Pirate Congress 2022/Minutes/2022-07-23

Please note that all times are in AEST.

= Day 1 - Saturday =


 * Stream archive at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-7WLl99xtc

Opening [10:05]

 * President Miles Whiticker opens the congress at 10:07
 * "This is the Annual General Meeting of Pirate Party Australia Inc."
 * Agenda: https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Pirate_Congress_2022/Agenda
 * Adoption of Standing Orders
 * Outgoing NC reports
 * Financial report
 * Constitutional amendment motions
 * Formal motions
 * Policy motions
 * Lunch from 12:30 to 13:30
 * Acknowledgement of Country.
 * Deputy Secretary Roger Whatling appointed as Remote Chair
 * The Remote Chair facilitates participation of those members connected remotely.

MOTION to amend Standing Orders

 * MOTION: amend the Standing Orders, for this Congress only, to allow considerations of all policy motions published prior to the start of Congress and to allow nominations for electable positions to be received up to the start of the relevant session.
 * Put by: Alex Jago
 * Ayes 12 (Tyrone D'Lisle, Miles Whiticker, Andrew Downing, David Kennedy, John August, Bryn Busai, Andrew Downing, Simon Gnieslaw, DanielT, Roger Whatling, Gold, Alex Jago)
 * Motion CARRIED without dissent or (voiced) abstention at 10:21

MOTION: Adopt the standing orders as amended

 * Put by: Miles Whiticker
 * CARRIED without dissent or abstention at 10:23

President's report
Miles Whiticker presents his report.


 * Huge year for the party
 * We've been part of the largest campaign the party's ever been involved in
 * Also a remarkable
 * "Empowerment is the foundation of our philosophy" - Rick Falkvinge
 * We can't let bad-faith actors continue to silence voices
 * We must empower our collective voices


 * We went into Fusion negotiations under the shadow of a reactionary government.
 * Our values always overlapped but our identities kept us apart.
 * Diversity is part of our continued value.
 * There will be and have been compromises, but Fusion's strength is our complementarity.


 * At the election we didn't have established name recognition, but we worked incredibly hard
 * Reading of Senate results (slightly down on 2019)
 * Many lower-house campaigns saw improved results
 * The biggest achievement during the election was our new campaigning
 * Pipeline of volunteers engaged over email, SMS, social media and phones
 * Conversion to physical campaigning
 * Shout out to the design team


 * Areas for improvement: state-level coordination, better planning and guidance from a national level.
 * Processes were being developed as we went, lots of experimentation.
 * This experience feeds into the Victorian State Election later this year.
 * Leapfrog process from Victoria into NSW-2023 into Qld-2024
 * Volunteers can come from around the country


 * The goal: consistently run at state level campaigns to maintain


 * Internationally we've seen the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which stokes fear of a broader war
 * EU states' decarbonisation now critical to reduce dependence on Russia
 * Nuclear power will remain critical, for example
 * We're already on this issue; we ran a livestream with EU Pirates in
 * EU Pirates continue to lead on transparency and privacy


 * COVID continues to be an issue in Australia
 * Even supporters of restrictions are tired of them
 * The Pirate position of COVID policy is complicated

Secretary's Report [10:37]
Alex Jago reads his report.




 * Miles comments: We'll need to start setting up state-based branches, likely with integrated cross-Fusion membership
 * We'll need people to step up to run the state-level organisations, preferably not national-level organisers already wearing multiple hats

10 minute break [10:47]

 * MOTION: adjourn for a 10 minute break
 * Carried without dissent, resuming at 11:00

Financial Report [11:00]
John August presents the Treasurer's Report.



Commentary:


 * Primary expenditure this financial year was candidate nomination fees, $10,000.
 * Candidates generally paid for their own material but we covered their nomination fees, $2000.
 * Donations to candidates via Fusion.
 * Also money spent on IT and social media advertising.
 * We've ended the election period with about $1700 in the bank.
 * To support another election campaign soon we will need to do a lot of fundraising.
 * Good to run candidates, the question is how many and how much we can support them.
 * In other words, we were a little over-stretched on candidates this election.
 * In addition to stumping up the $2000 nomination fee we should be able to spend $1000 on each candidate's promotion

Miles comments on fundraising: traditionally we ran a party-level crowdfund in the lead up to the election, this year we ran per-candidate fundraisers. More active (especially on social media) candidates did much better. Ask for more money and you can often get it.

Discussion on mandatory membership fees


 * "PPAU chooses to err on the side of inclusivity"
 * Thus our membership fee is pay-what-you-can
 * milspec: a suggested amount would be good
 * Alex: important to keep in mind that tax-deductible donations to the party are only possible via Fusion.


 * Adam Woodings: "How is Fusion's budget doled out to the branches?"
 * John: there wasn't a lot of money going from Fusion to the branches, more the other way around (Fusion startup/overhead costs)
 * Roger (Fusion prez): process for this is still being worked out.
 * Priority is to set up a donation flow from Fusion so that people can donate tax-deductibly

In closing, congratulations to John on his lower house candidacy.

Policy Development Officer's report
Andrew Downing (PDO) presents his report.


 * At the start of the year, people expressed interest in developing a great range of topics
 * Then Fusion happened! My time has been spent in Fusion level policy working groups, rationalising the different positions we all had.
 * This work lead to a set of consensus policies that Fusion took to the election.
 * I also spent time on the Fusion Constitutional working group to define the federated model which allows groups like PPAU to retain our identity within Fusion.
 * Having said that, we do have a few things that made to Congress, both now and in November last year.
 * Sovereign Wealth Fund in November, Capital Gains Tax today.
 * I will not be re-contesting PDO so I strongly encourage people to nominate.
 * It's a challenging and interesting role... and a bit tedious at times, corralling people and achieving consensus and nailing down practicalities.

Miles thanks Andrew for his service both this year and in the many previous years.


 * "It's not necessary for policies to go through the Policy Development Committee, but it helps."
 * PDC members also tapped to write other text.
 * Pirates have a broad set of interests, so it's rare that we would choose not to have a policy on something.
 * The role of the PDO is to turn the debates into a policy we can take to the election.
 * Andrew: "The vast majority of policy we take to Congress is adopted with over 90% support, because we've already come to consensus on it."

International Relations report [11:30]
Jay Stephens, International Relations chair, presents his report.


 * Jay has been on Intl Rel since 2021 after a polite strong-arming
 * First goal: refresh the terms of reference
 * Pursued contact with Pirate Parties International and European Pirates
 * Reported back to National Council on what would be involved with re-joining PPI
 * Sat in on PPI events
 * They've modernised a lot since 2015
 * Collaboration with the German energy working group was very fruitful
 * Very knowledgeable, want to make themselves a resource for Pirates worldwide
 * Chilean Pirates are now launching a policy collation/coordination initiative
 * The German energy working group
 * Next steps:
 * revive the committee (not just Jay)
 * take international knowledge to feed into our policy
 * Remind international Pirates that APAC exists


 * Miles: APAC is very important; just look at China as an example of an authoritarian surveillance state. Our international relations have always been important, no less so with the Czech success and the US Pirates gaining momentum.
 * Maus: what about a policy position on Australia's relationship with the US?
 * Miles: good point! The US is also a surveillance state and in many ways reactionary (see their recent abortion backslide).
 * Jay: as Pirates, on issues like abortion, society's walking into a trap where anti-abortion activists have wrapped their control in a language of freedom. As left-libertarians we can and must push back there.
 * zach__: "what are the benefits and obligations of [joining] PPI?"
 * Miles: there's a small member fee. If we seriously considered applying we'd have a more detailed conversation. There's a general assembly of PPI every year. Anyone interested in observing PPI meetings already can. I have a lot of respect for their chair Bailey Lamont.
 * Jay: there's a soft benefit there in terms of drawing on international support for ideas and legitimacy. We're Pirates, drawn from the internet. Borders aren't our thing.
 * Miles: for example, not that long ago we did a very successful livestream with three Pirate MEPs.
 * Jay: and that's a perfect example. We don't have anyone elected but there on our stream we have three MEPs in important roles!
 * Miles: In the past we've benefited from people voting for us for a laugh based on the name. Moving forward we go away from that.
 * Jay: so many ways to do cross-fertilisation.

Thanks to Jay for his work through the year.

Motions to accept the reports [11:50]

 * MOTION: accept the Financial Report as presented by the Treasurer.
 * Put by: Alex Jago
 * Ayes 14: Jay Stephens, Miles Whiticker, David Kennedy, Tyrone D'Lisle, Bryn Busai, JedB, DanielT, zach__, Adam Woodings, Alex Jago, Roger Whatling, Andrew Downing, milspec, Gold
 * Abstain 2: John August, maus
 * Motion CARRIED 11:55.


 * MOTION: accept the President's, Secretary's, Policy Development Officer's and International Relations Officer's reports as a block.
 * Put by: Alex Jago
 * Ayes: Tyrone D'Lisle, Miles Whiticker, Bryn Busai, JedB, David Kennedy. ROger Whatling, DanielT, Andrew Downing, milspec
 * Abstain: Alex Jago, Gold, maus, zach__, Adam Woodings

CAP-1
Alex Jago speaks to the motion.


 * Currently the Constitution requires use to hold a by-election to fill NC vacancies, potentially within the notice period of Congress.

Alex and Miles explain the procedure for CAPs and PMs in that

MOTION: approve CAP-1 "Casual Vacancies"

 * Put by: Alex Jago
 * Ayes 16: Tyrone D'Lisle, David Kennedy, Roger Whatling, Adam Woodings, Gold, zach__, DanielT, Bryn Busai, Andrew Downing, JedB, milspec, Alex Jago, maus, Jay Stephens, John August, Sean O'Farrell
 * Abstain 0; Nay 0.
 * Motion CARRIED 12:13.
 * CAP-1 proceeds to online vote.

Lunch [12:16 - 13:16]

 * Procedural MOTION: break for lunch (1 hour)
 * Put by: Miles Whiticker
 * Ayes Miles Whiticker, David Kennedy, Andrew Downing,Gold, Jay Stephens, Bryn Busai, DanielT, Adam Woodings, Roger Whatling, JedB, maus, John August, Alex Jago, Simon
 * Abstain 1 (milspec)
 * Nay 1 (Tyrone D'Lisle)
 * Motion CARRIED 12:16.

Policy Motions [13:16]
Yet to come...