Labor drops support for compulsory student associations!
Not NZ Labour sadly, but Australian Labour.
This is a significant u-turn and must send a signal to NZ that VSM is inevitable. Labor’s u-turn is based on there being a facilities fee at teriary institutes. This is not a big issue here as most institutes already have a facilities fee.
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Tags: International Politics
August 25th, 2005 at 10:58 am
DPF! I wish you wouldn’t get me excited with headlines such as this!
August 25th, 2005 at 11:22 am
Tensious!
Old Jordan Williams’s is getting excited… he should go serve some portions.
August 25th, 2005 at 11:53 am
Aucklands had voluntary for a while now.. pity the rest don’t follow suit.
August 25th, 2005 at 11:56 am
I got very excited for a moment. Another reason to abandon NZ for Aus.
August 25th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
Jsut got back from Queensland, Labor just lost, by huge margins, two byelections. The Beattie government is in big trouble. Queenslanders are sick and tired of nanny state policies and the arrogance of the Labor government.
August 25th, 2005 at 12:13 pm
About time. Don’t imagine NZ Labour will change their minds anytime soon though. University associations provide Young Labour members with far too many jobs for that.
August 25th, 2005 at 12:23 pm
There are two critical points: if Labor’s compromise allows for the funding of ‘student representation’ there will still be a backdoor financial lifeline for student associations.
And who will control the amenities fee and the delivery of non-academic services? If all or some of the amenities fees is passed to student associations they will find ways to divert some of it to fund their political activities.
If Labor’s compromise is to work the amenities fee and the provision of non-academic services have to be controlled by the institutions. And the funding of any form of student representation must be based entirely on voluntary contributions.
For the anti VSU mob is Australia this is all about protecting their unearned income. They know that if they have to sell membership to students they will not survive in their current form.
August 25th, 2005 at 12:45 pm
ACT are the only party in NZ that advocates this
August 25th, 2005 at 2:20 pm
Thanks Whaleoil – Queensland Labor has 61 out of 89 seats in Queensland. Sounds like a revolution.
The next election is in 18 months time. I am sure they will win.
August 25th, 2005 at 9:26 pm
Yeah, true conor, but check the margins on a lot of those seats and compare to them to the swings the Liberals acheived in the bye-elections. Beattie’s time is up. His ‘do nothing’ strategy has worked for a few years but since they started introducing gay-friendly policies support has plummeted. It is Queensland after all.
August 25th, 2005 at 10:02 pm
I have heard from the United party the other day that they also support VSM. While ACT MPs have supported this since day one, I can’t say the same for National. I don’t see this changing if they need to go into coalition with Winston again.
August 25th, 2005 at 10:56 pm
Beatties problems have more to do with the patient deaths at Bundaberg hospital and the systemic problems in Queenslands health system.
August 26th, 2005 at 12:02 am
Haha, this came up at the latest local MP debate we had at Waikato Uni. The WSU (Waikato Students Union) president asked if any of the parties were going to remove compulsory membership. One lady in the crowd was screaming out “They never do anything for us.”
It was nice when she was shot down as someone else took the microphone and told them that it was the WSU that allowed us to have the opportunity to question local MPs and party leaders.
August 26th, 2005 at 12:04 am
Haha, this came up at the latest local MP debate we had at Waikato Uni. The WSU (Waikato Students Union) president asked if any of the parties were going to remove compulsory membership. One lady in the crowd was screaming out “They never do anything for us.”
It was nice when she was shot down as someone else took the microphone and told them that it was the WSU that allowed us to have the opportunity to question local MPs and party leaders.