Adelaide Student Politics

The following is a media statement sent out to the Advertiser by Sandy Biar, who nominated for NUS when elections were going ahead. Several statements have been removed by request of those who made them. Furthermore, not all the delegates are members of the Labor party, as is stated here (Daniel Bills is not. However, he does caucus with them, so that may be a moot point). There has been some contention as to whether Board directors are at liberty to speak to the media. This will be the topic of a future post. At the time of writing, no story portraying NUS in a negative light has been published in the Advertiser or any other mainstream publication.

No Representation for Students This Christmas: Students Angered by Undemocratic Appointments

The National Union of Students is far from a representative body says Adelaide University Law Student and former delegate Aleisha Brown. "When I attended the conference in 2007 it was clear to me that it is used primarily as a Young Labor training ground, with genuine student's voices drowned out by Labor factional politics" Young Democrat Ms Brown says. "NUS is incapable of truly speaking on behalf of students"

The calls come in the wake of an exposed scam at Adelaide University where Young Labor Union Board members recently abused their majority to appoint themselves as delegates on a fully funded trip to the National Conference. The National Conference, which commences this weekend, claims to be the peak advocacy forum for student interests nationally.

The abuse of power is by no means limited to universities in SA. Nick Sowden an elected delegate from the University of Queensland points out that "UQ is charged over $88 000 to affiliate, however the emphasis of every NUSQ (the Qld branch of NUS) campaign this year has been to fight the current Liberal/Independent Union establishment at UQ." Mr Sowden believes the National Union of Students has become less about representing students and more about furthering the political careers of the student politicians who are involved.

Even though the appointments breech the NUS National Constitution (positions must be elected), National Executive members have pledged to turn a blind eye to the appointment of their factional counterparts in Adelaide. Indeed, the reason why the 6 delegate positions were not elected in the first instance (as is legally required) was due to the Directors in question changing election regulations, which were found to be in conflict with the Adelaide University Union's own constitution.

During the recent general election representatives from 6 campaign groupings were elected to the Adelaide University Union Board. In contrast, all 6 delegates representing students of Adelaide University were appointed from amongst Young Labor ranks.

Mr Sandy Biar, Young Democrat and campaigner for independent representation on campus at Adelaide University says "I think students would be deeply disappointed to know that only Labor Party views are being heard, and these delegates are claiming to speak on behalf of all students at the University"

Mark Joyce, a Young Liberal and Adelaide University Union Board Director says that "historically, Labor has always been divided, this inevitably filters down to and contributes to the highly partisan environment of student unions. Despite this precedent of disunity, the Labor factions at Adelaide have united for 'one night only' to perpetrate the exclusion of any other factional voice from the NUS conference; and hence, artificially distort the representation of Adelaide University students."

The students are calling for greater transparency and accountability, and an end to the Machiavellian politic plaguing attempts at true proportionate representation of students.