BY ERIN KILLION
NEWCASTLE — "No person shall, in connection with any election, simultaneously campaign [for a candidate] and engage in political activities". This is just one of the amendments to the rules and regulations governing the conduct of student elections that the Newcastle University Student Association (NUSA) executive will put to the final NUSA council (NUSAC) meeting on November 29.
The executive decided to propose changes to the rules and regulations following an appeal by Keep Left candidate and Resistance member Peter Robson against his disqualification as a candidate in the NUSA presidential by-election, held November 6-7.
In his appeal, Robson argued that the stated reason for his disqualification — participating on a literature stall organised by the socialist youth organisation Resistance during the election week — was not a violation of the rules and regulations.
In dismissing his appeal the executive stated that "We do want to make a concerted effort to change the rules and regulations... We acknowledge there are some problems with the processes and [at] the next exec we'll be making recommendations to NUSAC to alter the constitution and rules and regulations at the next AGM."
Contrary to this statement, the NUSA executive is not recommending that NUSAC put the proposed changes to an annual general meeting of NUSAC.
The NUSA executive formulated its recommendations, virtually in secret, at a meeting on November 16. The meeting was held during the exam period without being publicised and no call was issued for submissions from other students.
The timing of the decision makes it impossible for students to be informed of, or to oppose, the decisions of the executive.
The executive meeting, which was chaired by National Organisation of Labor Students (NOLS) member and NUSA president Amie Grierson, focused on making it more difficult for Resistance to stand candidates in NUSA elections. This was expressed as lessening the "advantages" that candidates who are members of political groups have over "independent" candidates.
Another recommendation to be put to the NUSAC will regulate what candidates can wear: "No person shall, in connection with any election, use any good in connection with the election, with the exception of printed material as specified in 5.3.15 [candidate statements and other printed campaign material] and unmarked clothing, i.e. without text, slogans and or symbols."
This particular recommendation was proposed because one executive member complained that students campaigning for Robson wore Che Guevara and other political T-shirts!
An observer at the executive meeting, Samuel Russell, commented: "The current make-up of NUSA feels threatened by explicit and organised politics. This is why the meeting was led by Amie [Grierson] to specifically attack Resistance... Every example used was of Resistance's possible actions. No threat was felt from any other source other than Resistance, apparently".
However, these changes will restrict the activities of many Newcastle university student groups and not just the NU Resistance club. For example, the proposed changes mean that environment collective activists would not be able to wear anti-nuclear T-shirts or publicise anti-nuclear actions during election week.
The proposed new rules were enthusiastically endorsed by Grierson, who pointed out that her party, the ALP, could have run open stalls for its candidates in previous elections but chose not to. Labor candidates in the last three Newcastle university student elections have not mentioned their ALP membership.
"Students in the ALP are not prepared to defend the politics of their party to the general student population", said Robson. "Their aim in elections is to win as many positions as possible, including by being secretive about their political affiliation. Then, when they win office, they claim a mandate for their politics even though many students who have voted for them have been unaware that they have voted for the ALP.
"It is hypocritical of the executive to argue that its proposed rule changes protect independent candidates from parties. It does no such thing. Instead, it assists candidates from the biggest political party on university campuses, the ALP, in hiding their political affiliation."
Students are calling on the NUSAC to postpone its decision on the rule changes and put them to a student general meeting early next year. Resistance has organised a petition which calls for a student general meeting early next year to review the rules and regulations, as well as to condemn the original disqualification of Peter Robson.
Anyone interested in signing the petition or helping the campaign should contact Peter on (02)4926 5328 or email <newcastle@resistance.org.au>.