Rescheduled date, last minute room change. But same old antics. What else can we expect from your favourite student representatives?
First, SRC President Harrison Brennan (Grassroots) announced the resignations of Global Solidarity Officer Tamsyn Smith (SAlt) and Queer Officer Tim Duff (QuAC). The reasons for these resignations remain unknown.
Many-time Electoral Officer Riki Scanlan then addressed the Council about regulations pertaining to the upcoming SRC elections. They confirmed that there will be 39 representatives elected in the 2025 council, with the in-person polling booth system continued from last year. On August 8, Scanlan will hold a briefing about nominations and on September 4, one about the campaign process including rules surrounding campaigning and expenses.
Brennan then delivered his President’s Report, centering on the campaign against the recently-announced Campus Access Policy (CAP). He explained that it was an “attack on freedom of speech,” and that alongside students, “staff are also rightly pissed… it’s a completely shocking attack.” He noted that the first motion of the upcoming Student General Meeting will include a demand for the repeal of CAP.
Brennan also noted that the SRC should be concerned about the proposed international students cap being introduced by the Albanese government in January 2025. Not only did Harrison call the cap a “racist assumption,” but also claimed that it “signals an austerity budget” which may include cuts to SSAF. He also reminded students that simple extensions were currently under review and may be under threat.
There was then an exchange between Brennan and Simon Upitis (SAlt) about whether Labor politicians should have been invited to the encampment in the context of Senator Fatima Payman’s recent defection from the Labor party. The result was an agreement that Labor politicians should cross the floor before joining the encampment or other forms of activism.
Deaglan Godwin (SAlt) and Jasmine Donnelly (NLS) then delivered the Vice Presidents’ report which focused on future campaigns against the new Campus Access Policy (CAP) and litigating the National Union of Students (NUS)’s involvement — “or lack thereof”, as Godwin explained — in the Gaza solidarity encampment.
Donnelly said fighting the CAP is the “main campaign” but also mentioned that there would be a tour of the Red Cross medical injecting centre in early September to continue the SRC’s support of drug reform in NSW.
Rose Donnelly (NLS) and Dan O’Shea (Unity) delivered their General Secretary report, telling the council that “nothing has changed on the budget since the last time we showed it.” Honi reported on those details in previous council coverage.
Some interesting expenses include $3,344 for Cold calling and $58,455 for an affiliation fee to the NUS, as well as $1,842 for a Video content creation/development training course. It should also be noted that the upcoming SRC elections will cost $63,501.
Donnelly came under pressure from Upitis who pressed her on Union support for the upcoming Unauthorised Stalls Day. “You mentioned Union NSW [for CAP]. What had you done to secure their support?”, he asked. Godwin and Maddie Clark (SAlt) asked her similar questions with the former saying Donnelly’s response that NLS were working on it was a “major cop-out.” “It’s not enough to say you don’t know, we need detail,” Clark continued.
The meeting then moved onto motions which began with our very own Huw Bradshaw being elected with no dissent as the 10th Honi editor. We could not agree with Jasmine Donnelly more when she said that “I think it’s a good idea to have a full 10 person Honi team.”
The next motion demanded the SRC stand in solidarity with Bangladeshi students who are currently dying in the streets protesting unequal university entrance laws. Grace Street (Grassroots) listed the 9 demands of the students in the motion and announced there would be a teach-in on the topic on August 7th.
The 9 demands include a Prime Ministerial apology, dismissal of politicians, police administrators and university officials involved in the government response, police officer arrests, compensation for victims, a ban on party-affiliated student politics on campuses and amnesty for student activists.
Ishbel Dunsmore (Grassroots) noted there was currently a media blackout, but that the “last report we got from sources on the ground was that 160 students had been murdered” and that there were allegations of torture. The motion was carried with all speakers highlighting that attacks on students anywhere was an attack on students everywhere.
The next motion which called on the SRC to stand with Fatima Payman and protest the Labor Party’s support of genocide started a massive debate on how decisive her interactions with student encampments were to her positions changing, and how much support she should get.
SAlt speakers like Jasmine Al-Rawi and Lauren Finlayson argued that it was aggressive debates — allegedly led by SAlt, according to SAlt speakers — students had with Payman at Usyd and Curtin University that were crucial in her leaving the party. Al-Rawi said that her leaving “has been a real vindication of the politics of opposing the Labor party” and Finlayson said that “we need to draw out our enemies from day one,” including the Labor party.
Grassroots speakers, on the other hand, such as Rand Khatib and Alistair Panzarino, argued that the hostility that Payman faced was unnecessary. Additionally, they criticised SAlt’s claim that their conversations with Payman were the decisive reason behind her crossing the floor. “Challenging someone’s politics is different to 20 people surrounding someone in a mob,” Khatib said.
After multiple speeches from both sides, Upitis moved a motion to open a new speaker list in an attempt to force Grassroots to defend its position. The motion succeeded and multiple other SAlt speakers including Uptis then reiterated the argument that any support for Labor is incompatible with the movement, and that interacting calmly with Payman represented a form of “respectability politics.”
Another threat from Godwin that he would again reopen the speakers list caused Jordan Anderson (Grassroots) to take up the challenge to defend the Grassroots position. They emphasised that “Grassroots thinks it’s a shame it took 9 months. We certainly need to be hard on the Labor party.”
A second procedural motion to continue the speaking list carried with NLS voting with SAlt against Grassroots. Al-Rawi directed her comments at Khatib, causing her to interrupt and disagree on a semantic point on whether Khatib supported “private discussions” as opposed to “public debate” as a mechanism for change.
Finally, a vote was had on the motion which carried unanimously despite the previous debates.
Bridge (Queer Officer) then introduced the next motion which condemns the Philosophy Department for inviting transphobic philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith to speak as part of a seminar series. Bridge called her a “a transphobe and a bigot” who is linked to neo-Nazis who attended her anti-Trans rally in Melbourne in March this year.
Other speakers like Khatib and Dunsmore highlighted that the protest on August 14 against her seminar would be a crucial test for the new CAP and that students would need to show up in large numbers to prevent the rally from being shut down. Brennan pointed out that these efforts could involve “resisting campus security or police.”
Bridge noted that TERFs were not feminists and often called for the criminalisation of the highly feminised industry of sex work. “This is not the first time we have opposed Terfs on or near this campus,” Bridge said, “we have quite a history of it. We organised the successful rally against Kelly Jay Keane.”
All factions confirmed they would help build support for the rally and the motion passed with no dissent.
The penultimate motion brought attention back to the CAP policy. Godwin, moving the motion, pointed out that unlike other policies which are more targeted, “the achilles heel” of the CAP is the broad sweep of its attack not just on activists, but also ordinary clubs and societies who can be brought into the movement.
Godwin and other SAlt speakers like Tobias Hansson and Emma Searle pointed out that the student response to this policy would set a precedent for other Universities who would want to implement similar policies. This, they argued, demanded a mass movement including Unions, staff, and students.
Brennan pointed out that Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott and the University more broadly has used the history of activism at Usyd as a marketing tool while at the same time shutting down protests. He claimed he was “reaching out” to the Greens and political organisations to get more stalls.
Jasmine Donnelly conceded that NLS efforts to get union support were unlikely to succeed but said that NLS, because they were not a registered club, had a “self interest” in taking this campaign seriously.
After passing unanimously, the council moved to its final motion on the recent political debate around nuclear energy and the push by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to build Nuclear power plants across regional Australia.
Brennan called the storage of nuclear waste “dangerous” and argued Labor, while opposing this policy, was happy to support nuclear powered submarines with its passage of the AUKUS deal.
Other speakers like Searle and Street pointed out this had to be understood in the context of wider attempts by the Liberal and Labor party to open new coal and gas projects which are often built on sacred First Nations land.
The motion was carried and after a procedural motion to move all of the other reports on block, the meeting was closed at a very reasonable 9:08pm — a surprise to be sure.