History

Official Party Document The veracity of this document is ensured by the National Council and editing of this page is limited to members of the National Council.

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.

Term	Time Period	President	Secretary	Treasurer	Deputy President	Deputy Secretary	Deputy Treasurer	Party Agent
1st	2009	David Crafti	Peter Barber (resigned), Rodney Serkowski	Jarryd Lassen (resigned), Paul Templeton	David Gaetjens	Michael Nadler	Paul Templeton (promoted), (vacant)	Rodney Serkowski (promoted), (vacant)
2nd	2010	Rodney Serkowski	Simon Frew/Brendan Molloy (shared)	Paul Templeton	David Campbell	(vacant)	(vacant)	Alexis Shaw
3rd	2011	David Campbell	Brendan Molloy	Rodney Serkowski	Simon Frew	David Haidon	(vacant)	Alexis Shaw
4th	2012	David Campbell	Brendan Molloy	Rodney Serkowski	Simon Frew	Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer	Sam Kearns	Glen Takkenberg

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.

Term	Time Period	President	Secretary	Treasurer	Deputy President	Deputy Secretary	Deputy Treasurer	Registered Officer	Councillor (1)	Councillor (2)
5th	2013	Simon Frew	Daniel Judge	Ben McGinnes	Melanie Thomas	Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer	Mark Gibbons	Glen Takkenberg	Brendan Molloy	David Campbell
6th	2014	Brendan Molloy	Daniel Judge	Ben McGinnes	Simon Frew	Fletcher Boyd	Mark Gibbons	Michael Keating	Melanie Thomas	David Campbell
7th	2015	Simon Frew	Daniel Judge	Mark Gibbons	Michael Keating	Fletcher Boyd	Ben McGinnes	David Crafti	Thomas Randle	Adien Treleaven (resigned) Peter Fulton (appointed)
8th	2016	Simon Frew	Fletcher Boyd	Mark Gibbons	Michael Keating	Thomas Randle	Peter Fulton	David Crafti	Emily Sievers	Andrew Downing
9th	2017	Emily Sievers	Thomas Randle	Mark Gibbons	John Jeffery	Simon Gnieslaw (resigned) Peter Lawler (elected)	Simon Frew	Alex Jago	John August	Miles Whiticker

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.

Term	Time Period	President	Secretary	Treasurer	Deputy President	Deputy Secretary	Deputy Treasurer	Councillor (1)	Councillor (2)	Councillor (3)
10th	2018	Miles Whiticker	Alex Jago	Mark Gibbons	John August	John Wilson (appointed)	Joe Furi (appointed)	Daniel Oakley	Andrew Downing	David Read (appointed)
11th	2019	Miles Whiticker	Alex Jago					Brandon Selic	David Kennedy	David Read
12th	2020	Miles Whiticker	Alex Jago	John August	Brandon Selic			David Kennedy	Fred Gerner	Phillip Richards