Adelaide Student Politics

Posted: 21st of November

Young Liberal politics tends to be played, from everything I can see, off campus. Involvement in the AUU (which, despite the best efforts of Liberal Board Director Mark Joyce, retains the word ‘union’ in its title) is understandably minimal.

For this reason, the world of student politics as understood by the right-wing side of our campus is relatively alien to me. Every now and then though, one hears rumours of intrigue and power-plays, but they don’t usually occur in a public forum I feel comfortable reporting on. Every now and then though, something happens which is fair game.

This Saturday The Australian ran a story detailing Liberal infighting, centred around an editorial written by electoral officer and Adelaide student Ben Bartlett which “poured petrol on the flames of a climate change debate”*.

It was Vex News which broke the story two days ago. Vex also put up the original editorial, and the rest of the magazine, the whole of which seems to extol liberalism at the expense of the conservative elements of the Liberal party.

Vex’s unnamed source claims "the little moderate clique is getting organised for a massive branch stack recruitment drive” in SA. I wouldn’t hold my breath on this one, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

* Those who follow Federal politics will know that the issue of climate change has pitted the denialists against current leader Malcolm Turnbull, who demands some engagement in the Labor Governments ETS scheme.