Honi would like to acknowledge that NatCon is being held on stolen Wadawurrung lands. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
Credits to Imogen Sabey, Purny Ahmed and Ella McGrath for live reporting. Follow @honi_soit on Twitter to keep up with all the NatCon drama!
Module 1: Ethno-chaos
Day three of NatCon, beginning with the Ethnocultural section, kicks off with a “satisfying cleaning video” to replace the Minecraft and Subway Surfers slop from the previous two days.
Multiple motions are moved en bloc. The first bloc of motions discusses the genocide in Palestine, including: the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement, ending the Israeli settlements, and freeing illegally detained Palestinians. Various factions reiterate their horror at Israel’s actions and SAlt emphasise Australia’s ties to weapons manufacturers. This bloc is voted up unanimously, with applause from Unity. Finally, some solidarity!
Our next bloc is a group of motions regarding global and union solidarity on the respective conflicts in Lebanon, the Congo, Sudan, and Armenia-Azerbaijan. Also passed unanimously.
The third bloc combines motions ranging from “Support for Palestine is not antisemitic” to “condemning Anti-Semitism”. A Jewish student (SAlt) speaks on how the NUS must “reject any equivalence between the outrageous crimes of the state of Israel and Jewish identity.” They draw on their own historical family experience of migrating to a pre-1948 kibbutz and then denouncing Israel: “not in our name.”
A member from Unity denounces rising antisemitism in our society, evident manifest in the recent firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne and recounts having been subject to chants of “heil Hitler” by white right-wing agitators on campus. This bloc also carries unanimously! Unlike previous sections and motions, all NatCon factions have —so far into the Ethnocultural section— done a brilliant job acknowledging global systemic injustices and prejudices without allowing leftist infighting or factional drama to detract from solidarity.
The next motion up is 11.4, “Condemning Australia’s Inhumane Refugee Detention Practices.” Given that Labor and the Liberals differ depressingly little on inhumane refugee policy, Honi predicted more fierce heckling and debates between NLS and SAlt regarding the former’s support of the Labor party as — infamously, and as an almost cliche — a “vehicle for change”. We were correct.
NLS opens by supporting the motion and pushing for votes so the NUS can campaign on “active reform”. SAlt responds with vicious retorts, lambasting NLS by saying “your party has conspired with the Liberals for decades.”
Quick Honi fact-check: the Labor government has indeed agreed with the Coalition that asylum seekers are not to be resettled in Australia and will be dealt with through boat turnbacks, offshore detention and third-country resettlement.
SAlt continues to go in on NLS, exclaiming: “They [refugees] say ‘we are dying’. And what does the Labor MP say? It’s only been 12 years!” This is in reference to Australia’s Fast Track policy, instituted in 2014, which placed asylum seekers who had arrived by boat prior to 2012 —most comprising of Tamil refugees fleeing genocide in Sri Lanka— on temporary visas. The Fast Track policy was abolished in July this year, leaving thousands of asylum seekers in limbo with undetermined visa status.
We continue with refugee rights, moving on to motion 11.19: “NUS supports refugees protesting for permanent visas.” An amendment is suggested for the NUS to “release a statement…calling for systemic reform of Australia’s refugee policies and advocating for permanent visas for refugees”, which is passed. SAlt continues to criticise NLS and Unity over Labor’s level of complicity, which Unity seems to have a concerning level of cognitive dissonance about. Unity proclaims that “the issue is more of a systemic issue and we don’t want to be lost in party politics.” For extra class credit, Honi asks Unity: which government famously reopened Nauru in 2012?
Module 2: Winning the “Privilege” of Welfare
Welfare, being an extremely broad topic, had over 50 motions in its section. Thankfully, many of them were passed en bloc, which ensured that the mass arguing between SAlt and the Labor-aligned factions were confined to a fairly short few hours (trust us, this could’ve gone on for weeks).
Whilst members of NLS and Unity attempted to speak on campaigns such as the international student concession transport cards, placement poverty and the increase of rent in student accommodation, SAlt continuously asked the question: “Why is that though?”
SAlt hounded the Labor-aligned factions with the perspective that all the motions put forward by Unity and NLS were written under the assumption that the Australian Labor Party (ALP) is for the people, but just needs to pick up the slack.
Deaglan Godwin (USyd Enviro Officer, member of SAlt) claimed that “NLS should be independent of the Labor party” if they were serious about their stance on the cost of living crisis.
The discussion of the recent international student caps prevailed with the acknowledgement that these new policies show that the ALP government blames migrants and international students on the current housing crisis. SAlt points out that it is a racist rhetoric pushed by the Labor government. Ironically, NLS agrees.
SAlt speaker called out NLS saying “If you’re against anti-migrant politics then you have to use the NUS not just as a campaigning body of the ALP, you have to stand up for migrants and campaign against the ALP.”
It really is the easiest rebuttal of the year.
Module 3: A Man’s World
The Women’s section. Another round of motions with all talk, very little action. Discussions ranged from the cost of living crisis disproportionately affecting women to members of Unity opposing reproductive justice. There were certainly some… interesting opinions on the rights of women and gender diverse people. One of the major discussions of the night was surrounding USyd’s Women’s Collectives (WoCo) ‘Abolish the Colleges’ Campaign.
An amendment was proposed by USyd Grassroots that aimed to alter motion 6.25 regarding the campaign. The amendment proposed to add two actions to the platform: the first was to bind the 2025 NUS Women’s Officer to work with USyd WoCo with their ‘Abolish the Colleges’ campaign, and the second was to demand the NUS to support and platform the demands of USyd WoCo and other feminist groups for the USyd colleges to be transformed into safe and affordable student accommodation.
Unity rejected the amendment. Unity’s position, which is uncannily similar to the rhetoric of conservatives, is that the colleges should have a “cultural restructuring,” or internal reform, to end the long-standing acceptance of hazing, misogyny, elitism and bullying. Is someone going to tell them that they’ve tried this for almost a century and it hasn’t yet worked?
A Unity speaker claimed, in reference to the said amendment, “We don’t think that it’s a good idea to continue to put forward this weird campaign that actually no one wants.”
For NLS, there seemed to be some internal factional discourse. There were — allegedly — tears, covert arguments, and a consensus to reject the amendment proposed. The supposed reason for this was some NLS members believing that the amendment was put forth in “bad faith” and disagreeing that the campaign has been predominantly organised by USyd WoCo.
With looks of anguish amongst some of the faction, it was clear that not all were in agreement with one another. It seems that NLS has some internal conversations to have about where their caucus stands on the rights of victim-survivors and the cultures of elitism and misogyny that permeates our colleges and campuses.
Honi is unsure if the motion passed and if the amendment was voted to be implemented. Screaming filled the room and quorum was pulled whilst the vote was supposed to happen.
Module 4: Recap Quiz
- What was the NUS brainrot of the day?
- How many blocs of motions passed unanimously in the ethnocultural section?
- Which delegate said that NLS stands for “National Landlord Students”?
- What was the alleged reasoning behind NLS’ internal discourse regarding abolishing the colleges?
- Is the Honi team extremely tired after publishing these at 3am every night?
Ellie Robertson is one of the USyd Women’s Officers for 2025, and is involved in the organising of some of the campaigns mentioned in this article.
