Sebastian Tierney (he/him) has announced that he will be running as an independent in the general elections for the role of ANUSA Welfare Officer. 

Tierney is a third-year undergraduate student, who has held positions as the Secretary of Wright Hall and a Deputy for the ANUSA Wellbeing Committee. Broadly, Tierney is committed to ensuring that the welfare support given to students “[is made] as accessible, as effective, as diverse and as numerous as [he] can.” Currently, Tierney is the President of the non-politically affiliated ANU Refugee Action Campaign

As Welfare Officer, Tierney hopes to focus on the ANU Counselling service, which he describes as “…limited by insufficient funding and a clear lack of prioritization by the university.” More specifically, are his aims to:

• Advocate for more counselling appointments available to students
• Provide counselling to students overseas
• Establish a point of contact in the ANU counselling service for the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) community
• Work with ANU Counselling to introduce more community-specific group counselling programs
• Work to ensure the First-Year Experience Program is as effective as possible
• Cooperate with the Young Workers Centre to address wage theft on campus
• Continue the work of the Lower the Age of Independence and Save Braddon Centrelink campaigns through a Welfare Committee.  
• Expand the number of go-to student services by engaging with services like Headspace and Someone.health 

Tierney also urges students to vote yes in ANUSA’s upcoming divestment referendum. 

While Tierney classifies himself as “left-wing [and] progressive” he does not have any political affiliations.

As of writing, Tierney’s will be competing with Blake Iafeta from Do Better! with Blake Iafeta, Grace King from Grassroots ANUSA, and Sinead Winn from Get Sh!t done for ANUSA.