By Tim E. Stewart
DARWIN — In recent elections for the Northern Territory University Student Union, the Higher Education Action Team won two of the three executive positions and two of the three council positions it contested. Resistance and HEAT ticket member Sibylle Kaczorek won the position of education vice-president.
The highest profile ticket during elections was ACCESS (affordable child-care, computing, education and student services) whose candidates won president, council chairperson and equal opportunity officer (by nine votes more than the HEAT candidate). Young Labor did not to run but scrutineering for ACCESS was done by the ALP.
Before nominations for NTU's three National Union of Students delegates closed, there was some concern among HEAT ticket members that association with Resistance would alienate voters. Resistance agreed to run Sibylle Kaczorek independently for NUS delegate, while directing preferences to HEAT.
Out of 11 candidates, the primary vote for Resistance was 98, and 28 for HEAT. ACCESS won 127 votes and current Student Union president Zane Whitehorn won 126 votes.
Kaczorek said, "the results highlighted the support for education campaign activists. Resistance and HEAT began to politicise campus by associating the student union elections with the last six months of rallies and campus actions. Resistance successfully ran for NUS, openly arguing for activist-based student organisations that build campaigns, not careers. The momentum generated now should focus on the real battle: The night votes were being counted, we heard news of massive cuts to the Arts faculty."