By Sean Healy
Education minister David Kemp has indicated the next target on the government's union hit list: student unions.
He has asked his department to prepare legislation for "voluntary student unionism", which would prevent student unions gaining access to the compulsory service fees that students pay each year.
The threat comes after student unions mobilised 20,000 people on April 1 to protest against the government-caused crisis in education.
The move towards "VSU" legislation is an attempt to silence widespread student opposition to the government, organised and directed through student unions. It is a move towards censorship and a threat to democratic rights.
The government has attempted to paint "VSU" as ensuring "freedom" to choose whether to belong to a union.
But membership is not the issue. Students can already "conscientiously object" to union membership and have their fees paid to a charity. Kemp is attempting to divert attention away from the government's real aim: closing down one of its most trenchant critics.
Currently, students pay compulsory fees of roughly $300 a year for the provision of various services by the university. Over the decades, students have been able to win university agreement to these services being administered by student unions and that these funds can also be used for political representation and defending the rights of students.
In Victoria and Western Australia, "VSU" was introduced in 1994. Both laws have had a profound impact on student unions, making it more difficult for students to organise. Before Easter, for example, Edith Cowan University Student Guild was forced to close because of "VSU".
The WA legislation bans all forms of compulsory student service fees, meaning that student guilds have to raise their own membership money. In Victoria,"VSU" has been more directly aimed at preventing student service fees being spent on "political" activities, i.e. defending the rights and interests of students.
Student unions, activist groups and the National Union of Students are all discussing a national response to the threat of "VSU". Even the vice-chancellors oppose it, not wanting to provide student union services themselves.
Plans include incorporating opposition into the student national day of action on May 20 as well as other actions.
[Sean Healy is the national coordinator of the socialist youth organisation Resistance.]