The election has been called for the 21st of May… and campaign season steps up another level.

As part of Fusion, Pirates will be on the ballot in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia, with other Fusion candidates running in Victoria too.

How can you help? Well, there’s two key things it takes to fight an election: time and money.

Volunteer for the campaign!

Can you help out on the big day? Can you help out beforehand? Can you write, or design, or script?
Polling places with volunteers get double the number of votes as compared to those without.

Donate to the campaign

It costs $2000 to be on the ballot. Per candidate. We’ve got enough in the bank to pay for nominations, but to run a good campaign beyond that, we need to have shirts, signs, flyers and digital ads. All of this costs money and we’ll need it in a hurry.

Please donate $20 to your local Pirate-Fusion candidate today.

All donations to candidates are tax-deductible.

Last but not least, check your voter enrolment as well!
https://check.aec.gov.au/

Preselection part two!

Hi Pirates,

Since our last round of preselections, we’ve had one more serious EOI. So this Sunday afternoon, we’ll hold one last preselection meeting to find out what our prospective candidate is all about!

Date: Sunday, 3rd April
Time:
3pm AEST (2:30pm ACST; 1pm AWST)
Location: online:  in PirateIRC / Discord and streamed online on YouTube
Voting: A 6 day online voting period will open following the meeting, closing at midnight Perth time, Saturday 9th April.

For more information, refer to the Pirate wiki page.

Kind Regards,

Alex Jago 
Secretary
Pirate Party Australia

Early on Saturday morning, Pirate Parties International issued the following statement:

“The Pirates of Europe and the world strongly condemn the actions taken by Vladimir Putin. It’s with deep sorrow that we watch the events in Ukraine unfold, and our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine, those suffering the consequences of this conflict, and those opposing the war inside of Russia. We hope for a swift and peaceful resolution to this conflict, and for the immediate end of all hostilities in the region.”[1]

Pirate Party Australia endorses this statement, and repeats the call for the Australian government to add to the international sanctions against Russia in any way possible, blocking their access to Australian markets.

Read More

Over the weekend of 8th and 9th January 2022, Pirate Party Australia sent a delegation from the Foreign and International Relations Committee (FIRC) to observe the General Assembly of Pirate Parties International (PPI)[1]. With excitement and pride, we observed fourteen member parties convene to hear updates from the Pirate movement around the world and carry out half-board elections[2].

From the report of the chair of PPI, Bailey Lamon (Canada), we heard that the PPI submitted a quadrennial report to the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) outlining the work that the PPI has been doing to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One of the major areas has been to advocate for expanding internet access to everyone to provide equality of communications and access to information. This follows on from Vice Chair Gregory Engels’s (Germany) statement delivered to the ECOSOC’s Commission for Social Development in January 2020 advocating for increased access to crowdsourcing, apps and internet enabled technology to better address homelessness[3].

The PPI also had a booth at the Internet Governance Forum 2021 in Katowice, Poland from 6th to 10th December where Gregory Engels held a lightning talk on the European Citizen’s Initiative to legalise file sharing in Europe[4]. Vice President of the European Parliament and Czech Pirate Marcel Kolaja also gave a talk on free speech and innovation in social media[5].

And more recently, PPI submitted a statement in preparation for the UN’s Ad Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes to be held on 17th to 28th January 2022. Bailey indicated they would advocate for policy to reduce surveillance and other digital crimes, while empowering individuals with digital tools for privacy[6].

Internally, the PPI accepted the membership of the Pirate Party of Serbia and heard a proposal from Keith Goldstein (Israel) to develop a DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation on the blockchain) to support the PPI’s internal governance. PPI currently accepts Bitcoin donations on the Kraken wallet.

The National Council of Pirate Party Australia endorses the international Pirate movement, and is considering membership status in the PPI. To give your opinion, please reach out to the FIRC chair Jay Stephens via [email protected] or contact the National Council directly via [email protected].

References and further reading

1: https://pp-international.net/2022/01/global-pirates-elected-new-leadership-for-the-coming-two-years/
2: https://wiki.pp-international.net/wiki/index.php?title=PPIGeneralAssemblyJAN2022
3: https://pp-international.net/2020/01/pirate-statement-on-homelessness-for-the-united-nations/
4: https://pp-international.net/2021/12/ppi-stand-at-the-internet-governance-forum-dec-6-to-10-in-katowice-poland/
5: https://twitter.com/PiratKolaja/status/1469243185834639363
6: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/cybercrime/adhoccommittee/home

With Julian Assange fighting another appeal for extradition from the UK to face charges in the US for exposing evidence of war crimes, the threat of suppressing free and honest journalism has never been more pertinent.

Since his arrest from the Ecuadorian embassy by UK police in April 2019, he has been held prisoner, mostly in London’s Belmarsh correctional facility.

“This is a blatant attack on free journalism, making a mockery of government responsibility, and thwarting accountability for the actions of elected representatives and military operations acting on our behalf”, said John August, Candidate for New South Wales and Pirate Party Australia Treasurer.

Efforts to extradite and prosecute Assange have so far failed, yet the US persists with appeals to keep Julian incarcerated, while his health continues to deteriorate.

Australian government officials continue to turn a blind eye to his plight. His family and legal representatives have made it clear that little effort has been pursued by Australian leaders toward bringing him home.

“Marise Payne, minister for Foreign Affairs, should release an immediate statement condemning the extradition of Julian Assange to the US”, said David Kennedy, civil liberties spokesperson for Pirate Party Australia.

If elected into government, we will place pressure on major parties who have shown blatant disregard for the health and wellbeing of an Australian citizen, still being held on remand in London pending legal appeals regarding his extradition to the US.

Pirate Party Australia supports free and open journalism, and promotes transparency across the actions of our elected representatives. We will continue to work toward a culture of civil liberty, and government transparency.

With your support, we can pursue a future which protects journalistic integrity, freedom of thought, and open discussion.