Pirate Party Australia is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

that had traditionally represented

civil liberty Civil may refer to: *Civility, orderly behavior and politeness *Civic virtue, the cultivation of habits important for the success of a society *Civil (journalism) ''The Colorado Sun'' is an online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It lau ...

issues, but had also expanded into more traditional areas of policy. It was a

Pirate Party Pirate Party is a label adopted by various Political party, political parties worldwide that share a set of values and policies focused on Civil and political rights, civil rights in the digital age. The fundamental principles of Pirate Partie ...

which was based on the Pirate Party of Sweden, and continued to develop a comprehensive policy platform since its formation based on the Pirate ethos. The party voluntarily deregistered on 28 April 2021. It later merged with other parties to become the

Fusion Party Fusion Party is a name for multiple political parties in United States history and more recently a Federal political party established in Australia. The different parties that used the name don't share any particular political positions; instead ...

. Pirate Party Australia's president, Miles Whiticker stood as the Fusion Party candidate during the

2025 Australian Senate election The 2025 Australian Senate election was held on Saturday, 3 May 2025 to elect 40 of the 76 senators in the Australian Senate as part of the 2025 federal election. Senators elected at this election will take office on 1 July 2025, with the exce ...

History

The Pirate Party was founded in 2008 by Rodney Serkowski with the launch of a website and a wiki, and a request for contributions. In 2009, the first National Council of the Party was elected. Pirate Party Australia was formally registered as a political party by the

Australian Electoral Commission The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for the management and oversight of Australian federal elections, plebiscites, referendums and some trade union A ...

on 17 January 2013. In late 2009, the party announced its intention to contest the 2010 federal election and recruited the 500 members necessary for registration. The party was expected to mainly compete with the

Australian Greens The Australian Greens, commonly referred to simply as the Greens, are a Left-wing politics, left-wing green party, green Australian List of political parties in Australia, political party. As of 2025, the Greens are the third largest politica ...

and the Reason Party. Due to registration requirements, the party was not able to contest the 2010 federal election but it registered in January 2013, enabling it to contest the 2013 federal election.

Platform and policy

The Pirate Party's platform was developed collaboratively and democratically, and hosted on a wiki on the Party's website. All policies were required to meet the principles and objectives as set out in the Party's constitution and be supported by a two-thirds majority vote of all full members of the Pirate Party at a relevant meeting. Policies will also only be adopted after the completion of an online seven-day voting period, where all full members may take part. When founded in 2009, the Pirate Party's platform started off limited to a series of core policies: civil and digital liberties (opposition to

internet censorship Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains (such as ''Wikipedia.org'', for example) but exceptionally may ...

government transparency Open government is the governing doctrine which maintains that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes reason of state a ...

personal privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of ...

, and copyright and patent reform. By 2013, the platform and policies of the Pirate Party have expanded significantly into a comprehensive policy set that competes with the major parties and larger minor parties in detail and breadth. Most policy is adopted and debated at a National Congress, which meets annually in July. The meeting is hosted physically, but also simultaneously broadcast live via a web stream with interaction tools, allowing participation for all members and the public regardless of physical proximity from the meeting. Another type of conference called a Policy Meeting can also be hosted specifically for the adoption and debate of policy and platform amendments, which did happen once in April 2013. In July 2012, the platform saw a very minor revision, introducing protection of quotation rights, unrestricted format shifting, the policy specifically geared towards supporting 3D printing, mandatory privacy breach disclosure, protection for whistleblowers, political donations and transparency treaty-making. Since 2013, the Party set off to rapidly expand its platform and policy set, expanding into more traditional areas of political discourse such as education, the environment, energy, welfare, taxation and asylum seeker policy. In April 2013, a Policy Meeting was hosted in order to deliberate on significant amendments to the platform and policy set. For the first time in the Pirate Party's history, the meeting resolved to introduce platform amendments outside traditional Pirate political areas and introduce detailed policy texts to complement the platform, including: clean energy, a moratorium on

coal seam gas ''Coalbed methane'' (CBM or coal-bed methane), coalbed gas, or coal seam gas (CSG) is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. In recent decades it has become an important source of energy in United States, Canada, Australia, and other co ...

extraction, taxation reform, welfare reform, drug reform, marriage reform, the introduction of a bill of rights, and improving the electoral process. The National Congress in July 2013 saw the introduction of further policies, including: civil liberties, cultural participation, education, democratic institution reform, animal welfare, asylum seekers and refugees and foreign policy and treaty-making. The welfare policy was updated to include support for the NDIS and other minor changes. 2014 saw fewer amendments than the overhauls of the previous years, introducing policy amendments relating to constitutional reform, copyright, education, energy, the environment and climate change, privacy law, and tax and welfare. In February 2015, Pirate Party Australia resigned from

Pirate Parties International Pirate Parties International (PPI) is an Political international, international Nonprofit organization, non-profit and non-governmental organization with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Formed in 2010, it serves as a worldwide organizati ...

due to serious disagreement with the direction and management of the organisation. In the same month,

Pirate Party UK The Pirate Party UK (often abbreviated PPUK; in ) is a political party in the United Kingdom. The Pirate Party's core policies are to bring about reform to copyright and patent laws, support privacy, reduce surveillance from government and busi ...

also resigned and in March the Belgian Pirate Party suspended its membership within PPI. In 2016, the party announced its support for a

universal basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive a minimum income in the form of an unconditional transfer payment, i.e., without a means test or need to perform Work (hu ...

. The Pirate Party has a strong focus on

evidence-based policy Evidence-based policy (also known as evidence-informed policy or evidence-based governance) is a concept in public policy that advocates for policy decisions to be grounded on, or influenced by, rigorously established objective evidence. This c ...

development, listing just under 200 references on their platform as of July 2015.

Euthanasia

At the request of Exit International, Pirate Party Australia member David Campbell conducted a series of information sessions as part of Exit International's workshop for seniors who wanted to know how to by-pass the Australian Internet Filter so that they can access information on safe

euthanasia Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...

techniques. Pirate Party Australia has adopted Euthanasia rights into their party policy platform.

Elections

Australian Capital Territory General Election, 2012

In 2012, members of the Pirate Party's ACT branch ran as independent candidates in the Australian Capital Territory elections. The Pirate Party endorsed three ungrouped candidates in the election, each of whom received 0.4-0.5% of the primary vote.

Australian Federal Election, 2013

The Pirate Party was approached by

Glenn Druery Glenn William Druery is an Australian political strategist, electoral campaigner and ultra-distance cyclist. He has played a leading role in the electoral success of various micro and minor parties in Australia since the mid-1990s. He acquired ...

to be a member of the

Minor Party Alliance The Minor Party Alliance (MPA), also known simply as the Alliance, is an alliance of small Australian political parties, currently active in Victorian state politics. It was created by Glenn Druery's "Independent Liaison" business, which assist ...

, but chose to eschew membership of the alliance due to the membership requirement of preferencing far-right parties highly, and instead chose to base preferences upon a democratic vote of its members along policy lines. Democratically deciding their Senate preferences is now standard practice for Pirate Party Australia. It did so in the 2014 Western Australia Senate Rerun. Pirate Party Australia ran eight candidates for the Senate in the 2013 Federal Election: two candidates each in the states of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania. The best result was in

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

with a 0.6% primary vote. The party was unique in its approach to preference deals with other parties in that they are professing to eschew the secret deals that typify preference negotiations and instead are conducting all such activities openly and transparently and putting all decisions to a membership vote.

Griffith by-election, 2014

Melanie Thomas ran for the Pirate Party at the

2014 Griffith by-election A by-election for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Division of Griffith, Griffith occurred on Saturday 8 February 2014. Terri Butler retained the seat for Australian Labor Party, Labor with a 51.8 (−1.2) percent Two-party-prefer ...

and finished fourth out of 11 candidates with a 1.5% primary vote.

WA Senate Special Election, 2014

In the 2013 Senate election, Pirate Party Australia did not run candidates in WA. However, due to certain issues with the results of that election, there was a special WA rerun election, where the party did run two candidates. The party preferenced Scott Ludlam of the

as their next highest preference. Pirate Party Australia ran two candidates on the Pirate Party ticket in the special election: Fletcher Boyd and Michelle Allen. Pirate Party Australia received 0.49%AEC Virtual Tally Room - First Preference by Group - WA
/ref> of the first preference group ticket votes.

Canning by-election, 2015

Michelle Allen contested the

2015 Canning by-election The 2015 Canning by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives on Saturday 19 September from 8 am to 6 pm WST. The by-election in the seat of Canning was triggered by the death of sitting Liberal MP Don Randall on ...

as the Pirate Party candidate and won 775 first preference votes or 0.92% of the total.

2016 federal election

In the 2016 federal election Pirate Party Australia fielded two

senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

candidates in each of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, and a candidate for the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

in the

Division of Bennelong The Division of Bennelong is an Electorates of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales. The division was created in 1949 and is named after Benn ...

2019 federal election

In the 2019 federal election Pirate Party Australia fielded two

candidates in each of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia.

References

External links

*
Party constitution
{{Australian political parties Political parties in Australia

Political parties established in 2008 2008 establishments in Australia Australian copyright law Censorship in Australia Civil rights and liberties in Australia Euthanasia in Australia Internet in Australia Political parties supporting universal basic income Privacy in Australia