Natcon, Day 1. It’s 5PM and Woroni is reporting from a Federation University auditorium named after a controversial historian. We’re here for the first day of the National Unions of Students (NUS) National Conference (Natcon). It’s filled with people in poorly designed matching T-shirts who are arguably too excited about wearing a lanyard. There’s a lot of yelling.

Someone’s playing a recording of Subway Surfers gameplay over the policy program as we enter the third hour of waiting to enter the conference floor. Dinner is supposed to be in an hour. The prospect of this happening on time is dwindling, as are any initial hopes that this group of student politicians will be able to get through the 85-page policy agenda scheduled for the day.

The conference opens. Subway Surfers has been taken down. Serious business ahead.

Natcon is the annual general meeting for the student union, where their policies and elected positions for the next year are debated and decided. This means that it’s a pretty big deal for a small and specific sector of the ANU student population. Their decisions and approaches, however, can have real impacts for the rest of us. For a more in-depth explainer, read our preview here.

Day 1 touched on some internal rule changes, but debate largely centred around union-related motions (student and otherwise), including Palestinian solidarity and broader political affiliations with the Australian Labor Party. As voting started, it became apparent that the majority held by the Labor-Right Student Unity faction would greatly set the tone for the rest of Natcon. Holding what seems to be more than half the vote, Unity could not be countered in their decisions, even when voting against both SAlt and NLS. The independent presence is negligible. 

Labor Party affiliations

One of the most controversial topics of debate was the Australian Labor Party (ALP) — support it or condemn it, effective centrists or union-busting warmongers? 

The accusation, made by Socialist Alternative (SAlt), is that the Labor-affiliated factions (Student Unity and National Labor Students) uncritically support the Australian Labor Party and use their platform to campaign for its interests rather than the interests of students. Many of their speakers condemned its alleged exacerbation of the cost of living and housing crises, complicity in the genocide of Palestinians, union-busting, and more. Even when all factions agreed on the content of a motion, and the motion was not — or only tangentially related to — the ALP, the ALP was the topic of fierce debate. 

Motions that criticised the ALP and asked the Union to condemn their actions either failed or were amended to remove condemnation of the ALP from their platform. This was the case with Motion 3.11, which was successfully amended to remove “NUS condemns attempts by the NSW Labor government to use Australia’s anti-strike laws to stop nurses from exercising their right to strike.”

SAlt are staunchly anti-Labor, and often only got up to call on the NLS to join them in directly condemning the Labor Party. NLS, although Labor-affiliated, have at the least voiced a willingness to critique Labor positions in some cases.

Unity, on the other hand, is proudly pro-Labor. So proudly, in fact, that one literally card-carrying member got up to speak just to read the Pledge & Declaration of the Queensland Labor Party. 

It’s unclear exactly where NLS stands. Largely, they vote with SAlt, and speakers are certainly more left-wing in their opinions. But they have yet to speak out directly against the actions of the ALP. 

Palestine and militarism in our universities

The union was mostly united in agreeing that “peace is union business” and opposing Israel’s war on Palestine and Lebanon. They were, however, divided on broader issues of militarism on campus and AUKUS.

Speakers from across the union spoke to their “responsibility to be united against atrocities”, with those from Socialist Alternative especially adamant in their support of student unions having mobilised against the complicity of the Albanese government in the genocide in Gaza. One Palestinian-Australian student described the “unrelenting pain” of feeling like every day at home in Sydney was a “funeral for Palestinians”.

The union also discussed concerns about student political expression being under attack, with explicit mention being made of disciplinary actions at ANU as well as the Campus Access Policy at the University of Sydney. Motion 2.1 “NUS opposes Israel’s war on Palestine and Lebanon” was carried unanimously.

Notably, however, debate in a later motion 2.17 (to put first the “material concerns of students”) saw a Unity member accuse other groups of caring about “random issues like pro-Palestine protests” and allegedly, not putting students first in doing so. An opposing SAlt speaker condemned the Unity motion as “a motion against Palestine” which was “further right than Dutton”.

Debate came to a head with the bloc of Motion 2.2 (“Fight militarism on campus”) and Motion 2.10 (“Stop AUKUS!”). Speakers moving the motion both maintained that Australian universities were being restructured into a part of the military industrial complex. They opposed the redirection of tertiary research for military purposes, whether that be preparation for a war with China, or the development of technology to be used in atrocities overseas, including in Palestine. 

Unity spoke firmly against this bloc, largely because of the proposed condemnation of AUKUS. At one point, when an opposition speaker was condemning the historical military use of nuclear technology to kill civilians, a Unity member from the back even yelled “I love AUKUS!” Unity argued for the jobs that AUKUS is said to provide and the benefits of nuclear research in other fields, accusing SAlt of being “anti-worker” for opposing the scheme.

They argued that Australia “must be ready to protect ourselves and our pacific neighbours”, and defend “threats to our democracy”. They summed it up with the rallying call “Let’s build some nuclear submarines guys!” (Followed by loud cheering).

An NLS speaker also spoke for Motion 2.10, asserting that the federal government should instead be working diplomatically to improve its relations in the Asia-Pacific, and that the money directed to AUKUS should be spent on Australians. They noted that the working-class communities in areas like Illawarra were, contrary to what the “jobs jobs jobs” argument might assume, actually against a nuclear base at Port Kembla. Local residents did not want nuclear waste, did not want to potentially become targets in the event of war, and did not have particularly high hopes about ever actually getting the submarines. 

The bloc failed. 

Other unions?

In addition to intense discussion on the role of their own union, the debate included several issues related to other unions, both student and trade. 

The NUS voted in support of National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) enterprise bargaining agreement campaigns. The large-scale potential staff cuts at ANU received special mention, as the speaker for NTEU/staff solidarity described mass staff cuts at campuses across the country and called on student unions to attend NTEU rallies and support their strikes.

A motion was also carried in support of the NSW nurses and midwives strike (after amending it to remove a condemnation of the NSW Labor government). 

However, Unity refused to allow the passing of a motion calling for the expulsion of police unions from Trade Halls nationally, despite SAlt and the NLS agreeing “for once” that there was no place for the union’s promotion of a body that was perpetrating “racist violence” and hypocritically suppressing protest. 

Similarly, several motions related to general support of trade unions and their relevance failed. A bloc of motions to support the CFMEU and stand against recent anti-CFMEU legislation failed to pass the vote, despite views tabled by the left of the conference condemning the “unprecedented attacks” seen against the union. One Unity speaker, Callum Glasgow, explained his opposition to the CFMEU support,  “I don’t like organised crime in my union”. 

Youth wages

One thing everybody could agree on was that youth wages should be abolished. Speakers brought up their own experiences working and supporting themselves as teenagers, as many young workers do, making it unfair for them to be earning as little as 45 percent of an adult wage. Motions blocced with these include those to protect student gig workers and to celebrate the Workplace Justice Visa. After having the obligatory argument over whether to criticise the ALP, all motions ultimately passed, affirming that youth wages are an important issue for the NUS. 

In general, the conference’s debate seems to be characterised by several humorous and occasionally bleak instances of raucous, bordering on violent, cross-room disagreement, followed by intense whiplash when all parties agree to unanimously pass a motion. Alternatively, intense and persuasive debate across the floor appears futile in the face of an unbreaking and dominant Unity bind, and the general agreements that had already been decided in preconventions days before. I’m sure the hacks are having lots of fun yelling at each other, but as an outside observer, it’s hard not to feel that this intense discussion is almost entirely decoupled from the voting process itself, and start wondering what the point is.

But it’s only the first day. 

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