By Mark Lockett and Alana Kerr
PERTH — Not to be out-done by Jeff Kennett, the Court Liberal government has stepped up its anti-union campaign by targeting student guilds. The Acts Amendment (Student Guilds and Associations) Bill, better known as the VSU (voluntary student unionism) bill, which goes before the parliament on September 14, will destroy the student guilds at WA's five universities.
Students currently pay a compulsory guild fee upon enrolment. The money is used to pay for the services that the guild provides, from advice on Austudy to sport and recreation facilities.
VSU will do more than simply close down guild services. The legislation also aims to ban student representation. Student guilds will no longer be able to represent students on university bodies or assist them in disputes with their lecturers over issues such as teaching quality, sexual harassment and academic assessment.
State education minister Norman Moore has claimed that compulsory student unionism is an abuse of human rights. The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights states that "No one may be compelled to belong to an association". However, as student representatives have pointed out, students are not forced to join the guild. Those students who object to joining the guild may pay an equivalent sum of money to any recognised charity.
The issue is financial compulsion, not political compulsion, as Moore argues. But financial compulsion exists throughout the university system. Besides HECS, many students are slugged with a range of additional fees during the course of their studies. Perhaps these should be voluntary too?
Included in the VSU legislation will be provisions such as:
- "It is not compulsory for any student to be a member of a student association";
- "It is not compulsory for any student:
(a) to make a subscription or pay any fees to a student association, either directly or indirectly;
(b) to pay any amount to a charity or other person in lieu of such a subscription or fee;
(c) to pay an amount to the university for the provision of any amenity, facility or service which is not, or not directly related to, an educational course provided by the University.";
- Criminal penalties (fines of up to $50,000) will be imposed on anyone who "intimidates or induces" someone to discriminate against non-members;
- The president of the Student Guild is no longer a member of the highest decision making body within the University.
Given the lack of collective sentiment on WA campuses, it's unlikely that many students will pay the guild fee voluntarily. There are also many poor students who, hoping they won't need the guild services, will save their money for the necessities of life — Austudy pays around $6000 per year.
Lack of support for the guilds is also an indication of how ineffective recent guild leaderships have been in drawing ordinary students into their activities. Many students see the student guilds' and National Union of Students' frantic anti-VSU fax, write and phone "campaign" as an attempt to save their own skins.
The student officials have called a rally on September 16, two days after the legislation is to be passed. The NUS logic is that any action beforehand will jeopardise their attempts to persuade National Party MPs to cross the floor.
Meanwhile, the national office of NUS has demanded that the guilds pay for its legal advice on VSU — even though WA students already contribute around $150,000 annually to NUS, which spends only 7% of its annual budget in campaigns to defend education. NUS has sent its entire National Executive to Perth to assist the current affiliation campaign at Edith Cowan University.
Both Liberal and Labor governments continue to attack education and students' rights. Students in the future will need to wage an independent campaign in defence of their collective interests. To continue to subordinate the movement to the personal aims of ALP/NUS student careerists and their hangers-on will only lead to more VSU-type defeats.