Adelaide Student Politics

Posted April 15th


*As coined by Justin Kentish

On Wednesday the 25th of March, the Student Representative Council (SRC) pulled off its first large-scale student protest. Not counting the first attempt. And yea, I know this was a while ago, but I haven’t had a chance to write it up until now.

The National Day of Action (NDA), as announced by the National Union of Students (NUS) and organized and administered by the Adelaide Uni SRC, revolved around a simple stunt: hosting a fake marriage ceremony to draw attention to one of the more bizarre arrangements surrounding student income support.

As student welfare currently stands, students are not considered independent from their parents until they are twenty-five. Three broad exemptions to this exist:

1)Earning $18,000 in eighteen months
2)Proving severe domestic difficulties with parents
3)Getting married

As such, four couples were ‘married’ in a mass ceremony on the Barr Smith lawns. Meanwhile, the SRC kids collected petitions and personal experiences of student poverty to send to Julia Guillard (who is, among other things, the Minister of Education). In about two hours, they managed to get 358 letters signed expressing support for lowering the age of independence to 22 (as well as a host of other requests, such as indexation of welfare payments to inflation, and other measures to extend the coverage), and 41 students to record personal experiences of student poverty. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young came down to the grounds to express her support, giving, along with SRC President Paris Dean, an interview to the media while she was at it.

In a message sent out to supporters, AUU President Lavinia Emmett-Grey wrote that ‘education is the great equaliser, but only if everyone has the same access to it’. Allowing students from poorer backgrounds to study - which is one of the governments stated goals with regards to education - is one of the main arguments for raising income support to students. The other main argument advocated by those who supported the protest is that currently, the unemployment benefit is higher than that given to students, acting as a disincentive to study.

While clearly having support from a large number of students, there has been a backlash. The facebook event board has been inundated with discussion from, what I can tell, Young Liberal members, who see this as nothing more than middle-class welfare. Indeed, the same arguments tend to surround every call for more income support for students, which no doubt reduces the effectiveness of student lobbyists like NUS. The ironic thing is that the strongest opposition to raising the levels of student welfare seem to come from students themselves. And, I was suprised and rather impressed to find, from Paul Keating (down the very bottom).

That said, I would venture to guess that the vast majority of students are undecided on the issue. Who wins the hearts and minds of the broader student population will likely depend on who is more active in getting their message out there. Although, in my humble opinion, if students are asked whether or not they want more cash while studying, those who are not politically active are unlikely to oppose.

The NDA, which was coordinated at many university campuses around the country, got the governments attention, which was the whole point. They say their response will be ‘in the budget’.

Further reading here, here and here.