VSU unlikely to be passed this year

Anyone following this issue, particularly those against VSU like me, would know that this week has been a tense one. In a week where legislation such as welfare-to-work, and anti-terrorism laws have been passed, and a Prime Minister wanna-be is under fire and has now declared he won't challenge Johnny for the top job, you would hardly think an issue like VSU would also feature in the same week, but it has.

Yesterday, the bill passed the lower house, and I thought things looked pretty ominous. Everyone's best mate, Barnarby, while still declaring his opposition to the legislation as it stands, didn't look to me to be beyond some sort of last minute compromise. The government apparently wanted to see just how naive Barnaby was when they offered to provide special funding to support universities that maystruggle to maintain their existing student services and infrastructure post VSU - of course, this would appear no where in the legislation itself, it would simply be a verbal agreement - I think I speak for everyone who has seen such promises go un-fulfilled in the past when I say "fat f#$^ing chance"!

Todays news suggests no such deal is likely to be struck between Nelson and the Nats, so the bill appears unlikely to pass before Christmas. Mind you, it is very hard to know what exactly is going on, given different government ministers appear to be saying different things. Why is all this important ? well, the bill contained an amendment that VSU would come into effect as of July 1 next year. Postponement of the bill's introduction into the senate until the next sitting (in February I think), should see its commencement date (assuming the bill is passed) pushed back to Jan 2007, which gives university services and student associations at least another year of certain funding, as well as some extra time to prepare.