I am the Pirate Party of New Zealand's candidate for Wellington Central.

I'm sorry to dissapoint you, but Pirate Party is not a joke party. We are part of the Pirate Party International, which currently has 2 elected members in the European Council, as well as state parliaments such as 12 members in the Berlin state parliament.

The Pirate Party of New Zealand is a narrow focus party, with policies of Government Transparency, Personal Privacy, and the return of the Copyright and Patent system to it's originally intended purpose.

I believe these are critically important issues, that are more important than how we raise or spend our taxes, or how we should treat our criminals. Until we have a Government that works for our public, and can be seen and verified to be working for it's public, we cannot decide what it will do - because we will not be able to see or verify that it has done what we decided.

Until the system is fixed, it is pointless saying how to use it.

Top 5 Issues

1. Government Transparency
   
   Our Government is elected by you, for you. You should have the right to see what what is being done in your name, with your taxes.
   
   This should be applied across all aspects of Government.
   There should be no leaks that the public do not already know. There should be no deals, or agreements that the public have not already seen what we as a country, a party, or an individual elected politican are agreeing to.
   
   The only exception should be for the protection of an individuals security or privacy.
   
   You should not need to be told by your politicans what they claim to have done for you, you should be able to already see it. And you should also be able to see what they have done that is against you as well.
2. Personal Privacy
   
   "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin.
   
   I believe in this day and age of high-speed digital communication, this is more true than ever before.
   
   If we allow our government to spy on our own people it will rarely, if ever, catch true terrorists, but instead make terrorists of our own people.
   They will catch our sons who are just sending fantasy emails to each other. They will catch our husbands, who are just letting off steam on a forum. They will catch our daughters chatting about some new computer game.
   
   If our children in primary school can download and use encryption tools, then real terrorists certainly will be.
   
   If we let our government spy on us, we will have just traded the illusion of security for true terrorism of our own making.
3. Copyright
   
   The first copyright law, the Statue of Anne 1709, describes it as being "for the encouragement of learning". Even the USA Constitution states the aim of the provision of Copyright to "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts".
   The use of modern copyright appears to have lost these goals, and is just being used to protect financial interests.
   
   From an economic point of view, research suggests the optimal copyright length is just under 15 years. Beyond this point any further marginal economic benefit is outweighed by the economic loss by disallowing the use of those works.
   The current maximum copyright length is 50 years after the Author/Artist's death.
   
   We suggest that copyright length be reduced to 10 years, to allow a better balance of public use vs. economic benefit.
4. The Use and Abuse of Urgency
   
   The current, and soon to be most recent, Government has passed 30 bills under Urgency. This is 6 times as many as any of the 3 previous Governments.
   This has been objected to by members from many parties, including both Labour and National.
   
   To prevent the abuse of passing bills under Urgency in our government, I propose that all bills passed under Urgency require a super-majority vote.
   Any bill that is truely Urgent should be able to be seen as such, and voted for by most of the house, not just a potentially one vote tipping majority.
   
   If we truely need additional sitting time in parliament to pass additional bills, I also propose an additional Over-Time system, that still requires bills to under go the full rigorous process, and not have any stages bypassed.
5. Digital Rights Managment (DRM)
   
   Digital Rights Management; or DRM, refers to technological measures that restrict the use of digital works.
   
   In an attempt to combat digital piracy, copyright owning companies have been using increasingly draconian DRM protection measures.
   Examples of these start with DVD zoning, and go up to CDs which secretly install virus-based rootkits on computers that they are inserted into.
   
   The Pirate Party is strongly opposed to DRM.
   We believe you have the right to play or watch anything you've legally purchased however you like.
   We believe you have the right to listen to your songs brought on a CD on your computer, an MP3 Player, or even your phone. We believe you have the right to watch the movie you've purchased and legally downloaded on your DVD player.
   
   We think the laws preventing the circumvention should be repealed, so you can do legally this.
   We also think that people should be notified when buying something that's use is effectively restricted by technological measures.

Personal Profile

I've lived in the Wellington Central area over 10 years. I work and socialise in Wellington Central. Many of my friends and their families live in Wellington Central. I've travelled around the world, and I'm proud to call Wellington home.

I currently live with my Civil Union partner, and our new born daughter (who will be 13 weeks old at the time of the elections) in the Wellington Region.

I work as a Java Technical Lead, a role often known as a Software Architect. I develop and improve systems, both on computers and in business. I seek to bring these skills to Government and improve the way our Government system works.

I am a Digital Native, and proud to call myself a modern Geek. My hobbies include playing Euro strategy board games, in which I help run one of Wellington's older games clubs, known as Forum. I also play many computer games, including being part of an Australian/New Zealand based World of Warcraft guild.

I enjoy Indoor Rock Climbing, a mixture of music from Epic Rock to Folk Music, and wide variety of different styles of dancing.