By Lana Halpin
BRISBANE — The National Union of Students (Queensland) held its state conference here November 24-25. The affiliation of the University of Queensland has substantially changed its balance of forces, many more left delegates being elected to this year's conference.
This has resulted in a new policy direction and a new political composition for the state executive. Only one of last year's state executive members bothered to attend to present a report.
This year NUSQ, dominated by ALP factions from the National Organisation of Labor Students (NOLS) and Reform based at Queensland University of Technology, played a conservative role in the student movement. It failed to elect separate education, welfare or environment officers and did not contribute to campaigns.
NUSQ office bearers did not encourage students to campaign against education cuts and even failed to attend the September rallies against Abstudy and Austudy cuts.
The new executive includes more left-wing officer bearers. Cynthia Kennedy, UQ student union president and a member of NOLS left, was elected unopposed as NUSQ president.
The election of Stephen Brown as general secretary was more controversial. Brown was involved in Reform at QUT and made his conversion to NOLS only when it was clear what was in the wind.
Students not involved in the Labor Party formed a coalition called Broad Left. It included people from the Greens, Democrats, Resistance, Non-Aligned Left and independent activists. From the Broad Left, Zanny Begg was elected education officer, Darin Preston welfare officer and Scott Alderson environment officer.
A motion to make Garda Sembiring, an Indonesian student activist jailed in Indonesia, a symbolic member of NUSQ and a pledge to campaign for his release were adopted. Other motions included support for the campaign against uranium mining in Kakadu and International Women's Day and opposition to Howard's Wik legislation and forestry policy.
All ALP factions opposed the Broad Left's call to campaign for the reduction of the compulsory voting age to 16, and it was defeated.
One of the most significant motions carried was the Broad Left's proposal to abolish the Education Committee and replace it with an activist committee called the Cross Campus Education Network (CCEN).
The CCEN is open to all but will include seven representatives elected from state conference who have exclusive vote on budget matters. Begg, education officer elect, explained the reasoning for this to Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly: "To defeat the attacks on education, we need a massive campaign which involves students, staff and the wider community. Forming such an open committee allows us to build such a campaign. We hope to make NUSQ an activist union that encourages student participation in campaigns."
Begg added that she expected a struggle within NUSQ to force the ALP to build a serious campaign against education cuts.
NOLS members managed to force through a policy which stated that cultural events and street theatre are "more accessible" to students than rallies. The Broad Left's motion, which called on NUSQ to support a wide range of tactics in the education campaign, including rallies, pickets, protests and occupations, was defeated.
During debate, NOLS representatives argued that rallies were appropriate when Amanda Vanstone was education minister but that David Kemp required a more "sophisticated" approach.
Begg replied, "It doesn't matter who the minister is. The key purpose of the union should be to involve students in a mass campaign for publicly funded education. Cultural events can be useful, but they cannot substitute for a such a campaign."