Pirate Party crowdfunds to field candidates in WA Senate campaign

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Pirate Party Australia is using Pozible, a crowdfunding website, to raise $10,000 in order to wage a strong campaign and field candidates in the upcoming WA Senate election[1].

“Crowdfunding is a model that has worked well for us in the past, raising over $1,000 in about one hour to have a freedom of information request fulfilled,” said Simon Frew, President of Pirate Party Australia. “Our election campaigns have been very low-cost so far, and there is plenty of support for us out there. We’re confident we can reach the goal of $10,000 for this campaign.”

The Pirate Party has launched its democratic preselection processes, which will conclude this weekend. All Western Australian members will decide who will be the candidates, and in which order they will appear on the ballot. The Party is also progressing its preference discussions and preparing to continue with its transparent, democratic preference model where the resulting preference order and deals are voted upon and determined by the relevant body of members (in this case, the WA membership).

In light of the Party’s results in the 2013 Federal Election and the Griffith By-Election earlier this month, where the Pirate Party achieved 0.31% (national average across all states and territories) and 1.5% respectively, the Western Australian Senate Election will be the first indication of how much electoral support the Pirate Party has in the state of Western Australia. The election will be even more interesting given rising distrust of opaque and undemocratic preference deals, which the Pirate Party has deliberately avoided.

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Pirate Party Australia Webcast – Episode 12

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Just when we thought for sure he’d been lost at sea or killed by natives, Sam Kearns returns from the wild blue yonder with a new webcast episode packed full of shiny goodness.

In this episode Sam speaks to Melanie Thomas about running as a Pirate candidate for the seat of Griffith and follows the antics of Attorney General George Brandis as he says all the things we don’t want to hear in parliament and at the AUDA forum. Subscribe to the feed, or view past episodes.

Podcast (webcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:59 — 55.6MB)

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Pirate Party Calls for Human Rights to be Respected on Manus Island

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Following the escape of detainees at the Manus Island Detention Facility that resulted in the death of one asylum seeker, Pirate Party Australia supports the call by Amnesty International for an independent investigation into the incident[1]. The Pirate Party also calls on the Government to seek humane alternatives to mandatory detention that encourage the proper treatment of asylum seekers in the region. The situation is of particular concern as there have been reports of Papua New Guinean police and locals attacking the fleeing escapees[2].

The scale of the riots and the magnitude of the breakdown in our handling and processing systems are unprecedented, and a full investigation is warranted. Pirate Party Australia objects to the concentration camp conditions which led to the rioting, and is critical of both the current and previous governments’ approach to asylum seekers.

“People should not die when seeking asylum,” commented Melanie Thomas, Deputy President of Pirate Party Australia. “Regardless of whether they are genuine refugees or not — though almost all asylum seekers are genuine refugees — we should never be in a situation where those in our care are killed. It is simply not good enough that we are subjecting asylum seekers to conditions that could result, and now have resulted, in their deaths.

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Vast majority of Australians reject warrantless surveillance

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Statistics from a recent online poll conducted by Essential Research indicate that 80% of the population is opposed to warrantless access of phone and Internet records by the Government. The poll surveyed 1,017 respondents between 14 and 17 February, and a final report is expected to be released soon. The results come as the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee is conducting a comprehensive revision of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to address such concerns[1].

Pirate Party Australia holds the view that any surveillance conducted by law enforcement and intelligence agencies must only be carried out when there is enough evidence for the investigators to obtain a warrant. Every use of surveillance is an intrusion of a citizen’s personal privacy and the statistics show the vast majority of Australians believe there must be sufficient evidence that the privacy breach is necessary before surveillance can be undertaken.

“This is a vindication for everyone who is working to put a stop to the warrantless surveillance that has become prevalent over the last few years,” commented Simon Frew, President of Pirate Party Australia. “In the last telecommunications and surveillance annual report there were over 300,000 uses of Australians’ metadata without a warrant[2]. This could amount to about 1 in 70 Australians having their privacy breached with no judicial oversight. This needs to be put to a stop immediately.”

The results show that 71% of Coalition voters oppose warrantless access, suggesting that it is in the Government’s best interests to prohibit warrantless access to communications records to maintain public support. The Pirate Party and other activist organisations have been concerned about the lack of judicial oversight, and Essential Research’s poll suggests that the bulk of Australians are too.

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Another go for fair use in Australia

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A report recommending the introduction of fair use in Australia was yesterday tabled in Parliament by the Attorney-General, Senator George Brandis[1]. “Copyright and the Digital Economy,” an inquiry by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC), was tasked with examining whether the current copyright regime is adequately meeting the needs of the increasingly Internet-reliant Australian population. This is the second law reform report in just over a decade to recommend the introduction of fair use, and is more than 400 pages long.

Pirate Party Australia, a strong supporter of the introduction of fair use, was among the hundreds of individuals and organisations that made a submission to the ALRC[2], and was cited more than 10 times in the report. The fair use proposals would provide a generic, flexible exception that allows the unlicenced use of copyrighted material in certain circumstances where a court determines the use of a work (entirely or in part) is reasonable. Several countries have fair use or similar provisions, notably the United States and Israel, and fair use has been credited with providing a fertile environment for the growth of the modern Internet, being necessary for major search engines to function. Australia lacks the competitive edge of the United States in this area, putting the Australian digital economy at an enormous disadvantage.

“Over the past twenty or so years we have adopted many of the negative aspects of the United States’ copyright system, but with few of the safeguards the American laws have,” commented Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer, Deputy Secretary of Pirate Party Australia. “While we increased our copyright term to life plus seventy years via the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement in the early 2000s, we did not import fair use as a flexible exception for using copyrighted material without a licence. If the recommendations of the ALRC report are adopted, Australia will finally be taking positive steps towards copyright reform. These reforms are long overdue and go a long way to ensuring that Australia has copyright laws that genuinely reflect the needs of our society.”

Senator Scott Ludlam’s “Fair Go for Fair Use” Bill pre-empted the results of the ALRC inquiry, and is expected to be reintroduced to Parliament soon. Pirate Party Australia has been highly supportive of this Bill, and hopes that the ALRC report spurs Parliament into passing the much-needed legislation. The ALRC’s report notes the advantages of fair use, such as its flexibility and ability to promote the public interest and assist innovation, and that it aligns with reasonable consumer expectations while protecting rights holders’ markets and moral rights.

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