On Wednesday 26 March, ANUSA held its first Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) of the year. The meeting was much anticipated, as motions involving the restructuring of the Environment Collective (EC) into a committee were due to be voted on.

The agenda for the OGM can be found here.

In the finale to a saga that has taken years off my life, the Environment Collective has survived an attempted restructure by this year’s ANUSA Executive. 

Motion 4.9 “Environment Department becomes Environment Committee” was a special resolution which involved altering the ANUSA Constitution, and thus needed  75 percent approval to pass. 

The motion failed with 173 people voting for the amendment, and 125 people against it. This amounted to only 58 percent approval. 

Whilst the events leading up to this OGM have received some attention, the discourse in the days directly preceding the meeting was particularly polarising. This polarised debate perhaps reflects broader patterns of student disengagement in union affairs within the ANU.

One day out from the OGM, students took to Facebook group “ANU Schmitposting” to reveal campaign texts sent to a hall group chat in regards to the motion, going so far as to say “if you come I’ll buy you a beer or maybe two (i’m not joking)”. At the time of writing, the post had 38 comments, almost all of which were criticising the ANUSA Executive and their alleged tolerance of these campaign tactics.

Another post criticises Socialist Alternative (SAlt), accusing them of “manipulating your environmentalism”. This post has 19 comments, many of which join in the criticism.

It’s easy to see how students may simply be so overwhelmed by their union’s controversies that they have no clue where to begin. Posts with paragraphs upon paragraphs of comments are not always as convincing as they are alienating to both sides of the political divide.

As for the motion itself, speakers ‘for’ included ANUSA representatives President Will Burfoot (he/him), Welfare Officer Kiera Rosenberg (she/her), Education Officer Rosie Paton (she/her), and Treasurer Hayden O’Brien (he/him).

Moving the motion, Burfoot provided background to the motion, including the independent report which investigated EC spending activity last year. Burfoot stated, “students should have confidence that their student union will use their funds appropriately.” 

Speaking for the motion, Paton reiterated that the changes “are not looking to stifle activism”, but rather, regulate funding. She ensured attendees that the EC can continue to do what it wants, and that the Executive will not prevent activism.

There was particular emphasis from the ANUSA Executive that spending of this nature in the future would threaten ANUSA’s SSAF compliance as a whole. Based on the report, and legal advice received, they stated that spending on attending these conferences is non-compliant with federal SSAF regulations.

It is unclear whether this is actually the case. Student unions have certainly paid for students to attend similar conferences in the past, but ANUSA’s caution may be justified nevertheless.

Speaking against the motion, Environment Officer, Sarah Strange (she/her), told attendees that the ANUSA Executive “are making this a referendum on whether we like SAlt, and it has nothing to do with that.”

Another speaker against the motion, Carter Chryse, stated, “The assertion that this is an illegal use of funds is a politically charged attempt to restrict funding to less political, less contentious activism.” They noted that the university has not yet challenged the legality of this spending, thus the purported threat to ANUSA’s SSAF compliance is overstated. 

In a statement to Woroni, Strange noted that only 60 votes were needed to defeat the motion, but having 125 people turn up “demonstrates a real breadth of support for environmentalism on campus and the activities we are doing.”

She apologised on behalf of the EC for the previous actions of the department that occurred before her tenure as officer, noting that spending on Marxism and Keep Left conferences “cannot happen again… That’s why I’m committed to making changes to the EC Constitution in addition to the many changes we’ve already made.” Strange emphasised her support for an increase in financial probity, so long as “those efforts maintain the democratic structure of the Environment Collective.”

Strange continued, “unfortunately the Executive failed to listen and decided to rely only on their factional stacking ability, which led to a huge defeat for them.”

She stressed, “I’m sick and tired of thinking and talking about governance. I wasn’t elected to ANUSA to do governance, I was elected to do environmental activism. That’s why, from now on, 90 percent of my focus will be on our environmental efforts.” Strange urges students to sign the petition for the ANU ZERO campaign, accessible here.

Burfoot told Woroni that despite the motion failing to reach the 75 percent required to pass, he was “glad that the clear majority of students at the OGM agreed that the issues identified with the Department were serious and supported the proposed actions.” 

Emphasising that his “priority is that students have confidence that ANUSA is working in their best interests”, the ANUSA President spoke of maintaining the Union’s financial controls and oversight efforts to prevent a repeat of any financial mismanagement. 

Burfoot remained committed to the belief that “the committee structure is the right structure for an environmentally focused group within ANUSA and would have ensured in the future that environmental advocacy and activism could continue without the many structural issues identified in both the governance review and the review into the Environment Department.” 

However, he did promise that “As President I will continue to work with the Environment Officer to support her work and the work of the department. Students have long been a leading voice in prioritising and advocating on the environment, we know the impact the climate crisis will have on our future and it’s in all of our interests that the Environment Department does this.”