International Socialists

Wade MacDonald

Young Liberals have failed in their attempt to get students at the University of Western Australia to disaffiliate from the National Union of Students.

Students voted 1,300 to 800 to remain part of NUS. During the summer break, Liberals (Australia's equivalent of the National Party) in the student guild secretly passed a motion calling on UWA to disaffiliate and launched a well-funded campaign prior to the referendum. They argued that the affiliation fee could be better spent at the university - on things like "sausage sizzles" - and that NUS is an ineffective organisation that doesn't represent students.

Student activists at UWA fought hard to expose that the Young Liberals were behind the disaffiliation campaign. They argued that the Liberals wanted to remove any opposition to the Howard government's attacks on students by weakening the student union. They gave the example of the recent back-down by education minister Amanda Vanstone on the Austudy (student allowance) means test as an example of NUS success.

Union activists pointed out that $1 per student per year is a tiny amount compared to what students are paying in HECS, up-front fees and lack of access to Austudy. Speeches in lectures which explained these arguments were crucial in raising the political level of the campaign.