A sad day for Australian Universities
Family First Senator, Steve Fielding, after accepting an 11th hour deal, decided to vote in favour of VSU, with no amendments!
So thats it.
Perhaps Senator Fielding can provide us all with a family impact statement for his vote. I am particularly interested to hear just how a lack of funding to subsidise on-campus child care, student health services and sport is family friendly.
You can read the full story of the vote here here.
I can't be fucked writing about it.
posted by macca at 5:32 PM
5 Comments:
How about explaining the impact on students, who are typically cash-strapped, yet are being forced to pay hundreds of dollars to political, sporting, and social groups they're not interested in?
How about the impact on students who work so never have the time to make use of the on-campus facilities they're subsidising?
How about the unfairness of those poor students paying the childcare costs of their lecturers and mature-aged people most able to afford childcare themselves?
How about eliminating the waste in organisations that were allocated money and either spent it or lost it?
How about not forcing people to fund political campaigns they don't want?
How about following the letter and spirit of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "No one may be compelled to belong to an association." (You'll note it doesn't say "No one may be compelled to belong to an association, unless the association provides representation and childcare.")
12/10/2005 12:52:00 AM
Splat guy, in the same spirit of the UN declaration, can I opt out of my local council?
And can I opt out of paying taxes to not fund the Iraq war and subisidies for "bush" telecommunications to millionaire graziers? And if we're talking sport, how about abolishing the AIS, an insitution that supports a tiny elite while the greater majority of Australians get ever fatter and lazier? And if we're talking about not funding political campaigns, how about not funding $55 million of ads about how wonderful WorkChoices is?
The case for allowing cross-subsidies of student activities is extremely straightforward. To at least some of us who haven't been drinking wholly from the education as sausage factory Kool-aid, part of what constitutes education is the innumerable extracurricular activities that student unions help support. For most universities, it is their view that participation in these things is a very important part of one's education. Their existence is also an important part of their marketing, both domestically and overseas. So, therefore, they wish to encourage participation by getting those that don't partipate to subsidise those that do.
Yes, historically, some student unions have wasted money on all manner of things, including the political campaigns that so infuriate righties. So have governments. But because the campus right, historically, couldn't win, rather than trying to fix the excesses of student council they've chosen to get their predecessors to micromanage the contest out of existence over the strenuous objections of the universities.
But of course, Brendan Nelson prefers to listen to the ideological warriors in the ALSF rather than pretty much the entire Australian university community.
12/10/2005 09:52:00 AM
splat guy - quite honestly, this is all ideological bullshit.
I am not going to sit here and defend all student unions. I am well aware that in some cases, money has been miss spent. Much like I am aware that my tax dollars may also be miss spent (like on adds to advertise Work Choices - now thats a political campaign i didn't want, but it doesn't mean I'll stop paying taxes!).
The GSF money that students pay ensures that the services made available on campus, are available to everyone, and not just those that can afford it.
Personally, I have no issue with freedom of association. I would have been happy enough to see an amendment that allowed universities to collect a fee for student services, sports and student advocacy, and just make unionism itself voluntary - but that's not what Nelson wanted! He went the whole hog, and wouldn't budge.
So now future students can look forward to far less enriching university experiences, all because of bullshit idealism.
12/10/2005 09:56:00 AM
Splat guy, I don't think anyone who supports the Coalition has any right to quote the Declaration of Human Rights. It's a bit bloody rich.
12/10/2005 10:02:00 PM
absolutely !
12/21/2005 09:45:00 AM
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