Compulsory student unionism fails
the test of free debate
President of the Australian Liberal Students Federation (ALSF),
Nick Tolley, today condemned the Newcastle University Student
Association (NUSA), for its contemptible disregard for freedom
of political expression. This comes in the wake of NUSA's
decision to only allow stalls to be set up during their University
Orientation Day, if those stalls display anti-Voluntary Student
Unionism (VSU) material.
"University should be a bastion of free expression and
thought. Yet, at Newcastle University, it seems that you're
only free to express your thoughts if they are in agreement
with the Student Union," Mr Tolley said today.
"To deny those clubs and associations with alternative
views the opportunity to participate in Orientation Week activities,
is a contemptible infringement of freedom of political expression."
"The only possible explanation is that the NUSA knows
that Compulsory Student Unionism is indefensible - that if
both sides of the story were told, then students would have
no hesitation in opting for VSU."
"Clearly, NUSA is not even willing to put Compulsory
Student Unionism to the test of open and free debate."
"This is the sort of stock-standard hypocrisy that we
have come to expect from the Student Union movement. On the
one hand they claim that students will lose their voice if
VSU is introduced, but on the other hand, they are quite willing
to deny students the opportunity to express their own voices."
"The fact is, VSU gives students the most fundamental
of voices the freedom to express whether they want to belong
to an organisation or not."
"This is what the Student Unions fail to realise: VSU
is about students, not Student Unions. It's about giving students
a right to choose."
"The only student unions that need to be concerned by
the onset of VSU are those unions that are not providing the
services that students want or need," Mr Tolley concluded. |
