BY JESS MELVIN
MELBOURNE — On July 21, the Age newspaper reported on "scandals" of mismanagement and abuse within the Melbourne University Student Union (MUSU). Since then, regular follow-up articles have continued to argue that the union is in "crisis".
Much of what the Age has revealed is appalling. For the last few years, MUSU has been run by a Labor Right-led coalition, which has persecuted left-wing activists, ignored basic democratic principles, sacked staff under dubious circumstances and, apparently, made some very bad investment decisions that students may be paying off for years to come.
In September, student officials spent an estimated $100,000 of MUSU funds on $8 food vouchers in an attempt to "encourage" students to vote.
The vouchers were supplied to all students who voted. But it is hardly democratic to bribe students who have no interest in voting, to vote. Given that the more politically aware students, who tend to be left-wing, are more likely to vote, the tactic was designed to benefit the conservative incumbents, and probably worked. Voter participation in the election jumped from 2000 in 2001 to 11,000 during the 2002 election.
MUSU's own legal advice, explained in a letter from law firm B2B's Tim Sowden to then MUSU president Darren Ray two months before the election, warned: "the voucher system would fail under the Tertiary Education Act and possibly under clause 13 of the MUSU constitution ... We assume that the effect of the voucher system in increasing voter numbers would favour the more moderate political parties."
The Age has highlighted a dodgy property deal undertaken by Ray. The union has taken out a 20-year lease on the Elizabeth Towers hotel and vacant land in Elizabeth Street, Carlton for $46 million, or $2.3 million a year.
If the union defaults on repayments, the contract authorises the university to take the money out of student union fees. According to the Age, the deal was signed before MUSU had received legal advice.
The Age has also documented a number of the Labor Right students' attacks on staff. A July 25 article quotes the National Tertiary Education Union's Victorian secretary, Michael McGowan, accusing some in the union of "thuggery". "It's chaos in there", he said.
But while attacking the officials, the Age skips over Labor Right students' attacks on democracy. In 2002, Ray and his supporters attacked elected left-wing office bearers, going so far as to lock the education officers out of their office.
Also in 2002, the MUSU board made it significantly harder for students to call it to account, dramatically increasing quorum for student general meetings and making it harder to hold student referenda.
The Age is less interested in this, because it is seeking to create the impression that all student officials are corrupt, undemocratic and incompetent.
"The elected student council and the student executive powerbrokers", mused the paper's Martin Daly on July 21, "tend to be aged between 17 and 20 and are invariably divided. They are paid to run the union along with professional management that some say is often at the student's mercy."
The result is implied support for the federal government's "voluntary student unionism" legislation, proposed as part of its higher education reform package. This may also be an aim of the university administration, which has ordered an audit into MUSU.
Students have the right, however, to determine who is spending their money, and more importantly, how it is spent. Corruption and mismanagement need to be defeated by more accountability to students — not less. If the university takes the administration fee away from student-elected organisations, students will have no control over their funds at all.
It is only through students organising to increase democracy at Melbourne University that corruption can be dealt a decisive blow. A union democratically run week-to-week is in the best position to defend students rights and stop the Coalition government's attacks on higher education.
A national day of action has been called for August 27 in opposition to these attacks, including planned voluntary student unionism legislation. Those who believe in student democracy need to be there.
[Jess Melvin is a member of the socialist youth organisation Resistance.]
From Green Left Weekly, August 6, 2003.
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