Pirate Party gears up for Federal elections

David Flynn
01 December 2009, 9:35 PM


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Sniffing an election in the wind, and wanting to put its own core issues on the table, the Pirate Party is seeking registration as an official political party.


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.



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Raindog (User):

I could have sworn our wide brown land was currently being run by pirates, what's new about this lot?

01 December 2009, 9:46 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

tl8 (New user):

At least they have are not the Liberal Party

01 December 2009, 10:00 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Tin (Regular user):

Anyone else wondering if they might become a target for media companies looking to sue people?

01 December 2009, 10:31 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

apt.pupil (User):

i'll keep my Queensland support rooting for the gamers4croydon party which is aiming to kick Michael Atkinson out of office, thereby increasing our chances of having a less hypocritical classification system.

COD:MW2 should never have been allowed in Australia- since the game is unsuitable for 15 year olds, and we have no 18+ classification

02 December 2009, 1:01 AM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Pirate (New user):

You know, the pirate party are also aiming to kick Michael Atkinson out of office and implement an R18+ classification scheme. I'm surprised the two parties haven't been working together on this issue.

02 December 2009, 12:06 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

K (User):

From Pirate Party's web page:

"...The copyright monopoly should exist only to provide a means of protection to a work, where that work is being commercially exploited - however this should not extend to non-commercial activity like private file sharing for instance, which is conducted without any intention of financial gain..."

I'd be surprised if Gamers4Croydon, a party with some links to the gaming industry, would want anything to do with a group that is trying to promote free-for-all file sharing.

02 December 2009, 12:31 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

apt.pupil (User):

Quoting Pirate:
You know, the pirate party are also aiming to kick Michael Atkinson out of office and implement an R18+ classification scheme. I'm surprised the two parties haven't been working together on this issue.

here is a possible reason: David Doe does not see the international copyright laws as a monopoly. What the pirate party is trying to do- from what i have read on the website- is in short legalize consumer piracy.

While this is going to be attractive to a bulk of Australians- i am one of the (looks to be a few people) people who respect copyright laws, since i know that the money gets split among the corporation, the people who made the copyrighted material(s), and the people who helped distribute it. by making that freely available over torrents and P2P, everyone who contributed to making the copyrighted material(s) lose out on the money they should rightfully have.

why should i back a party that wishes to legalize piracy?



02 December 2009, 12:41 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Raindog (User):

Quoting apt.pupil:
why should i back a party that wishes to legalize piracy?

Why would people vote for a massive Emmission Tradingaxation Scheme that is deceptively sold off as a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme? How/why people vote and for who they vote for is often a mystery, even more often a misguided unresearched response to popularist propaganda.

Pirate party is not a basis for sound government, but given that many are motivated by greed and/or stupidity it wont surprise me seeing these nutjobs score some votes.


02 December 2009, 1:02 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

The Big Baboo (User):

Quoting Pirate:
You know, the pirate party are also aiming to kick Michael Atkinson out of office.
Anybody that can get that dweeb out of office has got my support but I can't see it happening though :(




02 December 2009, 4:26 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Pirate (New user):

You know, the pirate party are also aiming to kick Michael Atkinson out of office and bring us an R18+ rating for games. I'm surprised the two parties haven't been working together on this issue.
Edit:sorry for the double post.

02 December 2009, 12:10 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Pauly (New user):

Interesting that pirates and climate change have been brought up in the same discussion.
The church of the flying spaghetti monster have always held pirates up as sacred because over the years, as the number of pirates have decreased, global warming has increased!
There is even a chart to prove it that looked eerily like the one bandied about by Senator Fledgling - i mean Fielding (i guess he's not the only one who is lysdexic)

03 December 2009, 12:34 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Mattorade (New user):

This is just what we need. We don't even have a freaking bill of rights in Australia. We're the ONLY western democracy that does not have a bill of rights. I find that appauling and disgusting. I find it appauling that our human rights are also left in the hands of the UN. A stupid organization that is ONLY useful in times of crsis (e.g: boxing day tsunami) and not war-related issue (e.g: gitmo, iraq).

04 December 2009, 2:58 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Pauly (New user):

and the winner of the random comment of the week goes to....

04 December 2009, 4:22 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

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