Following the announcement of Australia’s 2013 Federal Election, to take place on the 7th of September, Pirate Party Australia is pleased to announce its final candidate line up for the Senate. The Party will be fielding Senate candidates in all four eastern states.

In NSW the ballot will comprise of Brendan Molloy and David Campbell; in Queensland, Melanie Thomas and Liam Pomfret; in Victoria, Joe Miles and Geoff Hammett; and in Tasmania, Thomas Randle and Thomas Storey.

The Pirate Party’s platform centres around civil liberties[1] (including privacy, freedom of speech and opposition to censorship), copyright and patent reform[2][3], and greater government transparency[4]. Other issues the Party has addressed include education, tax, welfare, energy, the environment, asylum seekers, marriage and drugs[5].

Pirate Party Australia will be pioneering a new method of preferencing in this election. Practising what it preaches, the Pirate Party will be transparently preferencing other parties — all members will be asked to rank other parties to determine how preferences will flow. Parties have been invited to respond with a letter to Pirate Party Australia’s members outlining why they are deserving of preferences.

This election will be the Pirate Party’s first federal election in Australia. Globally, however, Pirate Parties have already been met with electoral success, most recently in Iceland where the Pirate Party won three national parliamentary seats — representing the first time a Pirate Party has entered a national parliament, despite success in state, local and European Parliament elections.

“Elections in Australia are not easy, and are not particularly favourable to minor parties such as Pirate Party Australia,” said Simon Frew, party President. “However, politics is a long game and we’re prepared to chip away at this as long as is necessary. We’ve survived a doubling in candidate fees, so the major parties are going to have to try a little harder to get rid of us. We’re optimistic about this election, despite the enormous increase in parties fielding candidates.”

“The ballot paper might be on the long side this election, but that’s probably more of a symptom of poor representation from the major parties, than the problem. We wish all competing parties and independents the best of luck with their own campaigns.”

[1] https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Policies/Civil_Liberties
[2] https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Policies/Copyright
[3] https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Policies/Patents
[4] https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Policies/Reform_of_Democratic_Institutions
[5] https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Platform