Students flocked to the polls to cast their ballots in the 2023 Student Representative Council election as temperature-immunised campaigners of a thousand colours chased any potential vote for their respective factions.
The experience of voting is relatively mundane if campus democracy doesn’t fascinate you. However, the anxiety of having to interact with partisans militarily encircling the booths may lead you to think it’s more of a challenge than it actually is. I found it quite easy to get through, with some short polite conversations, a respectful rebuke of a Left Action campaigner, and the admitted good fortune of knowing some of those campaigning.
As the mercury evaporates, however, the ongoing Battle of Camperdown is not the only impediment to students voting. Walking across campus to the polling centre of the day necessitates accepting some amount of burnt skin.
One must naturally wonder what’s behind this conveniently-timed heat-blast. The Australian climate? Climate change? Perhaps, an intentional act of voter suppression?
Of course. The sudden inflammation of temperatures makes it clear that someone or something with a vested interest has attempted to undermine the election of Australia’s most inflammatory Student Representative Council. This actor wanted to keep potential voters away from the ballot boxes. Perhaps the Gymbros wished to keep anyone but their athletically-inclined target demographic confined to air-conditioned spaces. This would have been a cunning strategy, a targeted attack that would disproportionately affect the voting base of their opponents more than their own. Alas, it is not enough on its own for a strong performance at the polls.
It was more likely someone who wishes to entirely delegitimise the SRC, rather than gain influence within it. A mastermind, if you will, rather than a schemer, who knows that by reducing turnout one hinders the SRC’s claim to speak for students. This could only have been Mark Scott AO, Vice Chancellor and noted punching bag for student pollies.
A genius strategy! Kudos, aye, kudos to he! The SRC has the potential to be a thorn in the side of university management. Undermining it so that only the candidates themselves voted would make an even greater mockery of student politicians than they make of themselves. The endorsement of the SRC would be a liability for anything that receives it. No more five-day simple extensions, and that’d be merely the start!
A newfound respect overcomes me for our much-maligned, dismissed, and battered student politicians that brave all for their convictions, or careers. A scorching sun cannot keep them away, and I know torrential rain would have no better luck.
I salute thee, no matter thy stripes — give Mr. Scott a fitting adversary and, for our sakes, try to do some good.