opinios

It's A Club, Brendan, Not A Union!

Warning: political rant ahead

This angers me. Australia's Federal Minister for Education, Senator Brendan Nelson, wants to get rid of compulsory student union membership, and my theory is because it has the word 'union' in it.

The thing is, the student union at universities has absolutely nothing to do with trade unions. The word "union" in Australia has traditionally been associated with organizations created to protect workers' rights in manufacturing plants and shipping docks, and these groups have always had strong ties to the Labour Party (currently in opposition). It's my belief that it's this community-minded ideology, and its association with the politics of the left, that offends Senator Nelson.

You see, student unions are similar in a sense, in that they exist to protect the rights of university students. But that's where the similarity stops - there is no political alignment at all! Individuals involved in student politics may well have their own political values, but this has nothing to do with the function of a union.

Apart from paying a (nominal) salary to those students brave enough to represent their peers on academic boards and fight for student rights when they are being withered away, student union fees also go towards subsidizing student clubs, precious elements of university culture, and of which there are many: basketball, gliding, culture, art... the variety is diverse and being involved in a club is a key aspect of university life.

It's all very well to suggest that university should be only about education, but the introduction of VSU would spell the death of student clubs, and university would become purely about getting that degree and nothing more.

And if it's come to that, you might as well enrol in a distance education course and study your degree from home.

We now return you to our regular programming...