Category: Press Release

Press releases

Surveillance Legislation Amendment is the latest in abuse of due process

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“This latest bill has bypassed recommendations about oversight, and also stands in the Dark Shadow of past Government abuse. While they talk about the ‘Dark Web’, it’s amazing how ‘Dark’ they themselves have become.” says Pirate Party Australia Treasurer, John August.

The legislation creates “Disruption Warrants” which can be authorised by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, under control of the Attorney General – a ministerial position. Our politicians have just granted themselves the power to hack, change or delete data on any computer or network they like. This sidesteps independent court authorisation, which is supposed to prevent corruption and targeting of political opponents.

“Most recently, the NSW Government’s Fixated Persons Unit, originally founded to prevent terrorism, was used by Deputy Premier John Barilaro as part of a personal political vendetta against public figure ‘Friendly Jordies’. On the one hand it’s NSW not Federal legislation. On the other, it all fits together in an all too familiar pattern, of which this legislation is but one more part”.

Pirate Party Australia vows to repeal the law if elected, and supports any movement to do so.

A petition to repeal the Identify and Disrupt Bill is here: https://me.getup.org.au/petitions/repeal-the-identify-and-disrupt-bill-2021

Pirate Party pans the Coalition’s “Party Pooper” bill

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Pirate Party Australia has signed an open letter [1] with other parties, opposing the Coalition’s Party Registration Integrity Bill. The bill introduces new restrictions around party names and triples the registration threshold to 1500 members.

“This Bill is a blatantly anti-competitive attempt to wipe smaller parties off the ballot paper,” said Alex Jago, Secretary of Pirate Party Australia. “Firstly, there’s the name-squatting. The Liberals are full of conservatives, and the Nationals only try to represent about a quarter of the population. If they can’t live up to their own names, then they shouldn’t complain and change the rules shortly before the election.”

The registration threshold change also has other implications than just ballot access.

“The membership threshold increase is directly aimed at cutting down the ballot, but it does so indirectly and with unfortunate side effects,” Mr Jago continued. “Party registration is about more things than ballot access; there’s financial disclosure implications too. A high threshold harms transparency.”

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The government’s response to Covid-19 is missing entirely

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Pirate Party Australia declares the government response to be a combination of naive optimism, wishful thinking and false economy.

“Both the Commonwealth and State Governments have made a complete hash of it, be it around quarantine, the vaccination rollout, choices around lockdown or a festering bureaucracy,” said John August, Pirate Party Australia Treasurer.

The responses taken by both State and Federal governments of Australia have been either mismatched, unpredictable or otherwise missing entirely, whether regarding lockdowns, financial support, business restrictions, or vaccine rollouts. This has been partly due to inaction from the federal government, or politically motivated action on the part of state and federal goverments. Pirate Party Australia is developing a unified approach to Covid management which takes into account the latest scientific advice and best practices in public health which will be announced in the coming weeks.

View more here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKUV2II5cPQ

Pirate Party Australia supports a Right to Repair

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Pirate Party Australia recently made a submission to the Productivity Commission’s “Right to Repair” inquiry.[1] While giving the Productivity Commission credit for their approach, we worry it will end up an ineffective PR exercise, given the Government’s record and existing treaties and legislation obstacles to the “Right to Repair”.

Abuse of Intellectual Property is rightly increasing in prominence. “Repair Cafes” and other initiatives are opening up throughout Australia. The fact the Government is showing an interest is a positive, in its way. Nevertheless, the treaties the Government is a signatory to, such as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement 2011 and laws such as the Copyright Act 1968 are opposed to the recognition of a right-to-repair. Sadly, the inquiry may end up as lip service, while the Productivity Commission has made a genuine attempt to engage with the issues. In addition, in the past both parties in Government have been very selective in implementing Productivity Commission recommendations – and we wouldn’t be surprised to see it again.

We suspect the Government will continue to allow big business to abuse its position and make little substantial progress on the “Right to Repair”.

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Love Data Week!

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This week is Love Data Week, which is all about celebrating the analysis, sharing, reuse and preservation of data.

“This is a topic near and dear to the Pirate Party’s heart,” said Miles Whiticker, President of Pirate Party Australia. “Information may well want to be free, but it’s human effort that makes it so. We salute archivists, librarians, and researchers everywhere — their tireless efforts ensure knowledge gets out of the filing cabinet and into the public consciousness.”

The Pirate Party has a core policy goal of ensuring that knowledge can remain free. Its legislative proposals include copyright exemptions for libraries, archives, public education and access for people with disabilities. If in government, it would require Open Access provisions for all publicly-financed scientific and academic research.

For more information, follow the #lovedata21 hashtag on Twitter.