It was due to take place in early February, and then in late February, and then in March. Twice thwarted by a deluge of apologies, the SRC council finally made it to fruition on the 5th of March. It was worth the wait.
There was some kerfuffle assembling enough councillors for quorum, with several counts showing that the council had 18 councillors present out of the necessary 19. The Secretary to Council asked, “Deaglan, are you still here?”
Deaglan Godwin (SAlt) responded: “I’m never leaving!”
Angus Fisher (NSWLS) announced that the council meeting was at quorum at 6:48pm. Procedural to elect Vice President Bohao Zhang (PENTA) as Deputy Chairperson carried and proxies were accepted.
After the devastating loss of former Honi Soit editor (CAKE for Honi, 2022) and Disabilities Officer Khanh Tran, Remy Lebreton (Grassroots) brought a motion to bring Khanh’s memorial to the start of the agenda, which passed.
Jacklyn Scanlan (NSWLS) spoke to Khanh’s passing, saying “I was in awe of their production and quality of editing and reporting for Honi Soit… We became true friends and comrades when we became the 2023 co-Disability Officers.
“One of the best things about Khanh was that they basically lived on campus. And now, when I’m still on campus I’m still looking out for them, expecting to just bump into them like I’ve done a thousand times before.
“Khanh, you’ll still be in our hearts, you’ll still be in our memories, you’ll still be in the Honi Soit offices, you’ll still be on Eastern Ave. And I’m sure one day I’ll see you again… Vale and rest in power.”
Victor Zhang (SLS), followed with a loving address: “Khanh was fearless and relentless, unwilling to compromise for justice. Khanh was a mentor, friend, co-OB, fellow journalist, and a comrade most of all. The greatest shame is what Khanh could have gone on to do for all of us, but is no longer here to do.”
Ishbel Dunsmore (Grassroots) spoke of Khanh’s admirable character: “I think we have a lot to gain from the dogged attitude and appreciation for student journalism that Khanh embodied. They were never cowered into silence or censorship, and they never gave up on their principles even when it invited challenge or debate.”
Gemma Smart, SUPRA Disabilities Officer, said “working with Khanh has been such an amazing opportunity… What is remembered lives, and I think this would be very true of Khanh.”
Luke Mesterovic, Education Officer (Grassroots) said “I wish we had Khanh back. It is not fucking fair that someone who was so competent, who was so beloved, doesn’t get to live the rest of their life.”
Godwin spoke of Khanh as someone “who spent so much time in activism not for personal reward or ambition, but the desire to see justice and fight injustice.”
Fisher concluded the beautiful sentiments with some lighthearted nostalgia: “Khanh referred to me as a proverbial pair of dead fish eyes, and I’m never going to forget that.”
The council observed a minute’s silence in remembrance. Vale Khanh Tran, 1996-2025.
A motion was moved for Jasmine Donnelly (NSWLS) to be elected to the General Executive from the chair. Gerard Buttigieg (NSWLS) seconded the motion, and Donnelly was elected unopposed. Moving on to the election for Director of Student Publications (DSP), Daniel Yu was elected unopposed. A procedural motion was moved to accept all Officer Bearer (OB) reports, excluding the General Secretary (Gen Sec) report, en bloc. The procedural motion carried.
Next on the agenda was the Gen Sec report. The General Secretaries, Grace Street (Grassroots) and Anu-Ujin Khulan (PENTA) reported that the 2025 budget was done according to 2024’s SSAF funding.
Grace noted that the budget did not account for inflation, so the funding was less than last year: “if you are upset about your budget and the small amount we have received, so are we. You can help by recording increased activity to help with SSAF application.”
“The Labor and Liberal members of the Gen Exec [General Executive] rejected the Enviro Collective’s application for $1400 on the basis that it would equate Albanese and Dutton for the federal election as it describes them as climate criminals.” Grace said
The ‘application,’ referred to the Enviro Collective’s tote bags that portrayed Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton, alongside Gina Reinhardt, behind bars.
The heckles and debate then began. Jasmine Al-Rawi (SAlt) said that “this is akin to the cuts that Elon Musk is doing. You should be supporting student activism. Instead we’re given less money by people who consider themselves activists.”
Street responded, “It’s not an austerity budget of our choosing. Effort was channelled into these other contestable things, which is where we are trying to funnel people’s projects and money into. We have money and will get there eventually.”
Street added, “Most of the Ed [Education Action Group] budget is just spent on sending Labor hacks to EdCon, we can cut down on that.”
Harrison Brennan (Grassroots) asked: “Is it true this year that it is a pool of $9,000 or $10,000 that is given to anyone for contestable funding?”
To our dismay, Godwin called Honi “a bunch of wannabe journalists.” No, Deaglan, Honi Soit is where you ask to put your poster graphics to promote your rallies.
Honi budgeting now at the forefront of people’s minds has led to another heckle from Donnelly: “Is it true that Honi Soit received a $1500 increase to fund their Pitch and Bitch sessions at Courtyard?” Yes, it is. Be there Thursday, 13th March at 12pm.
The SRC moved to condemn USyd’s adoption of the new IHRA definition of anti-semitism. The motion carried.
Next, the council moved to continue opposition to USyd’s attacks on freedom of speech and protests.
Martha Barlow (Grassroots) said, “These rules give security license to enforce discipline whatever way they see fit, and these have already disproportionately affected people of colour… We need to keep up the pressure until there’s a full repeal of all of these rules.”
Godwin added, “USyd has become one of the most repressive campuses in the entire country, leading the charge against activism, in particular activism engaged in freedom for Palestine… this is enforced by the government and enforced by the GO8 to crack down on student activism. This goes further than student activism around Palestine but goes against student activism itself.”
A motion was then moved to oppose USyd’s threatened deportation of a transgender asylum seeker. The student was given a ‘Notice of Alleged Misconduct’ following allegations that she wrote Palestinian solidarity slogans on a whiteboard on campus. USyd has labelled this a breach of the Campus Access Policy (CAP). If the student, *Luna, has their enrollment revoked, they may be deported to Malaysia or sent to a detention centre.
Jamie Bridge (QuAC) commented that “[this is] one of the many instances that people have been persecuted under this horrific policy — it is not only shameful, but it is transphobic and racist.”
Street said “[This is a] harrowing example of [the] university wanting to punish and unfair policies that [they] use to justify it… It’s just one example that we know of because it happened to make it out of the media. Potential to ruin people’s lives over stating true things — if it hadn’t gone to the media, what would have happened? We shouldn’t have this CAP hanging over our head.”
The council moved onto a motion reading “Do not stop the fight for Palestine.” There were many speakers, with similar points of view, heckling each other about how they wanted to go about this. The impression that stuck was Buttigieg saying “What never ceases to amaze me about this group of people is we can never put aside our insignificant differences to support a motion that we all agree with.”
Then came a motion to oppose USyd’s $92 million course cuts. Mesterovic asked “How stupid does this university think we are? Whenever they try to make these cuts, they won’t give reasons why, because they can’t give reasons why. My introduction to activism was when they were going to cut the Studies of Religion and Theatre [courses] in 2022, in my first year, and with us protesting and coming together they brought those courses back. The university experience is getting worse and worse every year.”
Yoshi Leung (SAlt) added, “As the student body, we need to condemn this because it’s an attack on students and staff as well as an attack on our education. We’ve seen 600 staff who have their jobs cut at ANU. It’s more than job losses, it’s the degradation of our learning conditions.”
Next, the council addressed concession opal cards for international and part-time students.
Street said “It’s good to have a motion about this, we kind of do it every year. But I think this year we need to go harder on it. Last year we received 20,000 signatures to go to NSW Parliament, and nothing happened… Something has to change.” The motion carried unanimously.
Finally, the council moved to show solidarity with NSW public psychiatrists, who are currently in dispute with the state government over pay and working conditions, leading to mass resignations and a shortage of staff.
Vince Tafea (Grassroots) commented, “Some of the most vulnerable in our society are paying the price for the shameful conduct of NSW Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson. These conditions are unsafe for both patients and workers. We at DisCo demand that we take accountability, and that we stand in solidarity with NSW psychiatrists.”
Georgia Murphy (SAlt) said “It’s no surprise that psychiatrists are feeling burnt out in this system. The work that people in public health systems do such as nurses and doctors are completely demoralising, and we can’t live in a society where only the rich can afford healthcare.”
Out of the blue, Grassroots decided that they wanted to take the party out of council, and made a surreptitious exit. Everyone seemed to be losing their lust for life at that point, so they received hardly any heckles for pulling quorum. Thus, the March session of the SRC council came to an abrupt halt at 11:13pm. The last person to leave was your dedicated editor Imogen, furiously tweeting a final quip before being kicked out of the room by the Secretary to Council.
*False name for safety reasons.
