This is the constitution for the WA political party named "The Flux Party — WA", sometimes referred to as "Flux WA" or "The Party" in this document. The registered abbreviation for the party at the time of registration is "Flux The System!". It is a state party associated with the federal party "VOTEFLUX.ORG | Upgrade Democracy!" with the abbreviation "Flux". The term "Flux AUS" is used to refer to the federal Flux Party, not the state party.
The Flux Party — WA is hereby established as an organisation.
The canonical version of the constitution is stored in the repository at https://github.com/voteflux/flux/ under the file name CONSTITUTION.WA.md.
Clauses should be referred to by line number and most recent commit hash.
Flux WA intends to defer many 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 Flux WA is to promote the election of endorsed candidates to the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council of Western Australia. Promotion and endorsement of candidates will be contextually appropriate.
Further objectives:
- To provide every WA voter with real democratic potential
- To use elected candidates as a gateway for electors to directly influence the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council within Australian law, 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 criticism through empowering specialists and passionate voters
- To stimulate the creation of new policy options
Flux WA also adopts objectives of the federal Flux party where possible.
Flux WA's membership criterion is:
- Maintain a list of at least 500 members who are electors within the WA
All WA electors are eligible for membership. They may join by joining the federal Flux party, and all relevant members joining are admitted automatically. Members of the federal Flux party may opt out of inclusion in the state party via their membership details page. There is no cost for membership. Each member is required to provide their name and address such that it matches the electoral roll. Other required details include methods of contact, an email address is required, a phone number is optional. Their membership application is to be submitted through Flux AUS's website, at https://voteflux.org. Members may resign or revoke their membership through the resignation feature on the member's membership details page. 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.
Elected candidates who are members of Flux WA are not permitted to be members of other WA political parties, though regular members may be members of other parties. In a case where an elected candidate does find themselves a member of another party, they must immediately resign from that other party.
Members may be expelled from the party only in the case it is agreed upon unanimously by the Leadership. Members may be suspended from the party only in the case it is agreed upon unanimously by the Leadership.
Official roles of the party are:
- Leader
- Deputy Leader
- Secretary
- Membership Coordinator
- Members of The Steering Committee
These roles form a group known as ‘The Leadership’. Official roles (with the exception of Leader and Deputy Leader) are elected by The Leader.
The roles of Secretary, and Membership Coordinator are by default, also members of The Flux WA ‘Steering Committee’.
Initially the roles will be filled as per the below:
- Secretary: Pieter Lottering
- Membership Coordinator: Mark Bentley
The Leader and Deputy Leader of Flux WA are identical to the Leader and Deputy Leader of the federal Flux party at all times. Provided they do not change before Flux WA's registration is successful the positions will be filled by:
- Leader: Nathan Spataro
- Deputy Leader: Max Kaye
When the party's application to the Western Australian Electoral Commission (WAEC) is successful this constitution comes into effect and is adopted by the party.
The Secretary is responsible for the day-to-day running of The Party. They also have the responsibility for the carrying out of the administration, and for the conduct of the correspondence, of The Party.
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.wa@voteflux.org which will distribute email to The Secretary and those entitled to act on behalf of The Secretary.
Members of The Leadership (excluding The Leader and Deputy Leader) are hand chosen by the Leader and Deputy Leader and form the support for The Leader. They have no special roles by default, but form a close team to assist The Leader in managing and leading the party.
As per the above, Nathan Spataro is the initial Leader.
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.
This section is identical to the current federal Flux constitution titled "Deputy Leader".
The Deputy Leader of Flux WA is identical at all times to the Deputy Leader of the federal Flux party.
The Steering Committee is comprised of The Secretary, The Membership Coordinator and at least one other member of The Flux Party - WA. The Steering committee may be expanded to include more members by appointment of The Leader. At the time of registration, the Steering Committee consists of:
- Pieter Lottering (Secretary)
- Mark Bentley (Membership Coordinator)
- Jim Taylor
Decisions are made by The Party Leader. In their absence The Steering Committee makes decisions when at least 66% are 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
- All members of The Steering Committee 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 Leader retains the right to veto decisions made by any quorum in which they are not present.
The party is required to announce an Annual General Meetings (AGMs) once per calendar year at a time of the Leadership's choosing. The AGM must occur within one month of the annoucement. These AGMs may be chaired by the secretary of the federal Flux Party or the secretary of Flux WA.
This 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 livestreamed 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 okay.
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.
The Leadership are responsible for managing the party's finances. A quorum can authorize spending of funds. Funds should be used only for the purposes of furthering the objectives of the party, and there is no other restriction on what funds may be spent on (except anything prohibited under Australian Law). The Leadership and registered officer, together, are responsible for collating and submitting required documents to the WAEC, and for keeping relevant party records for the times required by law.
Amendments to this constitution can be made with the support of at least 66% of a quorum, or at the discretion of the Party Leader. They are to be submitted via pull request to the relevant Github repository.
Endorsed candidates are chosen by The Leader or by 100% agreement of The Flux WA Steering Committee, though any candidates chosen by The Steering Committee are able to be vetoed by the Leader.
Flux WA will use an internal voting system to
- Facilitate all WA electors participating in the democratic process once a Flux WA 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 WA specific issues is restricted to WA electors.