NUS hangover...

I just got back from Ballarat and Melbourne yesterday. Conference was hectic although nothing much really happened. After all, that's what the NUS is about. A waste of time and money. We left for Ballarat from Trades Hall in Melbourne last Tuesday and I let everyone in our faction know to go to the toilets before boarding as the bus would probably break down. Sure enough, the bus broke down at almost the exact same place as it did last year. Talk about deja vu. Or maybe I just jinxed it. Anyways, we eventually reached Ballarat Uni and were allocated accommodation in the dorms beside where we stayed last year since our faction grew bigger. We were also allocated a bigger, new caucus room. I volunteered myself as COG Co-ordinator; a position I was familiar with as I held it last year. Anyways, conference went on pretty much the same way it did last year. Sessions started late because of factions taking their own sweet time with caucus business, disrpution of proceedings by the Liberal students, internal splits within factions and many other reasons.

At the same time, VSU passed through both the House of Representatives and the Senate within days of each other. John Howard made a comment last Thursday night claiming that VSU could not be introduced before the end of the year but in a whirlwind of events, VSU went on the agenda the next day in the afternoon and was passed within hours. The Coalition silenced dissent by putting a gag on the time limit allocated for debate. Ironically though, the person who we were lobbying to vote against VSU was not the one who got the legislation passed. Senator Steve Fielding from the Family First Party did a backflip and voted in favour of VSU. Obviously he was offered a deal but we haven't been able to identify what it could have possibly been. Rumour has it that he secured the Coalition's support in postponing the upcoming conscience vote on the abortion pill RU486. There was a lot of stir on Friday at the NUS as everyone was basically watching the Senate proceedings via internet stream and others rallied in the courtyard. Senator Barnaby Joyce crossed the floor to vote with the Opposition against VSU but Senator Fielding went the other way, effectively cancelling each other out and maintaining the Coalition's majority in the Senate. Upon confirmation of the news, a lot of delegates broke down into tears. Surely it couldn't have been that bad? Well, if you consider that some of them are looking at careers in politics it wouldn't be that surprising. The infuriating thing is that the Government just rammed the bill through, brushed aside the proposed amendments and gagged as much dissent as they were able to. The contempt they showed at such important legislation affecting thousands of people is absolutely disgusting. The Liberal students rubbed things in during the night session causing even more tension.

The NLC has never had good relations with the NOLS. This is because the NOLS have never acknowledged our right to exist as a faction within the NUS. Well, tensions boiled over and it reached its peak at this conference. The Friday night session began with some good speeches about how everyone should put factional differences aside and focus on the matter at hand. After 3 or 4 motions though, everything went back to normal. We then decided to COG our International Student policies and our International Student Officer's report. Surprise, surprise; it was NOLS that moved a motion and voted to put our policy to the vote right after the seconder finished speaking. We all screamed at them and managed to defeat the motion with support from other factions. After that, the rest of our International Student policies and International Student Officer's report were constantly being pushed down on the agenda list by NOLS. Eventually we decided to walk out on the session and quorum was lost when Unity and some others walked out with us. While in the process of walking out, the rest of the left-wing factions quickly moved and approved about 5 or 6 motions they knew we may vote against. How hypocritical it was that they were criticizing the Government for ramming VSU through when they themselves were ramming policies and Rule changes through. We were eventually persuaded back onto conference floor to accept the Queer and International Officer's report. When it got to Akshay's report, we all walked to the front behind him. He blasted NOLS and followed it up by replying to two of our questions with criticism directed at NOLS. The whole conference went into a "Shame NOLS Shame" chant and a number of NOLS delegates broke into tears. I must say it had to be the highlight of the conference and the first time all that pent up frustration built over all these years just had to explode. I'm sure we'll face a NOLS backlash throughout next year, especially during election time.

Anyways, we left the conference with what we wanted: 5 spots on National Executive. The after-party was lame but most of us were smashed after several shots of Sambuca and other drinks including beer and JD. We had to wake up early the next morning to check-out and catch the bus back to Melbourne. After lunch at the Dragon Boat restaurant, I headed home wile some stayed back for later flights.

All in all, the conference went as expected. There were a few interesting incidents along the way but nothing to really shout about. I'm really tired but need to get stuff sorted with regards to preparations to face VSU. I did very well in my exams and managed to get 2 Ds (equivalent to 3 since one of the subjects was double the normal units) and a credit. Hopefully that's enough for Honours.

Well, that's about it for now. Time to get back to work. Hopefully this is the start of better things to come...