Sweeping changes have been proposed to the constitution of the Queensland University of Technology Student Guild, which are a major attack on independent and democratic student unionism. 
The executive of the guild has argued that these changes will improve the stability of the peak student representative body at QUT. But the changes include the introduction of a “board of directors” with unfettered power to control the guild’s operations. This body is to be made up of six student representatives elected on two-year, rotating terms. Four unelected people will also sit on the board, including a “community professional”, a QUT alumni, the general manager and a representative of the university appointed by the vice-chancellor. All members of the board can motion for the dismissal of another member, and there is no right of appeal. The board also has the power to delegate its authority to unelected committees or even individuals.
There is also a proposed student representative committee, to be elected every year. This body has no formal power defined in the constitution, meaning the board has the authority to determine how it meets, and decide to what degree it can influence the actions of the guild. Further, the proposed constitution no longer mandates the election of an environment officer, which is a major omission given the leading role students are playing nationally in environmental activism.
Student general meetings, which should be the highest body for decision making in the guild, would be essentially toothless in the new structure. Decisions made by general meetings would not be binding on the board, and the board could choose to ignore general meetings without notifying students. Nor are referendums mentioned in the proposed constitution.
These changes are the most serious threat to democratic student unionism at QUT for a very long time. The new board of directors would have essentially dictatorial powers with no mechanism for student oversight. Not only would unelected appointees with no accountability to students be on this body, but the university would be given direct influence over the operations of the guild, through the vice-chancellor’s appointee. The guild executive has argued that this would allow for a better relationship between the guild and university. This is just a euphemism for ambitious bureaucrats cosying up to administration and undermining the self-organisation of students. 
Student unions exist because the interests of students and the university administration are fundamentally opposed. Students must be able to organise against the university when the university wants to cut courses, costs and teaching conditions. In many universities right now, students must be able to organise against the introduction of trimesters and right wing corporate influence in courses, such as the Ramsay Centre’s repeated attempts to establish a degree for Western civilisation. This is compromised when the university administration can have a say in what student organisations do. 
To top things off, the guild executive has set out an extremely short timeline for the changes to be confirmed. Following months of negotiations with the university, the guild released the draft on 19 July, and has set 6 August as the date the changes will be put to council. With such short notice, the opportunity for students and councillors on the guild to scrutinise and campaign against the changes has been seriously limited.
Student democracy is important. With the recently elected Morrison government, there is sure to be a need for students and staff to organise to defend our rights from right wing attacks. It is vital that activists everywhere organise against any attack on the democracy and independence of student unions.

Declan Kerr

Proposed constitutional changes to QUT Guild are an attack on student democracy

The Queensland Liberal National Party opposition has introduced a bill to penalise protesters with hefty fines and lengthy prison sentences. It wants to intimidate activists and undermine the right to protest. 
The proposed laws would result in protesters being fined as much as $390,000 and jailed for up to 10 years for demonstrating on private property or holding events that affect “transport infrastructure”. 
The bill targets organised civil disobedience, with the maximum penalty applying not only to protest participants but all members of the organisation(s) involved. 
The LNP member responsible for the bill, Dale Last, described it as necessary to tackle the “growing trend of activism in Queensland”. Significant and growing protests like those against the Adani coal mine, for Indigenous rights and against climate change have put politicians and the mining industry on the back foot. 
This bill is an attempt to intimidate anyone wanting to stand up against the agenda of the LNP and Labor Party.
The LNP has form. The party’s predecessor, the Country-Liberal Party coalition under premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, was responsible for massive attacks on civil rights during its 19 years in office from 1968 to 1987. Joh’s government smashed unions, trampled on Indigenous rights and gutted public services. Those attacks were made possible by suppressing freedom of speech and the right to protest.
The Queensland Resources Council, which has been feeling the heat from recent climate change protests, has backed the laws, indicating it “fully supports” the crackdown on “militant activism”. 
The Labor state government has not been far behind. In response to protests against animal cruelty, it changed regulations to allow police to impose on-the-spot fines of $652 for protesters deemed to be a threat to “biosecurity”. 
The LNP bill, currently before a parliamentary committee, should be opposed by all those who value civil liberties. Civil disobedience must continue, even if it means defying anti-protest laws.

Right to protest under threat in QLD

An alliance of progressive students at the Queensland University of Technology has won the student union elections after seven years of Young Liberal National Party control.
With a grassroots campaign, “Reach” secured 58 percent of the vote to the “Epic” Young LNP’s 42 percent. This came in the wake of a Democracy 4 QUT campaign, which overturned a rigged election result earlier in the semester, when Epic prevented opposition tickets from running and won by default. 
Student outrage at this attack on democracy created the basis for a united front of independents, Labor students, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and Socialist Alternative to unseat the Young LNP.
This year, Epic’s swag of bread-and-circus policies (like “toga parties” and “puppies and pancakes”), which obscure the political character of the student union, didn’t stand a chance against Reach’s message of a democratic, transparent student union that will fight for students’ rights. 
Not surprisingly, this message resonated, given how much students’ rights have suffered under Epic’s watch. 
QUT students face the most punitive late submission policy in the country – submitting an assignment just one second past the due time results in an instant fail. 
Student support services have been gutted, and first-year international students, who already pay exorbitant fees, are denied access to concession transport fares. The Young LNP also regularly used the union to endorse federal government attacks on higher education. 
This election also marks a victory for the left at QUT, with the election of a socialist to the student council for the first time in at least a decade – a position that will be used to argue for an activist-oriented approach to fighting for students’ rights, not just around bread-and-butter issues of education, but also on broader social questions. 
The long-anticipated lifting of Epic’s ban on oppositional political clubs will also be a boon for democratic political life on campus.
The victory of the progressive alliance at QUT is an example of what can be achieved when the left works together to oust the right from our student unions. 
Now, important work lies ahead to rebuild student unionism and the left at QUT.

Progressive alliance breaks seven-year conservative stranglehold at QUT

Students at the Queensland University of Technology have overturned a rigged election at the campus.
The young Liberals, who have controlled the guild for six years, were returned to office in the student guild unopposed last month after nominations were opened and closed secretly. 
Young Liberals in Queensland have form. In 2012, Liberal students at the University of Queensland changed election regulations, banned the opposition and went to the polls unopposed. This sparked a “Democracy4UQ” campaign, on which students at QUT six years later have modelled our fightback. 
Displaying the same contempt for students as the young Liberals at UQ, the incumbents at QUT announced the election on a single notice in the basement of the student union building. This prevented multiple opposition groups from lodging their nominations.
Outrage at the sham process led to the establishment of the “Democracy4QUT” campaign by the opposition groups. The campaign collected more than 1,000 signatures to have the results overturned. Yet the returning officer rejected the petition. 
An appeal was then submitted to the electoral tribunal. On 21 September, the tribunal found that the elections were not held on fair or democratic grounds. Fresh elections were called. 
An alliance of progressive students, including Socialist Alternative members, is running against the Liberals’ ticket (named “EPIC”) on a ticket named “Reach”. 
The control of our student unions by Liberals is a threat to student rights. Liberals have used their position in the guild to campaign for the abolition of the Student Services and Amenities Fee, which is the basis of student union funding. Liberal students in the guild have put out press releases supporting university fee deregulation.
Kicking out the Liberals would create a space to reinvigorate left wing politics on campus and create a more democratic guild.

Proposed constitutional changes to QUT Guild are an attack on student democracy

Right to protest under threat in QLD

Progressive alliance breaks seven-year conservative stranglehold at QUT

Democracy campaign overturns young Liberals’ rigged student election

Other Media

Shop

Manage Your Subscription

Contact Us