ANU activists commit to NUS referendum
By Martin Iltis
CANBERRA — Australian National University student activists are busy collecting the 800 signatures necessary to force a referendum on affiliation to the National Union of Students (NUS) after a motion put to the students association general meeting was approved 50-30 but failed to get the required two-thirds majority.
The main opposition came from the ANU Liberal Club, which organised a stack of the meeting. Labor students were conspicuous by their absence.
According to ANU Resistance activist Amanda Lawrence, "The fact that Labor students failed to turn up to the meeting is typical of their total lack of commitment to the education campaign".
Lawrence added, "Resistance is committed to a referendum and to ANU affiliating. We'll be collecting signatures and gathering support. We're confident that we'll manage it. But when there is an election for NUS delegates, students should think very carefully about voting for any ticket connected to Labor. People would be better served electing activists, like those in Resistance, who will try to make NUS into a body really capable of fighting the Liberal government."
At the same general meeting, a motion was carried condemning Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party for its racist policies and calling for the ANU to be declared a "Hanson/One Nation free zone". The motion demanded that the student association endorse campaigns and pickets should One Nation organise anything on campus.
Members of the Democrats voted against the motion, presumably swayed by arguments that the motion stifled free speech and that rallies against Hanson promote violence. Supporters of the motion pointed out that Hanson has unlimited opportunities to express her views through parliament and the media, and these views give confidence to extreme racists to bash migrants and Aboriginals.