Policy Amendment Guide

Platform
The Platform should be a succinct summary of our policy leanings. Consider the following extract from the Australian Labor Party's Draft National Platform 2011.


 * "Labor believes that governments should use the instruments of economic policy to actively support economic growth and foster job creation during times of economic downturn. Labor is committed to supporting jobs, businesses and the Australian community through tough conditions caused by the global recession. Labor is determined not to allow a generation of young Australians to be condemned to long-term unemployment. Labor is committed to measures that help individuals who lose their jobs to retrain, to up skill and to increase their readiness for future employment, in order to avoid the long-term social and economic costs of unemployment. Labor is also committed to strengthening the economy through nation-building public investments that can lift long-term productivity growth."

Pirate Party Australia's platform should be a formal statement of our basic principles, objectives, and positions on major issues. Items in the Platform may, if necessary, be linked to more extensive policy documents or position statements, as described below.

Policy documents
A policy document is an in-depth document that describes Pirate Party Australia's policy on a specific issue. Consider the following extract from Pirate Party Australia's Platform (as of August 2012):


 * Artistic Quotation Rights


 * Today’s ever more restrictive copyright legislation and practice is a major obstacle to musicians, film makers, and other artists who want to create new works by reusing parts of existing works. We want to change this by introducing clear exceptions to allow remixes and parodies, as well as quotation rights for sound and audiovisual material (including musical compositions and theatrical scripts) modelled after the quotation rights that already exist for text.

Places where further detail may be necessary are marked in bold.

A policy document would expand upon this item and clarify those parts which are marked. A policy document might, for example, explain specifically how copyright is a major obstacle, what clear exceptions would look like, what quotation rights would entail, and what rights already exist that could be extended.

Policy documents should be prescriptive — they should outline what the Party intends to do regarding an issue.

Position statements
Position statements are similar to policy documents, but do not have to be quite as exhaustive. Policy documents could be considered prescriptive, whereas position statements are arguably descriptive. A position statement identifies an issue and describes Pirate Party Australia's view on it. In comparison, a policy document sets out what the Party intends to do in regard to the matter.

Principles
Our principles are contained in the Party's constitution, and set out broadly what Pirate Party Australia stands for. The principles are guides and limitations for what the Party may do. All policies should reflect and may not violate the Party principles.