(Yes, that was a rhetorical question)Funny VSU should come up in the news just now, because I was discussing this last night in a phone conversation with my cousin Rachelle, a UNE science graduate. She is from what I think could be safely called a conservative christian background- grew up in Walcha and lived in Armidale through her uni years (although I believe Walcha lies in the Independent Tony Windsor's federal seat of New England). She brought up the subject in respect to the former education minister, now federal opposition leader, Brendan Nelson, wondering how the Liberal party thinks anyone our age will ever vote for him. I told her they probably don't and that he'll be gone within a single term, but she has to be right in thinking that Nelson must be incredibly unpopular with educated young people. UNE apparently no longer has a dentist on campus because of the funding they lost through VSU, and their sporting facilities are now priced out of the reach of most students.
I remember when VSU was in the process of being introduced, one of the doctors at the medical centre at UQ said that because some funding for the medical centre would be lost under VSU they were being forced to seek funding from the university. There has been no cut in services at UQ in that respect, but apart from the loss of the iconic Schonell theatre, sporting facilities at UQ have all experienced enormous hikes in their usage fees. Gam and I certainly couldn't afford gym memberships any longer after VSU.
There are other services of the sort that we may not have needed but were glad to know were there- emergency loans of up to a couple of hundred dollars for people who needed help to pay their rent or a bill, legal advice from a solicitor funded by student contributions, welfare advocacy if Centrelink tried to screw you over (which they do on a regular basis)... not being up to speed with such things, I don't know what level of service the union has managed to maintain, but it's safe to say that with the dramatic fall in funding quite a lot of cuts have had to be made.
This does beg the question- with the really hard-core Liberal supporters dying out (my Grandma is 91, and the 'but we always vote Liberal' tradition will die with her), where does Brendan Nelson think his support is going to come from? Is he going to do what he did after his 1993 lie (or was it?) that he'd never voted Liberal in his life and claim that some 'thug' bullied him into taking a stand he never actually agreed with? Or does he think his actions under the Howard government are justifiable to the people he screwed over?
After all, let's not forget that at UQ the Young Libs put up posters proclaiming "VSU = 149 beers"... that just goes to show how defensible the position of Nelson and the Liberal party was on VSU.
Which begs the question- why on earth wouldn't Kevin Rudd's Labor government abolish the Howard government's VSU law? Students are getting screwed, no-one benefits unless you count the ideological wank-fantasies of John Howard and co. Come on Kevin, come on Julia, you can do better than that!
15 comments:
Give them time, it's only been a afew weeks!!
I really quite liked the student union area at UQ (mind you, this was 13 years ago!). The one at QUT (Gardens Point) is crap.
Yeah, union bars rawked. Student news papers rawked. The tools you could borrow rawked. The dentist rawked. And so forth.
And yes we paid a tax in the form of union fees but we also had representation.
Then the Libs "Free Marketed" it all and look what happened. Reduced services.
VSU is a microcosm of how they ran the country in many ways.
The whole thing was a enormous stuff-up. Part of me says (in hindsight having been a student president) that students probably shouldn't be entrusted with too much money and responsibility, but on the other hand its a great way to learn under guidance.
The UNE Dentist is a great example of how VSU killed it. All students had a $40/pa dental service and it was excellent.
Whereas the government's view was that the market should decide what services would exist with some input from unis etc, they weren't willing to fund anything much and so in Armidale the few things that are left are literally falling apart, building disused and staff retrenched. It's a particularly stark example of the issues faced by rural campuses where a normal business could not function as there's noone much there for 20 weeks of the year.
For the future, I just can't see union fees returning. While it would bring plenty back, it was probably antiquated (like the old closed shop thing that was done away with long ago) and just too unpalatable for a modern 'economic conservative' PM.
For all people may complain about VSU, it did stop corrupt and idiotic student unions wasting the money on stupid BBQ's and the ilk.
They may have supported some very welcome services, but they also harboured morons.
Maybe there were some "morons" - there are in every walk of life. But the services they provided were essential and made university more accessible.
Our uni had cheap childcare, funded by the union, which allowed people with kids to attend uni more easily. I was friends with several people who had children (most of them single parents) who would not have been able to get through a degree without this. The bulk-billed doctor, the cheap dentist, the subsidised food - all of this made uni life more accessible to people who weren't being supported by their parents and who would otherwise have struggled to get through uni while working the sort of hours they'd have needed to in order to pay for all that stuff at full price.
I was happy that my union fee went, in part, to supporting the childcare service my friends needed. It's all about equity. And Brendan Nelson can fuck right off.
There was some wastage, just like there is with politicians flying taxpayer-funded RAAF jets to Broome for holidays. I'm not saying it's justified, but we don't abolish taxes altogether every time some idiot is found rorting them.
On the other hand, I do remember once reading about the salaries and cars received by people at the top of the student union and feeling pretty pissed off about it. There may be a better way of getting those services, but they were very necessary services.
"They may have supported some very welcome services, but they also harboured morons."
baby, bathwater, nose, face.
*shrugs*
Look up the amount of money the Adelaide student union literally lost between 1998-2002, if you want - or can, I guess. I'm not sure you're able to, because of the amount that disappeared, no-one would talk about it, and it wasn't released publicly...
um, because one student union did something wrong the entire concept of student unionism should be thrown out? so i'm guessing that we should disband the police, banks, governments at every level, churches, charities, bowls clubs and hospitals. after all some of them have been dodgy in the past.
are you listening to yourself? i was going to have a go at you but i've decided to assume you've inadvertently suggested that. perhaps it wasn't quite what you meant to say.
Pretty much.
Sorry that I can only refer to my own experiences with university. Perhaps I should have gone to a couple more... :p
I have to say, I know alot of people who have gone to several unis and the union always seems to be treatad as a cash cow. I know of one group of guys who formed a beer drinking club and recieved funding from the union. And every weekend they got free beer. It's like most things in life, I guess. It's there for a very good reason but unfortunately there will always be people who are missing the point.
Gam, if we did actually disband all the services you mentioned for having dodgy pasts do you think there would be any left? :) :)
I have to say, I know alot of people who have gone to several unis and the union always seems to be treatad as a cash cow. I know of one group of guys who formed a beer drinking club and recieved funding from the union. And every weekend they got free beer. It's like most things in life, I guess. It's there for a very good reason but unfortunately there will always be people who are missing the point.
Gam, if we did actually disband all the services you mentioned for having dodgy pasts do you think there would be any left? :) :)
Damn, I double clicked again!!! My bad, sorry guys!!
Just because social clubs, and yes drinking clubs, have no 'measurable outcomes', doesn't mean that Union money was wasted. I spent 2007 in a student union and found that social events did a lot more than wasted money. They provide social networks in which students can talk about their university experiences - feel less isolated or overwhelmed by the adminstrative machinery of Universities.In fact, social events, BBQs for example, can save universities time and money because some problems can be headed off at the pass before they escalate into grievances and lawyers at twenty paces.
Great post, btw, and let's hope that there can be a new funding arrangement to stop the elitist VSU, legislated soon.
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