Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Energy and Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I will wait in the chamber for a while now. By not providing this information prior to the introduction of the bill, the Minister for Youth and Sport is seeking parliament’s approval for a measure without even telling us where the money is going to go. The Labor government is holding students in contempt by introducing a bill without being up front with the students and giving them the full facts before this even goes through this place. They are treating them like mushrooms, basically.

In regard to political activities, without having further detail provided it is impossible to know where the students’ money will be going. Some student guilds across the country do not have a particularly strong track record in using students’ money in an appropriate manner. There are numerous examples. For instance, in the past student unions have donated money to the PLO and the Communist Party of Malaya, as it was in those days. In 1999—I wish the member for Newcastle were still here—the University of Newcastle Students Union decided that only stalls displaying anti-VSU materials were allowed on orientation day.

The minister has given her assurance that the legislation will prohibit money being spent for political purposes. However, this is confined to the support of political parties or government bodies, leaving a wide variety of highly political activities such as those that I have previously mentioned still possible. The legislation potentially allows for the funding of campaigns against political parties and the direct funding of other organisations not registered as political parties, such as trade unions.

Even if these other activities were put in the disallowable instrument, this would not fix the problem, as was highlighted in Victoria when the distinction between allowed and non-allowed services became simply an accounting tool. Under VSU, student unions were able to effectively cross-subsidise activities for which direct funding was disallowed. It was concluded by the University of Melbourne Student Union that, in reality, the allowable matters on which compulsory funds could be spent would still allow for the full funding of everything except elections. Under VSU in Western Australia, and more recently when it was introduced across Australia, guilds continued to be involved in political activities, running a variety of campaigns and holding national days of action. The simple difference is that under VSU students who do not want to be involved in such issues are not forced to fund them and, in doing so, fund an organisation they may disagree with.

In addition to being used for political activities, funds may also be used for activities that students do not want or need or services that are better left to other organisations. It has been argued by some guilds that compulsory fees need to be introduced because of the declining number of services caused by VSU. However, evidence of simple reduction in services should not be taken as evidence of declining standards in student guilds. The services that will be maintained are those that students want and need and that are the reason they paid their membership fees in the first place. Whether it be half-price coffee, access to emergency loans or assistance with appeals, if that is what students want and are willing to join their student union to protect then they are services that will continue to be provided by members. I repeat: if they are the sorts of services they want, they can join the guild and get those services. They do not have to do so by coercion.

Additionally, this bill will force Australia’s over 1,300 external students to fund services that they will clearly never have an opportunity to use, as I have pointed out before. What middle-aged student wants to join the rugby club or the Australian rules football club? They might want to join as a social member, but, as much as I have played Australian rules football, I do not think that if I went as a mature age student I would be that competitive these days. Ultimately, compulsory funding models make student unions less accountable and force students to fund services they do not want. By guaranteeing a constant source of income, the Labor government is encouraging inefficiencies in student unions, a fact noted by a former president of the Australian National University Students Association, who stated:

… organisations which depend on the funds—

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