MATT TINNING was recently elected the 1997 president of the Australian National University Student Association on the "Counter Attack" ticket. ANU Resistance club activist MARTIN ILTIS spoke to him about his plans for next year.
Question: Can you outline some of your main policies?
The cuts to education are the big issue. This year's Labor administration was very flat-footed about the education campaign. We're going to make it a very big priority and want to involve as many students as possible in opposing the regressive initiatives this government has put in place.
You can expect an administration that will be fighting very hard in the [university] council and in meetings with the administration to make sure that the 4.9% funding cut is distributed in a way which is as palatable to undergraduates as possible. Obviously, our number one priority is stopping the cut, but in the event that it goes through we'll be fighting very hard for undergraduates, because ANU's main agenda is research.
Question: The Education Action Group was set up this year as a cross-campus forum, open to all students who wanted to organise against education cuts. Will Counter Attack work with these activists to build campaigns next year?
Yes. This Liberal government has got so many people offside. The way to beat it is to make sure everyone is working together to oppose it. One of the mistakes the Labor administration made this year was to exclude people who were keen to effectively oppose the Liberal government.
I intend to devote myself to the campaign, and you can expect opposition which is strategic, broad based and enthusiastic.
Question: During the election campaign, some people claimed that your "independent" ticket was actually an ALP front. Is this true?
We're neither a Labor front nor within the Labor framework very strongly. Of the 22 people who ran on our ticket, two had had some affiliation with Labor students in the past and one continued to have an association. The condition on which they were included was that they would put student interests ahead of Labor interests.
On the ideological spectrum, I would place Counter Attack in between the Labor ticket and the Education Action Group.
Question: Counter Attack does not have a binding caucus. Could this make it difficult to implement some of your election promises?
John Howard had a binding caucus, and he hasn't had such a good record since March 2. There's a bit of a myth around Labor circles that a binding caucus equals kept promises. The way promises are kept is to have people with integrity on your ticket and people who believe in the agenda which you've set.
The absence of a binding caucus will open up the opportunity for people from the Education Action Group and other tickets who were elected to argue their case in the Student Representative Council and possibly convince Counter Attack people of their arguments.
Question: What should the Student Association's main priorities be in 1997?
Opposition to the cuts and the Liberals' agenda, and the importance of student representation. We need to make sure the association is very visible. The Liberal ticket in the elections campaigned for voluntary student unionism, promising to give back $30 to every student. They didn't do particularly well, but they did better than you'd expect in the current political environment.
What concerns me is that while the association is crucial to the welfare of student bodies, the average student is not very aware of that. I'll be making sure that the association is doing a lot of good things next year and that the student body sees those things. This year's administration hasn't had a meeting for five months, and that's not good for the accountability of the two-person executive. I'll be making sure that we involve more people.