SRC Elections 2005 (3 Viewers)

[withoutaface]

The NUS is an organisation that wastes shitloads of money on pointless leftist political agendas, how is it calling a large proportion of uni students unaustralian?

 

[Phanatical]

withoutaface is right, the National Union of Students is a greatly wasteful organisation that serves no real purpose beyond coordinating protests - protests that should never have been held in the first place. Protesting at a funeral, for example. Protesting in support of the Falun Gong cult. Protest this, protest that. Protest every fucking thing.

 

[gerhard]

What? Im not arguing whether NUS is good or not, im saying to call people that may agree with the NUS insane and unaustralian is a bad way to get people on your side. In fact calling anyone insane and unaustralian is a bad way to get people on your side.

 

[withoutaface]

What? Im not arguing whether NUS is good or not, im saying to call people that may agree with the NUS insane and unaustralian is a bad way to get people on your side. In fact calling anyone insane and unaustralian is a bad way to get people on your side.

Most of those who agree with NUS are anti-Choice and won't vote for a Tom anyway.

 

[withoutaface]

I'll vote Libs, though it's a shame this Tom guy isn't all that good looking.

I don't have a good feeling though...the university is being taken over by Labour people.

I was considering running for prez under my greenie ticket as a joke, but there weren't enough people in the room at the time to nominate me.

 

[Phanatical]

10 nominees are EASY to get. If you can't get 10 nominees, you shouldn't be running.

 

[withoutaface]

10 nominees are EASY to get. If you can't get 10 nominees, you shouldn't be running.

At 4:50 when the thought occurred to me it seemed rather difficult.

 

[stazi]

 

[Phanatical]

Point taken.

Update: Appeals lodged by tickets "Word. For Law" and "Spark for NUS" and candidate Emilie Awbery regarding their rejection due to lateness by the Electoral Officer has been overturned by the Electoral Legal Arbiter.

 

[Generator]

I'll vote Libs, though it's a shame this Tom guy isn't all that good looking.

I don't have a good feeling though...the university is being taken over by Labour people.

It's Labor (unlike other spelling mistakes, this one had to be pointed out).

As for myself, I would have a bad feeling if the group representing student interests was led by a person favoured by a political grouping that is being invaded by the far christian right. That is far more worrying than the labor right or left arguing against nelson's reforms (why any student would support such rationalisation of the higher ed sector is beyond me).

 

[Phanatical]

The SRC should not be dealing in political issues outside those relating to students. Issues like student health and wellbeing are more important than protesting the fucking War in Iraq, Mandatory Detention or any other number of political causes that our SRC funds.

 

[grk_styl]

It's Labor (unlike other spelling mistakes, this one had to be pointed out).

As for myself, I would have a bad feeling if the group representing student interests was led by a person favoured by a political grouping that is being invaded by the far christian right. That is far more worrying than the labor right or left arguing against nelson's reforms (why any student would support such rationalisation of the higher ed sector is beyond me).

ha. well yeh, that shows how much i care

 

[gerhard]

hey phanatical, are you going to come to main campus every night and chalk it up?

 

[Plebeian]

The SRC should not be dealing in political issues outside those relating to students. Issues like student health and wellbeing are more important than protesting the fucking War in Iraq, Mandatory Detention or any other number of political causes that our SRC funds.

Whether or not you agree with the positions taken by the elected members of the SRC, and the collectives, this is hardly a major problem. The costs associated with these issues that you term non-student-related are extremely minimal in the scheme of things. According to figures taken from the SRC's submission to the Senate Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Legislation Committee, the following breakdown of expenditure exists:

3.2 SRC Expenditure in Relation to $58 Student Compulsory Fees Collected
... actual expenditure of the 76th Council (2003/2004) of the SRC based on an income of $1,683,057 not including GST.
Compulsory Fee collected is $58 not including GST

Welfare and Advocacy
$2.99 Bursary and Assistance Fund
$8.26 Welfare & Education Research Caseworkers
$2.82 Welfare Liaison Officer (caseworker for affiliated campus sites at Mallet St- Faculty of Nursing, Cumberland College of Heath Sciences, Sydney College of the Arts and the Conservatorium of Music).
$1.44 Directs grants to affiliated campus representatives organisations (Cumberland Student Guild, Sydney College of the Arts Student Association and Conservatorium Students Association).
$3.75 Redfern Legal Centre

$19.27 Total 33%

Infrastructure
$8.57 Administration
$3.24 Operating Costs
$1.33 IT Consultants
$1.66 Other IT service costs
$1.26 Capital Expenditure

$16.05 Total 28%

General Activities
$0.13 Second Hand Bookshop
$0.39 Funding to Faculty Societies
$0.81 Orientation Week Activities

$1.33 Total 2%

Direct Representation
$2.18 Stipend of President, Hon Treasurer, Ed Officer & Women's Officer
$0.56 Funding for student conferences
$1.58 Staff of President, Executive and Council
$1.01 Operating Costs of President, Executive and Council
$1.47 SRC Elections
$5.62 NUS affiliation fee
$0.28 Public Relations Dept
$2.39 Activities/Campaigns of all students and departments of the SRC (largest expenditure on the Education Department)

$15.08 Total 26%

Publications
$0.03 General Publications (materials for campaigns and information dissemination)
$5.88 Honi Soit (less $1.17 it generates in advertising revenue)
$0.24 Growing Strong (Women's Publication)
$0.28 Undergraduate Counter-Course & Orientation Handbook

$6.43 Total 11%

What it comes down to is that the damn GST we pay on SRC fees is more than TWICE AS MUCH as all the campaigns they run put together! This includes campaigns that even you would have to concede are student-related, such as that regarding VSU. What most of the money goes to, as you can see, is welfare, legal, and student publications, as well as our affiliation to NUS, which the university population doesn't really challenge. (This affiliation cost is also less than the GST paid.) So really, it's hardly a central issue.

 

[withoutaface]

I'd like you to note also that close to the entirety of the NUS affiliations fee is spent on campaigns.

Also the second hand bookshop shouldn't exist if it's costing money to run.

 

[gerhard]

not thirteen cents!

 

[withoutaface]

not thirteen cents!

Yeah, I suppose it's not bad compared to the $2 000 000 per annum loss the Union makes annually on catering.

 

[Plebeian]

I'd like you to note also that close to the entirety of the NUS affiliations fee is spent on campaigns.

Browsing the NUS website makes it apparent that the majority of these campaigns are in fact student-related. A lot of the examples that get bandied around like the trip to Baxter are not nearly as bad as they are made out to be. There were about 6 students from USyd who attended, and each of them paid a sizeable chunk of money from their own pocket to make the trip, rather than the SRC just throwing wads of cash at them.

With regards to Tom Watson, I am curious as to how he can be so confident in repeatedly suggesting that the policies of Action or other left groups "marginalise and alienate mainstream students", and claiming that Liberal policies are much more mainstream and representative, when the Liberals have clearly been defeated in recent SRC elections. His statement that the counter-protest is "testament to the fact that students want and have a right to freedom of association" conveniently glosses over the massive disproportionality between the 20-30 Liberals protesting for VSU and the thousands of students protesting against it. The mainstream knows that student unionism is not a freedom of association issue because of the opt-out provisions which already exist.

 

[withoutaface]

Browsing the NUS website makes it apparent that the majority of these campaigns are in fact student-related. A lot of the examples that get bandied around like the trip to Baxter are not nearly as bad as they are made out to be. There were about 6 students from USyd who attended, and each of them paid a sizeable chunk of money from their own pocket to make the trip, rather than the SRC just throwing wads of cash at them.

With regards to Tom Watson, I am curious as to how he can be so confident in repeatedly suggesting that the policies of Action or other left groups "marginalise and alienate mainstream students", and claiming that Liberal policies are much more mainstream and representative, when the Liberals have clearly been defeated in recent SRC elections. His statement that the counter-protest is "testament to the fact that students want and have a right to freedom of association" conveniently glosses over the massive disproportionality between the 20-30 Liberals protesting for VSU and the thousands of students protesting against it. The mainstream knows that student unionism is not a freedom of association issue because of the opt-out provisions which already exist.

Being student related does not necessarily mean they represent the interests of all, or even most, students. Generally the Choice ticket aims to create an SRC which is more accountable to students, and providing appeal services, legal advice, etc, without political campaigns which are directly opposed to the way many students view the world, thus decreasing the SRC fees and ensuring both the survival of the organisation and the minority of its services which are useful to the student body.

Also there are other factors involved with the counter-protest as you well know, among them being:
1. Lack of mass advertising on campus.
2. Substantially lower budget.
3. Pro VSU people would generally prefer to attend class than go to a rally.
4. No sausages.

Are you running for SRC Techie?

 

[Plebeian]

Although it is obvious that the anti-VSU protest was more extensively organised than the pro-VSU one, I still think Tom has provided almost zero evidence that his views, not those of the left, are believed by the mainstream.

And yes, I am on the Labor Students ticket.