Pirate Congress 2013/Constitutional Amendments

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Constitutional Amendments

Constitutional amendment proposals must be presented to the National Council a minimum of 28 days before the National Congress, which this year is June 15.

CAP-1: Principles

Put by: Brendan Molloy and Mark Gibbons

Motion

1. In Part I, replace:

"Pirate Party Australia strives to achieve the freedom of culture, the protection of civil liberties and inalienable rights of the nation’s citizens and to protect the freedoms of the newly evolving global information society. It is these values that the party seeks to have embedded within the laws and institutions of Australia."

with:

"Pirate Party Australia strives to protect and expand civil and digital liberties, social equality and freedom of culture. We seek to safeguard the inalienable rights of all natural persons of Australia and the freedoms of the emergent global information society. The Party seeks to have these values reflected in the laws and institutions of Australia."

2. In Part I, replace:

"The Party does not seek to become part of the administration, but a mediator in parliamentary deadlocks, and to provide representation for the emergent information society, to guard the civil liberties of the citizen by utilising this power to further the party agenda, and as such intends to contest Australian Federal Elections in both the House of Representatives and Senate."

with:

"The Party seeks to represent the emerging digital society and offer a new form of politics driven from the grassroots. We believe in exploring the potential of participatory and deliberative democracy, and finding new ways to promote trust between citizens and the state through greater transparency and open government. The Party intends to contest Australian Federal Elections in both the House of Representatives and Senate."

Justification

The first item clarifies that human rights apply to all inhabitants of Australia, not just citizens. It also enshrines into the Constitution the culture of the Party regarding social equality such as not discriminating against somebody because of their sexuality, race, gender or other social criteria. This is reflected in our policies such as the Bill of Rights Policy and Marriage Reform Policy so makes sense to make it an enshrined principle of our Party. It also includes tweaks to wording to improve readability.

The second item changes the Constitution so it doesn't undermine possible determinations of the National Congress. The Party may decide one year that we would like to campaign directly to become the administration of the nation, and it does not make sense to undercut our possible ambitions in our Party Constitution. It also makes explicit the party's stance on a participatory democratic system and a deliberative democratic system. Participatory means that citizens should have access to government information and communicate with their representatives, and even being able to directly effect change such as through citizens' referenda. Deliberative means that our representatives should actually take into account research and work with others when determining legislation for our nation that takes into account all of the varying opinions and situations of their relevant stakeholders. The item will also include a reference to our support for open and transparent governance, which underpins everything else.

CAP-2: Positions on issues not within platform

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

Add a new subarticle to Article 4:

4.x Positions on issues outside of Platform

1. No member of the Party may imply that a personal position on issues outside of the scope of the Party principles, platform or policies is the position of the Party.

Justification

This clears up any ambiguity on what is allowed for officers of the Party when formally representing the Party. Our officials are elected to represent the policies democratically determined by the Party.

CAP-3: Membership Levels

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

Under Article 3 "Membership":

1. remove subarticle 3.4 "Founding Members" as it is now redundant;
2. remove the colon at the end of the subarticle title "Additional Categories of Membership:" for consistency; and
3. remove subarticle 3.1 "Full Membership" and replace it with the following:

3. Membership

3.1. Eligibility

1. Membership is open to all natural persons who:
   1. Have read and agreed to the terms and principles provided within this constitution;
   2. Pay an annual membership fee, if applicable, as set by the National Council;
   3. Are not currently members of any other registered political party in Australia and do not join another party in Australia while a member of the PPAU; and
   4. Have not been members of another registered political party in Australia in the previous twelve (12) months unless permission is granted in writing (in their absolute discretion) by a majority of the National Council.
2. A Member's Party membership will only lapse if the member fails to pay their annual membership fee for more than two consecutive years. The National Council will give thirty days written notice to the last known postal or email address of the member in advance of declaring that membership to have lapsed. Such a lapsed membership may be re-activated during its third year of lapse by that Member paying out of their own pocket their outstanding membership fees. A member may notify the National Council that they wish to resign their membership of the Party by giving sixty (60) days signed written notice.

3.2 Categories of Membership

3.2.1 Full Membership

1. Full Members are entitled to:
   1. Be elected into a formal position within the party, at any level;
   2. Where eligible, and approved by the nomination processes within this constitution, stand as a candidate in any election the party contests;
   3. Communicate and submit policy amendment proposals and constitutional amendment proposals;
   4. Participate in policy and issue discussion, debate and partake in the decision making process in accordance with this constitution;
   5. Participate in working groups defined by the National Council or any organ of the Party; and
   6. Vote at Party Meetings, Congresses and Policy Formulation, Development and Adoption proceedings.

3.2.2 Associate Membership

1. Associate Members are entitled to the same privileges as Full Members, except they:
   1. Are ineligible for National Council and Dispute Resolution Committee positions;
   2. May not lead any committee; and
   3. Do not have voting rights, but have the ability to motion through the sponsorship of a Full Member.
   4. Are not eligible to stand as a candidate in any election the Party contests.

Justification

We have to modify the Party Constitution to remove reference to the Founder Membership level, as that is no longer available, and add the level: Associate Membership.

Associate membership is intended for those who cannot be sent to the AEC for various reasons, such as being a non-citizen.

This motion also cleans up the first subarticle of the Membership article to allow easier extension of this part of the constitution in the future if necessary.

Note: all founder members are already considered full members for the purposes of the current Constitution, and that will not change.

CAP-4: Preselection Meetings

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

1. Add a subarticle after Article 5.1:

5.x Preselection Meeting

1. The National Council will organise the Preselection Meeting.
2. The Preselection Meeting may be an independent meeting, or may coincide with the National Congress or another meeting.
3. Multiple Preselection Meetings may be held where deemed appropriate by the National Council in the lead up to an election.
4. The National Council may determine that a separate Preselection Meeting may be held for each specific geographic area.

2. Replace paragraph 1 of Article 5.2 with:

• All Members seeking to stand as candidates for election to Federal Parliament must be nominated at a Preselection Meeting and seconded by another member.

Justification

The current Party Constitution requires that a Preselection Meeting is held at the same time as a National Congress. Our first ever Preselection Meeting could only have happened due to passing an emergency temporary Constitution amendment at the last National Congress, that allowed the meeting to be run separately. This had to be done due to time constraints and due to the reality of Federal politics in Australia.

The clause stating multiple meetings may be held allows the National Council to have meetings on different dates for different regions depending on their requirements. This year we ran a Preselection Meeting in April, and will be running a second meeting that coincides with the National Congress for WA, SA and Tasmania due to those states lacking candidates.

Taking into account our experience, this would allow flexibility where necessary as to when we run preselection meetings.

CAP-5: Enshrine seven day voting period

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

Add the following paragraph to Article 5.1:

• All officer elections, constitutional amendment proposals, platform amendment proposals and policy amendment proposals that pass a majority vote of those present at the National Congress must be ratified by a majority vote of all Full Members using an online voting system.
  1. The voting period must not be less than seven (7) days.

Justification

For the last three congresses, we have traditionally used a seven-day online voting period to determine a majority and quorum for proposed constitutional and policy amendments. In order to ensure that this tradition continues, I propose that this is enshrined in the Party Constitution.

CAP-6: Conflict of Interest Declaration

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

Add the following paragraph to Article 8.1:

• Candidates for any electable position or appointment within the Party must present a declaration of any potential conflicts of interest prior to the election or appointment taking place.

Justification

No member should be elected or appointed to a position of power within the party under false pretenses, and this clause would allow the National Council to make a determination against an official in the case where an undeclared conflict of interest is deemed abhorrent to the Party.

CAP-7: Sponsorship/Joining Organisations

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

Add the following paragraph to Article 5.1:

• The National Congress has the exclusive right, by majority vote, to allow the Party to merge with, affiliate with or unaffiliate with any other organisation.

And amend CAP-5, if it passes, to include ", and mergers, affiliations or unaffiliations" after "and policy amendment proposals".

Justification

This stops the National Council from joining or sponsoring an organisation without permission of the entire membership. I believe that it should be up to the entire member base to determine whether or not the party should consider formal associations with other organisations, or political internationals such as Pirate Parties International, as these arrangements cannot be easily undone by consecutive National Councils.

CAP-8: National Council Structure

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Grouped motion

• To be voted as a block

CAP-8A: Create Article for National Council

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

1. Create an Article above Article 3 entitled "National Council".
2. Add the following paragraph to the new Article:

   • Members of the National Council shall be referred to as Councillors.

3. Move Article 3.5 under new Article, and rename to "Powers".
4. Rename Article 8 to "Councillors, Officers and Party Officials".
5. Move Articles 8.2 to 8.8 to a new subarticle entitled "Positions" under newly created "National Council" Article.
6. Amend Article 8.1, paragraph 2, changing "a position on the National Council" to "a position on the National Council, working group or committee".
7. In Article 2, replace Article 8 with the updated references to the Articles entitled "National Council" and "Councillors, Officers and Party Officials".

Justification

This lays out the Constitution in a manner that places all National Council matters in one position.

Currently, clauses relating to the National Council's structure are smattered throughout the Constitution. This moves them into one spot.

it also makes the distinction between ordinary officers, such as state coordinators and leaders of committees with that of the National Council members. This is further justified in the next two motions.

CAP-8B: Fix two officer position clause

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

Replace Article 8.1, paragraph 3 "No more than two officer positions may be filled by one member of the National Council." with:

• No more than one National Council position may be filled by one member, except in cases where a position is subject to a temporary vacancy and pending a permanent appointment.

Justification

There is very little justification for allowing a member of the National Council to hold two positions of authority except in the case where it is temporary due to an absence of another councillor.

CAP-8C: Rename of Party Agent to Registered Officer, correct other responsibilities

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

1. Rename Article 8.8 (or the article where it has moved to) - Party Agent to "Registered Officer".
2. Replace the first paragraph of that Article with:

   • The Registered Officer fulfils the requirements and obligations of the position of the same name defined in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.
   • The Registered Officer will fulfil the requirements and obligations of the Party Agent as defined in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

3. Replace all mentions of "Party Agent" with "Registered Officer" in the second paragraph.
4. Add the following paragraph to the beginning of Article 8.4.1:

   • The Party Secretary fulfils the requirements and obligations of the position of the same name defined in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

Justification

As we now better understand the requirements of the Electoral Act, the Party Agent has very few requirements under the Act except to receive funds in the case where the party receives more than 4% of the vote in the Senate.

It seems that the original intent of the position was for it to be the Registered Officer position, which is the role of managing all the documentation regarding candidates for election, as Party Agent is a very minor role.

Edit: this motion originally proposed adding Public Officer as a responsibility of the Treasurer. Unfortunately, the NSW Associations Incorporation Act 2009 requires the public officer to reside in NSW, and we cannot guarantee that the Treasurer will reside in NSW, so that part of the motion was invalid.

CAP-8D: Create two Councillor Positions on the NC

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

Add a subarticle under "Members" subarticle of "National Council" article:

x.x Councillors

1. Two (2) Councillors will be appointed by election at the National Congress to the National Council.

x.x.1 Duties and Responsibilities

1. The responsibilities of the Councillors will be determined by the National Council.

Justification

In my experience as Secretary, I have found that there is significantly more work that needs to be done by the National Council than can be reasonably fulfilled by a team of seven people, of which none are working full time on the Party.

Given this, the National Council needs the flexibility of two more members that can have responsibilities delegated to them by the National Council such that the work of the administrative organ of the Party can be completed more efficiently and effectively.

It is worth noting that National Council positions are not paid positions, and that this motion would expand the National Council from seven (7) positions to nine (9) positions. The new positions would have equal voting rights to other National Council members at NC meetings.

CAP-8E: National Council Absolute Majority

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

Add the following subarticle to the new "National Council" Article before "Positions", with the title "Quorum":

1. Unless otherwise provided within this constitution, no question regarding Party business is to be decided or resolved at a meeting of the National Council unless at least five (5) members or two thirds of the National Council are present, whichever number is greater.
   1. Voting requirements for majorities are taken to mean the entire membership of the National Council.
   2. A Councillor may add their contribution to quorum if they are unable to attend, but only for specified issues, by express, written consent.
      1. The vote may only be applied where the exact motion text was known to the Councillor in advance, and the vote is for the unmodified text.
      2. Written consent should be included within the minutes.

Justification

Often not all members of the National Council can attend a NC meeting. This motion would codify into the Party Constitution a by-law passed by the National Council with the very same content.

As the National Council has already been following this policy, all this motion would do is ensure that future National Councils could not change the majority rule without raising a constitutional amendment at a National Congress.

CAP-9: State/Territory Parties

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

Add a subarticle to Article 2:

2.x State and Territory Branches

1. A State or Territory Branch is considered a subordinate organisation of the PPAU for the purposes of this Constitution.
2. Such branches would exist for the purpose of competing in state/territory elections, and relevant local elections of their region.
3. The National Council or National Congress may, at its discretion, opt to offer a mandate to form a state or territory branch to the State/Territory Coordinator of the given state/territory.
4. A State or Territory Branch may not contradict a Federal policy, but may expand their policy set beyond the scope of the Federal Party.
5. It is mandatory that members of the Federal Party are members of their local State or Territory Branch, and vice versa.
6. No State or Territory Branch may enact or enforce policies that contradict this Constitution.

Justification

This gives clarity as to when the Party how and when the Party will form state and territory branches, based on our experiences forming the ACT branch.

CAP-10: Financial Structure amendments for non-banking non-signatory payment structures

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

Add the following paragraph below Article 6.1, paragraph 3:

• All non-banking financial accounts (for example, PayPal) of the PPAU will:
  1. be held separately from those of its members;
  2. have multiple signatories/user accounts linked to the account, if possible;
  3. move all funds into the bank accounts as soon as feasible; and
  4. have all records published annually.

Justification

One of the realities of running any 21st century institution is that many mechanisms for attaining funding are not directly through banks anymore. We often use services such as payment gateways like PayPal to arbitrate these funds, and often these agencies do not allow multi-signatory accounts and do not amount to a bank.

It is therefore required that the Party Constitution stipulates mechanisms for handling these financial accounts in a transparent and accountable manner.

CAP-11: Consistent naming

Put by: Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer

Motion

To amend the constitution of Pirate Party Australia to replace all variations of the Party's name with "Pirate Party Australia" or "the Party" where appropriate, and to amend Article 1 (Name and Principles and Constitution) to the following:

1 Name, Principles and Constitution

1. The name of the party will be "Pirate Party Australia", also known as "the Pirate Party". Pirate Party Australia may be referred to as "PPAU" internally. From hereinafter in this document, Pirate Party Australia shall be referred to as either "Pirate Party Australia" or "the Party". The principles and objects of Pirate Party Australia are stated in Part I, and are fundamental to the purpose of the Party. All party documents, members and policies are subject and subordinate to this constitution.

All instances of "the Pirate Party Australia" shall be replaced with "Pirate Party Australia" and all instances of "the PPAU" or "PPAU" with "the Party" or "Party", depending on grammatical context.

Justification

There has been some confusion among members and the public over our name. We are regularly referred to as the "Australian Pirate Party," "PPA," "the Pirate Party of Australia," "APP," "AUPP" and a number of other variations. It would be appropriate to clear this up constitutionally, bringing our naming regulations in line with with current practice and our details which have been registered with the AEC. Consistency, guaranteed by this constitutional amendment, would reduce confusion and also improve the grammatical structure of our constitution.

CAP-12: Removing grammatical errors

Put by: Mozart Olbrycht-Palmer

Motion

To amend Part 1 (Principles and Objects of the Party) of the Constitution of Pirate Party Australia to remove improper capitalisation so that it reads:

The basic tenets of this movement are free culture, civil liberty and intellectual rights reform.

As opposed to the current text which reads:

The basic tenets of this movement are Free Culture, Civil Liberty and Intellectual Rights Reform.

Justification

A political party should be a professional organisation. The closer to perfection our documents are, the more professional we as a party will appear. Grammatical conventions should be adhered to, particularly in fundamental documents such as the Party Constitution.

CAP-13: Change Numbering Style

Put by: Brendan Molloy

Motion

Apply a numbering style similar to that of Parliamentary Acts such that:

• Articles will remain with their current notation: Article 1, Article 1.2, Article 1.2.3;
• Enumerated paragraph below each article will start to be numbered thus: (1), (2), (3);
• Enumerated paragraphs below that level will be numbered thus: (a), (b), (c); and
• All enumerated paragraph levels below that level will be numbered thus: (i), (ii), (iii)

Examples of references in this format:

• Article 1(1)
• Article 1.1(1)
• Article 1.1.1(1)(a)
• Article 1.1.1(1)(a)(i)

All references to Articles in the Constitution will be modified to follow this format.

Justification

Right now some of our Articles have subarticles that are numbered the same way as enumerated paragraphs below them, and due to the fact those numbers are not wrapped in brackets, clarifying your references between Article 1.1 and Article 1(1) has previously been difficult. This amendment ensures clarity going forward.