Minutes/National Council/2021-11-11

National Council Meeting 11th November Scheduled start time: 20:00 AEDT

Start time: 20:35. Close time: 22:20

Attendees

 * Alex Jago
 * Andrew Downing
 * Roger Whatling
 * John August
 * Miles Whiticker
 * Dave "Satch" Kennedy
 * Fred Gerner
 * Mitchell Curnoe (20:44 to 22:11)
 * Liam Pomfret (DRC; 21:10 to 21:30)

Apologies

 * Brandon Selic

Agenda

 * Previous Minutes https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Minutes/National_Council/2021-10-28
 * Matters arising
 * Fusion budget working group report back (Mitchell)
 * Fusion campaigns committee report back (Miles)
 * Treasurer update (Alex/John)
 * PDC congress update (Andrew)
 * Internal preferences referendum (Miles/Alex)
 * John enquiries response

Previous Minutes

 * Acceptance motion

Matters Arising

 * Treasury
 * NSWFT report lodged for the most recent financial year
 * Now for the other three before it
 * Alex is _finally_ kicking off the signatory handover process tomorrow


 * Preselection
 * checks constitution...
 * we can have multiple preselection meetings and all that's required of them is that's where a member formally nominates
 * so ENC will be the first, probably of two or three
 * https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/By-laws#By-law_2013-02_.E2.80.94_Preselection

Emergency National Congress

 * Need an RO - ask DRC as first option
 * Alex can walk them through everything
 * Liam appointed - see motions


 * Nominations due 3 days before
 * Let's do preselection on Sunday ;)


 * Agenda must be finalised "at least 7 days prior" which Alex is taking to mean "published Saturday morning"

PDC update

 * one new policy on Sovereign Wealth Fund
 * plus Miles' one-line Education update
 * that seems to be it, working groups flared up and died down


 * Schedule policies for Sunday also

Fusion budget working group report back (Mitch)

 * Main point of discussion is of course how joint finances will work
 * accountability, how many people sign off, etc
 * going to various banks to figure out how group accounts can work
 * "Imagine a tree diagram"
 * individual teams would propose to run a thing with $X total budget and get group-level signoff
 * Suppose someone joins a party: where does that money go?
 * Need decisions around how donations get allocated
 * Ref. our/their constitutions, etc
 * Alex: "I think for the immediate future we can largely operate on a "member donations go to the relevant branch, then spending's on a costs basis. that way we don't have to split individual member donations"
 * Roger: is budget committee in charge of setup ops as well as defining rules?
 * Mitch: generally defining rules and tracking expenditure
 * Miles: I'd also like to see a firm proposal on how the baseline costs get divvied up - per-member, ability to pay, equal split...

Fusion campaigns committee report back and upcoming livestreams

 * Miles and Bryony had a meeting earlier
 * Three themes for livestreams, all climate-related
 * XR and citizens assemblies
 * International issues: trade, treaties, PATRIOT Act and things
 * (priority) Electoral policies w.r.t. climate - what the Coalition's (not) doing, ecology impacts, what a Green New Deal looks like, CC&S, hydrogen... provisional date 19th Nov
 * Ideally an actual PPAU candidate would be our speaker
 * Roger for climate, Dave for international
 * Miles will help with the LNP's plan; VP on ecology; Science on infra
 * Andrew also will help in the background
 * https://www.industry.gov.au/sites/default/files/October%202021/document/australias-long-term-emissions-reduction-plan.pdf
 * VP have organised some external speakers, Miles to reach out to Science
 * Miles to try and get Drew Pavlou on board for one of the others too

Internal preferences referendum

 * TODO: send ballot out alongside other voting
 * Final form will be dependent on whether FM-1 passes...

Campaign gear-up

 * Logistics coordination
 * merch coordination
 * media & press officers


 * Miles: "I wondered: does anyone read our PRs? I don't think so, almost nobody follows up. I want to start setting the pace. This means active outreach: 'We are the Pirates and we're saying this'. It needs to be professional, but journalists need people to send them news tips. We will send 'This is what the Pirate Party is doing this week'."
 * So we need a Media Officer role to do this work and to be a contact point for press releases
 * everyone's got a lot on their plate right now
 * time to actually ask for volunteers
 * Andrew: maybe part of the solution is to have a "distiller-in-chief" who collates and broadcasts our internal discussions' conclusions each day (at least the interesting stuff)
 * John: works best with a hook and novel insight
 * Roger is effectively acting Press Officer anyway
 * Action Item: Roger to refresh the PR mailer list

John's enquiry response

 * Draft v2 is good, well done John!

Constitutional working group

 * Adrian W has got a MAUT-ish spreadsheets to start work on long-term alterations

Saturday evening convenor's meeting

 * Miles and Alex are unavailable
 * Roger and one of John or Mitch to attend

Motions

 * MOTION: Approve the minutes of the previous meeting from 28th October
 * Ayes 6 (MW, AJ, FG, JA, RW, AD)
 * Abstain 1 (DK)
 * Motion carried 19:36


 * MOTION: Appoint Dr Liam Pomfret as the Returning Officer for the member ballot(s) arising from the Emergency National Congress on 20th-21st November
 * Put by: Alex Jago
 * Ayes 8 (MW, AJ, FG, JA, RW, AD, DK, MC)
 * Motion carried 21:14


 * MOTION: close the meeting
 * Put by: Miles Whiticker
 * Ayes 7 (MW, AJ, FG, JA, RW, DK, AD)
 * Motion carried 22:20