We investigate so you don’t have to. We will be following these two stories as they develop so keep an eye out for news regarding more elections and regulations.
ECOMS elections have been marred by contention, with a dispute breaking out between various candidates and the Returning Officers over their vote counting methodology. The central issue lies around whether or not putting a cross or tick on a ballot indicates a preference when elections are conducted by optional preferential voting. In this instance, the ROs decided that such a ballot was not a valid vote and deemed it informal. This has led to an appeals process that has resulted in the vote count being suspended until the dispute is resolved.
Regarding the appeal, a post by the ECOMS UWA Facebook page says it “has the potential to impact multiple roles within our executive team and as such we will be considering this thoroughly”. By all accounts, the preliminary results are extremely tight, and a recount has the potential to change results. 2018 elections have continued their trend of being won on the narrowest of margins. We reached out to the Returning Officers for comment and will keep you posted when we hear more.
In other news today’s OGM was a lesson in what happens to a runaway train when it comes off it’s tracks. The answer: Michael Barblett standing up to list all the technological contributions by universities and armies. Source of this list is found here, you will not believe number four.
A meeting which reached quorum at the eleventh hour started like any other. With 100 people packed in the ref passing procedural motions ranging from minutes to a restructure of council (info for which can be found here).
One final motion stood between us and our promised ice-cream.
“Preamble: The Liberal Government has dedicated itself to making Australia one of the ten biggest arms exporters in the next decade. Defence Minister Christopher Pyne openly admits that Australia is engaging in “[the] biggest buildup of defence capability in our country’s history”. We’ve seen a further $3.8 billion invested into the military just this year to advance this buildup. Alongside this development, there have been numerous attacks to education and welfare services. This year, the Liberal government, via an undemocratic loophole, managed to cut $2.2 billion from education funding. It is quite clear what the Liberal Government prioritises.
On October 30th, Defence West and US-Asia Centre are holding the ‘Indo-Pacific Conference 2018’ which brings together leading politicians, arms corporations, and university management. A key discussion point of this conference is how to deepend relationships between the education sector and arms sector. This is only occurring due to the chronic underfunding of higher education in Australia. The government, military companies, and university management are seeking to exploit this set-up by funneling our education towards war-profiteering.
That the UWA Student Guild:
- Condemns the Liberal Government’s militarist agenda which has seen military funding being given priority over education and welfare funding.
- Calls on the UWA administration to terminate all links with the Defence Department and Thales.
- Endorses the upcoming #BooksNotBombs protest against the Indo-Pacific Conference on October 30th.
Moved: Scott Harney; Seconded: Jade Mawby.”
Once we got under way there was a deliberate exodus of students meaning we no longer had quorum to vote on the motion. Without the legitimacy of numbers, the discussion, devolved into a shouting match between Socialist Alternative supporters and Engineering detractors. The books not bombs campaign has been talked about ad nauseum and we can only wonder what is in store for 2019.
It should also be noted when the film comes out that Megan was not stoned she just has a cold. We here at the Pelican are all about setting the record straight.
Cormac Power & Joshua Cahill