Honi Soit: Introduce yourself, give us your name, degree, year of study and factor.
Thomas Thorpe: My name is Thomas Thorpe. I’m a fourth year civil engineering student at the University of Sydney. My faction, I guess, is the conservative faction or the Liberals.
HS: What’s the name of your campaign and what colour are you running on?
TT: The name of our campaign is Save the SRC. Our colour is a light blue colour.
HS: How is campaigning going so far?
TT: I’ve been really encouraged throughout the process. I’ve been able to meet up with a lot of friends and get support from them. It’s been really encouraging to see how supportive people have been of me doing this. It’s been, at times, quite tricky. There were a lot of times where I, prior to nominating, was thinking, “maybe I’ll nominate, maybe I won’t nominate.”
There were a lot of concerns that I had to work through before making the decision. But I think so far I’m thankful to have made the decision to nominate. I’m excited to see how it keeps going. I’m not sure exactly how I’ll go, but I think giving it a go is good to do.
HS: Why did you join the Conservatives, or Liberals, and how long have you been a member?
TT: I joined — it would have been in second year — so two and a half years ago. I joined because for a long time I’ve been quite interested in politics. When I was in school, I had several conversations with my friends about different things. I liked to have discussions, especially when there was disagreement. I think I was drawn to politics generally, and then in terms of why I joined this faction; I think it’s the one which aligned most with my values. I don’t think by any means there’s 100% overlap, but I think predominantly I align more with the conservatives.
I think part of the good thing about the conservatives on campus is that they include quite a broad range of beliefs, so there is a lot of room for disagreement among people. There’s no uniform list of things you have to agree with to be in the faction. And I think in terms of why I’ve stayed on, the social community’s been really good. Intellectually, it’s been challenging, which is, I think, a helpful thing. And it’s presented me with good opportunities to help others; serve the university, serve other students.
HS: Just as a follow up to that, could you give us one example of a belief or position that you hold that you think aligns with one of the other factions on campus?
TT: I think sometimes conservative politics can be a bit too focused on the ideas instead of the people. I think you need a good balance of both. I think it is necessary to have truth, but I think you always need grace to pair with truth. I think sometimes on some issues, the truth can be wielded like a hammer. Or what people believe to be the truth. That’s not the best way for a society to function.
An example is, say, the student accommodation issue. I think there are some good arguments raised on the other side, and the other side does try to do good things, in that they’re wanting to open up more spaces for students, or cheaper rates for students to afford accommodation. But it’s not always feasible to do that. And I think instead of having genuine discussion, it just gets into a shouting match. That’s been my experience in the SRC. So I think that’s unhelpful.
HS: Could we just ask what faction specifically you find most unhelpful? What is the other side in that scenario?
TT: I think a quality of, say, Labor Right or Labor Left is that they’ve wanted to be able to provide cheaper student accommodation for students. Which I think is a really good goal to have. I disagree with them in that I think you can’t just say student accommodation is going to be cheaper now. You can’t just set it from the top like that. The disagreement with my own faction would be more so on the approach to that issue, and how we’re discussing it.
HS: Are you a member of any political party?
TT: Yes, I’m a member of the Young Liberal Party.
HS: How long have you been a member of the Liberal Party?
TT: Three and a half years.
HS: If you had to describe your politics in a few sentences, what would they be?
TT: I’d say my politics is fundamentally about trying to make society better. And I think the way you do that: it’s all about loving people. I’m a Christian and I believe Jesus Christ says, the greatest command is to love God and the second is to love your neighbour. So I think that’s the fundamental guiding principle behind all things.
In terms of how that acts out, I’d say my politics is generally trying to help people do what is best for people. Generally I think that is more on the conservative side of things. With that being said, I do think that there’s always things to be improved upon. I don’t think conservatism is about, let’s just keep everything the way it is right now. I think it’s “look at what’s good, keep that, or try to cultivate that and improve that.” And things which need improvement, let’s think about why it is the way it is, what’s an alternative, how can we do it better? Because sometimes the downside of politics is that there’s nothing good. You’re just looking for the least bad solution, using rationality and reason to think about that.
HS: Could you briefly state why you think you’re qualified to be the next SRC president?
TT: Something I’ve been realising as I’ve researched the role and prepared for the campaign, is that there’s three levels to it. I’d say there’s a character level, a conviction level, and a competency level.
So I’ll start with the competency. As I’ve been researching, I’ve noticed so much of the role is really about the governance side of things: how the university runs, how the student representative council approaches that. Obviously the president is the head of that body. I think I’ve been very fortunate in my life to have a lot of great chances to cultivate those competencies of governance. For example, just at university I’ve been on two society executives. I’ve been in the SRC before and held an office bearer role there. I am on the board of a charity.
I’ve had multiple experiences and as a part of that, I’ve been able to do policy review, write policies, think about the big picture things of our goal as a collective, or as a council or whatever it is. And picking from possible ways forward which one best achieves the object that we’re trying to achieve. So I think that’s a really strong competency thing.
In terms of conviction, I think that I’m suitable for the role because my conviction is to serve the students and put them first above myself. The reality is when you’re elected with a 5% voter turnout, the SRC could very well not represent the interests of the students. And I do think that is how it’s operating right now. Part of my goal is to be someone who’s more representative of the interests of the students. I think my conviction, my motive behind that, I think is good because I want to serve them and serve God.
Then the third part is the character element. I think I display a mature character. I think when we look at our recent SRC presidents, I don’t think they’re necessarily going into it for bad motives, however the emphasis on radicality — which is a phrase that I heard a lot in the SRC last year — I don’t think that’s productive at all. I don’t think that’s a helpful character element for someone in that position. I think if you’re meant to be representing the students, you want to actually be able to reason. Whereas if you’re just trying to be radical or get people angry — that’s another quote that was used often in the SRC — you’re not going to do a good job because often emotional decisions are not good decisions.
I think I’ve got quite a cool head for these sorts of things, and an ability to work with people I disagree with. I think that the SRC has often been unwilling to have good disagreement. Last year, prior to the Voice Referendum, there was a motion discussing whether the SRC should run a panel on the Voice. We had the Indigenous Officer, Ben, Getting up there and saying, we should do a panel involving people from both sides so that you can actually hear the differing opinions. And then the rest of the SRC, almost all of them were getting up and saying, “no, we can’t have dissenting opinions.” I don’t think that’s helpful at all. I think that’s a contrast, which I can draw: I’ve had many experiences of working with people I disagree with and I think that’s a really strong thing that I can bring.
HS: You claim you intend to emphasise action over activism in your policy statement. the SRC has traditionally performed an activist function alongside student services work. How will this change under your presidency?
TT: Yeah, that’s a good question. If we look at a lot of the really significant things which the SRC has undertaken over the recent years, two which come to my mind are the Staff Strikes and all of the stuff with the Gaza-Israel-Palestine-conflict. I think actually quite often the SRC and the members of that body have had some real good concerns to raise.
When there was one of the staff strikes last year, I decided to go down to the picket line and was chatting with members of the picket line and trying to find out, “what do you guys actually want to achieve?” And those conversations were really good. Sometimes they were really good changes to be made. I’m a staff of the University and I’ve greatly benefited from the changes which have been made.
When I’m talking about action over activism, I think that often the SRC has become focused on just having the showboating sort of image. They want to look like they’re doing something, even though it’s often unproductive. If we look at the strikes, the University said we’re only going to be able to come to a deal when you come to the table and discuss. Yet the SRC and the NTEU did not do that for quite a long time and continued striking.
It was when the strikes ended and negotiations continued. that a deal was actually reached.
I think a similar thing about the Gaza encampment. War is terrible, and it’s good to want peace. The encampment wasn’t achieving anything. That’s activism, not achieving action. So, I think if you actually want to do something, you have to actually discuss it, not throw tantrums around.
HS: You mentioned that you want to emphasise governance over parliamentary politics. However, you are linked to the Liberal party and other factions, including Grassroots — who are running a candidate against you in the presidential election — are not officially aligned to any party. How will you navigate your party alignment as president?
TT: My candidacy is not linked at all to the Liberal Party. I’m not running as a member of the Liberal Party. That’s because I think often the SRC is focused on all these parliamentary politics things, or things which are just completely not within the purview of the SRC. We saw it two nights ago at the council. There was a motion to abolish prisons. The University doesn’t have any prisons! So that’s what I’m getting at there.
HS: You say you want to emphasise reason over radicality. Could you explain what you mean by reason?
TT: Yep. So I’ve mentioned it a bit before, but the SRC — when I was there last year — there was so much talk about “we want people to be angry, we want people to be radical.” That’s not conducive to making good decisions.
TT: So reason — just a bit of philosophy behind it. Some of the ancient Greek thinkers talked about our telos or our purpose to be as being to reason; that is to critically think, to use curiosity and ingenuity to actually come up with solutions to problems. That’s what I’m talking about when I talk about reason. And I think that’s a skill which I’ve developed a lot, through previous experiences on society executives, the governance roles, in my workplaces and so on. I think as an engineer, that’s a really big skill I’ve developed. It is an important skill in an engineering sense, but it’s a transferable skill that can be brought into this position.
HS: And your policy platform is quite brief compared to other candidates. Could you explain why this is?
TT: I haven’t seen the other candidate’s platforms yet, so I can’t talk to them. To be honest, I did have more policies. I didn’t send them all through because I thought when I was approached by Angus, he just wanted a couple of them. but I think to do with the nature of my policies, they are probably a different focus to what we’re used to from SRC candidates. trying to focus more on what the students want. Some of my policies were crafted in consultation with students from different areas of the university. So I think even if they are briefer, I think they’re more impactful. I think quality is much more important than quantity.
HS: Evidence by the large vocal student support for the student general meeting, Palestine is an issue the student body cares about greatly. However, it is not mentioned in your policy platform. Why?
TT: Because it’s not; I think the university, the student body has done pretty much everything it can, on that matter. It’s been discussed in the SRC, I think, for years. it’s also not something that the SRC or the SRC president can really do.
I do agree. I want peace there. I think there’s a lot of tragedy happening. and there’s so many good things which we, who could do, but they’re just not within the realm of what’s actually part of the role.
Yes, the absolute number, 700 plus students, is quite large. However, we’ve got about, I think, 70 or 80, 000 students in total in the university, undergrad, postgrad. So the actual percentage, it’s quite a low number, only about 1 percent of the student body. I don’t think many students are particularly interested in the issue. at least at the SRC level, because it’s not really something the SRC can do much about.
TT: What were the stunts pulled?
HS: Well, I can’t name all of them, but Freya Leach, Satvik, and many other members of the Liberal faction were heckling…
TT: I think there needs to be room for dissent. I don’t think it’s helpful to just assume our position, no matter who we are, is the correct opinion to have. I was at the SGM and I did intend to get up and speak, but I had to leave, and then when I came back, speaking went closed.
I don’t always agree with my fellow faction members in their approach, I don’t think heckling is particularly useful. But I have to say the majority of the heckling came from the other side. When Freya or Satvik got up to speak, they were really prevented from speaking or it was made really difficult by the amount of heckling and shouting and booing.
That’s something I’ve experienced in the SRC. When I was there last year, I offered dissent and the same thing happens. I’ve had something thrown at me before on the council. So I’d say in terms of how I’d manage the issue itself, I think it’s an issue which really needs a lot of listening.
TT: I think it’s just an issue where there’s so much difficulty and no perfect solution. So I’m here to listen to people. I don’t think the SRC really has a way to end the conflict.
It can express the desire to stop the weapons, stop partnering with weapons manufacturers, which it’s already done or the SGM did, and the SRC has done for a long time as well. But like I think of my experiences this year, I was at the Ramadan night markets every week. So I was there four times in Lakemba.
And I was able to have conversations with many people of Middle Eastern background. And I think of one guy, I was chatting with him, and he’d come over on his own: so he’s got no family here, doesn’t really have any friends. He was really depressed, found it really difficult, because he’s in an unfamiliar environment. He wasn’t enjoying his work, whatever, like, he was not in a good place at all. And I think if we’re to be caring for our fellow students and loving people, we need to be able to be slow to speak and quick to listen and slow to get angry. And I think that’s a change which I can make, which I’ve seen no indication of, in the SRC.
HS: you note in your policy that you aim to improve the environment, yet focus solely on waste and rubbish around campus. Given the university is not committed to full divestment from fossil fuels, fossil fuel related investments, do you think this policy is a superficial response?
TT: I think when it comes to the environment, there are several different elements to how the policies, like policy areas. So yeah, the ones I’ve focused on, I’ve been focusing on waste sort of things. And I think that’s a really important issue when you walk around the university. All the time there’s rubbish, like on Eastern Avenue or in the gardens or whatever. Quite often, like I’ve had times before where I’ve picked up the rubbish and tried to go on to put it in a bin and the bin’s overflowing.
I think that’s something to look for. I’ve probably submitted to you our policy to install a return and earn bin on campus — these are policies, by the way, which got rejected by the SRC last year, which just goes to show the immaturity where they don’t want to hear opinions from people they disagree with, even if the opinions are actually good, or helpful things in terms of the focus on those things and not BDS.
I think it’s just not really feasible to move completely away from fossil fuels at this stage. Like I’ve got family over in Europe, when they had the heat waves last year in the summer, they had to have power curfews. And that’s really difficult, and it’s not good for people.
You think of elderly people, that’s not good. Think of similar things in the winter, places where it gets really cold. That’s not good for people. I think in Australia we don’t generally reach as critical temperature issues or other weather conditions. But I’d say It’s still not feasible.
I did environmental engineering two years ago, and one of the things we looked at is how many solar panels, how many wind turbines, how many offshore wind turbines, all these different energy mechanisms, how many of these would we need to be able to cover for the amount of energy which we consume. And I think from memory something like even if you covered the entirety of Tasmania and solar panels, you wouldn’t have enough. So I think it’s good to be moving away, but I don’t think it’s good yet to completely shift off things.
HS: So to clarify, policy combating climate change is not part of your general goal as a president?
TT: No. But I also don’t think it’s exactly within the purview of the SRC to decide energy policy.
HS: You have two policy areas relating to international students. What is your stance on the international student caps?
TT: The interesting thing about the international student cap is that it’s quite a bit larger than the actual number of international students that we have. I’m all for international students coming here. I think it’s a great way to help people from other parts of the world by sharing that access with them.
I don’t know exactly what the government’s trying to achieve with the cap, but it’s a bit redundant at this stage. I did speak with one of my international student friends. I asked him, well, what do you think about this, and how do you think other international students would feel? And he’s like, “I don’t think it would really change much.” If anything, he actually thinks it might help. because if there’s a cap it might make it seem more prestigious to come here.
HS: As a Liberal/conservative, you will be likely to be a minority alongside an SRC dominated by the left. How will you work with other members of the executive with vastly different ideologies to your own?
TT: Yeah. As I said before, I have had experience of, you know, working with people I disagree with. For example, over the winter, I had the opportunity to go do some humanitarian engineering work in India, in a vastly different culture. So dealing with people who have different values, who have different approaches to things. When you’re working with people of different ideologies humility is really key, recognizing: “I don’t necessarily know everything. I don’t necessarily know what’s best.” So being open to hear alternative ideas and work together, remembering that the goal is not to achieve what I want, but to produce the best outcome for the university. And that’s not always going to be what I want. So, yeah, I’d look to build relationships with my fellow students. You know, members of the executive, to be like, yeah, we’re coming from different places, but that’s not a totally bad thing.
So yeah, I’d be really open to having those discussions and working with people, even having disagreements, because I think I’ve got a great ability to disagree well with people.
HS: How do you plan to engage with the autonomous collectives? What do you see as their role under your presidency?
TT: The autonomous collectives, I think I probably wouldn’t be as focused on those within my presidency as recent presidents have been. I am aware that part of the role of the president is to sit on those committees. I’m open to working with those people. And I think it is helpful to work for what’s best for the environment, education action, or whatever it is. But I’d more so be focused on the material side of things. Trying to be a good presence to the students, and really actually trying to be more representative of the students, which I think the SRC and the collectives can tend to drift away from that.
HS: We’ve touched on the Campus Access Policy. I assume you know what that is. Do you support such a policy?
TT: I think it is really helpful to have clear guidelines which are kept, ensuring a vibrant space for all people on university lands. So I think that’s a really good thing to have. I think it’s been really unhelpful, when people have come in and disrupted lectures to try and announce some political agenda. The students aren’t there for that. If anything, it actually would do the opposite, I think. I think it’s been really unhelpful when students have been in class and there’s been disruptions due to protests outside. I think it’s been unhelpful when SULS was trying to do an event a couple years ago and people from the left came in with a microphone and start shouting down a former Prime Minister. Or, last year at Welcome Week, or was it this year? I can’t remember. Shouting down a former Treasurer, who was just sitting in on one of the events. I think that’s really unhelpful and I think it’s good that the University is taking a stance there on that.
HS: Well then, does your support of such a policy conflict with your belief in free speech, which you’ve touched on a little bit earlier?
TT: I don’t think it does. I think with freedom of speech, disrupting other people is, because you’re really inhibiting other people. I think freedom of speech is not going and shouting down Malcolm Turnbull when he’s trying to deliver a speech. I think that’s actually undermining Malcolm Turnbull’s freedom of speech, just to use an example. So I’d say it’s actually trying to preserve that and make a more conducive environment for genuine speech.
HS: When was the last SRC council you attended?
TT: I attended last year, November. It was either that one or the RepSelect for this year’s council, whichever one came last.
HS: Well, given that was quite a while ago as someone with not that much interaction with the representative body for students, what makes you feel entitled to lead it?
TT: I don’t feel entitled to lead it. I think it’s a great opportunity to potentially lead that and serve the students in that way. I think often what the SRC does is not related to the interests of the students at all. And I think that’s typified by such a low voter turnout in the elections. When you’re getting 5 percent voter turnout, like that’s ridiculously low. So I think I’m actually more connected to the students because I’m not at the SRC meetings. And I hope that’s something that I can change next year.
HS: Okay. right. Some of the views you’ve shared in your time as an interfaith officer, particularly with regard to colonialism, Australian history, and Cardinal Pell, have been quite alienating to some students, even those who might be inclined to vote for a conservative candidate. What makes you think these students will vote for you against a more moderate candidate?
TT: I’m not intending to alienate anyone. I don’t think the other candidates are more moderate. I think them being open socialists, that’s quite a radical thing. I think I’m more in touch with the majority of the students than both of them are. They’re not really related to the election, like Cardinal Pell. I don’t even know why that thing, why the emotion on George Pell was in the SRC. And I think that highlights some of the issues with what the SRC is trying to do right now. As I’ve said before, it’s going way beyond its scope. I think it’s really unhelpful. I think it probably puts the SRC into disrepute. A lot of students who I’ve spoken to when they actually hear the motions that the SRC is discussing just think it’s absurd, and I think that’s something which needs to change.
HS: Well, I mean, I suppose with regard to the sort of idea that you’re more moderate than the other candidates, would you say something like ‘why is colonialism bad?’ That’s a quote of yours from a council from last year. Do you think that might put you as a less moderate candidate and more of an extremist?
TT: No, I wasn’t even giving an opinion there. I was just asking a question. If I remember, I believe that would have come at, rep select last year. The context behind it is I was pointing out how the liberals this year and last year were the most racially diverse caucus in the council. Yet there’s always these accusations, oh you’re racist and whatever, which is just rubbish. So I wasn’t giving an opinion on colonialism. I think it’s important to be able to ask questions and think about things. I do think bad things happened as a part of colonisation. I also think good things have happened. I think it’s good to look to achieve reconciliation, on all things.
I don’t think it would be alienating to the students. It’s me asking those questions and I think the response of the SRC, which erupted in opposition and one member threw something at me even, shows a real immaturity and lack of ability to work with people disagreeing with you. I think the radicality of the SRC actually, was highlighted in that instance.
HS: Well, yeah, sorry, you’re right. It is obviously always correct to ask questions, have debates. I suppose maybe a more simple example would be a statement like ‘there was no slavery in Australia.’ Would you still stand by that?
TT: I want to clarify there was no… it was never legal to hold a slave in Australia. I would, I’d be happy to be proven wrong. That doesn’t mean that… There’s always been people doing illegal things, for sure. And it’s terrible. But again, I’m not sure why that came up in the SRC, I’m not sure. And again, the response of the SRC in that instance really highlighted their radicality.
HS: Do you believe that the university should be run as a public or private institution?
TT: When I looked at the university generating 350 million roughly dollars in profit last year, I do think that casts into question what the university is doing. However, to my knowledge, that profit was then reinvested into the university to make it a better place for the students. so I think the current model, I think it’s not perfect, but I think it does work, better than if it was to be changed.
HS: Do you have anything else to add?
TT: I just wanted to say, thanks for interviewing me guys, and allowing me to share my platform. This is sort of a unique time, for pretty much all of us, throughout our time at the university. There hasn’t been an opportunity to vote for a non-radical-socialist candidate. I encourage students to take the opportunity this year and I’d ask that they please vote for me. Thank you.
Vote for a change in the character of the SRC president. If elected, I really look forward to serving the students and doing what’s best for them and putting them above myself, because I think true leadership is service. As I said before, as a Christian that’s the model Jesus Christ showed, I believe, laying his life down for others, and I hope to serve as well.
