Read all about it...

I got my picture in the paper today. A real big picture in fact. The statement was very small though. I had a call about a week or so ago from The Advertiser newspaper here in Adelaide and they wanted two students from my university to give some comments for a report they were going to do on the Federal Budget. Obviously I chose myself and another person to be involved in this interview. The idea was that we were supposed to make a "wishlist" of sorts where we indicate our hopes for where more money from the budget will be allocated to (e.g. tax cuts, more road works). They were to then contact us on the night the budget is announced, explain the way the budget affects us and finally find out our reaction towards the budget allocating a rating over 10 of how much it fulfilled our expectations.

In true presidential fashion, my wishlist consisted on the hope that more money would be allocated towards the higher education sector. I fully utilised my experience at a previous Senate Inquiry on Student Income Support to state my case that a lot of students are struggling financially to make it through university and that more support needs to be provided for this purpose. I asked for an increase in AUStudy and Youth Allowance as well as rent assistance for Youth Allowance (or was that AUStudy?), reinstatement of the textbook subsidy and removal of taxes on bus tickets. They gave me a call right after the budget was announced and explained to me that the income support in AUStudy and Youth Allowance were increased however most of the other things I hoped for were not touched on in the budget. Obviously I stated my disappointment especially due to the fact that international students would not benefit in any way from the budget. I gave the budget a 6/10 rating which I felt was very generous. Anyways, they slapped a huge picture of me "studying" from textbooks" and included my comments. I was quite disappointed that the comments published were only a fraction of what I said and that they missed out some key points. My portion does not even mention which university I came from or my position! Oh well, what can you expect from the media? It's not the first time they've done this to me.

Quite a number of people told me about my photo in the papers. A good sign that students actually read the newspapers! I've had my name appear in the papers many times for comments but this was the first time my photo was actually published. I wonder if those who don't know me personally recognise the photo? I think I can start a scrap book now with a compilation of articles in the papers where my name appears. I've kept all of them since the first time my name appeared in the papers here. Sometimes when I expect something to appear in the papers but am not sure when, I will go online to the newspaper website and search for my name in the archive. I can't get the full article but I identify the date of the paper and head to office to take the page. Let's hope I can get myself in the papers at least a few more times before my term ends. It needs to be in good light of course.

Haven't been having much time to blog. Exams are coming in about a month and I am struggling to catch up with studies. Somehow or other I just can't get the motivation to study. When I have the time I do other things such as this. I need to start focusing on my studies. The NLC Annual Conference starts on the last day of my exams (how convenient) as well which sort of messes my plans up a bit. Regardless, I'll have to do my best and make sure I get through this well.