Union AGM 2006 (1 Viewer)

[withoutaface]

I would urge everyone to attend the Union agm this Wednesday at 1pm in Manning bar. There is going to be a motion on directly elected president put forward which is opposed by the board, and which will serve to undermine the authority of the board members as being best able to decide which of their fellow directors has put the most time into board affairs as well as being open and honest in their conduct. If passed, this could potentially install somebody that nobody could work with in the presidential position, which would create massive inefficiencies on the board. Labor left are going to try to stack it out in a similar manner to what they did last year when they put an AA motion down, and got it passed, so be there to show them that the student population does not support their agenda, and will not stand for our Union being destroyed by factional hacks who only support this motion because they want a president from among their own ranks.

Cheers,
Justin

 

[dandel26]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

WOW university politics. Tell me, what are the parties and there respective stances?

 

[withoutaface]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

So far as I know Labor left are in favour of this one, and Liberals, Far left, Labor right and independents are all against.

 

[withoutaface]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

Well Doug Lindsay's seconding the motion saying that the board's against it.

 

[KeypadSDM]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

Too bad I'm playing netball. I could use a beer.

 

[Phanatical]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

I hate the idea of a popularly-elected president, purely because the Presidency would be decided on the basis of who has the biggest (read: most expensive) campaign, just like SRC. That's why Labor Left wins elections. They have the most money.

 

[Bored of Studies]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

I hate the idea of a popularly-elected president, purely because the Presidency would be decided on the basis of who has the biggest (read: most expensive) campaign, just like SRC. That's why Labor Left wins elections. They have the most money.

Which is why this year Tanner won, and not a Labor Left candidate.

 

[withoutaface]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

Add the number of votes of the two NOLS candidates together and Tanner would lose by ~300 votes, and obviously NOLS are only going to run one candidate for president, so it's reasonable to assume that the total number of votes they'd garner would be equal to the sum of the votes for the other two to get board positions.

 

[melbournian]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

Tanner definantly had a lot of $'s behind him

 

[Phanatical]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

Ever since my first election, we have been saving up to run a HUGE campaign for SRC president this year. Unfortunately, we lost all the proceeds on the pokies. This statement was completely Not true - we never had the money to begin with.

 

[jhakka]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

Is there always a person/problem to blame that totally ignores the fact that your campaign might have sucked or the majority of people might not agree with you?

 

[ElGronko]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

I like the idea of a president elected by the people.

It's romantic.

Plus you do realise that Labor left have enough support on union board to get one of them as president anyway.

I find university politics hilarious, and a presidential election would only add to the humour.

 

[ujuphleg]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

Plus you do realise that Labor left have enough support on union board to get one of them as president anyway.

No, this is exactly the problem (or rather, our saving grace) Traditionally, the Union has always been controlled by the Labor Right, and the left don't like this because they are mostly control power hungry freaks who believe they are the only ones who are right. (lol irony)

A directly elected President would mean a campaign would be run with NOLS $$'s and therefore, would be easy to fool the gullible, students (especially first years who trot off to Uni with left ideals stuck in their heads) to vote for a NOLS President.





You are right though, university politics is hilarious. Unfortunatley its a microcosm of the macro out there in the big bad world.

 

[Phanatical]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

I was completely joking about the pokies thing, but no - there is nothing about my policies I would change. If I DID change my policies, it would make me no better than the Labor or Liberal factions, willing to compromise their beliefs to win elections.

When I was a first year student, I made my voting decisions based on two things - what my friend and now Councillor James Jansson thought was appropriate from his perspective as a main campus student, and which candidates/parties actually took the time to come to the Con to campaign. It was only much later as I became a candidate myself, that I realised that the candidates with the most money were most likely to be the ones who would trade off the interests of my campus for the benefit of the Party.

The point is that the candidates with the most money always - ALWAYS - win elections. Hell, even I could get elected if I were willing to spend the thousands upon thousands of dollars the Labor factions are always up for. The reason I do not win elections is simple - the Labor Left give out more free t-shirts than I have dollars to spend.

 

[gerhard]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

hey quah, it was rumoured in honi soit that you only recieved one vote from the conservatorium booth.

 

[ElGronko]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

No, this is exactly the problem (or rather, our saving grace) Traditionally, the Union has always been controlled by the Labor Right, and the left don't like this because they are mostly control power hungry freaks who believe they are the only ones who are right. (lol irony)

A directly elected President would mean a campaign would be run with NOLS $$'s and therefore, would be easy to fool the gullible, students (especially first years who trot off to Uni with left ideals stuck in their heads) to vote for a NOLS President.





You are right though, university politics is hilarious. Unfortunatley its a microcosm of the macro out there in the big bad world.

But arn't there 4 labour left studnets on the union, plus danielle and another trot would vote for one of them, thus 6 votes, and no other candidate would be able to get that many votes?

or is that totally not how the system works?

 

[gerhard]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

last year
simon fontana and jackson fan both liberals
lauren and james hoare labor right
angus and katy labor left
got in.


so now with
roz and tanner labor right
dannielle - greens
rose and tom - labor left

gives us 6 labor right/liberals and 5 labor left/greens


thats some fucking analysis right there

 

[ujuphleg]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

But arn't there 4 labour left studnets on the union, plus danielle and another trot would vote for one of them, thus 6 votes, and no other candidate would be able to get that many votes?

or is that totally not how the system works?

Well, yes you are right (and so is gerhard).

I said traditionally (traditionally being the last 7 years) the Labor Right has controlled the Union. This year, the presidential candidates will be Katy Fernandez (Labor Left/NOLS) and James Hoare (Labor Right although he originally ran as an independent).

So when you consider that when it comes to the meeting to vote for President in June,

LEFT: Rose, Tom, Angus, Katy (and will be supported by the Greens Doug and Danielle) - 6 for sure

versus

RIGHT: Lauren, James, Mark and Roz - 4 for sure.

and undecided in it all will be Simon and Jackson, plus the two Senate reps who vote (and whom Honi states will probably split between the two) it comes down to Simon and Jackson as to who gets it. Backbone tells me that if push comes to shove they'll support Labor Right over NOLS anyday, but who knows?



And in good news, the motion for the directly elected President was defeated today 28- 68 votes

 

[withoutaface]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

A few technicalities:

Katy from NOLS has 5 people backing her for sure, being herself, Angus, Rose, Tom and Danielle (Doug's term ends this year due to him replacing Asren, who was in the same year as Amit/Bec etc).

James has 3 for sure, being himself, Tanner and Roz. Lauren could still be persuaded to vote left if they were to offer her VP. This would probably, however, be followed by a reciprocal offer from Hoare, thus neutralising this threat, so she's a tentatively safe vote for Hoare.

Simon's and Jackson's votes will most likely decide the new president, but I'm not going to go into any further detail about these two.

Also Susan, Toby Brennan was a Trot iirc, so definately not Labor Right.

 

[ujuphleg]

Re: Union AGM this wednesday

Toby Brennan?

I love it how no-ones talking about Simon or Jackson.