ACT Liberals attack student unions

By Amanda Lawrence

On November 18, a motion was put to the ACT Liberal Party policy convention by members of the Young Liberals, calling on the ACT government to legislate "for Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) in the tertiary institutions under ACT jurisdiction [which covers the University of Canberra and the Canberra Institute of Technology] and for the federal Government to legislate for VSU under its jurisdiction [which covers the Australian National University]".

According to Young Liberal members, the motion was carried unanimously, which includes votes from ACT Chief Minister Kate Carnell.

VSU legislation has been hanging over the student movement since the election of the Howard Liberal government. Earlier this year, education minister David Kemp stated that his government was committed to introducing national VSU legislation by the end of 1998 or early 1999.

VSU legislation is already in place in both Western Australia and Victoria. In WA, the legislation prohibits the universal collection of funds by the student organisation; since 1994, VSU has reduced membership to about 25% of the student community at the University of Western Australia.

Nick Soudakoff, a member of the University of Canberra Students' Association Committee and Resistance, stated, "While VSU restricts the activities and functioning of student organisations on every front, it is fundamentally an attack on the rights of students to organise politically. VSU has no other purpose than to destroy student organisations and stifle collective dissent to the attacks of the Coalition government."

From GLW issue 342