Life after VSU
What is VSU?
Why is VSU proposed?
What is it's history?
Arguments Against VSU (opens in another window)
An Article About VSU
Senate Committee Inquiry
Distributable material opposing VSU!
Anti-VSU Flash Mobs!
Take Action
National Day of Action 2: August 10th
National Day of Action 3: August 25th. Bring Three Friends!
Contact us!
Sadly as most people now know, VSU was passed through the Australian Senate late last year and is now law. The law came into effect on 01/07/2006. Even more sadly, the demise of student organisations in this country, as predicted by so many of us who fought against VSU, has already gone incredibly far due to a wide range of factors interrelated with the VSU legislation.
Coming shortly we will be updating this website with more news and information about what has been happening to student organisations around the country since the introduction of the VSU legislation, and what you can do to advocate a reversal of the legislation. If this sounds crazy, remember that when VSU was first introduced in Victoria by its State Government, it was eventually changed and weakened. Like the IR legislation and the draconian so-called 'anti-terror' laws, we cannot just accept that when unjust and wrong laws are passed that they will be here for ever. We must continue to fight for change.
What is VSU, and why does it matter?
"VSU" stands for "Voluntary Student Unionism", as opposed to "Universal Student Unionism" (which has been allowed in Australia for a long time).
Universal Student Unionism is a system where a University charges all enrolled students a particular fee (eg. an Amenities and Services fee), and that fee goes toward important student services and the student unions.
These student services are generally then free to all enrolled students, and they consist of disability services, childcare services, legal services, counselling and medical services, foreign language services, career and accomodation services, and, of course, the student unions themselves (which are democratically elected student organisations that can negotiate with the university faculty and administration, and act politically on government activities that directly affect university students). Basically, we get these services for the Amenities fee, instead of buying much more expensive versions of these services for ourselves.
Without the ability to charge these fees, universities would be unable to match the quality and accessibility of services that we have under USU. Organisations such as the ACCC have found that neither universities alone, nor commercial companies, are capable of matching these services. And they are important services.
That's USU.
"VSU" is the abolition of universities' ability to charge a fee for these not strictly academic student services. In its most extreme form, it basically means that we will lose the services.
Conservative political parties in Australia have been seeking VSU for some time. It is just one part of a general conservative agenda.
Here is the Howard Governments explanatory memoranda for the current VSU Bill.
Conservative political parties tend to oppose things like welfare and student services (and the fight against VSU is just a smaller version of the fight to keep public welfare (i.e. government funding of vital services) in Australia). The conservative argument is that commercial services (rather than free services for all) will provide better service than USU, because a service that is motivated by profit will be more efficient. But this is not the case; under extreme VSU, student services would decline, unprofitable ones would disappear entirely, and overall prices would be far higher than the cost of the USU fee.
To get students on their side, they say that VSU means "freedom of choice", and prevents us from having to pay another university fee.
But student unions, and the services they give us, provide far more choices than we would have without them. They give us far more freedom to be students and to study, because they give us the support that many of us need from student services.
As for the fee itself, there are many ways that this fee could be covered or off-set to students, and there are ways that universities could prevent poorer students from having to pay it. But conservative governments (such as the current Howard Government) have never, and would never, suggest these alternatives.
In any case, the same conservative politicians that support VSU are responsible for increasing university course fees by a massive amount (the most recent increase was a shocking 25% rise in HECS fees, put forward by Brendan Nelson), and are also responsible for forcing up the prices of textbooks, stationery, and other material that students need.
If they were actually concerned about the fees that students have to pay, then they wouldn't be trying so hard to make things more expensive for us.
This legislation is largely an attack on the politically potent weapon that is unionism, as student unions are just one of the important services that USU fees go towards.
Student unions have a long-standing tradition of being a collective and representative organisation fighting for the interests of all students. They have fought long and hard in solidarity, with the numbers required to give them a credible political voice. The things they fight against are the very things that Howard's government represents, and if Howard is able to disarm the unions with VSU, then this will effectively silence one of the last bastions of resistance to anti-student and anti-public education legislation. We cannot let this happen!
USU, in its ideal form, is something that prevents us from paying higher prices for essential services, and helps students struggling in their courses. Abolishing USU and establishing a user-pays system justified by free-market ideologies is not a realistic solution to the problems that the Howard Government pretends to be addressing with VSU. As Frederic Jameson, a postmodern critic, said about Free Market Ideologies: "in practice this freedom and equality turn(s) out to be unfreedom and inequality" (Frederic Jameson Postmodernism or The Cultural Logic Of Late Capitalism 1991 p261).
*In the 1970s, the Australian Liberal Students Federation (a group allied with conservative political parties) attacked USU repeatedly.
*In 1977, VSU legislation successfully passed both houses of Parliament in Western Australia; luckily, it was a weak form of VSU, and it didn't really affect student unions or university services.
*In 1982, the conservative Fraser Government proposed VSU - after introducing extra university fees and cutting university funding levels drastically. Like the current attacks by the Howard Government, their VSU was an obvious attempt to damage students who had been critical of the Liberal Party's anti-university, anti-student legislation.
*In 1994, a form of VSU was introduced in Western Australia. And yes, we did see reductions in the quality of services.
*In 1995, VSU was introduced by the conservative Kennet Government in Victoria. Even though the Kennet Government controlled both houses of parliament, VSU was such an unpopular idea that it only passed in a very weak, heavily amended form. In the end, it didn't affect much at all.
*In 2000, the State Labour government in Victoria removed VSU from Victorian law, and in 2002, the Labour Party in Western Australia removed it from WA law.
*In 2003, the Young Liberals alleged that USU at James Cook University was a breach of the Trade Practises Act, but the ACCC investigated, and found that universities themselves and the "free market" would not be able to provide a comparable level of student services and representation to USU.
*In 2004, the conservative Howard Government was re-elected, with a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
And in March 2005, the Hon. Dr Brendan Nelson (the Education Minister, and the Member for Bradfield (in Sydney's North Shore)) put forward the "Higher Education Support Amendment (Abolition of Compulsory Up-front Student Fees) Bill of 2005 (.pdf file)", which, if passed, would stop Australian universities from being able to charge Amenities and Services (A and S) fees. (There is some speculation that this will be used as a test case, to see exactly how much power the Howard Ministry has over the Liberal Party in the two Houses of Parliament.)
This is what we are now fighting.
The Coalition Senate majority is only a one seat majority - Senators of all political affiliation can "cross the floor" and vote against their party's bill - this bill can be defeated. Stopping VSU is not a lost cause.
Update: Queensland Nationals' Senator Barnaby Joyce has spoken out against the current form of VSU being proposed and has been getting a fair amount of press coverage.
This might be an issue which will divide the coalition, however Joyce and other similar Nationals Senators do not want the same thing as we do. They are generally more concerned with protecting only campus services in rural areas. Thus the need for a sustained campaign with the same loud and clear message "NO VSU IN ANY FORM" is required!
Over the month of July, the Australian Senate has been holding a committee regarding the provisions of the current VSU bill. It had 4 public hearings, and called for submissions from interested parties regarding the bill.
Click Here for administrative info regarding this committee. Click Here for access to the 192 submissions received, spelling out many arguments against (and some arguments for) the proposed legislation from individuals, student organisations, universities and others. Click Here for access to transcripts of the public hearings. Click Here to access the report on the inquiry. Unsurprisingly the 3 coalition committee members strongly urge their prized bill to be passed without ammendment and the 3 opposition/Democrats committee memebrs strongly urge it be rejected.
DIRECT ACTION:
The Age estimates there were 1,500 students at the August 10 rally in Melbourne, which is considerably less than at the rally in April. The initially freezing Melbourne weather could well be to blame.
The rally began at the steps of the State Library, with a variety of speakers, then marched to the Liberal Party headquarters on Exhibition Street, just off Little Collins Street. A few protestors expressed their anger at the Liberal Party responsible for the anti-student organisation legislation with harmless paintbombs. While a few coppers got a bit blue in the face (with paint splashes) the action did not really hurt anybody it would seem.
Terminating at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets, the demonstrators paused to lay out an agenda for the continuing campaign. Amongst the motions that were unanimously agreed to (as indicated by waves of shouting, clapping and hooting) were to continue to build this campaign on the campuses, to continue to stand out against any form of VSU, and to launch another NDA very soon.
On a sour note, it is worth mentioning that as with April's rally, a paltry group of about 10 pro-VSU Liberal Student demonstrators enjoyed a favour in TV news coverage not justified by their almonst non-existent numbers. Several cameras were poised on them as they awaited the arrival of the galatically larger anti-VSU group marching towards them where they stood at the corner of Bourke and Exhibition Streets. Yet according to eye-witnesses, no such TV coverage seemed to be targeted at the actual rally at all. This amounts to considerable evidence of skewed and biased information gathering on behalf of our news media.
Another potential analysis of what happened with the journos could be that most started at the rally, then quickly assembled near the Liberal Students demonstrators, awaiting the next 'event' in the narrative. This type of journalistic narrative construction is just as misleading as the former imbalance in coverage alternatively proposed.
Nevertheless, as demonstrators dispersed at the end of the rally near the steps of Flinders Street station, there were resounding cheers and applause as the Channel 7 newscrawl above Young & Jackson contained a reference to the events of the day. It is a shame that it often takes 'violent scuffles' and other such protest cliches before the news institutions decide to run with stories that so many find significant.
Smart Mob is the name given to a form of Flash Mob used to demonstrate for a political/social cause. Flash Mobs are sudden gatherings of people in public places, where the members of the group are mobilised through either sms or email, and the group perform according to some kind of simple script. People are given secret instructions prior to the event, say 12-48 hours in advance, which tell them where to gather, at what time, and what to do.
A Flash Mob or Smart Mob will be most successful in well populated public locations where there is a big enough audience to witness what is usually a surrealistic disruption of normal public behaviour. This type of activity is fun, experimental, and gets people talking, and that is exactly what is needed in order to raise awareness of the efforts to fight VSU.
There will be a series of events (probably beginning around Semester 2) so it is likely you won't miss out due to other commitments. Simply follow instructions when you get an sms or email on where to go and what to do when the mob is happening. Bring your friends along as well, to bolster numbers. The more the mobbier!
And:
Email Stop VSU Flash Mobs - to sign up for the Melbourne-based flash mob campaign! Please include your Australian network mobile number.
Sign Guestbook - Genuine, intelligent, and constructive comments only please: unfortunately you may convince us you are a moron if your comments are otherwise (as many have been, sadly).
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