Minutes/Policy Development Committee Meeting/2014-08-27

Meeting Minutes This document is a record of a meeting. Do not edit this document without contacting the relevant group first.

Attendees

• Andrew Downing (Chair)
• Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer (Inquiries Officer)
• David Crafti
• Bill McLean
• Fletcher Boyd
• Sunny Kalsi
• Mark Gibbons
• Daniel Judge

Apologies

• Ben Fairless
• Brendan Molloy
• Laura Killian (On leave)

Agenda

PDC members Changes

• Fletcher Boyd (new)
• Sunny Kalsi (new)
• Ben Fairless (new)
• Laura Killian will be leaving us due to study commitments, but promises to return.

Inquiries Status

• Online Copyright Infringement Discussion Paper inquiry submission (Mozart).
  • Happening by Monday evening (1st September)

• Data retention legislation inquiry submission (Mozart).
  • The consultation paper on data retention has been leaked today. http://images.smh.com.au/file/2014/08/27/5710838/Data_retention_consultation.pdf
  • There's no opportunity for public submission just yet, but I expect that to follow soon.

• Brendan and Mozart are looking at crowdfunding the translation of an important Dutch case into English.
  • Because it will be useful to this and future Internet filtering proposals.
  • The case is between two ISPs (Ziggo and XS4ALL) and BREIN, the Dutch "rights" group.
  • It's a Court of Appeals decision, which is a tier below their highest court.
  • The decision says that filtering is both disproportionate and ineffective.
  • Which is a handy admission from a court for us. Unfortunately no certified translation exists that I can find.
  • http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/29/pirate-bay-ban-lifted-in-netherlands-as-blocking-torrent-sites-ruled-ineffective

Progress Reports from Active Working Groups

• Universal Healthcare Working Group (Chair=BillM)
  • No Report
• Corporate Stalking (Chair=DavidC) ... pending participation by Liam
  • No progress. Will send Liam an email.
• Agriculture and Food Working Group (Chair=Laura Killian, status=Uncertain)
  • Moving to backlog. Chair Laura is on leave from PDC activity.
  • MarkG: honestly most of my what I would advocate for agriculture is already in other policies"
• Distributed Digital Currencies and Economies Policy (Chair=AndrewD)
  • No activity, but discussed at length during meeting (see log below)

Focus Session

• Distributed Digital Currencies and Economies Policy (Chair=AndrewD)
  • Much discussion was had and detailed in the IRC log below.

Find something for the new guys to do

• Sunny Kalsi chairing the Library and Cultural Development Policy
  • Moved to active policy development. WG meeting set for 1st September.
• Fletcher joining Sunny on the same WG.

Active Policy Developments

• Universal Healthcare Working Group (Chair=BillM)
  • Focus on the development of a universal healthcare policy, with specific consideration of dental and ambulance cover
  • Members: AndrewD, BrendanM, MarkG

• Corporate Stalking (Chair=DavidC) ... pending participation by Liam
  • Develop a policy regarding the surreptitious gathering of data about people for creepy purposes.
  • E.g. insurance companies reading social media in order to determine premiums.
  • Members: Liam?

• Startups Working Group (Chair=AndrewD)
  • Focus on investigating policies to advance the opportunities for small to medium startup businesses in Australia to enhance the digital economy
  • Members: MarkG, Mozart

• Distributed Digital Currencies and Economies Policy (Chair=AndrewD)
  • Members: MarkG, dcrafti, BillM

• Library and Cultural Development Policy (Chair=Sunny Kalsi)
  • Members: AndrewD, MarkG, Fletcher
  • Libraries are an odd cultural appendage. They are like cultural sharing centres. They are a little different with regards copyright
  • This the policy we need to "deepen": https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Policies/Cultural_Participation
  • Libraries are also being chipped away at.
  • Everywhere that trade agreements negotiations suggest special dispensation for libraries, they get knocked ba
  • We propose that they get a real leg up. Maybe do something radically aligned with their core purpose
  • Maybe make they like Patent free zones
  • Make them maker-spaces
  • Make them the source of new business startups
  • Make them real cultural centres
  • A place where people can create art and culture, like community hubs for artists
  • Also, some stuff about use of unused property: e.g. " If you have land/building, it's not in use, it's bleeding you with land tax and you can't do anything with it right now, then you could lend it to the commons as a for public use thing and be exempt from the land tax."

Policy Development BackLog

• Political Donation Reform
  • Probably means upgrades to: https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Policies/Reform_of_Democratic_Institutions#Improve_transparency_and_conduct_in_Australian_politics
  • Recommend: Post now on Forum for discussion.

• Universal Childcare Working Group (Chair=????)
  • Focus on the development of a universal childcare policy

• Universal Education Working Group (Chair=Mark Gibbons)
  • Focus on the development of a universal education policy, with specific consideration of the cost of education and accessibility

• Sexual Offences Working Group (Chair=????)
  • Focus on the development of a revenge pornography policy that considers the introduction of a concept of "permanent publication", a potential sentencing requiring placement on a list for sexual predators, and the ability for police to act upon threatening calls
  • PDC recommended to be combined with "National Domestic Violence Strategy"

• Agriculture and Food Working Group (Chair=Laura Killian, status=Uncertain)
  • Develop a policy addressing key issues of the Australian agriculture and food system.
  • Laura will call a meeting on this policy WG soon.
  • Members: MarkG