In a 122-page mega-doc released on 17 September, Serve! For ANUSA hard-launched their policy platform and running candidacy for the 2024 ANUSA election.

Serve! presents themselves as a progressive, independent ticket delivering on three main goals of ‘Bigger and Better Services’, ‘Accountability and Transparency’ and ‘Fighting for Your Rights’. The grindies (Grassroots Independents)-aligned ticket, however presents a group of incumbents whose non-aligned independent predecessors have dominated the ANUSA executive for almost a decade. Two of this year’s executive candidates disclose an affiliation with the Australian Greens party.

Beneath the countless vague allusions to collaboration, accountability, advocacy and independence, Woroni was able to sift out Serve!’s most tangible policies. 

Foodbank:

According  to Presidential Candidate, Skye Predavec, “Students at this University are hungry”, and she’s likely not wrong. 

Earlier this year, the ANU introduced means-testing for the Community Connect Pantry, which made the high-demand food service inaccessible for many students, with international students being primarily impacted. In addition, ANUSA’s newest food initiative Lunch Express has faced massive demand. 

In line with this, the ticket presents its headline policy as the ANUSA Foodank, which would be a volunteer run program, providing essential groceries to students. 

The pilot program for the Foodbank alone would cost $70,000, with the ticket pitching a range of ways to get funding and sourcing. This includes charitable groups, ACT government grants, sponsorships, food/resource or financial donations. 

If these options are unavailable or exhausted, the ticket plans on receiving funding from existing budget lines, primarily the National Union of Students (NUS) affiliation fee line. Currently, ANUSA pays the NUS approximately $40,000, which as the ticket points out is, “$16k more than we are required to pay”. 

Otherwise, the ticket plans on bidding in the SSAF reserve pool. Predavec notes, “While the underspend pool will not be around forever, this would at least be able to provide up to tens of thousands in funding for the duration of the pilot program, and the first few years of operation should that be successful.” 

The location of the FoodBank however, is not well considered. The ticket plans, “seek[ing] space from the uni in one of the many unused lots in Kambri.” They themselves point out, “the university is often hesitant to allow these spaces to be used”, but they maintain, “there’s a clear and direct benefit to students from doing so, especially if the initial commitment is only for the pilot period, with the continuing use of the space being on the table if the pilot is successful.” 

The Foodbank, if delivered, will undoubtedly provide much needed relief to the food insecurity on campus. However, reminiscent of the Night Cafe, the question remains of whether the Food Bank will be delivered. 

The Night Cafe was a major policy promise of the grindies ticket back in 2021. Throughout the years, the ANUSA executive attempted to get a favourable rent agreement for the business. However, later on, the executives would report that negotiations were stalled due to COVID-19. In August of 2022, it was revealed that the operating business expense for the Night Cafe was $268,720.  Despite negotiations being unproductive, ANUSA executives promised that the cafe would be open before the winter break in 2022. In 2023, it was announced that the Night Cafe would not go forward. 

Predavec, however, remains staunch in her policy, arguing that it is, “not just an empty promise, because I have a plan to do it.” 

The 1120 word policy is definitely a plan, and one far more comprehensive than Change Your ANUSA’s headline policies of the mental health grant. 

However, in the end, the Night Cafe failed because ANUSA failed to get support from the University, because it lacked the operational and governance structure which would provide stability in commercial activity and finally because it lacked clarity of purpose between revenue, charitable functions and operational expanse. 

While Predavec may be able to secure sourcing for the Foodbank, whether she and the ticket can secure a location remains unclear. 

In addition to the Food bank, the ticket pledges to introduce vending machines in a 24/7 Brian Kenyon Student Space (BKSS). In his policy, Vice Presidential Candidate Seungbin Kang, explains, “These vending machines will be obtained and operated by ANUSA, allowing us to operate the machine at the lowest costs and ensuring that students get maximum value out of the machines while generating a small non-SSAF binded source of revenue for the Union.” 

This policy overlaps with Change’s policy to introduce vending machines all around campus.   

Lastly, the ticket promises to bring back soups and cheese toasties to the BKSS, which was a regular service in the student space back in 2022. The ticket will deliver bread alongside the soups, through a partnership with Chartwells, the catering service which supplies to ANU residential halls. The ticket explains this will allow the Union to obtain bread at a cheaper rate. The cheese toasties will be available during a trial round between 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. every Monday to Friday.   

Divestment and Palestine 

The ticket, along with Change, Left Action – Free Palestine and Globalise the Resistance for Palestine, will be campaigning for a “Yes” vote in the divestment referendum. 

Predavec promises, “On divestment, I’ll make sure that ANU can’t just sweep this issue under the rug, that there’s a continuing review of the Socially Responsible Investment Policy that actually listens to the overwhelming demands of students.”

“If not already done this year I’ll table the results of the Divestment referendum, showing council what students really think – which I expect will be an overwhelming demand for divestment.” 

Earlier this semester, after 900 submissions to the SRI policy review, the ANU announced that it would forgo investing in “controversial weapons manufacturers”. However, for many students, including ANU4Palestine, the student-led group advocating for Palestine on campus, this has not been enough. 

Predavec pledges to ensure that the SRI policy, “undergoes regular systematic review, anchored in student consultation.” She explains, “This will institutionalise the review process as one that is periodic and allows ANU student body to critically evaluate and influence the policy on an ongoing basis.” 

The ticket has also promised to demand an academic boycott in line with the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). 

For the rest of the executive candidates, Education Officer candidate Mitha Mallichetty has previously in her role as the current Education Officer held callathons for Palestine, while the Welfare Officer candidate Harriet Ryder moved the motion calling for ANUSA to hold the divestment referendum. Both Mallichetty and Ryder pledge to continue pro-Palestinian activism in their roles if elected. 

Accountability 

The largest criticism Serve! must overcome is that a grindies-controlled ANUSA has become too detached from its student body. 

Despite being one of the highest paid Unions, ANUSA has poor turnout for its elections and even lower participation in protests such as the Housing Action Collective and the Open-Day protests against rent tariffs. 

The ticket’s policy to combat this seeming gap between itself and the general student body is, “executive report cards”. 

In her policy, General Secretary Candidate Alex Bako explains, “At the beginning of their terms, each office-holder will be asked to write down their main promises from the election and the steps necessary to accomplish these objectives.” 

“This information will be uploaded to the ANUSA website under the title, ‘Our Promises to You’.” This webpage will then go on to include, “milestones” of candidates. 

However, whether it will include the policy blunders or policy inactions is unclear, and how accessible it will be for the general student who is unfamiliar with ANUSA is also not detailed.

Nonetheless, the ticket believes, “Not only will [report cards] ensure that students can track the progress of their representatives, but it will incentivise executive members to fulfil their promises to avoid future electoral loss.” 

In addition, Bako proposes creating a process of consultation with community groups, who she explains, “feel like ANUSA does not value or listen to their voices.” She pledges to compile a list of groups who must be consulted with prior to the Union voting on motions which would concern them. However, consultation from these community groups will not be binding on the Student Representative Council (SRC), which raises the question of how effective these consultations will be if the SRC can disregard them. 

However, Bako maintains that it will provide an opportunity for SRC representatives to, “listen and respond to this feedbank”, and “understand the perspectives of affected groups before making decisions.”  

Governance Review 

The ticket’s overall stance on the Governance Review remains vague, perhaps more so than its Labor counterpart Change. While it outlines recommendations of the Review which will be beneficial to the Union, the ticket also points out some of its flaws. 

The latter of which includes, “ The preamble to the report [which] unfairly attacks pro-Palestine activists despite their important work in protesting ANU’s complicity in genocide” and the lack of adequate consultation from students. 

However, the ticket refrains from commenting on recommendations such as ones relating to making the ANUSA executive the “committee of the association”, and role clarification for Welfare and Education Officers, and abolishing autonomous Department constitutions and abolishing the ANUSA Education Collective. 

Bako promises, “If elected as General Secretary, I would review the recommendations of the Governance Review and collaborate with Departments and other stakeholders to consider each [recommendation.” 

Education policies 

The ticket pledges to implement a range of educational reforms within the ANU. This includes five day simple extensions, removing hurdle exams and breaking down the 0 mark. 

The ticket explains five day simple extensions is, “is a policy that particularly benefits working students who have to work to support themselves throughout their studies, and follows a framework that promotes universal accessibility in our work.” 

While, Serve!’s predecessor Together for ANUSA also ran on implementing five day simple extensions, Vice-Presidential candidate Seungbin Kang, plans on, “pressuring the University in high level committees such as the Academic Board to make movement within this space. We will be taking a whole of Education Council (EDC) approach to this policy as well, through passing a motion in the EDC and incorporating our campaign on 5 day simple extensions into the newly created policy book that will be provided to representatives to advocate for simple extensions on different levels.”  

The “0 mark” refers to the ability of conveners to automatically assign zero marks to assessments which are handed in past the due date, as opposed to the five percent penalty per working day. The ticket plans on working with the Education Committee to advocate against this. 

Hurdle exams, which are common in the College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics, are examinations students are required to pass in order to successfully complete the entire course. 

Kang maintains, “As Vice President, I will commit to removing hurdle examinations from the curriculum. It is a dated practice which doesn’t reflect the skill sets that are currently valued in the workforce, and places students in a highly stressed unfair environment prioritising only the end of the semester above all other student performance throughout the year.” 

The ticket also pledges to run a number of advocacy campaigns, namely, those relating to, “International student visa fee increases and caps”, “PhD stipends and intellectual property theft.” 

Earlier this semester, Kang successfully passed a motion in the SRC calling on ANUSA to show greater support for International students in light of international student caps. 

Many of Serve!’s education policies overlap with that of Change, including the five day extensions and hurdle assignments. However, the biggest differentiation is Serve!’s commitment to education advocacy.  

This includes Education Officer candidate Mallichetty’s policies on divestment and political education. Mallichetty promises to be proactive in activism on both education issues and global issues including Palestine, and commits to supporting activists on campus, working alongside Environment Officer candidate Sarah Strange. 

Residential rights and housing 

The ticket also plans to fight for equitable rent on campus, by advocating for the University to change its Occupancy Agreement. 

In particular, Welfare Officer candidate Harriet Ryder outlines that under these agreements, ANU students only have three restrictive pathways to terminate their occupancy. They explain that the lack of flexibility means the contract primarily disadvantages disabled, international and low socio-economic students. While Ryder pledges to fight against the restrictive and inflexible nature of these occupancy agreements, it is unclear how they will go about persuading the ANU to change a legal and binding agreement between itself and its students. 

Ryder also plans on implementing a Residential Reporting System, which would collect data on student and staff experiences within residential halls. They believe this would, 

1. “Demonstrate to both staff and students the issues faced at residential accommodation;
2. Have an increased amount of data and information on an often neglected point of student wellbeing and; 
3. Be able to demonstrate to ANU that students at residential halls face significant tangible issues.” 

However, it should be noted that the Reporting System will not provide short term relief or support to students within residential halls. 

Lastly, Ryder plans on advocating for rights for residential mentors. They maintain, “ As Welfare Officer, I will campaign for the scholarship payment to be specific to each hall, and therefore to make up a percentage of rent. This percentage of rent must additionally be raised to at least 66%, or 2/3rds, of the total rent cost. RMs at every hall will receive more money if this is implemented.” 

The ticket also plans on implementing the findings of the Postgraduate and Research Students Association (PARSA) Room for Change Accomodation Report. In particular, Serve! will call on the University to, 

1. “Establish a dedicated accommodation officer(s) who can support off campus students, particularly international students or those with ESL language difficulties, 
2. [Ensure] affordable and accessible on-campus housing, for example through subsidisation or the renegotiation of concession deals. PARSA, 
3. [Develop] family friendly (including for parents and carers or students with dependents) on-campus accommodation options, 
4. [Have] better communication from the ANU to students regarding the accommodation processes.” 

Serve! For ANUSA

This year may perhaps be the hardest year for the grindies. After losing two executive positions to Labor aligned candidates last year, the ticket is now against Change for ANUSA, in what might essentially be a two party election.

Throughout the years, and particularly this year after their temporary involvement in the Gaza Solidarity encampment, grindies have gained the reputation of being too activism focused. While at the same time, support for Pro-Palestine movements have also increased on campus, as evident by mass protests and turnouts at the Student General Meeting earlier this semester.  

Putting on the front of a service based ticket, and headlining the Foodbank as one of its main policies, the grindies-alligned ticket understands where its gaps are, but will it be enough for students to entrust them once again?