[Osia-members] OSIA October update

[Jack Burton]

Evening, all. Another quick update for the new month.

** Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) signed **

News broke this morning that the trade ministers of the various TPP
Parties had reached agreement on TPP in Atlanta last night. This is
disturbing news for the Australian OSS sector -- see also OSIA's 2013
submission to DFAT on TPP (and note that more recent leaks suggest that
the TPP's IP Chapter has become even worse since then):
http://osia.com.au/drupal7/corporate-documents/submission-commonwealth-department-foreign-affairs-trade-trans-pacific

At this point there is no further opportunity to amend TPP --
Australia's choice is limited to accepting it as-is or rejecting it
outright. OSIA's position is that TPP should be rejected and naturally
we will have a lot more to say once the official text is released.

Whilst the Minister has signed the agreement, the decision on whether
or not to ratify it lies not with him alone but with the Australian
parliament. A range of Australian politicians have already expressed
their opposition to TPP, including the Queensland Nationals, the Greens
and independents Bob Katter MP & Sen. Nick Xenophon. One would hope
that, as the official text gets released and its full ramifications
become more widely understood, parliamentary opposition to TPP will
increase further.

The OSIA TPP Committee is currently deliberating next steps on TPP and
members can expect to see an escalation of activity in that area over
the coming months.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has served on
the TPP Committee over the last 3 years for their respective
contributions to our efforts to date.

Any OSIA members with a keen interest in saving Australia from TPP and
the capacity to help us achieve that end are urged to volunteer to join
the TPP Committee as we move into this next phase of the process -- to
do so, please contact me off-list.

** OSIA AGM **

As mentioned previously, the AGM will be held on 29 October at 6pm in
Hobart (immediately after the close of OSDC2015).

OSIA Secretary Steven Sackett will be sending out the Notice of AGM,
with agenda and proxy voting forms within the next couple of days.

** OSDC2015 only 3 weeks away **

Members are reminded that OSDC will be held on 27-29 October, in
Hobart.

OSIA is proud to be sponsoring the lanyards & badges at this year's
OSDC, which looks set to be a fantastic conference yet again.

Any members and their staff who have not yet done so are encouraged to
register for OSDC2015 at:
https://2015.osdc.com.au/register/

** Board meetings **

The board met on 30 September (by teleconference) for the last time
during the current term.

The 2015/16 board will meet for the first time on 30 October (the day
after OSDC) in Hobart.

As always, members are encouraged to bring any pertinent matters (and
indeed your views on them) to the attention of the Board, either on
this list or by contacting any of us directly -- all current board
members and their OSIA email addresses are listed at:
http://www.osia.com.au/drupal7/corporate-documents/osia-board-members


I look forward to seeing many of you in Hobart in a few weeks' time for
OSDC2015 and the OSIA AGM.

Regards,


Jack Burton
<jack at saosce.com.au>