Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 20. August 27 1979

Anyone for President

Anyone for President

In many ways, the annual election of NZUSA's officers was the high point of Council. For, however much each candidate was to stress that NZUSA is 40,000 students, these same students tend to see NZUSA in terms of its national officers. The continued viability of NZUSA, let alone the quality of its operations, depends very much on the quality of its Great Helms persons.

The interest of student politicians up and down the country was also stimulated by the fact that Simon Wilson was standing for the President's job. Simon has never tried to cover up his political beliefs, and it is no secret that there exist people and groups in student politics who oppose Simon's views.

For the early part of Council, I felt that strong tensions — related to this opposition — existed under the surface of much of the business. It is clear that in the period between Simon's 'declaration of intent' and the elections themselves, small power groups of student politicians had been frantically discussing the issue and working out their attitudes to it.

This pre-election process is not unusual in any NZUSA election, but this time it was characterised by the polarisation of opinion on Simon's candidature.

Behind the Scenes

Thus; deals, lobbying and tactical manoevres continued right up until the eleventh hour. In fact, five minutes before nominations closed Paul Gourlie (President, Otago) and Dave Merritt (Editor, Craccum) were trying to persuade Peter McCombie ('average student', Canterbury) to stand for President of NZUSA.

So at 7-00pm on the second day of Council, the atmosphere was very tense when Simon Wilson, still the only candidate for the position, sat before about 90 delegates, observers and national officers. He gave a long speech about the role of President, his own experience and qualities and why he thought he would be good for the job.

Simon declared that the situation that education will find itself in in 1980 will provide a challenge to NZUSA. The Government's intentions are clearly opposed to the interests of both university students and education as a whole. NZUSA has responded well with the Education Fightback campaign so far, but it must continue especially next year.

He believes that, so far, 1979 has been a good year for NZUSA because it has worked well and therefore shown its value to students. Simon feels that NZUSA must continue this work, to involve students and co-ordinate action. Simon claimed that his work on the Education Fightback campaign has given him the organisational skills 'required to do this. As editor of Salient he has gained the ability to organise people as well as action, to become aware of the issues in student politics and gained a knowledge of how universities work. He

Photo of Waghorne, Powell, Gosling and Burke

From left, Research Officers Waghorne and Powell, Chris Gosling and Vince Burke (Chairman of the New Zealand Students' Arts Council. To the right Simon Wilson prepares to knock over a glass of water.

Photo of Simon Wilson

[ unclear: en] a member of various university [ unclear: ucational] committees and has thus [ unclear: perience] in working with academics [ unclear: deational] administrators.

[ unclear: claimed] that his political views will [ unclear: event] him from carrying out the [ unclear: of] the Association. He believes that [ unclear: le] of President is to ensure that set at May and August Councils, is out. Policy comes before personal [ unclear: w]

[ unclear: all], it was an impressive speech — much for content as for its delivery on showed a strong personality and [ unclear: ity] to put forward a point of view.

[ unclear: n] gets Grilled

[ unclear: r] this speech came questioning. [ unclear: a onally] much depends on the [ unclear: ses] to the questions. Equally a [ unclear: tradi-] the searching nature of these [ unclear: ques-] [ unclear: arnesily] designed to trap the candidate into a mire of confusions and insecurity.

With these fine principle in mind, Tony Stuart (President of UCSA) asked Simon whether he was a communist. Simon replied that he had never hidden his personal political views, but as President of NZUSA he would consider it his role to express and support only the policy of the Association.

Clemency Rogers, Waikato President, was concerned that the continuing Education Figh-back campaign would concentrate entirely on the TSG, to the detriment of the $1500 fees issue. Simon's response was that this was an issue not to be overlooked in 1980. So far, so well.

Chris Gosling asked Simon what his response would be if one constituent decided to withdraw from NZUSA. Simon claimed he would be "shocked". But he does not expect this to occur. A withdrawal will occur "only if NZUSA is not working properly."

Felicite Jardine, Massey's President, stated that she was concerned about Simon's "aloof personality. She [ unclear: ered] whether he was "approachable", [ unclear: whether] he was able to work with [ unclear: e] personalities. Simon cited the [ unclear: tion] Fightback campaign as proof of [ unclear: lity] to work with all kinds of people. [ unclear: e] Tuffield, from Victoria, backed up [ unclear: oint] later in the discussion — citing [ unclear: wn] case, a newcomer to student [ unclear: s], who found she could talk and work [ unclear: imon] in the campaign

[ unclear: role] of President

[ unclear: ris] Gosling asked a basic, yet difficult [ unclear: ion]; what did Simon consider the [ unclear: sibilities] of the President. But [ unclear: n], although extremely nervous, never the ability to "think on his feet" [ unclear: atively)], and replied that a President 'from up, credibly for NZUSA", meetings, provide overall initiative for things, be aware of almost thing, be an overall co-ordinator, [ unclear: reg-] the Vice-Presidents and always remain and accessible.

[ unclear: ed] for bis attitude towards STB, Simon stated that STB provides a valuable service and is also capable of providing valuable finance for NZUSA. STB, he said, should continue after becoming "financially sound."

There were many more questions, where Simon outlined a strong support for WRAC and NOSAC, his attitude to firing an unsuitable employee, his support for women's rights, his support for a fourth national officer (when finances allow) and even NZUSA's responsibilities to secondary school students.

Wilson Discussed

After Simon left the room, discussion among those present took place. People from Victoria, expecially Caroline Massof and Joanne Tuffield, gave personal statements on why they supported Simon.

Again, Tony Stuart claimed that Simon "is in charge of the communists in Wellington", and that Simon wanted to turn NZUSA into a part of WMLO. However, Tony found little support for this belief.

Some more serious criticism came from Kevin Hague (Auckland President-elect) when he claimed that Simon's personality was "overbearing". Felicite Jardine believed that Simon was aloof and arrogant.

But clearly suspected personality difficulties were outweighed in the minds of the majority present, by Simon's overall ability to do the job. At 9-50pm, almost three hours after Simon's first speech to the meeting, the first ballot was taken.

A Stupid Tradition

At this point some explanation of the voting system is needed. Each campus has a certain number of voles, depending on the number of students at each. These votes total 42, and to be elected, the candidate must obtain an absolute majority (ie 22 votes). In an election there are up to four ballots, and in each one a campus may split its votes or change its votes in any way.

In NZUSA tradition, it is not considered good for a candidate to be elected on the first ballot — it is seen to indicate a too wholehearted support. In Simon's case this particularly useless tradition was adhered to, and the first ballot was dutifully lost: 22 votes against and 20 for.

A second ballot was immediately called for, and at 10-05pm, Simon Wilson was declared elected President of NZUSA by a majority of 37 to 5. Such a sizable majority indicates that Simon has started with considerable support — but he will have to improve his diplomatic capabilities to work with National Executive members (ie the Presidents of the Constituent Associations) such as Tony Stuart.

O'Brien takes the Stand

The next position for 1980 to be filled was that of Education and Welfare Vice-President. Again there was but one candidate, Brian O'Brien.

Brian gave only a brief speech, telling us of his long involvement in political campaigns. He took over the job of Education Fightback Co-ordinator in Otago: in the July 26 demonstration there were 3,000 people in the streets of Dunedin — previously an unheard of figure. Brian claimed his main concern was the new TSG and he feels that it must be scrapped. He also spoke of his interest in assessment, lecturer training and welfare.

But it became more and more apparent that Brian was not good at selling himself, or responding under a pressure situation. Through the questioning period, Brian generally fielded questions poorly. He also showed that he did not know as much as he should have about the job — he had not discussed it with the present E&WVP, he admitted to having no previous education experience on campus and he had little contact with education delegates on the Education Commission.

A Poor Salesman

It was the generaly feeling that Brian would have worked as hard as he could at the job, but it was also the feeling that Brian had not been able to convince us he could do the job well enough. Quite frankly. Brian showed us only a basic understanding of NZUSA policy, gave only skimpy outlines of his qualities and failed to persuade, on the basis of his hour in front of us, that he could make an adequate national officer.

However once he had left the room and discussion was started, people were faced with a dilemma. It came in the form of several people from his home campus (especially Paul Gourlie and Roger Tobin) claiming that Brian was, in fact, much more suited for the job than he was able to show. Paul Gourlie cited Brian's excellent work on the Education Fightback campaign (he took over the job only three weeks before the day of action and had to do everything himself), he has great enthusiasm and he is a very good public speaker. Gourlie claimed that Brian is not good at selling himself, he is too modest, but he is very able when it comes to speaking to students about policy. Roger Tobin said he had every confidence in Brian to do extremely well; that when he says he will do something, he always delivers.

But still there were doubts raised: for example, how would Brian deal with politicians — Merv and others would "run rings around him".

So, delegates were left up in the air — should they rely on Brian's poor performance before them, or should they believe those who have seen him work.

But the matter was more or less scaled when Denese Black rose to speak. From Otago, Denese claimed that in the Education Fightback Campaign "we carried him a lot of the time", saying Brian lacked leadership and urged people not to vote for him. I cannot say what prompted Denese to say this but I know that I was disturbed to find someone standing for another National Officer's job (WRAC) willing to take such a stand against a fellow candidate. If both Brian and Denese had been elected, one would imagine that this episode would fairly much prevent a good working relationship developing.

The Ballot is taken

At ten minutes to midnight, the first ballot was taken: 12 for and 30 against. With doubts still in peoples' minds, Brian was called back in to give him a chance of improving his performance. He didn't. Brian was still too ready to admit to a lack of experience and he showed again his lack of detailed knowledge of Education and Welfare policy.

After Brian left the room, it was Grant Liddell's turn to urge us not to vote for Brian. He too claimed that Brian did little in the Education Fightback Campaign in Otago. Liddell claimed that much of the organisation was his own doing. Paul Gourlie took strong exception to these statements, he said they were not Otago's opinion and came very close to calling Liddell a liar.

Understandably, no-one's opinion was greatly clarified after this display and, after caucusing, the second ballot produced exactly the same results as the first. Knowing that the voting would not change, it was decided to terminate the elections and re-open nominations. Brian O'Brien had lost, NZUSA was without an E&WVP for 1980.

On the Lookout for a GVP

At ten minutes to one it was Colin McFadzean's turn to try and convince people that he should be NZUSA's General Vice-President.

Colin has been involved in student politics for many years, most of them in Australia. In his year in New Zealand, he has worked as an archivist and a research officer for the Auckland University Students Association. Colin has a law degree and has worked with students' legal problems in the areas of drugs, marriage, mental health and in aboriginal rights. He has had close contact with the Trade Unions, has built up many contacts in this way and believes NZUSA and the Unions should become more involved in each others campaigns. He has organised many campaigns, including those on racism and international issues.

Colin showed he has a lot of experience behind him but when time for questions came, some disturbing aspects of his performance and personality were exposed.

It seems that on the Monday night before Council, Colin managed the feat of alienating almost all the people he had contact with. Without getting down to details, his actions portrayed blatant sexism—and this was admitted by Colin during questioning. He apologised for what he said and did and explained that he was "under medication" and drunk at the time. He claimed to be aware of his sexism and was trying to overcome it.

However, the point was made that "medicaments" and alcohol do not make one sexist, they simply allow the sexism to be exposed. It was felt by many people, especially these he had offended, that Colin's degree of sexism was unacceptable in a national officer. And so a split developed between those who thought the apology was enough and those who thought that it was a political consideration which precluded Colin from being able to do the job.

After much heated and oft repeated discussion, the first ballot was taken and lost (at 2.30am) 26 to 16.

The Split Increases

In the following discussion the split in opinion became more pronounced. It is probably best expressed by the points raised by Kevin Hague and Caroline Massof. Hague claimed that everyone is sexist, that Colin had admitted his specific problem and is trying hard to counter it. Massof replied that the issue was not a male versus female one, but a political one. In light of Colin's behaviour (which contravenes NZUSA policy) Colin's degree of sexism is unacceptable.

Just before 3.00 a.m., a split appeared in the Auckland delegation — previously Colin's solid base of support — and it was suggested that the split among all the delegates was irreconcilable. Colin would apparently never acheive full support—a large section of opinion would never be reconciled.

A second ballot was taken and resulted in 14 for, 21 against and 7 informal. A third ballot, taken immediately produced 13 for and 22 against. Since there was no chance of a successful ballot, the election was terminated and nominations re-opened.

Both the EAWVP and GVP positions will now be filled at an SGM of NZUSA in Wellington in September.

Photo of Colin McFadzean

Colin McFadzean fending off attacks

The Last Election

The last election, that of Women's Rights Action Co-ordinator (the only part-time position open) was again a one-person race.

Denese Black gave a brief speech, outlining her experience in Women's Rights and expressing her ideas of what the job involves and what she would like to do with it. Denese has been Women's Rights Officer at Otago and has had experience at organising abortion and Gay Rights campaigns, seminars and forums.

She sees WRAC as being an important position, for it allows a positive women's voice to student politics. She would use the position to co-ordinate activities on the various campuses, to help the local Women's Rights Officers and to increase the awareness of Womens Rights at every campus.

During both questioning and discussion, there seemed to be almost no opposition to Denese taking the position. She has, obviously had the experience, she is dedicated to NZUSA policy and she convinced those people there of her competence and ability to do the job.

The only form of dissent came from Lincoln delegates. They believe that WRAC is unnecessary and don't believe that Lincoln women need an awareness of Women's Rights. "Lincoln women are all equal".

After Denese left the room, there was nothing but praise coming from each campus. Going straight to the vote, Denese was elected on the first ballot 37 for, 5 invalid.

So, the situation at something after 4.00 a.m. on Thursday morning was that NZUSA has appointed two out of the four vacant positions for 1980. It is not a rare occurence for positions not to be filled on election night and it proves that NZUSA, although instituting a harrowing election process, is ensuring that we get competent national officers. It is the money of students that pays these officers, and their quality corresponds to the quality of NZUSA's work—so students can fairly expect such a searching and critical process.

Stephen A'Court.