BY AMIE HAMILTON
PERTH Despite a 200-strong student general meeting at which students voted overwhelmingly to hold a referendum in order to declare the University of Western Australia a refugee safe haven, it is unclear whether the referendum will go ahead. The issue will be decided at a special guild council to be held on September 17. Refugee-rights activists are encouraging as many students as possible to attend that meeting.
The September 3 general meeting was the first to achieve quorum since 1997. The motion to hold a referendum at the same time as the guild elections was overwhelmingly passed.
The motion specified that the referendum ask seven questions to determine if the guild should: be declared a refugee safe haven; support the demand "close all detention facilities"; support the demand "welcome all refugees"; support the demand "end mandatory detention"; support the demand "to increase the current quota of refugee intake over the current quota of 12,000", support the calls to vastly increase the speed of processing refugee applications; and donate $2000 to assist the underground network of escaped refugees.
The motion was carried by a vote of 146 in favor, 44 against with 2 abstentions. This was enough to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to bind the guild to run the referendum.
However, the Western Australian Electoral Commission decided that there was not enough time to properly conduct the referendum if it was held alongside the student elections, and therefore it would not run it.
Instead of postponing the elections, the UWA Student Guild decided to go ahead and hold the main elections, breaking the regulation that said that they were bound to run the referendum. Guild regulations state that referendums can only be run in conjunction with guild elections, so students would have to wait another twelve months at least before the referendum is held.
Fred Fuentes from the UWA Refugee Rights Action Network pointed out to Green Left Weekly that the guild has already broken a number of regulations this year, making its claim that postponing the elections would be a "threat to democratic principles" ridiculous.
The September 17 meeting, which falls during the elections, was called under pressure from refugees' rights activists to decide if there is a way to run the referendum.
Meanwhile, a Murdoch University student general meeting was eleven people short of quorum, but still voted to make the university a refugee sanctuary. The meeting was not binding, but it is expected that Murdoch's guild council will vote on whether to have a referendum soon.
From Green Left Weekly, September 18, 2002.
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