June 2024 SRC Wrapup

While the temperatures in Sydney have been freezing as of late, the temperature in Monday's SRC meeting can only be described as hot, hot, hot and, as always, we’re here to explain exactly what went down. So, gather round the fire, and get ready for some excitement, because this write-up is sure to bring some warmth to you this winter.

We started the night with a very exciting motion for all the Noise lovers out there. An SRC Queer Officer, and Noise Coordinator, Pepsi moved a motion to allow selected Noise editors to sit in on SRC meetings in a new and official capacity, including access to reports, and the ability to ask questions of our student representatives live. The motion passed with 11 votes for, and 3 abstentions, including Pepsi themself who abstained with a conflict of interest. 

Not only is this a monumental decision in securing the continuation of both our live coverage and write-ups just like these, but it is also a significant milestone in Noise’s mission to promote transparency from all of UNSW’s institutions, uphold values of integrity in student journalism, and facilitate increased awareness in the wider UNSW community. 

Speaking of journalistic integrity, the next motion, moved by Councillor Louis Pan, called on the SRC to consider a future collaboration with the activist group Youth Against Murdoch. Pan spoke on Murdoch’s career, his family, and his ‘news empire’ which, through Newscorp, Sky News, and Fox News, controls roughly 70% of Australia’s newspapers. Councillor Sam Lewis connected the Murdoch monopoly to “complacency” from the federal Labor party over the housing crisis, and the motion passed with 11 votes for, and 2 against.

Lewis also spoke on the third matter, a motion moved by the Education Collective to call on UNSW to divest from “all weapons companies” after it was disclosed to Students for Palestine UNSW that the university had invested over 2.9 million dollars of student money into weapons manufacturing companies. This led to an impassioned, and, notably, graphic, discussion the conflict in Gaza, with Education Officer Cherish Kuehlmann asserting that “UNSW is directly profiting off genocide”. The vote was a very tight contest, SAlt representatives demanded the identities of those who abstained, calling for them to explain their reasoning, and Environment Officer Gina Elias used her allotted speaking time for the following motion to decry those abstentions and state, “You should speak against it, or we’re going to assume you’re for it”. Ultimately, the vote passed with 8 for and 7 abstentions.

This was, surprisingly, not when the night reached its boiling point – that honour is reserved for our final motion of this month’s SRC meeting, which asked the SRC to oppose the Federal Budget, saying, “We need to demand more of the government”. After some brief discussion around the cost-of-living crisis and the increasing allocation of funding to Australia’s fossil fuel industry and the military-industrial complex, General Secretary Paige Sedgwick of Unity spoke against the motion by positioning herself as “a big fan of HECS” and arguing that the system “works for all Australians” which quickly sparked a debate on the relative usefulness of the HECS. Before voting, Cherish expressed a belief that the conversation surrounding the budget was “obfuscated by the HECS debate”. Regardless, the motion passed with 10 votes in favour and 6 abstentions.

In a late addition to the agenda, Indigenous Officer Brydie Zorz moved a last-minute motion, requested by members of the Indigenous Collective, calling for Reconciliation Week to be recognised by the SRC and for the Council to commit to a community education campaign promoting the university's Rec Week events. The vote passed unanimously, to which SRC President Michael Rahme concluded, “I am not surprised. Thank you, Brydie, for putting this forward, and there is definitely more that the SRC can be doing.”

The night still held one final surprise. Shortly before the Officer's reports began, Kuehlmann repeated to Rahme a “rumour from another uni newspaper that UNSW’s SRC was considering disaffiliating from the [National University of Students]”. This immediately ignited chaos in the room, as further questions were raised surrounding the exclusive power the Arc Board holds to make such a decision and the lack of any actual say from the SRC itself on such a matter. Rahme was visibly surprised to hear this rumour and could not provide any clarification.

Finally, the fire began to die down into the routine readings of the Officer’s reports, the majority of which were taken as read, and repeated similar sentiments of ongoing progress from the beginning of the year. However, Sedgwick did hint to the SRC that she would be putting forward several motions for initiatives at next month’s meeting to “get us all a pay raise” to help enable larger Collective events. Pepsi and Cherish both expressed support for increasing the SRC’s budget, which has faced cuts every year since 2015 and shared a sentiment that they would like access to some of the money from large UNSW sponsorships from international corporations such as Disney, Vaseline, Harley Davidson, and Cerave.

Rahme closed tonight’s meeting asking Office Bearers to remind their tutors and lecturers that the SRC is here, but needs the backing of staff and students in order to properly support them. I sincerely hope that providing my fellow students with an inside look at the proceedings of SRC meetings like tonight’s will allow them to do just that. Stay warm, and see you next month!