Strategy Meeting Update: January 2016

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Happy New Year!

As proposed in the monthly update for December, we are holding a strategy meeting this coming Wednesday, January 13 at 8:30pm AEDT in IRC:
https://pirateparty.org.au/irc/

There are two proposed topics, relations with other Parties and the formation of State branches.

I have written posts on Discuss to give some background and inform debate. They are here:

Relations with smaller Parties:

State Branches:

Please come along and share your thoughts or add them to Discuss, particularly if you can’t make it.

In other current news for the party:

Work is now well underway on our membership management software system, expect more news about that in the near future.

We also have the Counterstrike Global Offensive Fundraiser this Sunday, against r/CirclejerkAus. There is over $600 in the kitty and if we win it will help fund our next election.
If you are an ok CS:GO player and wish to raise your hand to join the pirate team, there is still time.
There is more info here: https://discuss.pirateparty.org.au/t/counter-strike-global-offensive-fundraiser/619

There has been some media attention of the event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs9w-GxWcQM and “Posty” from r/CirclejerkAus has made a hype video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJjLYQnWiWM

To ensure you stay up to date with future monthly updates and other announcements, please make sure you subscribe to the Party Announcement mailing list here: http://lists.pirateparty.org.au/

Kind Regards,

—

Simon Frew
President
Pirate Party Australia

TPP: Incompatible with Democracy

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The Pirate Party welcomes the long-anticipated release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (‘TPP’), available from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.[1] However, the Pirate Party remains firmly opposed to the agreement itself and calls on the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties to recommend it not be ratified.

“After years of secret negotiations the text has been revealed, and it should be deeply concerning to all Australians,” said Simon Frew, President of the Pirate Party. “Most concerning of all are the investor-state dispute settlement (‘ISDS’) provisions which create a two-tiered legal system in which foreign-owned businesses gain special rights to sue the Australian government if policies or regulations hurt their interests. These cases are run through international tribunals which have none of the accountabilities and appeal mechanisms which operate in domestic courts.”[2]

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Fundraising Campaign. Preparing now for the next election and beyond.

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In less than a year, Pirate Party Australia will be contesting its second Federal election. With data retention having passed, a fifth wave of security laws in the works, further censorship proposals for the internet, and more copyright restriction in the wake of the TPP, there’s a lot to push back against. Our political system is rotten, monopolistic, and in desperate need of renewal.

But elections are expensive — it costs $24 000 in nomination fees just to contest each state. Our estimate assumes that the major parties will not jack up the price as they did right before the last election!

Our current bank balance is approximately $8,000 which is only enough to cover candidate fees in two states.

Basic election materials such as how to vote flyers and corflute signs cost thousands of dollars more. At the last election we contested in four states (not counting the WA re-run).

Below is the list of our main expenses from the last Federal Election campaign:

Candidate nomination fees: $16,000
Corflute sign printing: $2,546.50
Advertising in MX Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne: $6,593.40
How to Vote flyer printing: $2020 (4 designs. 20,000 for each of 3 states and 6,000 for 1 state)

With so much at stake, we have to prepare in advance so that we can run the best campaign possible. Given the risk of an early election, we need to start building a warchest now with a target of $40,000 to ensure we can cover nomination fees and produce essential campaign materials.

While every donation makes a difference, we urge those who can afford it to set up regular transfers. A regular stream of funds could facilitate us also reaching our goal of hiring a paid staff member to lighten the bureaucratic burden on the (entirely volunteer) National Council members, freeing us up to campaign harder on issues which define our Party. This is a goal which we will pursue with vigour once we have enough money in the bank to contest the next election.

For more information on how to help, go to our “Election Warchest Campaign” page at: https://pirateparty.org.au/warchest/

Thank you again for all your support.

Kind Regards,

—

Simon Frew
President
Pirate Party Australia

Data retention looms over Australians, ISPs silenced

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Mandatory data retention is set to come into effect on 13 October 2015. Despite the certainty of this date, there remains considerable uncertainty within the communications industry as to what data needs to be retained to comply with the law. Among this confusion the Attorney-General’s Department has advised the industry that exemptions to the data retention regime will be revoked if their existence is publicised[1]. This is despite the legislation not specifically requiring exemptions remain confidential. The Department has argued that this is to “prevent exposing gaps in data retention legislation to be exposed to criminals”.

“The Government and the Attorney-General’s Department would have the communications industry lie down and accept its fate,” commented Michael Keating, Deputy President of the Pirate Party. “The fact is that the industry has been ignored in the Government’s push to involve itself in every individual’s and business’ communication in Australia. Not only are they dismantling the right to privacy, they want to silence anyone who challenges them, while at the same time expecting everyone to pay for the ‘privilege’. There should be no room for attacking transparency in Australia, but the Attorney-General’s Department seems willing to do this on the flimsy excuse provided.”

With the commencement of the mandatory data retention regime just around the corner, both Kmart[2] and David Jones[3] recently experienced online data breaches resulting in unauthorised access to customer details. These breaches raise serious concerns around the storage of individual’s data once the data retention regime is in operation. Internet service providers have already indicated that they would have no hesitation in storying the data overseas[4], but there is little information about security measures to prevent unauthorised access. With the stored data being capable of exposing individual’s day-to-day activities (as ABC reporter Will Ockenden’s social experiment demonstrated in August[5]), it is the perfect target for hackers wishing to access and abuse that data. The Government appears happy to use smoke and mirrors to cover this issue.

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TPP: Don’t Sign Our Democracy Away

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Late last night word trickled out that the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) was finalised. This trade agreement represents many of the darkest wishes of multi-national corporations intent on using regulatory capture in the United States to drive the global trade agenda. The text of the agreement is still secret and will not be released for perhaps another month[1].

"Civil society has been kept at arms length from the negotiations, with access to the draft texts only being granted to major corporations. The fact that the text is not immediately available gives us some insight into just how bad this agreement could be," said Simon Frew, President of the Pirate Party. "We demand that the text be immediately published so the Australian people can see what has been negotiated on our behalf and judge whether this is something that will benefit all of us or just a wealthy few."

Much of what is known about the TPP has been exposed through leaks, painting a bleak picture for the future of signatory countries. The leaks indicate draconian intellectual property provisions, investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunals and poor environmental and worker protections. 

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