Priorities

We decided that the priorities for National Commission should be to work in the area of foreign control in New Zealand and Racism Over the question of Racism there was a long discussion. It was felt that as pakehas our work on racism could fall into two very bad errors. The first was to become so enmeshed in racial guilt that we end up doing nothing but feeling sorry for Maoris and Polynesians The second was to attempt to organise them in their own struggle Having isolated these two errors the caucus then decided upon the line that we would Cake. We came to the conclusion that it would be ridiculous for us to operate in any way other than as a student organisation and thus to work mostly in the fields of researching and exposing racism in our society This was the line we adopted and it proved successful.

In International Commission it seemed to us that the greatest priority was the 1976 tour and so that was accordingly named as a priority and an extra $1,000 voted to the budgetry allocation for Southern Africa.

In Education the priority we set was assessment, and this too was accepted by Council

In Welfare and Accommodation we had a much harder time because the delegates to these commissions regard all their policy as a priority. However in the end we decided upon the matters relating to dentistry as being of prime importance. It is noticable that all the priorities that the Vic Caucus set for itself were accepted by Council. I feel that in a way this shows we were on the right track

National Executive

The President of NZUSA (Alick Shaw) in his report to Council stated that he was disappointed with the way the National Executive had operated. (National Executive is a body consisting of all the presidents and members of the National Office which meets about 6nce a month to continue the work set down by Council and to deal with administrative and financial matters) He said that one of the defects of the present National Exec was that all the Presidents were responsible to their respective campuses and not to NZUSA as a whole He felt that this led to obstructive behaviour when policy they opposed was passed by Council and was then actioned by National Exec. He put forward the view that National Exec, should be elected either on campus level or at Council and that they should be responsible to Council and not to individual constituents.

While there was some support for this idea especially from Lincoln, I felt that this new National Exec would have more defects than the present one. For a start it would lengthen the chain of communication between NZUSA and the constituents, it would have members who could only be held responsible twice a year. It would also further increase the distance between NZUSA and the constituents without bringing a greater degree of democratic control It was moved that a working party be set up to investigate a possible reconstitution of National Exec but this was lost

Research Officer vs Welfare Vice President

At May Council the Welfare Commission came up with the idea of changing the much sought-after WVP into a research officer to do the background work so necessary for welfare. This was a good- idea but unfortunately most delegations had definite policy stating that they wanted a Vice President not an appointed officer. Also unfortunately after May Council the matter was not pursued by National Office with the effect that no-one had changed their policy. Personally I think that a research officer would be a better proposition than a Welfare Vice President. Apart from the fact that another elected officer would place an extra person on National Exec which would give the Non-presidents more votes than the presidents, there is also the fact that welfare does need research there is not a lot of welfare policy you could run a campaign on In the end a motion was passed making a budgetary allocation for a research officer but this officer is not to be appointed until the constituents have ratified it

Irish Policy

International now has policy on Ireland on its books. This follows a concerted attempt by Canterbury and Auckland to open up International policy to cover the whole world While no-one argues that we shouldn't be concerned about what is happening in Ireland the tail remains of what can we do about it. I find it very difficult to believe that the ties of the commonwealth are so strong that anything that happens here will embarass the British Government into ending their unlawful occupation of Northern Ireland.

Conclusion

On the whole Councils are not what they used to be. The strong battles over policy are now gone and even right-wing members of delegations are content to let NZUSA plough on in a left-wing furrow. This probably is because they consider NZUSA to have little relevance or significance to their students anyway. They may be right but it would certainly be more exciting if they tried to make NZUSA fit into their view of the world. There was a curious amount of consensus although Education Commission did develop into a screaming match at one time. Maybe this heralds the sinking of NZUSA into medicorce obscurity, but as one of the major priorities is the stopping of the proposed 1976 All Black Tour of South Africa I don't think it will for a while.