Minutes/NSW/2013-02-23

Attendance

 * 10 members.
 * 3 guests.

Agenda

 * Formation of NSW Party
 * Freedom of Information discussion
 * National Security Inquiry petition in Senate

Formation of NSW Party

 * Simon Frew (state coordinator) requested a mandate from the National Council to form the NSW branch. It was granted.
 * Constitution working group required.
 * Constitution draft must be presented to National Council for approval.
 * Motion: to form NSW state branch.
 * All in favour
 * Motion passes.
 * Brendan Molloy, Rodney Serkowski and Simon Frew to form Constitution working group.
 * NSW gov't has made poor decisions in the past 12 months.
 * Mass corruption.
 * Replaced corruption with more corruption.
 * Ideal place for PPAU to get in and oppose corruption
 * Focus on state issues and go beyond federal issues.
 * Transport, etc, state issues for NSW branch to work on.

Direction of NSW Party

 * Mirror federal party congress?
 * NSW will be the largest party for a long time – 750 members required
 * Federal election builds up popularity and visibility
 * $2,000 fee and paper forms, written entirely by hand.
 * Register for local elections first perhaps, gives a formal structure to start from.
 * Currently no requirement for federal members to also be state members.
 * General agreement that this should be changed.
 * Removes conflict of interest effectively
 * Issues in NSW for the Party are about restoring things to a good situation
 * De-politicisation of the police force
 * Making FOI Act more accessible
 * Look at changing deputy positions to more specific positions.
 * Warrants further discussions
 * Coal seam gas – debated issue

FOI

 * Sometime last year an FOI request was submitted RE: TPP.
 * DFAT not going to give you a treaty
 * Offered to assist in changing the scope
 * No deadline for such redefinition
 * PPQs and Senate Estimates offered.
 * PPQs = prepared questions
 * Going to cost nearly $400 to get this info
 * No definition for public interest
 * Last FOI took over three months
 * FOI request for details of FOI request regarding ludicrous data retrieval quote.
 * One request got rejected nearly outright:
 * MAFTA, JAFTA, etc.
 * All not permitted to be retrieved.
 * Absolute transparency would be nice
 * Data retention documents
 * Indicates active want to not consult with public unless absolutely necessary
 * Analysis of documents ongoing
 * Government not concerned with privacy
 * Picked up by Bernard Keane
 * SMH can't figure out an angle

TANGENT: Candidates

 * Two Senate candidates from each state funded by Party
 * House of Representatives can self-fund
 * Territories can run self-funded
 * Preselection nomination form needs to be filled
 * Must nominate at preselection meeting.

NatSec petition in Senate

 * NatSec petition got about 1400 signatures
 * Trying to get other people involved met with factional resistance
 * Ugly petition didn't do too badly
 * Ludlam presenting it in the Senate on Wednesday
 * Joint press release with Greens and PPAU
 * Should be good publicity for us if it happens
 * House of Reps not sitting at the same time as Senate, so it might get some interest from journalists.

State policy development

 * States push up to federal level, federal pushes down
 * Take federal policy and rework it so that it's good for state level.

Name and policies

 * Principles are set out in constitution of party.
 * Policies must be in line with those policies.
 * We can't dictate what policies can't be adopted.
 * More policies will turn people away for sure, but we can't stop members from proposing and voting upon them.
 * Evidence vs opinions
 * Disinformation and propaganda is not appropriate.