Spill was represented by Ellie Robertson and Will Winter in their interview and Emilie Garcia-Dolnik and Aidan Pollock in their quiz
Quiz Score: 50%
Members: Ellie Robertson, Mehnaaz Hossain, Purny Ahmed, Ondine Karpinellison, Lotte Weber, Imogen Sabey, Emilia Garcia-Dolnik, Annabel Li, Aidan Pollock and Will Winter.
Ah, the annual interview with the uncontested Honi Soit ticket is upon us. Not a question of who can best who, but if these Honi hopefuls are up to the task.
As in most cases, Spill was bright-eyed and hopeful, with many seasoned writers lining their ticket and big dreams for Honi Soit in 2025. Despite these bold ambitions, Spill seemed shaky in their team’s political values, vision for a more activist paper, and knowledge of key issues in higher education. Like for many Honi teams, the summer break will be a busy one, with days spent underground in the Wentworth bunker.
Spill sits the Quiz:
Scoring 50% on the quiz, Spill demonstrated some institutional knowledge and has clearly kept up with recent Honi news, correctly recalling the Chancellors Book Fair’s partnership with Lifeline, the renovation of the Darlington terrares, the cuts to Philosophy and recent policies impacting international students.
Knowledge about Palestinian activism, however, was inconsistent. Garcia-Dolnik and Pollock were able to identify the motions passed at the August Student General Meeting and list many Universities who had encampments but finer details like the SUMSA deal with management, the Coalition’s inquiry into alleged anti-Semitism, and the University’s academic relations with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem were missed.
Most concerning, however, was the lack of higher education knowledge. They were unable to identify either the Federal or State Education Minister, a repeat question asked every year, and struggled to recall what the University Accord Report was, let alone what the report recommended. They were unable to explain the specific role of the National Student Ombudsman which is to tackle Sexual Assault and Sexual Harrassment claims on university campuses. Spill’s quiz results are the lowest since 2019: each year’s quiz is constructed similarly based on recent Honi news and SRC, campus and political happenings.
Spill’s Politics
After consistently describing their politics as “left wing,” Honi asked Spill to describe what this actually meant: asking for a description of their politics which excludes the words “left” and “wing”, a task familiar to any lovers of the game Taboo. After all, anyone from Albanese to Lenin might describe themselves as such.
“We understand why this is important, but we haven’t had the big intense conversation”, responded Winter, before taking a moment to confer with Robertson. After deliberation, Robertson described their platform’s politics as “feminist, anti-racist, LGBQTI+, collaboration and liberation.”
When asked what issues they wanted to focus on, Robertson answered that Palestine, fighting the Campus Access Policy, the international student caps, and student accommodation were the issues the team wanted to prioritise.
Spill proposed having more explainer content on the SRC, and spending more time diving into the debates at council. This was framed as an “accessibility” policy, where including exhaustive transcripts of council were suggested as a way to ramp up the coverage. With it being a challenge for Honi editors each year to keep council coverage engaging, it is unclear how providing exhaustive transcripts will actually improve the accessibility, or the appeal, of council to the average student.
Under their editorial tenure, Spill stated that more space in Honi would be provided for SRC councillors and members of collectives to contribute “insightful perspectives that we can publish in the paper”. This was combined with a desire for “close-knit relations with student activists” as outlined in their policies. When questioned on what this would look like, Robertson stated this would require a “willingness to be actively engaging with individuals that are involved in relevant political issues” and “making it accessible for OB’s within their activist spaces to also be contributing”.
Spill was adamant that these close relations and increase in partnerships with the SRC would not impact their ability to cover student politics impartially. When pushed on whether Spill’s factional ties could influence which groups benefit from these closer ties, Robertson stated that she would be leaving Grassroots at the end of her OB term.
Spill Policies
Beyond engagement with student politics, the rest of Spill’s policy platform focused on building up and extending the Honi community both Robterson and Winter said they cherished as reporters.
One of their policies is a weekly stall on Eastern Avenue to promote the paper and attract new artists and reporters. This is not a bad idea in itself, but many of Spill’s policies would effect a significant increase in editor workloads. Combining the stall, fortnightly meetups, and a push for more digital content, Spill’s time could be spread very thin.
When asked if they thought the investment was worth it, considering regular Honi events get inconsistent attendance, they argued even getting a small number of new people more engaged was worth the investment.
Spill highlighted that making art a larger part of the paper was also crucial to their design vision. They aim to establish pages for artists on the website, similar to reporters, so artists can have digital portfolios.
Robertson suggested investigation pieces as another aspect of the paper Spill would prioritise, arguing that “We haven’t really seen too many of [them] just in general, like in the past few years.” When asked how they aimed to achieve this, Robertson stated that “the community of people that are willing to give us information” would be expanded if Honi was able to reach other corners of campus.
A stronger balance was struck on news coverage. Robertson was upfront that they needed to upskill in news quickly while also carving out some specific instances — such as reports where there is advance notice — where reporters can be given opportunities for news coverage.
Conclusion
Spill is a group of talented writers with a clear passion for Honi as a community and a voice for students on campus.
Some of their policies — such as a revamp of how art and artists are represented on the website, as well as an interest in developing more video content — are insightful and demonstrate a passion for expanding the reach of Honi.
However, like many Honi tickets have before them, they seek to prioritise everything without sacrificing anything. If Spill wishes to make significant changes to Honi Soit, some serious, practical discussions need to be held regarding what sort of newspaper they want to produce and what parts of it they are willing to cut loose.
