By Scarlet Hannah
A report on the reports from UWA’s boldest, sent to the represent us at the National Representative body, going where delegates have gone annually before.
The National Union of Students National Conference was held at Federation 
University from the 9th to the 13th of December. The National Conference is a chance for delegates from all affiliated university guilds to have their voices heard in the nationwide student union, and for motions to be pass that determine the direction of the peak student body. In prime contention at this meeting was the union’s relationship with the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and their more conservative policies. There were times when these voices spoke in unison, passing substantial positions on social and political issues. Despite this opportunity for the expression of the voice of the student polity the annual meeting was marred by issues of procedure, accessibility, personal & factional infighting
Delegates to the NUS are selected by each affiliated university and form factions based around similar interests and politics. The six factions at the 2024 National Conference were as follows:
Student Unity was the largest faction, holding 48% of the votes. Unity was formed in 1991 and is aligned with the right faction of the ALP. Its longevity means that Unity possesses one of the strongest organisational apparatuses, which combined with a considerable presence on the conference floor and vote binding made them the dominant faction. UWA’s Olivia Stronach (Independent) sat with Student Unity.
Socialist Alternative (SAlt) is a large faction of leftist delegates. The group is not aligned with any federal political party and generally supports a Trotskyist perspective. SAlt was the second largest grouping on the conference floor and was joined by delegates from the UWA Social Justice party.
National Labor Students is another long-standing union faction affiliated with the left faction of the ALP. Similar to Unity they have a strong organisational structure and bind the votes of their members but are considerably smaller due to the loss of many members from WA and Queensland.
The Western Australian Independents (WIndies) are one such group that despite broad policy agreement does not sit with NLS. The WIndies consist of UWA and Curtin Delegates who believe that the NUS is not doing enough to represent WA universities. UWA Delegates from REVIVE sat as WIndies.
Forge is a similarly sized faction that also diverges from NLS. Forge includes delegates from WA and Queensland with similar concerns to the WIndies. UWA Delegates from SPARK and GLOBAL sat with Forge.
Lastly, the Grassroots were an insignificant, Greens-aligned faction of progressives.
The voting for policies was split across four days, with the first dedicated to union organisation and the latter three determining policy positions. Despite the differences between the factions there were many points of agreement, including unanimous votes in support for policies supporting Palestine and opposing junior wages. Policies advocating for improvements in women’s health, better treatment of international students, condemnation of antisemitism and many other generally progressive policies were passed uncontroversially.
There were several policies that were passed to specifically benefit WA and WA universities. A motion was put forward and passed to mandate the NUS President and General Secretary to visit every affiliated campus during their term. Other policies were passed relating to West Australian issues, such as a condemnation of the Banksia Hill Detention Centre and a number of policies about WA environmental issues.
Despite these productive moments of unity vicious divisions emerged over the ALP and some more contentious policies. Student Unity was regularly criticised by the other factions for being too close to and supportive of the Labor Party. Several delegates described a cycle by which Unity would criticise SAlt for being unreasonable, SAlt would criticise NLS for not being left-wing enough and NLS would attack Unity for being too rusted-on to the Labor Party. Despite a near majority, Unity lost control on several occasions, failing to block motions supporting raising the age of criminal responsibility and opposing ALP policy on university fees. There was also vicious opposition passed to pro-AUKUS policies.
Beyond the divisions at the conference, there were many glaring procedural issues that undermined the efficiency and legitimacy of the union. It was only on the second day that a campus count (a direct count of each individual delegate vote) revealed that Student Unity did not possess an absolute majority of votes, meaning that they had been able to unilaterally pass motions the previous day erroneously. Furthermore, time constraints led to many policies being passed ‘on bloc’, whereby a package of policies is voted on all at once rather than individually, reducing the opportunity for debate and scrutiny of individual policies. On the final day almost every measure was passed on bloc, and delegates had little time to even read on what they were voting for. Part of the blame for this lies on SAlt delegates, who forced an early end to the second day of proceedings by walking out after losing a vote to chair the queer section.
Despite noted improvements on previous events, the decorum of the conference was panned by almost every delegate. Delegates called out student unity for unprofessional chants during debates, most notably “HECS is best” during the debate on university fees and “we all live in a nuclear submarine” for AUKUS. There were also several accusations of unprofessional personal conduct thrown around between individual UWA delegates. The accessibility of the conference was also lacking. Despite efforts such as the inclusion of a sensory room from which delegates could vote and enforcing AUSLAN clapping during the disability section of proceedings many delegates noted that these were incomplete solutions, and SAlt delegates refused to abide by the clapping rules.
Despite the myriad problems with the conference, there are signs of improvement in the union. There have been specific improvements in accessibility, the representation of WA and the level of professionalism. All factions except SAlt have collaborated on a reform working group, and there is a general spirit of optimism from many of the delegates. Whether these reforms bear fruit waits to be seen, whilst they are in progress, debates about affiliation will continue, including for UWA.