It was almost overwhelmingly tempting to ignore these screenshots, which have been circulating for a while. Not because they’re irrelevant to this election, or because they’re not disturbing. No – it was tempting to ignore them because I’m a woman, and I edit this magazine with another woman, and I’m quite sure that when this post garners the attention it deserves, that fact will automatically be equated with Pelican‘s editorial agenda. When the big boys of Launch meet to distribute their candidate flyers tomorrow morning, I have a few ideas as to how the conversation will go.
What you need to know: Rhys Tucker is running for Guild President with Launch. Luke Ellery is running as an Ordinary Guild Councillor, also with Launch. It would appear from these screenshots that Tucker created this Facebook group, the ‘Male Action Network’, in February of this year – but is no longer a member of it. These are the kinds of erudite conversations that were happening in the group:
Maybe you picked up on this already, but I don’t really care for this election. I think it’s ridiculous that a student government should operate according to a stale two party system such as that which currently exists here on campus. This isn’t Australia’s pissweak excuse for a Federal parliament – this is a university. A university made up of so many different voices and faculties and clubs and societies and nationalities. We can do better than ALP versus LPA. We really can. I think the whole thing is dumb. Obviously. But I also think that if you’re going to vote for one of the two major tickets, you should probably make an informed choice. So look at these images (which were, presumably, leaked to us by an anonymous STAR candidate) and decide what they mean to you.
Email us something less depressing, please – [email protected].
Words by Kat Gillespie