Minutes/General Meeting/2014-05-06

=General IRC Meeting (#ppau)=

Start: 19:59 06/05/14 AEST

Finish: 21:26 06/05/14 AEST

Agenda

 * Anti-piracy proposals
 * Congress 2014
 * Policy Development Committee report
 * Social Media report
 * State reports

Attendance

 * Melanie Thomas (Chair)
 * Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer (NC/PDO)
 * Brendan Molloy (*)
 * Bryn Busai (SA Coord)
 * Michael Keating (QLD Coord)
 * Glen Takkenberg (NC/ACT Coord)
 * Ben McGinnes (NC/Vic Coord)
 * Tim Serong (Tas Coord)
 * Fletcher Boyd (WA Coord)
 * Rebecca Howard (Social Media)
 * + others

Apologies

 * Daniel Judge

General Announcements

 * Some reported slowness on website
 * Officers were sent an email about composing officers reports, reports coming in.
 * Note that people need to think about nominating for position at Congress since there are a number of office holders who will not re-contest their positions

Anti-piracy proposals

 * Emergency Campaigns meeting was held: https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Minutes/Campaigns_Meeting/2014-05-05
 * Brandis announced a range of draconian anti-piracy measures (ie 3-strikes etc)
 * https://pirateparty.org.au/2014/05/05/theres-nothing-the-coalition-wont-put-a-price-on-internet-censorship-sponsored-by-hollywood/
 * https://pirateparty.org.au/2014/05/06/stop-blaming-consumers-for-failed-business-models-pirate-party-petitions-senate/
 * Change.org Petition: https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/stop-blaming-consumers-for-the-outdated-business-models-of-the-media-industry
 * Petition is over 1500 signatures
 * We've only had one person whinge about the wording - which is a pleasant change.
 * Petition is on r/Australia, upvoted heaps
 * Because the budget is announced next week, we're going to get drowned out, so reckon, come monday, we stop putting our PRs about this until the week after

National Congress

 * Email has gone to membership announcing Congress 2014
 * Room is booked, deposit still needs to be paid. I'll discuss this with the NC
 * Brendan jumps off to pay the deposit right now!
 * Full details at https://pirateparty.org.au/2014/05/03/pirate-congress-2014/
 * http://piratecon2014.eventbrite.com.au To Register

Policy Development Committee

 * Did a submission on the proposed repeal of s 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
 * It was okay. It's an area that's particularly difficult, and I did a lot of thinking about how best to approach it.
 * It wasn't an exact repeal, it was more of a replacement/amendment.
 * PDC working on several policy proposals for Congress.
 * Hope to have some amendments to the energy policy to bring it up to date.
 * There might also be something on taxation.
 * An expanded privacy policy dealing with a tort of privacy and criminal penalties for revenge pornography.
 * Domestic violence I'm hoping we'll have a proposal on.
 * Constitutional reform, especially anticipating the referendum expected in September/October on recongition of Indigenous Australians.
 * It also will likely have a position on republicanism.
 * quite a few policy votes for congress then
 * Meetings of the policy development committee are every fortnight on Wednesday. (Next week at 8:30 pm will be the next one.)
 * Working Groups meet on and off, depending on when they're needed.
 * There's a list of current activities here https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Policy_Development_Committee#What_Is_Happening_Right_Now
 * If you're interested in contributing, please shoot an email to policydev@pirateparty.org.au and we'll tell you how best to contribute.
 * The Committee has been plagued by absenteeism for a variety of reasons lately.
 * So progress has been difficult.
 * Domestic Violence WG probably created next week. -- Needs a Chair (Delegate Keating to it?)

VIC

 * Ben has been swamped with other stuff
 * No meetings for some time.
 * Wont be standing for Vic Co-ord agian at congress, needs a new person.
 * Some desire for resurrecting mumble as there are regional folks who cant easily make in person meetings

QLD

 * Qld has dropped off over the last 8 weeks or so because both Mel and Keating are busy with the civil liberties business
 * would be good for us all to get back on track, even if only monthly
 * Did get one new visitor last Wednesday
 * Will look at changing the meets to relevant Thursday nights however as it's been indicated that thursday is a better day
 * Keating has started planning with regards to the Branch Formation Comittee so he'll reach out to the nominated people soon to get that ball rolling
 * Wrote a letter to Mr Newman re his changes to HTVs at elections
 * Will be busy with this renewed focus on piracy law changes, but would be good to get some of the Branch formation stuff knocked out before Congress
 * Request for Queenslanders to sign petition to preserve the CMC. We've (QCLN) joined up with the Lawyers Alliance to start the Save the CMC Coalition. It never stops.
 * https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/queensland-parliament-do-not-make-us-relive-history-save-the-independence-of-the-cmc
 * Media mention today: ABC Longreach. They reported that the Save the CMC Coalition has been formed.

ACT

 * Only had two responses to the request about when we should meetup and it seems that midweek is the go

NSW

 * Had a meetiing on the 26th
 * minutes https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Sydney_Meetup_2014-04-26

TAS

 * The next in person meeting is this thursday
 * Had a legislative council election on the weekend just passed
 * Summary: http://kevinbonham.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/legco-rosevears-and-huon-live-and-post.html
 * the week prior Tim sent a Q&A to the candidates
 * https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/TAS:2014/Legislative_Council_Q_and_A
 * we had only three replies, but it was a week out from the election, so late notice
 * twas a good exercise and might be worth repeating in future if there's interesting looking elections on elsewhere

SA

 * after a hiatus (due to lack of organisation) regular meetings will occur every fortnight starting next Wednesday!

WA

 * After the post election meeting last month we're moving back to monthly social meetups, next one is the week of the 19th, almost definitely at the moon and sixpence.
 * That and a general summary of goings on will be on the wa announcement mailing list (hopefully) tomorrow.
 * On the subject of Congress, a few WA pirates have indicated that they'll be flying over for merriment and meetings.

General Business

 * Don't forget to join discussion lists: http://lists.pirateparty.org.au