Internet Party, PPNZ and PPI

@andrewmcpherson Even if that is true it is not a reason to object to the Party joining PPI as an observer. Laila Harré does not have to be a technical expert, she needs to be a leader. She can draw on a wealth of technical expertise within the party.

I originally abstained, but with all the new info coming out with their merger and new leader, I now think they've got next to no connection to the pirate movement, even though they'd like to claim otherwise. And that they are "Internet" Party in name only, making a mockery of the name really and the word "Internet" in it.

Even so.... I don't think I'd go so far as changing my vote to block, like @hubatmcjuhes did beforehand, though I might come close to that. As despite all that, I struggle to then leap to the conclusion we should meddle with others and actively seek to block their entry.

However, it still boggles my mind as to why we should have a resolution about this beforehand. Unless specifically asked by PPI.

@petercummuskey hey! Didn't connect two and two together that you're here too. :-) We've briefly met before, such as at the Crucible games.

Some in the leaders in the international Pirate movement are interested in working with other organisations such as allied parties and NGOs. I am involved in these discussions. One of these conversations led to this proposal. If it is positive then a direct request to PPNZ might well be made.

So, the election is over, and neither Mana nor Internet seem interested in continuing their marriage of convenience. Apparently DotCom is off to the US to start an Internet Party there. For now, the Internet Party still exists, and there is still plenty of activity of their Loomio group. Just recently there has been a discussion on whether to change the party name, and distance themselves somewhat from DotCom and the Internet Mana image:
https://internet-party.loomio.org/d/xL4fZ2BE/should-we-change-the-name-of-the-internet-party-to-something-else

So we have an active core of Internet Party activists looking for a new identity, and a skeleton crew of Pirate Party activists looking for more activists. What if we could convince a supermajority of the active Internet Party members that they want to be a Pirate Party? Is there some way to bring the two together? If so, what would be our bottom lines?

Kim Dotcom can't go to the USA, as he would be sent through a kangaroo court process at the instigation of the MPAA.
I have a contact who was active in the Wellington area of the Internet Party, and a contact in the Mana party in Wellington.
From what I can tell the Mana party has enough members to survive as a political force, but the Internet Party is in complete disorder and many members would be open to joining our party in light of the obvious fact that Kim Dotcom is probably going to win his court case in New Zealand before 2017, which would negate his political desires.

Our bottom lines should be those of the Pirate Wheel as mentioned by Rick Falkvinge , and those key policies which have been actively supported by the membership for years now.

I propose that our common policies are :
We want UBI to replace social welfare, a Transaction Tax, copyright for commercial uses only for 10 years, online secure voting, 10 year passports available online, student debt cancelled, drug legalisation of Marijuana and Ecstasy (most prefer pharmacy sales), Universal Fibre Access (suggest where grid electricity wires are, Fibre must be available), Public media content in apps; online; on TV & Radio, Both parliament and citizens referendums allowed to veto Treaties, Voting age between 16 and 80 only, Remove perks tax; secondary tax; luxury tax and other discriminatory taxes, Free tertiary education, $5 maximum prescription fees, $1 medicine and pill fees upto $100 per family per year (free after that), Govt Transparency, Climate Change Regulatory Impact bill, Loan Shark and Predatory Sales Trucks reform, Social Housing Developer Incentives, Relocation from Auckland for public sector and private sector incentives, Waikato to Auckland public transport improved, Railway services restored to gisbourne, Passenger Railway services to Dunedin restored, Freight Climate Change impact levy...

There may be others which I am sure are not contentious matters of personal opinion (In recognition of our disagreement on other topics recently @strypey ) which should prove worthwhile proposals for policy.

The Internet Party has produced some very interesting discussions with very respectable outcomes in their incubator. I would be more than happy if we would like to invite all IP members to our discussions (with or without PP membership) as long as they agree with our (yet to decide upon) Code of Conduct and are serious about a bottom-up party architecture.

I agree that the pirate wheel could be a good tool to familiarise with the pirate mindset.

And I am very impressed by the bundle of positions you, @andrewmcpherson , bring up. Most of them I have never seen discussed in the realm of PPNZ, but I can agree with the direction of nearly all of them (excluding online voting which I understand is technically impossible to make safe); your suggested voting age that I would prefer to be from birth to death; and tax reform that would be done on a much broader, much more radical level and cannot possibly be done without a land tax.

All these things should be discussed separately in their own thread, though. So, with all those good ideas, you should start discussions more frequently, please.

There have been some important discussions recently which I find really important topics as well and I think are perfectly fine to discuss further even if we know that not each and every single Pirate is in support of those. Let's embrace diversity.

1. Online voting is entirely possible to make safe @hubatmcjuhes I think I haven't shared a copy of my example "Rainstorm" system that connects via RealMe and visual OTP cryptography with you yet.

2. The voting age between 16 and 80 was suggested by Gareth Morgan for a youth orientated party to adopt in order to prevent excessive influence of those who may no longer have the facilities to make a judgement rationally, rather than the present self-serving largess that comes from the pensioner dominated New Zealand First.

3. A land tax can only be viewed as usury in the context of a transactions tax on everything. There should be no double taxation when the budget surplus of my proposed transactions tax is hundreds of billions each year after the national debt is repaid in full.

I should note that the proposal for voting age is based around a perception of when people are usually capable of rational decisions, such as driving age.
I would agree that a maximum voting age of 80 would be reasonable if we consider the prevalence of dementia and alzheimers etc. that severely impact cognitive abilities around that age, so a work-around maybe to introduce a free medical test to prove voters are competent from age 80.
This would assist the health system and improve the voting system from being influenced by caregivers to the elderly.

Nice one @andrewmcpherson

I'm keen for alliances and collaboration of all kinds, to promote reciprocity and interconnectivity, and to continue the advancement and progress of civilisation.

Personally keen to start a new brand, something such as "The Matrix Party", which I feel pretty much philosophically covers everything we're trying to change and achieve in the world.

Btw, I'm not a PPNZ member, though I have been involved in IP, and just found this space after a bit of recon across Loomio, and it's pretty cool what you've all got going on here.