Minutes/Policy Development Committee Meeting/2014-03-19

Agenda

 * Refocus Indigenous Australians WG (Mozart)
 * TIA Act supplementary sub (Frew)
 * Agriculture WG (Killian)
 * Social Equity WG (Mozart)
 * Senate Elections WG (AndrewD)

Committee members

 * Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer (Chair)
 * Mark Gibbons
 * Andrew Downing
 * Daniel Judge
 * Bill McLean
 * Laura Killian
 * Trevor Dadson (late)
 * Brendan Molloy (late)

Other attendees

 * Simon Frew

Apologies

 * David Crafti

Refocus Indigenous Australians WG

 * Mozart has been considering it would be a good idea to refocus the working group.
 * Since the main issue the WG was intended to look at was constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians, it might be more appropriate to change the WG to deal with constitutional reform more broadly.
 * There are a range of political issues that keep coming up, and ultimately will require consitutional reform.
 * If we change the way we are represented, that means changing the constitution.
 * The Bill of Rights policy requires a referendum.
 * A more pressing issue at the moment might be to work on a policy for constitutional reform.
 * The point of focusing on constitutional recognition was because we are expecting a referendum in September on the issue.
 * Adopting a position before the referendum happens would be beneficial.
 * The proposal is to change the name and the brief of the working group.
 * See motions.
 * Note also: Constitutional Reform WG on tomorrow night at 9:30 too. (20/3/14)

TIA Act supplementary sub

 * We did a submisison to the TIA Act review
 * ASIO, AGD etc have used it as a chance to push for more surveillance powers — including forcing decryption etc
 * Frew proposes writing a supplementary submission based on responding to their grab for more powers
 * Senate Committee reporting date: 10 June (i.e. when the Senate Committee has final report ready for tabling in Parliament)
 * Aiming for 10 April (i.e. 2 months before reporting date)
 * Some notes here: http://pad.pirateparty.org.au/p/AGDStaffResearch
 * PPAU Statement on the grab for powers arising from this: https://pirateparty.org.au/2014/03/18/attorney-generals-department-remains-asios-puppet/

Agriculture WG

 * Reminder that the first Agricultural WG meeting is on March 24th at 8:30
 * This Monday
 * Is listed in website calendar
 * The more people the better to get varied perspectives

Social Equity WG

 * Email discussion prior to meeting
 * Our policies tend to address this issue inherently and our Party Constitution includes "social equality" as a principle.
 * A position statement referencing our various related policies might be a good way to highlight that's what our policies are about.
 * Since social equity is amidst the whole Platform, a 'statement' that clarifies this and links to specific parts of the platform where these issues are covered could be of use.
 * Suggestion it could be something akin to http://getawarrant.org.au/
 * Further suggested the Platform could have paragraphs tagged based on issues, topics, themes, areas and the a "viewing method" could be coded to allow for custom views of the Platform that highlight specific issues.
 * See action items

Senate Elections WG

 * Based on Brendan briefing, it's focussed on http://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=em/elect13/index.htm
 * "The Committee invites interested persons and organisations to make submissions addressing the terms of reference by Friday 11 April 2014."
 * There are many existing submissions at: http://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=em/elect13/subs.htm
 * Propose meeting Wednesday 26th March at 8:30
 * Ideas for discussion at that meeting can be added here: http://pad.pirateparty.org.au/p/SenateElectionsWG

Motions

 * Motion: Rename the Indigenous Australians WG to "Constitutional Reform Working Group" with the following brief: "Examine potential reforms of the Australian Constitution, including recognition of Indigenous Australians as recommended by the Expert Panel."
 * Put by: Mozart
 * Ayes: 6 (Mozart, DanielJ, MarkG, barefeetbee, AndrewD, BillM)
 * Motion carried.

Action Items

 * Action item: Brendan to find someone to implement a "build your own platform" system that allows paragraphs to be tagged according to theme.