Free speech banned at Adelaide University

BY REBECCA MECKELBURG

ADELAIDE — An Adelaide University student was banned from entering sections of the university on August 31 by student election returning officer Ian Cannon, who is also chief executive officer of the student union.

Cannon claimed that a leaflet being distributed by the student, Sam King, defamed the president of the Student Association, members of the student union board and himself as CEO.

On August 30, Cannon had warned activists on the RAGE ticket running for election to the Students Association that they must stop distributing their election leaflet or they would be removed from campus. King is a candidate on the ticket.

The leaflet criticised the union board for making redundant 10 staff. The workers were handed redundancy packages without warning and without negotiation with the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU).

The matter went to the Arbitration Commission, which ruled in favour of the workers, forcing the student union to offer voluntary redundancy packages with improved conditions.

On August 31 Cannon approached King, a Resistance activist, with two campus security guards and forced him to leave campus.

King said later, "Students should be permitted to engage in an open debate about how our union is run. If our criticisms are wrong, why doesn't the union produce information to refute them?"

From GLW issue 419