Category: General news

For what many would consider to be a fringe party or a single issue party, The Pirate Party (TPP) is incredibly well organised. Its website has links to its constitution and to a set of policies on issues from civil liberties to education.

The party has its roots in Europe (it was started in Sweden in 2006) and now has a presence in over 50 countries including the UK and the US. It says of itself: “We exist to campaign for a free society where civil liberties are respected. We believe in the right to privacy for individuals and the need for transparency for organisations. The government is meant to serve the people and by fighting for these principles we believe it can.”

The Pirate Party International (PPI) oversees all Pirate Parties, providing policy consistency on key issues such as copyright reform and intellectual property, civil liberties and digital rights.

In Australia, candidate Melanie Thomas said the party has expanded its policy set to cover issues such as asylum seekers and marriage equality.

Ms Thomas is the party’s deputy president. In late her thirties, she has been working in media for 14 years, and has studied communication, editing and publishing. The Party’s first foray into the Australian election process was in 2013 when Ms Thomas stood as a senate candidate for Queensland. This is the first election at which the party has fielded a candidate for the house of representatives.

Ms Thomas has been active on Twitter in the lead up to the by-election, indicating that key issues for the The Pirate Party are the rights of asylum seekers, the Newman government’s Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Bill (VLAD) and the Trans Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement negotiations (TPP).

Of her entry into politics, Ms Thomas said: “In the background I have always had a social conscience. I have always considered myself an environmentalist. I always voted Green. I also have a keen interest in human rights, and social justice. I have always attended protests and been an organiser, but I guess I came to a critical point where I needed to take what I was feeling to the next level”.

“When the Pirate Party came along, it just jumped out at me. I never actually joined the Greens even though I had voted for them, but the policies of the Pirate Party just spoke to me.”

Ms Thomas says that while the party is not financially well resourced, it has a number of members who are lawyers or who have studied law and “that helps us in terms of correct procedures for research and legislation and the like.”

She said the party drew a very positive response during the 2013 election. “We ran a grassroots campaign and had a phenomenal response, especially on social media and Twitter”.

“The #votepirate hashtag went crazy around the time of the election. We were amazed. Our purpose in 2013 was to raise our profile and we achieved that.

“I think people are slowly beginning to see that we are not just a single issue party,” she added. “The name ‘pirate party’ confuses people. They think we are a joke party. Then when we explain, we are reclaiming a name that governments have given people who share files – they call that piracy and give it a negative connotation, when in fact sharing is human instinct. We are reclaiming that name and are proud of it.”

The Pirate Party considers that current copyright laws are no longer relevant to our digital media age. It considers that society has made a “generational shift in the way we relate to and participate in culture” and that a new paradigm is required.

The current national membership sits at about 2000, Ms Thomas said, and the party has been using this by-election to actively recruit new members.

Ms Thomas said she is campaigning out on the street as she did in 2013 and is picking up a lot discontent with the Coalition.

“A hell of a lot of people are now discontented with the two parties who have a monopoly over Australian politics. We are sending a message to both parties. We think the ALP has sold out its membership on several issues, but asylum seekers is the big one as well as marriage equality. They have completely lacked courage and bowed to the more right wing elements in this country. We are fighting bravely on our polices and will not bow to anybody.”

On preferences, Ms Thomas said in the last election the party was most strongly aligned with the Greens, and its preferences flowed to them followed by other left wing parties.
The Pirate Party has a Facebook site, and a website, and Ms Thomas tweets as @photogramel.

– See more at: http://nofibs.com.au/2014/01/31/independents-pirates-bullet-train-new-faces-griffithvotes-griffithelects-reports/#sthash.SbciJKU8.dpuf

Independent candidate in the Griffith by-election, Karel Boele, comes across as accomplished, considered and energetic. He has studied mechatronics, physics, and strategic affairs. He has managed large financial projects in South East Asia, and he currently runs a business which provides advice on participatory democracy and on complementary currencies such as Time banking.

Among his clients is the NSW Government Department of Education and Communities, to which his company provides software and support for a time banking project in the Central Coast and Hunter Valley regions.

He told No Fibs that he is in politics for the long haul. While he is standing as an independent in this election, he aims is to get enough people signed-up to enable him to register his PeopleDecide (PD) participatory democracy party. Once registered he plans to stand candidates for the senate in the next federal election and in some electorates, such as Griffith.

Mr Boele has been pounding the pavements and door-knocking around Carina over the past week and said he has had a very pleasing response from voters.

The idea of PeopleDecide, Mr Boele said, is to set up a voting platform that allows people to vote on laws in real-time through the phone or computer. Under this model, he said, “if 10 per cent of Griffith votes with a clear majority, then I am contracted to vote with the people.”

This form of representation works best, Mr Boele said, where there are already clearly established community positions. For example, he told No Fibs that under a participatory democracy model, same-sex marriage and euthanasia would be law already, because a clear majority of Australians support these changes.

He supports “needs-based education funding and an effective solution to climate instability, for example an ETS, and a no offshore processing by Australia policy for refugees.”

Mr Boele has an open ticket when it comes to preferences, encouraging voters to select him as number one, and whomever they like after that.

Mr Boele has a Facebook site, a website and tweets using the handle @peopledecided.

– See more at: http://nofibs.com.au/2014/01/31/independents-pirates-bullet-train-new-faces-griffithvotes-griffithelects-reports/#sthash.SbciJKU8.dpuf

Extraordinary unity emerges as protests groups target Glasson, Abbott at Griffith campaign launch – “A sign of things to come”

An extraordinary “people’s coalition” is emerging as citizens across Queensland converge around a raft of “attacks on democracy” in the Sunshine State.

Throngs of protesters are set to descend on LNP Candidate for Griffith Bill Glasson’s campaign launch in Coorparoo tomorrow, according to protest organiser Ewan Saunders.

“The people of Queensland are twigging to the fact that we have both a state and federal government hell-bent on ripping away our basic rights to give big business a free ticket to our common wealth,” Mr Saunders said.

“Meanwhile, families, lives and careers are being decimated at the hands of Attorney General Jarrod Bleijie.”

“Day by day more people are realising that the VLAD laws in Queensland are no more than populist propaganda distracting us from plans to dismantle Medicare, smash our working people’s Unions, and sell off our few remaining public assets,” Mr Saunders said.

Tomorrow’s protest comes only days after LNP Candidate for Griffith Dr Bill Glasson distanced himself from earlier statements by the Prime Minister entertaining the idea of a $6 “co-contribution” to be imposed on formerly bulk-billled GP Medicare visits.

Protest groups which drew over 2000 protesters in Brisbane on Australia Day are promoting Saturday’s event. An image promoting tomorrow’s protest has attracted massive social media promotion, with hundreds of opponents of the Queensland Government’s “anti-association” laws sharing it, urging people to attend.

Mr Saunders said: “An unprecedented ‘People’s Coalition’ is emerging as more and more Australians come to grips with the fact that the crackdown on democracy in Queensland is part of a national strategy of the almost wall-to-wall LNP regime developing in Australia.”

“Mr Abbott’s extraordinary slamdown of our ABC is the first salvo in the war on the last remnants of an independent press we have in this country,” he said.

“This protest is just a small sign of things to come.”

Protesters will gather tomorrow at 10am at the entrance of Easts Leagues Club, 40 Main St, Coorparoo, BRISANE

The Queensland Performing Arts Centre board has demanded in writing that a jokey reference to Campbell Newman was excised from the play, Australia Day, between the premiere and opening night.

Writing in Art Hub today, Ben Eltham details the sequence of events that led to the censorship of the light hearted joke. The section that was cut ends with the line “Two words: Campbell Newman.”

It appears the two words weighed heavily on the board’s mind.

Regular readers of Westender’s news feed will remember that we broke the story of the cuts to a dozen institutions last October. Since then, the Arts community has been understandably sensitive about what may or may not affect its funding.

As we put it at the time:

“Having heard Newman wax lyrical about the government’s support for the classical artforms, especially when they uphold politically “incorrect” attitudes to power, sex and politics, it is clear that the arts sector is in a very difficult position.

“If they call out the philistines in George Street then they are relegated to the outer circle with womens reproductive rights, environmentalists, paedophiles, judges and bikies. If they do not, they are complicit in assisting the government in manufacturing a make believe fairyland that masks the chamber of horrors under the pink, glittery frosting.

“You can rely on Westender to keep peeling back the marzipan to reveal the maggots that have inhabited the meal.”

Former Powerhouse director Andrew Ross is quoted in the Arts Hub article pointing out that self censorship through fear is more effective and cheaper to implement than actual directives from the government.

While Newman is busy kicking the stuffing out of any creative endeavours, Lord Mayor Quirk is busy selling Brisbane as a cultural hub and a new World-City.

Dr John Ruberry joined West End Medical Practice in late January this year. Studying medicine was a fairly late decision, he tells Westender.

Before that he had finished a degree in electrical engineering and spent some time in the air force, an experience that has been very valuable.

“But I found myself wanting a bit more human interaction and the satisfaction of helping people,” he said. A career in Medicine has always been on his mind, as his father is a doctor.

He looks forward to learn from his new, more experienced colleagues and especially working with his father, Dr Rob Ruberry.

Family owned and run businesses help give West End its close knit community character.

Caption: Dr Rob Ruberry welcomes his son John into the family business

If you have developed and tested an idea and need help funding the process to take it to market, have a look at the Commercialisation Grants available from the federal government.

The beauracrats reckon it is “It is a competitive, merit-based assistance program offering funding and resources to accelerate the business building process for Australian companies, entrepreneurs, researchers and inventors looking to commercialise innovative intellectual property.” Whatev. If they are funding the bill we’ll let them call it as they must.

To keep up to date with the latest shifts in government policy keep an eye on the Commercialisation Australia website