Party of the Week: Pirate Party of Australia

This week's Pirate Party of the Week is the Pirate Party of Australia.

We encourage everyone to promote the link to the Questions and Answers, link to the website and Youtube/Facebook account of the Party of the Week and publish the questions/answers on your website/blog, on your Facebook page or print it out and show it to your friends.

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The Pirate Party of Australia has announced that they will participate in the upcoming elections. Please tell us about your decision to participate and your expectations for the elections.

We have just begun the process of registration, which is is expected to take several months to process with the Australian Electoral Commission. If we are successful in this process and an election is not called in the interim, we will be able to contest the next election.

Australia has a proportional representation system for our upper house, so we would need to get around 8% of the votes within any one state, after distribution of preferences, in order to gain a senator. This is a difficult feat for such a new party, but not impossible.

What are the core topics during the election campaign? Are there topics that are unique to the Pirate Party of Australia, something that distinguishes them from other Pirate Parties?

In Australia, there are presently quite a few topics which are very important to the Pirate movement.

Internet Censorship

The Australian government is presently planning to implement mandatory ISP level filtering. We of course reject this notion that the government should have any place in mandating censorship at this level.

There is widespread opposition to the government's plans, due to issues of efficacy, however Pirate Party Australia is the only vocal political organisation opposing the filter primarily on the grounds of freedom of speech and privacy rights violations.

The current government stopped a program that allowed parents to use, for free, internet-filtering software on their own computers at their will. We believe that choosing to filter one's own connection at the machine, and improvements in education of both parents and children is the way to protect children online.

Freedom to choose

Support for an R18+ games rating. Currently, any game not suitable for a 15 year old to play is banned from sale in Australia.

Privacy

* Election comment censorship, despite being promised to be repealed (SA & TAS)

* Prevention of invasive border searches

ACTA

* There is no need for Australia to submit to its provisions

* We deserve better civil liberties protections than are currently being considered

* ISPs should be treated as utilities, not responsible for what travels through their systems.

iiNet

Certain forces, both in government and in industry, are trying to find alternative ways to bring a 3-strikes policy into Australia. We support the notion that ISPs cannot be held responsible for the content sent over their networks, any more than a water utility can be held responsible if their water is used to illegally grow prohibited plants.

Tell us more about the inner structure of PP-Australia.

We are just forming, so the structure is still quite thin, and we are learning how best to allocate our resources for the best effect. Basically however, the party has a 'National Council' or a board, comprised of 7 positions which are responsible for co-ordinating the efforts of the party. In addition to this we have a Dispute Resolution Committee, which is comprised of 3 positions, who in the case of a dispute, or disagreement over an issue with our constitution, will make a decision. This decision is binding on the board - it's a little bit like a High Court. These people are voted in for a period of 2 years.

We will be having a Congress each year, and very soon we will be having our Inaugural Congress in Sydney.

Parties are organising regionally, and we have agreed to consider the adoption of modes of organisation like the crew models provided by the Piratenpartei with the intent of eventually forming state brances and possibly contesting state elections when sufficient member numbers are reached.

Of course organising a federal party in Australia is difficult for a few reasons. One is geography - if you look at it, we can fit Germany in Australia around 21 times, and still have a little room to spare, whilst only having a population of about 21.5 million people. We live on an expansive continent, with far flung capital cities. Just having a meeting is difficult, as there are three different time zones. We use the Internet to organise. It is never more apparant how important it is as a tool for political discourse and organisation, as it is for us here in Australia.

We use a wiki to organise internally, store minutes, ideas and information, write our policies and constitution. We also use tools provided by the Piratenpartei and Piratpartiet (in the form of Piratenpad, Piratepad and our irc server) which are invaluable.

We look at how the other European parties have organised for inspiration, and adopt or expand on these ideas.

If you think 5 years ahead, what will be different compared to today's situation?

By this stage we will have become a more stable and stronger Party, gearing up to contest the next election with a good chance of winning seats in the senate. Our policies will be examined more closely by politicians and other parties, and the demand for change (sentence fragment?)

We also hope that a lot more people will know who we are and what we stand for, as we maintain a constant media presence on events within our scope.

How do you manage to keep your financial balance? Do you have any special fund-raising methods? How can people support PP-Australia?

We presently have a 'Founders Fee' - which is a fee for those joining to help with all the costs involved in setting up a Party, which we have waived until our upcoming national congress. Many members are still choosing to pay to support the cause, but we do not want to exclude anyone where cost is an issue. The membership will then determine annual fees at our congress.

In addition to this minimum income, the party accepts donations, both financial and in kind from members and from people sympathetic within the community, and we hope that from this we can build a succesful campaign.

How many members does PP-Australia have at the moment? Can foreigners become members of PP-AU?

We have just over 500 members, as required to register with the Australian electoral commission. Currently, as we push for registration, only people eligible to vote can become members, so while people who originated overseas may join, they first need to become citizens.

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• Pirate Party of Australia Website: http://www.pirateparty.org.au/
• Pirate Party of Australia on Twitter: http://twitter.com/piratepartyau/
• Pirate Party of Australia on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/piratepartyau