Vote like a Pirate Day! Pirate Party announces Canning by-election candidate

Pirate Party Australia is pleased to announce that its Western Australian members have voted to preselect former WA Senate candidate Michelle Allen as its candidate for the Canning by-election.

Michelle Allen has lived around the Canning electorate for most of her life. Michelle is currently working as a Software Development Manager for a Perth based company where she has over a decade of experience in all areas of Information Technology. She has a long history of advocating for equality, human rights and copyright reform in Australia. Michelle believes all Australians should be treated equally, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, social status or belief, and has campaigned to ensure that everyone in Australia is given a fair go.

“This is a chance for us to show both the current government, and the so-called opposition, how unhappy we are with their constant efforts to quash our digital liberties and basic human rights,” said Canning candidate Michelle Allen, “We will show them we won’t stand by while they simply kowtow to the interests of their corporate donors while pushing policies that benefit their mates or appeal to fear rather than the well considered evidence based policies that the country needs to progress.”

This is the Pirate Party’s second run in a House of Representatives seat. Melanie Thomas came 4th in a field of 11 candidates in the 2014 Griffith by-election. Pirate Party Australia also ran candidates for the Senate in a number of states in the 2013 Federal election, as well as in the 2014 WA special Senate election. Co-incidentally, the date of the Canning by-election is the same day as “Talk Like a Pirate Day” which Pirate Party Australia hopes will be another reason for voters to “Vote like a Pirate”.

“While we know that this is quite a different situation to Griffith, we hope that when voters see our evidence based, common sense policies they will consider supporting the Pirate Party. In my experience, once people see what we stand for, and see that we are serious about becoming a viable political alternative to the major parties, neither of which represent the interests of the average Australian, voting Pirate just makes sense,” continued Michelle.

While the Pirate Party was founded with a focus on digital rights, civil liberties, privacy and copyright reform, the party has since expanded its policy set to a wide array of science based, evidence driven policies in areas that concern many Australians. These policies include, but are not limited to, support for marriage equality, better education outcomes and support for science, a sensible and humane approach to asylum seekers, drug law reforms, comprehensive support for renewable energy, and a comprehensive tax reform & welfare policy that both massively simplifies the tax system but maintains fairness and progressiveness. The full Pirate Party policy platform can be found at https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Platform.

Pirate Party Australia is a federally registered political party founded in late 2008, and contested its first Federal Election in 2013. Pirate Party Australia is part of a worldwide movement that began in Sweden in 2006, and has since spread to more than 40 different countries. Pirate Parties have been elected to all levels government — local, state, national and supranational — with 44 state seats in Germany, three seats in the Icelandic Parliament, and a member of the European Parliament.

Candidate Page: https://pirateparty.org.au/candidates/