The Possibility of Interference

It is in this climate that the Overseas Students Commission were upset by; the racist remarks made by Gourlie at May Council, and expressed fears for the future leadership of NZUSA if a person such as Gourlie could rise to the position of president of [unclear: orie] of its constituent bodies.

The Commission were discussing the pros and cons of NOSAC becoming independent from NZUSA, an issue covered quite fully at May Council, and it was mentioned that under the present structure, with NOSAC being a standing committee of NZUSA, overseas students didn't have much say in the direction or activities of the group. The leaders of NZUSA, under the constitution, give NOSAC its direction and can overrule it.

Auckland delegate Toong Ah Tea then mentioned the racist remarks Paul Gourlie directed at overseas students at May Council and said that "this shows that the leadership of NZUSA may not be so good." "We have to look to the future and the welfare of overseas students," he said.

The Commission continued to debate the prospect of independence as well as the problem of getting finance from NZUSA. When the question of the association's leadership came up again, Auckland's other delegate, Choong Tet Sieu, said that a lot of people in the association support overseas students but there are also others who don't share these views. "It's like Parliament" she said.

She added that "there are a lot of people who give lip service to overseas students, they say they support us but when it comes to the crunch what the hell do they do for overseas students?"

Waikato delegate Robert Teh then said that instead of "sitting here giving him (Gourlie) shit", the NOSAC Co-ordinator should investigate the situation on the Otago campus to see how it is that someone with such racist attitudes as Gourlie can be elected president.

The question of course was not one that could be resolved at any meeting. Like sexism, racism is a state of mind which must be fought and no amount of policy motions can eliminate racist attitudes from members of NZUSA. There was some concern expressed by members of NOSAC that identifying Gourlie by name would only antagonise the situation — however as the Women's Commission showed at Council, there is a time when you must stand up, must name names, must fight. The battle against sexism was successfully fought this Council, and although it will no doubt continue to appear, it will be a long time before it reaches its former hieghts. Racism is another offensive trait, and likewise it must be fought, and those who perpetrate it must be attacked.

On the subject of independence, the Commission eventually decided that it supported the idea in principle, but due to a number of considerations, including the fact that NOSAC cannot claim to be representative of all overseas students, it would have to be regarded as a long rather than a short term goal.