History

Founding of the Party
Pirate Party Australia was founded in 2008 by Rodney Serkowski based on the principles of free culture, intellectual rights reform and civil liberties. The Party formally registered with the Australian Electoral Commission in January 2013.

In 2012, the Party significantly broadened its policy set, expanding into areas such as animal welfare, the environment, energy, taxation, drug reform, and other more traditional policy areas, taking an evidence-based approach to solving these issues.

Contested Elections
In 2012, three members of the Pirate Party contested ACT local elections as independents representing the Pirate Party, and each attained 0.5% of the vote with a budget of less than $5,000.

In 2013, the Party contested its first Federal Election, gaining between 0.3% to 0.8% of the vote depending on state, with a budget of less than $30,000. The Party is currently focusing on founding state and territory branches to build grassroots campaign strength and prepare to contest state-level elections.

Previous National Councils
The National Council is the administrative body that leads the Pirate Party. It originally consisted of 7 members, but was expanded to 9 members in 2013. All members are appointed by election at a National Congress by all full members.

Time period identifies the year that the specified National Council began their approximately 12 month term.

Pirate Congress 2013 voted to amend the Party Constitution to include two new "Councillor" positions on the National Council, and renamed Party Agent to Registered Officer to better reflect their responsibilities.

Pirate Emergency Congress 2017 voted to amend the Party Constitution from the start of the 2018-2019 National Council term to have three "Councillor" positions and merge the Registered Officer's responsibilities into the Secretary's position.