TW/CW: Transphobia, gender-based violence & ableism
Day 4 of the 36th NUS’ National Conference 2023 was filled with fatigue and frustration.
Honi Soit was not comfortable with the contents of today’s coverage and warns its readers that some messages may be disturbing.
Ballots deciding the twelve final General Executive positions were scheduled to take place at the beginning of the day, between 8am and 12pm. Although voting ran fairly smoothly, many delegates did not show up until the last hour due to an overconsumption of so-called “Unity Punch.”
Turns out a mixture of Barocca, Panadol and miscellaneous spirits does fuck all to prevent a hangover.
Following lunch, everyone gathered in Building Q for the final time to hear Returning Officer Jessica Fox announce the ballot results. A pie chart showing each representative’s faction can be seen below:
10 out of 12, or 83%, of elected positions belong to Unity, strengthening their already expanding control over the NUS. Looks like we’ll be hearing a lot more of “Unity Up!” – even if it has to come from the Chair himself, as it did today.
Outgoing General Secretary Sheldon Gait then gave the NUS’ annual financial report, which Honi was told we had to sit through for constitutional reasons. Listening to Gait’s monotonous drone, we would have much rather fallen asleep.
However, Honi was allowed to ask questions for the first time during the entire Conference. Alongside our comrades at Woroni and Farrago, we honed in on the disparity between travel and accommodation expenditures between 2022-2023, and the decrease in affiliation fee revenue over the same period.
Gait pointed to the costs of lobbying and bringing new universities into the NUS as reasons for these expenditure gaps, but was quick to note that “there has been a healthy surplus of $166,000 this year.”
He also failed to adequately answer our final question, stating “I am not an accountant.”
Our attention was brought back to the real world when SAlt moved an Emergency Motion focusing on the IDF massacre of women and children in a Gazan school discovered overnight.
While SAlt accused NLS of “doing nothing” with the NUS Presidency this year to “fight for Palestine”, Unity speakers disappointingly wielded identity politics by arguing “if you are not Arab, sit the fuck down.”
Whatever happened to the expressions of solidarity from all factions we saw last night?
Motion 7.14: Trans Remembrance & Resistance took us part of the way back there. Skye Predavec (ANU Grindies) delivered one of the most moving speeches of the week, telling delegates that “I love so many trans people in my life, in so many ways – even, and especially, the ones who are no longer with us. The ones I have lost. That’s why this motion is not just remembrance, it is resistance.”
Although all factions passed this motion, tensions rose as SAlt and Grassroots called out Unity’s attempts to bar trans and non-binary people from speaking during yesterday’s Women’s Chapter.
This comes after Honi received a tip that SAlt had also been engaging in transphobic behaviour throughout the Conference. Not only had the faction allegedly encouraged a USyd NLS man to be trans/non-binary/gender-diverse so he could speak during the Women’s Chapter, SAlt members were also overheard making jokes along the lines of “anyone can be a woman these days.”
When a trans woman called them out on the conference floor, SAlt reportedly asked “who let this man speak?”
Honi has also heard from multiple sources that SAlt members deliberately misgendered many trans women on Days 3 and 4, including those on NLS cog and the NUS President, Bailey Riley.
This animosity exploded within Bloc 1 of the Disabilities Chapter, covering 9.1: Abolish NDIS, For A University Disability Care System and 9.2: The Cost-Of-Living Crisis Is Making Disabled People’s Lives Worse.
While a speaker from NLS explained that the NDIS “has given me a world of opportunities I did not have before”, SAlt countered that the service was “created to privatise disability services in this country.”
SAlt ignored the procedural passed at the beginning of the motion requesting that delegates refrain from heckling and clapping at speakers to ensure accessibility. Their aggression only increased.
While these measures came too late in the Conference – many people could not attend at all because accessibility had not been considered in its organisation – SAlt’s behaviour remains ableist and unacceptable.
Instead of engaging with NLS speakers attempting to share their lived experiences of disability, SAlt yelled attacks condemning NLS’ inaction on the Palestinian genocide. Delegates began yelling and running at each other, and altercations almost became physical for the second day in a row.
Unity and NLS pulled quorum, rushing out of the room. As Honi left, we saw many delegates hugging and crying – we were also pushing back tears.
In response to SAlt’s abhorrent behaviour, Skye Predevac commented to Honi after the end of the session: “there is a line that you cross between pressure and abuse.”
And just like that, the National Conference of Students 2023 has collapsed. Honi is deflated, tired and hoping that our flights back to Gadigal CountryEora are not cancelled tomorrow.
Stay tuned on Instagram, X and our website as we tie up any loose ends over the next few days.
Disclaimer: Simone Maddison is a current member of USYD Grassroots & Zeina Khochaiche was previously affiliated with state Labor.
