Adelaide Student Politics

Student politics at Adelaide university begins and ends at the unibar. Come four o’clock election night, and it’s understandably packed. Counting won’t start till five, and I’m mildly annoyed that I can’t go and watch. Keeping informed should be interesting, now that I have to rely on the goodwill of those I’m reporting on. Not that it’s their fault. The AUU constitution acts as a straightjacket to most things, good or bad. 

I should stop complaining. AUU watch is too new a column to have any institutional power. I’ve been at the Unibar half an hour now, and I’m sitting at a table with one of the two independent tickets. For those not running with one of the two main factions (Pulse and Activate, Labor Right and Left respectably), this election has seen the formation of two ‘tickets’ of independents, designed largely to channel preferences to other independents. 

Unlike the factions, independent tickets do not have binding caucuses, but tend to have less clout and electioneering experience than the two factions. IndyGo, headed by 2007/8 President Lavinia Emmett-Grey, and Clubbers, not exactly ‘headed’ but organized by former Board Director Sandy Biar, are the two independent tickets. Few independent candidates have risked going it alone.

Five o’clock, and someone comes over and informs the Clubbers table that counting won’t start till seven. Looks like I’ll be here for longer than I expected. Maybe it’s got something to do with turnout. While the number of votes cast for elections has been edging down every year since VSU, this year saw a boost of 2508 votes, up from 2200 last year, and almost identical to the 2004 (pre-VSU) figure. 

Six o’clock, and counting is underway, ahead of expectations but behind schedule. Confusion ensues in the cloisters regarding who is or isn’t a registered scruitineer. Candidates are allowed to appoint paying union member to watch the vote-counting. As with everything involving student elections, the rules are strict and the procedures not clearly laid out, so it takes a while to figure out who can go up to the old Clubs common room to watch. Yours truly isn’t one of them, so I go back up to the Unibar. 
Seven thirty, and things get interesting. Primary votes are out, and Paris Dean has a copy. I hang back for a while chatting to some Pulse candidates, before making my way over. Dave Adams, Carey Birchall, Sacha Bolding, Zhang Xi Jin, Zehng Hung Lim, Chelsey Potter, and Lucy Damin score under forty, making it highly unlikely they’ll survive the preference boosts to other candidates. Reactions among the other candidates are mixed. Lavinia ‘I-desperately-need-your-vote-because-I’m-an-independent’ Emmett-Grey is ecstatic at her primary count of 158. Some of the so-called old hacks seem to have lost their touch. David Wilkins, former Board President and star of Electioneering, seems to have experienced a backlash, scoring only 54 primary votes, although my impression is his heart wasn’t in it this election. Rhiannon Newman, head of the Activate faction, has scored only 70 votes, leaving her looking uncertain. Ash Brooks and Daniel O’Brien are all grins at scores in the mid to high 50s, while James Gould doesn’t look anywhere near as happy despite scoring similarly. Jake Wishart had been somewhat pessimistic all week. Unnecessarily so, with an impressive 139 primary votes. I make my way next to him, muttering ‘I told you so’ under my breath. 

Make it through with a decent primary vote, and a lot hangs on preferences. From the true ‘independents' (not politically but with regard to how they ran in this election), only Sonja Jankovic and Christopher Overton have pulled good primary counts (at 96 and 64 respectively), and while Sonja looks safe, Chris has a hard time ahead of him pulling enough preference votes to get him through. 

Nine Fifteen, and I’m back from my dinner break. I’ve been getting information in bits and pieces, a few minutes earlier having heard that Daniel O’Brien and David Wilkins had been knocked out. Wilkins is a surprise, having been President before Lavinia. He heads, or rather headed, Pulse, the Labour Right faction. After campaigning on a ‘save the unibar’ platform last year, David sold commercial operations to the National Wine Centre in order to secure a ten-year funding deal for the Union earlier this year. This is the first election since the controversial decision, and it seems David’s vote count suffered for it. His popularity among the other factions, never high to start with, hit an all-time low in the lead-up to this election, and it seems the other student politicians in the bar cut him little slack, a cheer reputedly erupting when his failure to secure a place in the top eighteen was known. Soon Kit Richards is out, leaving one less member of Pulse in the running. I go out onto the Unibar balcony, and spy James Gould looking less melancholy than he did earlier in the evening, despite having been knocked out a few minutes earlier. He expresses a hope that his policies (university-wide international student mentoring among others) will be taken up by those who do get on. 

Ten Thirty, and the thirty-six have been culled to eighteen. Earlier than I expected, maybe there’s still time to go the Party Party Party. 

If there’s one thing the final count shows, it’s that preferences matter. Some candidates, despite securing high primary vote counts (Sam Deere with 71, Ev Mitchell on 87 etc) surprisingly failed to get a seat, while others with lower primaries scrapped in on the skin of their teeth. Also of interest was Pulse’s inability to get any of its three former board members (David Wilkins, Simone McDonnell and Claire Wong) elected, only managing to bring in first years Andrew Anson, Daniel Bills and Ben Foxwell. From Activate’s seven candidates, five got on Board, being Paris Dean, Fletcher O’Leary, Rhiannon Newman and Jason Virgo. Clubbers has Aaron Fromm, Mark Joyce and Yasmin Freschi. Indy-Go managed three of its four, Lavinia Emmett-Grey, Jake Wishart and Ash Brooks. Passion (the international students’ faction) managed to get three elected (Jiang, Jian Bin, Fei Tang and Ye Yang). The results are a strong victory for the Activate and its allies, and Lavinia is likely to be returned president. As Pulse debriefs in the cloisters, a chorus of ‘Solidarity Forever’ floats over the balcony, courtesy of the jubilant left. The right and a few independents are putting up a brave fight by running Mark Joyce (Clubbers) for the position of President, but despite his impressive primary vote count (116) he is unlikely to win. Only three returning board members were elected (Lavinia Emmett Grey, Rhiannon Newman and Paris Dean, Indy-Go and Activate respectively), the other fifteen positions being first-timers. Given the complexity and bureaucratic nature of Board, and the much-needed constitutional reforms, this lack of experience is worrying. However, I am (very) cautiously hoping that the new board will have fewer divisions than the old one, and will be able to accomplish more. Many of the candidates have excellent policies. Who knows, this time next year, I might not need to tell you what they are. 

Wait, you want to know? About their policies? How would you feel carrying a notepad around a pub all night. I gave you the final result, I’m done. Do your own reporting next time. Adios

P.S. I'm just being lazy. I'll upload a policies summary soon, and we can pay out the student pollies about which ones were 'core' promises.