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

 * Delete ", for a period of no more than twelve months" from Article 2(3).
 * Replace Article 6.1(2) with:


 * Replace Article 9.1(1) with:

Rationale
The amendments to Article 2(3) and Article 9.1(1) do not remove the term limit--they merely remove points of inconsistency. Article 9.1(1) states that the term begins at the National Congress and ends at the next one, but also states a maximum time period of 12 months. This removes the time period ambiguity and links it directly to Article 6.1(2).

This wording ensures that a National Congress is always hosted in July, which has been the month used for the last 5, which also provides for enough wiggle room to not require awkward election periods of 13 months, as this would allow at most a tenure of 1 July to the next 31 July, and at a minimum 31 July to the next 1 July.

For the sake of clarity, the National Congress always has the ability to motion for the spilling of any position within the party regardless of whether this amendment passes. This means that calling an emergency National Congress to remove a bad National Council would still follow the same procedure as before, except the replacement NC would automatically spill at the next Annual National Congress.

Motion
Put by: Brendan Molloy


 * Replace "transparency and open government." with ""transparency, evidence-based policy, and deliberative and open government." in Part I.

Rationale
Some people have asked on what basis we guarantee that our policies are based on the best available evidence. While convention is sufficient for many, this amendment would codify this convention into a party principle. It also clarifies our position on taking a deliberative approach to solving problems, instead of who can yell the loudest.

CAP-4: Minor Corrections
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

 * Replace "meeting- however" with "meeting. However, " in Article 6(3).
 * Replace "unaffiliate" with "disaffiliate" in Article 6.1(4) and Article 6(9).
 * Replace "competing in" with "contesting", and replace "Such branches would" with "These branches", in Article 2.1(2).
 * Replace "two thirds" with "two-thirds" anywhere it appears in the Constitution.
 * Replace "should" with "must" in Article 6 and all subarticles.
 * Replace Article 5.1(1) with:

Rationale
Minor typographical and grammatical error corrections. Made Article 5.1(1) read significantly better, changing some "should" to "must" and "possible" to "feasible".

CAP-5: Clarify and remove unnecessary examples from Article 2(1)
Put by: Brendan Molloy and Tim Serong

Motion

 * Replace Article 2(1) with:

Rationale
Presumption of committee names in the Constitution is a bit annoying, and in the process, unnecessary implied what style of subordinate organisation that the NC would be empowered to create, which is now clarified.

Clarifies that the NC has the power to create committees, working groups and branches, as it already has. It also clarifies that a branch is considered a subordinate organisation that can be overridden by the Federal Party.

CAP-6: Clarify Article 2(5)
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

 * Replace Article 2(5) with:

Rationale
There were major grammatical flaws in this paragraph, which have been corrected, without changing the purpose behind this paragraph, by breaking it into two separate paragraphs.

CAP-7: Update membership requirements and powers in Article 4.1
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

 * Replace "registered" with "registered or unregistered" in Article 4.1(1)(c).
 * Replace Article 4.1(1)(d) with:


 * Replace Article 4.1(2) with:

Rationale
The first and second items ensure that members who join that were previously members of a party that was or is unregistered must declare it on their application form. This also changes the requirement from requiring an active acknowledgement from the National Council. This power had never been exercised.

The third item clarifies our membership arrangements such that a member can have their membership declared to have lapsed after 90 days, not within two years as the current Constitution states. A safeguard is introduced to require that that member is informed that their membership will lapse 30 days before it lapses. This means that if the National Council does not notice that a member has been late in their payment of their dues, they cannot be removed without an extra 30 days of warning being provided.

It also ensures that the National Council has explicit powers to waive membership fees conditionally, such as in cases of hardship.

CAP-8: Clarify ambiguity of Article 6(6)
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

 * Replace Article 6(6) with:

Rationale
This paragraph was grammatically flawed, with the potential to cause confusion. The purpose of this clause has not been changed beyond correcting any ambiguity.

CAP-9: Create Article for National Congress Online Voting
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

 * Delete Article 6(9).
 * Insert a subsection at the end of Article 6 as follows:

Rationale
The current wording is all shoved into the end of another Article somewhat as an afterthought, with rushed and difficult to understand wording. That paragraph has been expanded to a full Article for easier amendment and expansion in the future, and clarifies some edge-cases that were left ambiguous by the previous wording.

EDIT (8 July, 2014): conditional markers referred to a proposal that had been withdrawn, so updated to reflect that. Also corrected the insertion position in the motion, as it was invalid.

CAP-10: Correct Ambiguity for Article 11(1) (Dispute Resolution Committee)
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

 * Remove Article 11(1)(a)
 * Amend Article 11(1) to:

Rationale
Clears up some ambiguity.

Changes the voting mechanism from simple majority to optional preferential voting, as per all other officer elections. It simply cannot work (and has never been done!) for multi-candidate elections.

Removes an unenforceable clause about someone "should" be legally qualified. This can be returned in the future if we choose to reform the DRC properly.

Motion

 * Move Article 3.1.1 to become Article 4.5
 * Remove now empty Article 3.1

Rationale
This was proposed at the last National Congress but in the context of the larger document does not make sense to be placed where it has been and should be moved back to Article 4.

CAP-12: Standardise Election of Registered Officer
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

 * Remove Article 3.3.7.1(3)

Rationale
It does not make sense that this position is elected differently to the other councillors.

CAP-13: Requirement for National Congresses to have online participation
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

 * Insert paragraph at the end of Article 6.1:

Rationale
Enshrining something that we have continually done for the last several Congresses to ensure that this continues regardless of who the National Council is made up of.

A poem about this is courtesy of Andrew Downing:


 * Online members are important
 * else our cause will be discordant.
 * Every effort must be taken
 * to ensure they're not forsaken.
 * At our congress they're online
 * or else our motions are not fine.

CAP-14: Announcement criteria for National Congress
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

 * Delete "and at least seven days in advance of the National Congress" from Article 6(2)
 * Insert paragraph after Article 6.1(2):

Rationale
42 days is 6 weeks.

The current wording allows a National Congress to be called within 7 days. This is an issue for multiple reasons.

Article 8.1(2) requires that constitutional amendments are proposed 28 days prior to the National Congress, but there is no formal way to propose an amendment prior to the announcement of the meeting, making it impossible to amend the constitution if a meeting is called less than 28 days before it is expected to occur.

It is also an unreasonably short period of time to give to the members to organise flights and accommodation if the National Congress is being held as a physical event.

Also 42.

CAP-15: Insert a new part: Definitions
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

 * Insert the following part after Part I:

Rationale
Other parties such as the Greens have a Definitions part to their Constitution, which serves to clarify the definition of terms commonly used within the Constitution that may result in debate and confusion if not clearly defined in a central repository.

It is forseen based on our experience with PPI that debates about what constitutes a majority are a popular are of contention in close votes, so this preemptively solves this issue.

CAP-16: Clarify some references to majorities and quorum
Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

 * Replace "majority" with "simple majority" in Article 6(5).
 * Replace "majority" with "two-thirds majority" in Article 6.1(4).
 * Replace "A majority vote of the" with "The" in Article 4.3(1)
 * Replace Article 3.2 with:

Rationale
The first item of the motion clarifies the type of majority in Article 6(5).

The second item changes the requirement for a successful vote to affiliate or disaffiliate from an organisation to be two-thirds instead of a simple majority.

The third item merely removes a tautology. (Original line: "A majority vote of the National Council may propose to existing members the creation of additional categories of Membership of the Party.")

The final item relays out the article, changing its title to clarify its purpose, and moving some of the paragraphs to the top level, as their placement was erroneous. Some terms have been capitalised for consistency. The line "Written consent must be included within the minutes." has had "should" changed to "must".

The final item of the text introduces a new rule to solve ambiguity when dealing with the acceptance of minutes of a previous meeting. I am uncertain whether it would be best to have this in the Constitution or as a by-law. This can be determined at the Congress.

Motion

 * Move Article 6.3 to become Article 7

Rationale
It doesn't make sense to have such an important Article shoved into Meeting Procedure and Requirements.

Motion

 * Delete Article 5.2(2)

Rationale
Article 5.2(2) states that new policy should be introduced by the tenuous phrase "general consensus". The paragraph goes on to require the National Council to then vote on whether there was consensus, and if not, put it to a vote. As we have always put our policies to a majority vote, this article no longer has relevance and is currently contradictory our practices, and has been overlooked for years.

Motion

 * Change all references to numbers to follow the format of written form followed by numerical digit in brackets, eg four (4), forty (40), fifteen hundred and six (1506).

Rationale
Consistency.

Motion

 * Insert the following paragraph into Article 6.1:

Rationale
Party convention has introduced ambiguity on what constitutes a quorum for the National Congress due to the introduction of online voting. This clarifies that no business may be considered without at least 20 people being present, be it remotely or physically, for the proceeding of the Congress that result in the motions to be voted on by the larger membership body who choose not to attend the meeting.