Today the Pirate Party is launching a crowdfunding campaign[1] to raise at least $3,000 for its candidate Michelle Allen, running in the Canning by-election[2].

“Crowdfunding the resources we need for elections has proven to work well for us in the past,” said Tom Randle, Pirate Party Councillor. “Given our embrace of distributed participation, we’re able to run our election campaigns at a very low-cost while connecting our members from all over Australia to help Michelle’s campaign to be as successful as it can be.”

The Pirate Party recently concluded its democratic pre-selection processes and announced its candidate, Michelle Allen. Her campaign will focus on digital rights and civil liberties, pushing back against web-site blocking, data retention and mass surveillance. She will also campaign on marriage equality, copyright reform, internet censorship and privacy rights. The full Pirate Party platform can be found here: https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Platform

The Pirate Party is run entirely by volunteers and the money raised from the crowdfunding campaign will go directly towards election materials and helping the Party run a strong campaign.

“Our vision offers real hope. We’ve thrown out the old world views from the 20th century which the major parties are still clinging to, our policies stand on their own ready to take Australia into a positive future based on our Party’s core promise at its simplest: Freedom, Democracy, Science. Canberra needs a whole lot more of all three.” said Canning candidate Michelle Allen. “With the election to be held on Saturday 19 September, which also happens to be ‘International Talk Like A Pirate Day’, we’re ready to help the good citizens of Canning make this election a ‘Vote Like A Pirate Day’ as well.”

The crowdfunding campaign will end on the 30th September, but the Pirate Party expects to reach its goal before the election date, The Pirate Party encourages everyone who wants an alternative voice at this election to donate (a little or a lot) to help the Pirate Party run a successful election campaign.

[1] http://pozi.be/canning2015
[2] https://pirateparty.org.au/2015/08/25/vote-like-a-pirate-day-pirate-party-announces-canning-by-election-candidate/