This is the constitution for the New South Wales political party formerly named "Flux Party (NSW)" and currently named "On Strike Against This Farce" (abbreviation: "On Strike"), herein referred to as "The Party".
The Party is a state party associated with the wrongfully deregistered federal party "VOTEFLUX.ORG | Upgrade Democracy!" with the abbreviation "Flux". The term "Flux AUS" is used to refer to the federal Flux Party.
The Party is hereby established as an organization.
The canonical version of the constitution is stored in the repository at https://github.com/voteflux/flux/ under the file name ’CONSTITUTION.NSW.md’
Clauses should be referred to by line number and most recent commit hash.
The Party intends to defer some of the responsibilities for running the party to the federal Flux party, and this is indicated in this document.
This document is ratified when the federal Flux constitution is updated to reflect this fact. This will be recorded under the section titled "State and Territory Branches". At the time of writing this link will take an observer to said ratification: https://github.com/voteflux/flux/blob/master/CONSTITUTION.md#state-and-territory-branches
The primary objective of The Party is to promote the election of endorsed candidates to the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council of New South Wales.
Promotion and endorsement of candidates will be contextually appropriate.
Further objectives:
- To provide every New South Wales voter with real democratic potential.
- To use elected candidates as a gateway for electors to directly influence the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council using an internal voting system.
- To provide the framework and means for minor parties and independents to participate productively without winning a seat.
- To facilitate a culture of engagement through empowering specialists and passionate voters;
- To stimulate the creation of new policy options.
Flux Party (NSW) is associated with THE FLUX FOUNDATION LIMITED (the Company) (ACN: 617 344 304).
The Party’s membership criterion is:
- The Party must maintain a list of at least 750 members who are electors and who are not also relied upon by another party for registration purposes
- The Party must provide Declarations of Membership Forms to the New South Wales Electoral Commission for each of the 750 members who are relied upon for registration of the party.
All New South Wales electors are eligible for membership. They may join The Party by joining the federal Flux party. Membership applications are submitted through Flux AUS's website, at https://voteflux.org; members may opt out of inclusion of state or federal membership through the website membership portal. Membership to The Party is automatic for qualified applicants registering for Flux AUS. Each member is required to provide their name, address, and date of birth such that it matches the electoral roll. Other contact details which are optional, include; email address (required for party correspondence), and phone number. Membership is free, there is only one category of membership, and members are always referred to as 'members'.
Members retain membership by retaining membership to the federal Flux party. There are no obligations outside of maintaining membership.
Members may resign or revoke their membership through the resignation feature on the member's membership details page.
Elected candidates that are members of The Party are not permitted to be members of other political parties. Should a candidate find themselves a member of a secondary party, they must immediately resign, so as to retain only one party affiliation.
Members may be expelled or suspended from The Party when it is agreed upon unanimously by the Leadership.
Official Roles of The Party are:
- Leader
- Deputy Leader
- Party Secretary
- Registered Officer
- Deputy Registered Officer (Optional)
- Party Agent
These roles form a group known as ‘The Leadership’. The Leader and Deputy Leader of The Party are to be identical to the persons fulfilling the respective roles for Flux AUS.
Any member of The Party may put themselves forward for the role of Party Secretary, Registered Officer, Deputy Registered Officer, and Party Agent. The Leadership group is responsible for putting forward a preferential list for the Official Roles. The Party Secretary, and Deputy Registered Officer are ratified by the Party Leader, or Deputy Leader in the Leaders absence. The Party Secretary is responsible for ratifying the position of Registered Officer and registered Party Agent for The Party. (The Registered Officer ratifies the Deputy Registered Officer's Role).
Members may occupy more than one position, not all roles must be filled by The Party members, though three unique persons from The Party must be named.
The Leader and Deputy Leader of The Party are identical to the Leader and Deputy Leader of the federal Flux party at all times.
The conditions and rules surrounding the position of Leader are identical to that of the federal Flux party, as noted in their constitution in the section titled "The Leader". An update to this position in the federal constitution is enacted in this party also. The initial term of the Leader is equal to the remaining time for the Leader in the federal party.
Other members of the Leadership and office bearers are appointed and dismissed at the discretion of the Leader. In the event of an office bearer's resignation or request for dismissal, the Leader appoints a replacement office bearer if required.
This section is identical to the current federal Flux constitution titled "Deputy Leader". The Deputy Leader of The Party is identical at all times to the Deputy Leader of the federal Flux party.
The Secretary is responsible for the administration and correspondence of the party, and is the person who the NSWEC deals with in the initial phase of registration. Once registered, a party’s Registered Officer is the recognised point of contact between the NSWEC and the party. In the event, however, of a change of Registered Officer, it is the Party Secretary who should advise the NSWEC of the name and contact details of the new holder of this position.
Both the Leader and Deputy Leader may act on the Secretary's behalf, and accept joint responsibility for carrying out the administration and correspondence of the party.
Email correspondence to The Secretary is to be sent to secretary.nsw@voteflux.org which will distribute email to The Secretary and those entitled to act on behalf of The Secretary.
- The Registered officer is the commission’s first point of contact for all matters related to the party’s registration, other than those concerning disclosure and funding.
- It is the Registered Officer who nominates the party’s endorsed candidates at State and local government elections.
- The Registered Officer is responsible for applying to change the party’s registration details other than a change of registered officer.
- Registered Officers cannot resign, they must be replaced by application of the party secretary.
- The Registered Officer signs off (and notifies the New South Wales Electoral Commission) on the appointment of the Deputy Registered Officer.
The Registered Officer’s responsibilities may be delegated to a Deputy Registered Officer, except for signing the Party's Annual Return, which must be done by the Registered Officer.
- The Party agent is responsible for giving financial disclosure reports for the party and making election funding claims for the party.
Decisions are made by The Party Leader. In their absence the Leadership may make decisions when at least 66% in agreement.
For the purposes of decision making a quorum is achieved in any instance where:
- The Leader is present
- The Deputy Leader and one other member of the Leadership is present
- Three members of the Leadership are present
The Leader may imbue any member with special authority for specific purposes, in which case decisions made by the delegate are treated as though they were made by the Leader.
The party is required to hold Annual General Meetings (AGMs) once per calendar year at a time of the Leadership's choosing.
The rules around AGMs (except those above) are identical in an ongoing basis to the section titled "Annual General Meeting" in the federal Flux constitution.
At the time of writing this was:
An AGM is to be chaired by the secretary and follow an agenda. The agenda is open for any member to add an item. Members will be notified by email at least 1 week before the AGM. The Leadership is required to be present where possible, and the meeting will be live streamed to members. Members may request to be invited to the AGM. Only members who are invited by the Leadership may participate. The AGM does not have to occur in one physical place; an online AGM is acceptable.
Party meetings may be called by the Leadership as per the section on decision making. A quorum is required. Members are not required to be notified. Party meetings are not required to be held, ever.
Handling of assets is the responsibility of the Leadership and they must always act within the interests of the party. At their discretion other party members may handle assets. The Leader and Deputy Leader are entitled to handle assets. When handling financial instruments of The Party, the Leadership must disclose the transaction to the the Party Agent.
The Leadership are responsible for managing the party's finances, and the Flux AUS party Leader and Deputy Leader are jointly accountable to the the Party Agent for assisting with financial disclosure.
A quorum can authorize spending of funds. Funds will be used only for the purposes of furthering the objectives of the party. There is no restriction on what funds may be spent on, except that which is prohibited under Australian Law.
Amendments to this constitution can be made with the support of a quorum, or at the discretion of the Party Leader.
Constitutional amendments are to be submitted via pull request to the relevant Github repository.
Endorsed candidates are chosen by The Leader or by a quorum, though any candidates chosen by a quorum can be vetoed by the Leader.
The Party will use an internal voting system to
- Facilitate all New South Wales electors participating in the democratic process. Once a candidate is elected;
- Facilitate members participating in the democratic process.
- Facilitate minor parties and independents' productive participation without winning a seat.
The parameters and design choices of the system are left to the Leader, and not within the scope of this document. There is no requirement that the voting system for members is the same as the voting system for minor parties. This voting system may be provided by the federal Flux party's voting system, though in this case participation for New South Wales specific issues is restricted to New South Wales electors.