Pirate Party gears up for Federal elections

They’re not a single issue party and they’re certainly not a joke party, claims the Pirate Party of Australia. And you can make all the jokes you like about parrots on shoulders and walking the plank, and put on a silly accent straight out of an ocean-borne Hollywood opus – as long as you sign up for membership and hand over $20.

Just you and 499 like-minded Aussies... that’s what it will take for the Pirate Party of Australia to register with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) and field candidates in the next Federal election.

The PPA has sounded the call for 500 ‘Founding Members’ as a “small but significant step ... to providing Australian electors with the option of voting ʻPirateʼ at the next Federal election”.

But what exactly does voting Pirate mean?

“We have a serious platform of intellectual property law reform and protection of privacy rights and freedom of speech” states the PPA platform.

And while admitting “we don’t have fully developed policies on all issues, we do have policies on intellectual property and civil liberties... We feel that intellectual property and civil liberties are broad enough topics, which encompass such issues as internet censorship and three strikes legislation.”

In short, the PPA is all about fighting for “a fairer and more balanced copyright, greater innovation and access to culture, information and knowledge, greater government transparency and the protection of our civil liberties.”

“With the current government attempting to implement an internet censorship regime, continuing secretive ACTA negotiations and an increasingly belligerent war on sharing, here and across the globe”, observed PPA President David Crafti, “it is now more important than ever that we work to protect our civil liberties, and our democracy.”

If you want to be a pirate, click to pirateparty.org.au. They’re really serious.  They've got a banner, a glossy glassy Web 2.0 logo and everything.