The OUSA protest
August 6th, 2011 at 7:00 am by David FarrarEnraged by the fact they will not be able to compel people to join OUSA next year, some of the OUSA people protested against John Key in Dunedin.
This photo from James Meager again illustrates why voluntary membership is such a necessary reform.
And if you need further convincing, read how OUSA also protested by ripping up photos of Heather Roy. Having seen the photo Heather asked them to use, I suspect quite a few students probably took one home instead 
August 6th, 2011 at 7:40 am
The student holding up that sign deserves to be named and shamed.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 7:46 am
Clare Curran was at that protest too.
Check out the Orwellian totalitarianism of her comment on the VSM bill here:
http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2011/08/05/not-popular-in-dunedin/comment-page-1/#comment-188892
That Labour MPs subscribe to these extremist views is a very, very deep concern.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 8:12 am
@oob; Clare Curran got such a spanking on that post last night that she had to go on Facebook to call on lefties to come and help her:
Another SMOG (Social Media Own Goal) for Curran and Labour!
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 8:17 am
“This photo from James Meager again illustrates why voluntary membership is such a necessary reform.”
I support VSM, but no, it doesn’t illustrate any such thing. All it illustrates is the stupidity of the signholder and that most, if not all, groups have members who act stupidly.
The concepts which illustrate VSM are simple: the right to freedom of association and the idea that the tyranny of the majority is not actually a valid reason for imposing duties on an individual.
This is despite people such as Moana Mackey asserting otherwise. Her speech in the house a few days ago was a disgrace where she said that the tyranny of the majority somehow leads to more choice and that VSM is undemocratic. Yes, the second point may be technically correct if you accept that being a student means you should mandatorily and automatically be a member of a student’s association (and that there should only be one official association per institution presumably), but it does ignore that democracy is often constrained (as it should be) so that the majority does not have untrammeled ability to interfere with the rights of minorities. She could have argued in terms of public goods which would have been much more valid although still a weak argument given what student’s associations provide, but she chose not to. The intellectual vapidity and lack of consistency in terms of what her party has argued on other minority issues disgusts me.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 8:26 am
Srsly?
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 8:33 am
Oh dear god. According to Clare Compulsion = Freedom and it is the RWNJ’s who are delusional. No wonder Labour are facing electoral oblivion if the best they can come up with is some hackneyed student activist politics.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 8:34 am
‘This photo from James Meager again illustrates why voluntary membership is such a necessary reform.’
Actually all it shows is that part of your opposition to compulsory student union membership is due to the fact most student unions are very left wing.
Really the discussion about compulsory membership should have nothing to do with the political leanings of those running the associations.
And I agree with annie.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 8:39 am
It was a Labour protest going by who attended and who promoted the protest. Pete Hodgson. Clare Curran. David Clark. Anthony Robins (Standard). VSM protestors? Not representatives.
It’s not just Curran that has a problem understanding freedom and choice.
Labour’s filibustering was “proper progress of legislation”? He’s probably just repeating duck points again, he doesn’t seem to think.
It seems that to yet another Labour party parrot “choice” is compulsion, the Labour way.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 8:42 am
At least they used an apostrophe.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 8:45 am
Good call Jadis – at least that student has learned something, if not good manners!
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 8:54 am
Has John Armstrong ever given Labour such a pasting as today in relation to the VSM filibuster?
All that is ever heard around Labour nowadays is noise; SISgate (did I say it first, did I, did I !!???) is the current distraction. Is it really any wonder that over 70% of the voting population doesn’t take any notice of them? And the more they get ignored, the worse they get.
Surely there ought to be a movie or TV series at least.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 8:58 am
This ‘protest’ was entirely predictable – a student union mobilising under the Labour Party banner because they don’t approve of freedom of expression.
Equally predictable is the reaction of the lefties – they will leave nothing to spare in their quest for rampant socialism to be restored (as it was under dear leader). Maybe its time they realised that the majority of New Zealanders have had enough of being force-fed this line of crap.
This legislation (providing choice) is overdue and I’m rapt that it will be enshrined prior to the election.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 9:00 am
James Meagers description of the protesters.
It was not just anti-VSM, it was just an assortment of antis.
He left out the anti-representative rent-a-polly-parrots.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 9:17 am
Could someone a bit closer than I please give me some relevance for the message on that sign.
Vote:It completely escapes me.
Perhaps Clare Curran would know.
August 6th, 2011 at 9:49 am
Actually, it looks like the OUSA has psoriasis – some of that thin-skinned veneer is starting to peel off, showing the real shade of Marxist red underneath.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 9:58 am
How bloody ridiculous. If there really is such strong student support for compulsory student membership, surely those same students wouldn’t hesitate to sign up if it was voluntary. So what the hell is the problem? Why compel people to do something they (apparently) want to do anyway?
Perhaps the student associations at universities around the country need to retool their services and instead focus on wants and needs of those who actually sign up and pay, rather than arrogantly assuming they have a mandate for every single student at that university.
VSM all the way.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 10:24 am
Interesting to see some of the arguments that are put forward (mainly by the guy James, who at least tried to make some actual arguments) in that Claire Curran-attended thread mentioned @7:46
- student radio stations might have to close (well, if a student-run radio station is such a drawcard, the university would happily fund it in order to get more students, right? Otherwise, there are many other radio stations available that are able to survive without forcibly taking your money, whether or not you actually listen to it)
- Student Job Search might have to close (wouldn’t this be the one service you might prioritize – you know, something that has a tangible result and might in fact encourage students to join the association in the first place? But no, it this little world, it’s the first one to go, and no doubt the salaries of all the senior officers in the SA, and parties and catering and bullshit will remain)
- there are facilities or services that you can’t stop non-members from using, so it makes sense to force everyone to be members (perhaps, instead, you should reassess what facilities and services you provide to match the fact that not everyone will sign up. That would make sense, wouldn’t it? If not everyone is paying for it, don’t provide services and facilities for everyone)
- some students won’t join at the start of the year because they don’t see themselves using the university gym (how about letting people pay for it seperately if they want to use it, or if that’s not economical, close it down and let students go to commercial gyms or if the gym is a drawcard, let the university pay for it etc. So many options and choices!!) but then will feel stink when the landlord raises the rent without notice because they will have no-one to go to (except the Department of Building and Housing, and besides that, that choice at the start of the year is a choice they are allowed to make, and if at the end of the year they regret it, well, that’s how you learn, isn’t it?)
- some of the important services run by the OUSA that may be lost: legal services for students (don’t get in trouble, pay for a lawyer, or pay the VSM at the start of the year if you think you’ll need it), anti-sexual harrassment advocacy services (go to the university, go to the police, or pay the VSM at the start of the year if you think you’ll need it), liaison between students and university staff in cases of dispute (don’t get into a dispute, mediate the dispute yourself, use legal channels, or pay the VSM at the start of the year if you think you’ll need it), campaigning against higher student fees (choose a university with fees you find acceptable in the first place, campaign against higher fees yourself, or pay the VSM at the start of the year if you think you’ll need it)
And so on…
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 10:58 am
Is the photo real?
Or has it been doctored?
I ask because it some on the right have made stuff up like the claim that Jim Anderton stated that only an earthquake could stop him becoming mayor of Christchurch. These lies have spread like wildfire and are very nasty propaganda.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 10:59 am
Having twice organized a coup to dispose of a union that was only interested in their own status and not that of its members I wounder why this has taken so long maybe a reflection on the political apathy of the right on campus
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 11:18 am
@ Griff I don’t think students who want to get it done and get on just don’t prioritise the cost they just see it as a cost added to the loan and move on.
I also don’t see what the opponents of VSM are worrying about, their clear advantage for all students will see them flocking to sign and pay up to maintain the wonderful high value that the students ass I mean Union will continue to deliver.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 11:28 am
The gentleman who is facing left side on to the camera and holding part of the sign with his right hand is Jaz Morris, a postgrad student at Otago. Current president of the Otago University Tramping Club (an OUSA affiliated organisation) and active in OUSA and the Green Party. He was was the youth MP for Sue Kedgeley a few years back – http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2007/08/congrats_miss_english.html
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
I once had a friend who suffered from Psoriasis, a very painful skin condition that is very difficult to treat and very very depressing.
Only a scum bag low life would be associated with an organization that allows such a sign to be displayed. The fact that the stupid bitch from the Labour Party in Dunedin supports this and in fact gloats about the protest, reinforces my utter contempt for a party I was once involved in.
If this is an example of our new generation god help us.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
These lies have spread like wildfire and are very nasty propaganda.
What, like “failed policies of the 90′s” and “hollow men” Inky?
Very nasty propaganda isn’t it.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Actually all it shows is that part of your opposition to compulsory student union membership is due to the fact most student unions are very left wing.
Really the discussion about compulsory membership should have nothing to do with the political leanings of those running the associations.
It doesn’t YesWeDid. It is quite incidental that Liarbore’s hatchery will be decimated by the inrush of freedom. How come lefties don’t support freedom? I suppose you hate children as well.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Actually, rather than illustrating why “voluntary membership is such a necessary reform”, this protest, and indeed all of the VSM debacle, demonstrates how democracy is of little to no importance to the government.
Regardless of your position on VSM, the way that it has been pushed through, and the way that the government has time and time again ignored the wishes of students is abhorrent.
This is a bill that, rather than giving students freedom, takes it away. Students already have the ability to choose to have VSM at their universities, and contrary to what right-wingers have been arguing, it wouldn’t be all that hard to undertake a referendum. Once VSM is passed, rather than being able to choose that for themselves, students will be forced to pay levies to cover the same services, probably to the same tune as at present to the university, and will have no control over how they are spent.
This is a bill that has had an overwhelming number of submissions against it (98%), and yet these submissions have been discounted due to the fact they were in large part online voting forms. Since when was there a criteria for how wordy or original a submission had to be before it could be counted?
This is a bill that students have given clear opposition to, such as in the OUSA referendum last year when they gave OUSA a mandate to appose it.
This is a bill that students have actively protested against, most recently on Friday. The protest was passionate, civil and friendly, with protestors using (god forbid) humor in their chants and signs. Instead of being heralded as a positive thing (generally apathetic students stand up for what they believe in), it’s been condemned as yet another instance where riotous students run rampant.
Please tell me: when did students engaging with democracy and expressing their views become a bad thing? How can you condemn a protest, and a relatively peaceful one at that, which is well within citizens’ rights, when you claim to “support freedom”?
Regardless of your view of whether student organizations should have voluntary membership, it’s hard to argue that the bill itself, and the consistent undermining of what students actually want, isn’t undemocratic.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
@gravedodger: Note that the VSM bill has little to do with the amount students pay – just ask the students at Auckland. VSM hasn’t altered the amount they pay as the services the association used to provide are now provided by the university instead. The same thing will happen at other universities once the VSM bill passes. I expect other student associations will follow Auckland’s lead with zero fees for the student association.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
transmogrifier: most of those services mention aren’t actually paid for by the association fee anyway. It is amazing to me that in any of these debates, most of what is held up as “valuable” either:
- Isn’t paid for by the association – at Otago the gym & student health is paid for as a separate fee, and has for many years
Vote:- Wasn’t paid for by the association just a short time ago (so much for “valuable”)
- Won’t be paid for by the association in a couple of years (as they realise it’s a waste of money)
- Is only paid for by the association because by providing a subsidy it looks like the fee helps make it happen, when it’s perfectly possible to run at a profit (Orientation, Capping Week, Critic etc)
- Isn’t supported/used by pretty much any student (Radio 1 for example…)
August 6th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Inky_the_Red: There was another similar one in the ODT.
Update: sorry, it wasn’t a sign it was a person
Vote:http://www.odt.co.nz/campus/university-otago/172367/noisy-student-protesters-disrupt-keys-visit
August 6th, 2011 at 5:59 pm
Heh, I like the idea that I’d have the time, energy and expertise to doctor a photo and then use it to make a small and insignificant point in a larger article, but just in case you’re in doubt, here’s the short video clip I took a screen shot from to provide the image:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSBnrxXJqSA
I’m not sure how I can prove that the video itself wasn’t doctored though. Except to try and convince you that I don’t work for Weta, and am some sort of technological genius.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 6:20 pm
*am not some sort of technological genius. #mustalwaysproofread
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 6:43 pm
Just goes to show that there are some nasty thoughtless shits on both ends of the political spectrum (referring to the individual in the photo, natch).
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 6:56 pm
Just goes to show that there are some nasty thoughtless shits on both ends of the political spectrum
True, but for sheer nasty hatred, the left tends to be hard to beat.
Vote:August 6th, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Choosing to freeze one placard with a silly saying on it is missing the forest for the trees. It’s been bloody yonks at Otago since students actually got together on campus to protest anything. And sure, the new president has a case of potty-mouth-itis, but I’m sure the phoney “How dare you sir!” comments from a few uptight election year politicians, and the “How dare you sir!” call from Junior ACTors on campus who have called for his resignation in today’s ODT (page 2) will cause him to get proper. At least the kid has the kahunas and obviously the charisma to organise a pretty good turn out for a protest- in 48 hours no less! I only hope he isn’t pressured into conforming too much, the last thing OUSA or this world needs is another dishonest, double-dealing bullshitter, which come to think of it, is pretty much how the previous two OUSA presidents were. VSM began looming in 2009, the two previous clowns should have been hard at it instead of preening and posturing. I must say, ripping up posters of Heather Roy with a mouthful of crackers, and holding a placard naming a skin condition in regard to Key’s wife are at the most, amusing, and at their least, just plain goofy. In other words, you’re grasping at straws. Lighten up, they’re earnest kids who bothered to take a stand- outside, for hours, in unison. Not just here on line opining, editing and and stroking themselves.
Vote:August 7th, 2011 at 9:12 am
yeswedid – “Actually all it shows is that part of your opposition to compulsory student union membership is due to the fact most student unions are very left wing.”
Or it shows that the opposition is partly due to the fact that the supporters of compulsion are complete fucking morons, but I can see how you would associate that with being left wing.
Vote:August 7th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Central Heat says
“At least the kid has the kahunas and obviously the charisma to organise a pretty good turn out for a protest- in 48 hours no less!”
Get real – it was the Labour party that organised the protest – Logan Edgar is just their puppet (sorry muppet)!
Vote:August 8th, 2011 at 8:07 am
@ Central Heat… where to start!
* OUSA have always protested when a National PM comes to campus. They have only been pretty quiet because OUSA never protested when Helen Clark was PM. More proof that OUSA is a biased organisation.
* Logan hardly planned this protest. There was a Facebook one organised online, it has 1200 people sign up to attend. It only attracted about 300 max, and not all students. There were the last remains of the Alliance party, the same waterside and railway unionists as usual and a medley of OUSA sympathisers.
* Anybody else hear that NZUSA flew down activists to this protest too? The cost of these flights come from the students.
* VSM has been “looming” since 1994 at least. OUSA chose to ignore it then. They kept on ignoring it to the detriment of the organisation, if you want to lay the blame at what will happen to OUSA – point your finger at current and ex OUSA Presidents and executives, not ACT and National.
Vote:August 8th, 2011 at 9:55 am
Hi ‘tempest’
I am not affiliated in any way with the Green Party, am not ‘active in OUSA’ and have nothing to do with the sign in the photo (and am certainly not holding it).
Cheers
Jaz
Vote: