Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol. 38, No. 18. July 23rd 1975
SRC Circus
SRC Circus
On the 16th July, (ie; last Wednesday), students who happened to be in the Union Hall between 12 noon and 1.30 pm were subjected to yet another nauseating instalment in the continuing saga of Student Representative Council, commonly known as S.R.C.
Lurching into action
The meeting eased into motion against a background of movie-type crowd noises generated from the nearby 'Alternative.' The apologies and minutes were inspected and passed before most people were aware there was a meeting on. It was during this brief lull in high powered inertia that Peter-lets-not-get-excited-Aagaard, exercised his wealth of procedural knowledge by taking the opportunity to close the folding door, and thus, in one masterful stroke, not only keeping the undesirable noisy lunchers out but more to the point keeping the even leu desirable political dreamers and super-cliquers in. Meanwhile the meeting moved on. Next up 'Matters Arising' where matters arose. It was soon discovered that there was a vacancy for a student representative on the University Council. Somebody mentioned the words 'Steven Underwood' and up sprang a highly estimable young man who proved to be from the body of the same name. He pledged to bring the Building Fund under student control; press for student representation at the National Universities Conference; try to preserve the Hunter Building (how he would achieve this he did not say, though rumour has it, Underwood favours placing it in a giant pickle mixture, which is just about as likely as any proposal heard yet) and if this failed, to press for students to be consulted on the form esc; of the new building. All this was greeted by someone passing wind in the second row. Steve was duly elected unopposed.
Next came reports from student reps and others. Lisa Sacksen spoke about the town planning committee hearing on the Hunter building where it was generally agreed that Hunter should be designated a historic place; and another report from Lisa dealt with the salaries of appointed officers of NZUSA. Kelvin Ratnam (the election returning officer) announced that nominations were open for the 1976 executive (ic; president, etc) and that these should be in by 4.30 pm on Wednesday 30 July. Lastly. John Grainer re-ported on the Commerce Faculty Meeting where he said little of any great importance or controversy occured.' We heard him mention that amongst other things, ex-Prime Minister Jack Marshall has been invited to join the Master of Public Policy (MPP) Board of Studies and that the in-term assessment committee reported that it had prepared a questionnaire for all commerce students which it was about to distribute. To the great relief of all concerned, the reports finally ground to a halt. Next came the motions.
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Diane Hooper,"particularly obnoxious"
Opposition to Foreign Control
The first, moved by Diane Hooper, urged that we support the Campaign Against Foreign Control in New Zealand (CAFCINZ). She quoted examples such as Mt Davy Coal and of course, Comalco, as well as other important industries,' the foreign control of which she found 'particularly obnoxious.' The seconder, a certain Mr Swann with extremely expressive eyebrows, also cited Comalco, which he said was "the most obvious and well thrashed out example.' Mr Swann said that as an organisation CAFCINZ is very much aware that besides the multinational corps; that have outlets here, New Zealand's biggest home grown monopolies are also very much in league with foreign capital, technical expertise and influence, and that this trend is also evident in the financial institutions that operate in this country. Mr Swann further stated that as a group that has no expressed political affiliation. CAFCINZ is able to embrace a wide cross section of people who are competant to produce factual researched information with which to mobilise the people of New Zealand and make them aware of just what is really happening.
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David Cunningham, "following the spirit"
The Inevitable Lloyd Jobson also spoke for the motion and then came the only speaker against it. Ian Westbrooke, a Young Socialist (and not ashamed of it!). He said that compared to Mozambique and Angola during the Portuguese occupation, New Zealand had no foreign control problem. He said he agreed with CAFCINZ in the campaigning against foreign military bases in New Zealand, such as Mount John, but he didn't agree with the statement made in the CAFCINZ 'Resistance' leaflet which 'opposes foreign ownership ... rather than (its) effect in environmental damage.' Mr Westbrooke described this as 'haywire' and that our main problem is big business monopoly within the country, period, which led on to a brief philosophical discourse on the evils of capitalism. After a sensible lets-put-everything-into-perspective speech from David Cunningham the motion was voted on and carried.
Divine darkness
The next subject to come up for discussion was not exactly a motion - well not at first anyway. It turns out that the Divine Light Mission wants to book a room in the Union Building. Instead of making a decision on this, the executive passed the buck to S.R.C. (because Lisa Sacksen had some sort of conscience trouble or something). It turned into quite a heated debate with (mainly) David Newton and the Inevitable Lloyd Jobson for, and Peter Aagard and Anthony Ward against, with Lisa shouting 'order, order!' every so often, somewhere in between. Eventually Mr Aagard moved a motion attempting to ban the DLM from the Association buildings. Mr Ward, in line with his 'Keep Left' policy, apparently moved so far in this direction he circumnavigated, only to reappear in facist guise by seconding this repressive motion.
Briefly, the argument against letting 'them' use our building was that we are fairly ignorant of their 'policy,' but it seems they are an organization of Sll-repute' (or, as Mr Ward would have it, 'rather pernicious') led by a fat little Indian who is twenty-five but pretends to be sixteen, and manages to suck quite large sums of money out of his followers. If 'they' were allowed into our building some students might become followers and lose a lot of money We could not, of course, allow this to happen (which is being consistent with our outlawing of gambling in the Union which causes suicide).
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Anthony Ward, "father pernicious"
On the other hand, these followers who were supposedly being taken for a ride were doing so of their own free will. This was not a repressive situation as the situation in South Africa and Malaysia is. (We banned delegates from these countries from coming to a conference in our Union Building.)
It is absurd to imply that we are poor defenceless students who are going to fall under the evil influence of this cult, and need to have it censored like a Night Porter. They will be paying for the use of a room and so we will actually benefit from it. Another guy, Tom Duggan, pointed out that the proposed motion, rather than being in line with S.R.C, gambling laws was, in actual fact, a contradiction of S.R.C. policy on censorship. The debate went back and forth like this for some time - Mr Aagard describing all opposition as 'liberal shit' - and in the end this most repressive move was defeated.
The Inevitable ...
Next came two long motions by The Inevitable Lloyd Jobson (yawn) concerned with increased rates and their effects. After a short nap, we woke up only to find that both Lloyd's motions had been carried, with a minimum of discussion (except for Lloyd of course; he won the chocolate fish), Basically, the first motion said that in view of the increased rates and their effects, the Association be authorised to institute any action or make any statement regarding problems in Urban Development or its policies. Damned if anyone knows what it means, but it's now Association Policy. The other motion suggested a petition opposing the rates increase. The text of the petition was read out, and the motion carried.
Speaking to Lloyd afterwards, however, some things became a little clearer. Basically, the objection is against the Wellington City Council in developing plans for the motorway, new Airport terminal, Victoria Street extension, two new malls, four garden schemes, a new yacht jetty, and like projects - thus, in effect, increasing rates by 30%. An increase in rates means an increase in food prices and rents, etc. which is passed on to people in the lower and fixed income groups at their expense. It would appear that, for the council at least, things matter more than people. Instead of these grandiose plans, more attention should be given to low cost rental accommodation and the provision of adequate welfare and health services. Many things stand out; eg. the inadequate drainage systems in the Newtown and Aro Street areas giving rise to damp housing and bronchial complaints. Also, the absence of prenatal care centres, creches, day care centres, the provision of registered nurses in every suburb, as well as other welfare services. Still other areas which are neglected by the Council are those concerned with the question of alternative waste management and water management programmes, incorporating recycling techniques which would reduce the cost to the consumer and form the basis for alternative industries. So this is the guts of Lloyd's objections, which is now the Association's guts too.
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Peter Aagard, "liberal shit"
Go on, ... you don't say!
Finally, one Mr D. McLay took the floor. He said that within the next month students are going to face a barrage of research surveys. They are: a lecture assessment survey, organized by students, an eating habits survey being done by the Business Administration Department for the Union Management Committee), a survey on assessment procedures in the Commerce Faculty being conducted by Peter Aagard, and another Student Welfare Services Survey. There has been no co-ordination of these surveys, despite the existence of a Prof. Board Committee to handle nutters such as this - the Survey Research Committee. In fact there has been total ignorance, on the part of virtually all concerned, of the existence of the other surveys. He said something to the effect that this was a bad scene and something should be done about it. Lisa agreed, and gave him a chocolate fish.
At some point around this time the meeting closed. Students who had survived gasped sighs of reliev, as those that didn't were quietly removed, by men in white coats, to the library, where, it was thought, they would merge easily with other students and looking outside, things still seemed the same as they had an hour and fifty minutes before. Rain still drizzled down, zombie-like cardboard replicas of people intently off to lectures, the world was still turning.
(John Henderson points out: there is only one way of changing SRC meetings. And that way is not by condemning all, sundry and the kitchen sink in an SRC report. Start questing after chocolate fishes, boys. You might even get somewhere).