Welcome back to the Glass coverage of the Guild Student Representative Council (SRC) Meetings of 2024. This is our coverage of the July meeting held on Monday 29 July 2024 at D-304, Gardens Point Campus.
We will be bringing students coverage of these meetings throughout the year, so you have insight into all the goings-on in your Student Representative Council (SRC).
These meetings include the motions that Guild Executives and other students put forward for the SRC to vote on, and which will directly impact your university experience. This is our seventh council meeting of 2024.
All current students can attend SRC meetings. If you want to see change on campus, we encourage you to put forward a motion to the SRC.
COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
You can find the meeting minutes here.
You can also access the meeting agenda and documents associated with motions raised at the meeting in this folder.
AND WE’RE OFF!
The meeting was opened at 5:51pm by the Chair Taav’n Clark and began with an Acknowledgement of Country.
The Chair began with a role call for the meeting with the following officers in attendance: Engagement Officer Erin Rayner, Welfare Officer Paulina Luisce, First Nations Officer AJ Lee, President James Reid, Secretary Sebastian Page, Education Officer Isabella Foley, CIESJ Councillor Erin Milne, Science Councillor Daniel Soltermann, Science Councillor Courtney-Elyce Lewis, Environment Officer Milani Rawlinson, Clubs & Societies Officer Jake Olver, Women’s Officer Lauren Cuthbert, and Disability Officer Ethan Johnston. Engineering Councillor Jasper Vermeulen, Health Councillor Maya Rawlinson, International Officer Jovan Fersando and Treasurer Calissa Layden joined online.
Absentees and members on leave included Postgraduate Students Officer Malgorzata Fituch, Engineering Councillor Georgie Dobbs, both Business and Law Councillors and Health Councillor Arya Chaudhari.
CIESJ Councillor Ella O’Brian and Queer Officer Eli Spencer have both resigned from their positions since the last Council meeting took place.
FIRST UP, COLLECTIVE REPORTS
The Disability Collective report was delivered by Disability Collective Convenor Michael Pendergast, who reported 124 members, which is an increase of seventeen members since the last report! There has also been significant progress made on the attainment of a disability room on campus, as potential locations and funding are currently being finalised.
You can read the Disability Collective report here.
The Queer Collective report was delivered by Peri Habermas, who reported 294 members. A full report from the Queer Collective was not made available, but the Convenor reported they are currently looking for a new Secretary, and that their recent O-Week stalls and movie night events were successful.
NEXT UP, SO MANY MOTIONS
Deadnaming at QUT
Student Emmett Lamb moved a motion for the Guild to bring attention to the unacceptable treatment of transgender students when interacting with QUT online infrastructure. Transgender students are not currently being given the opportunity to change their names without a legal name change, which results in deadnames still being used in emails and class lists.
Lamb explained, “There is no current way for a transgender student who has not legally changed their name to access all their studies without being deadnamed and therefore misgendered. This includes in attendance taking and public class role distribution, meaning transgender students are outed against their will to classmates.”
The motion was seconded by Disability Officer Ethan Johnstone, who spoke on how this impacts transgender students, and the financial costs that come with name changes that make it difficult.
You can read the full motion here.
The motion was put to a vote and passed unanimously. The votes were as follows:
For: James Reid, Sebastian Page, Calissa Layden, Paulina Luisce, Erin Rayner, Lauren Cuthbert, Isabella Foley, Ethan Johnstone, Jovan Fersando, AJ Lee, Milani Rawlinson, Courtney-Elyce Lewis, Daniel Soltermann, Jasper Vermeulen, Maya Rawlinson, Jake Olver, Erin Milne.
Against: None
Abstain: None
Student Democracy is Not Negotiable
The next motion addressed recent Guild activity, where a secret Guild Constitution and two related proposals were submitted to QUT Council. The full details of this incident are outlined in Glass article, Secret proposals threaten democratic processes at QUT Student Guild, written by Editor-in-Chief, Celeste Muller.
Declan Kerr moved a motion for the Guild to publicly censure the President, Secretary and Treasurer, and called for the immediate release of any and all relevant documents and communication between the offending party and the University. The motion also called for the Guild to assert that democracy and independence are among the highest principles of student unionism.
You can read the full motion here.
Kerr stated, “I think it is totally indefensible. There’s no way to spin it basically, besides the most egregious, kind of traitorous action you could actually take in a student union. You wouldn’t invite your boss to sit on the board of your trade union. You wouldn’t invite your boss to amend the constitution of your trade union. So, students should not invite the university to sit on boards or to amend the constitution of our student unions.”
The motion was seconded by Isabella Foley. She said, “The point is they violated the independence of the student union at a time where the university is looking for an excuse to crack down on the Guild. And what you’ve done is you’ve given a free kick to the university. You’ve given a free kick to them to actually say, this student union doesn’t really need to exist.”
President James Reid apologised to the room, “We’re very regretful for what we did, and we apologise to every single one of you here in the room today for the actions that we took… I’m going to accept the condemnation because we deserve it.”
Environment Officer Milani Rawlinson addressed how easy it is to make mistakes when you’re in the first week of the job and trying to make the right decisions. “I think we also need to consider that it was the student on the QUT Council who did the speaking in the first place. Otherwise, I don’t believe that the President, the Secretary or even the Treasurer would have thought about it in the first place. But that’s a mistake that can be easily made when you’re stressed and you don’t know what to do.”
First Nations Officer AJ Lee spoke in favour of the motion. “Even though many things have happened that have been damning or corrosive, it’s always important to remember that mob always comes together at the end… I believe that’s always important, that we here acknowledge that we are on a journey together and that even though this part of the tapestry may be damaged or burnt, it still makes a whole eventually… I’m committed to the tapestry that is this union.”
The debate became very intense when Welfare Officer Paulina Luisce asked the mover what censuring the SRC members who took part in the incident would actually entail. Student Lucas Brunning volunteered to answer the question, but instead used the opportunity to yell at the room, despite pleas from the Chairperson and other SRC members to follow due process and decorum.
“I’ve never seen an executive in a student union pull off something like this! This is not a first day on the job mistake, this is the sort of mistake where you go behind the back of your comrades to try and sell out the student union down the fucking gutter. To say to the university, yes, have our union up on a platter! There is a word like that in the union movement when you go behind the back of your union and that is a ‘scab’!”
Brunning continued to scream over calls for order, refusing to let anyone else speak until he finished his tirade. Please note that these quotes from Brunning were yelled quite forcefully, and with such intensity that multiple members of the SRC had to leave the room.
“And what did you do? You said on the first day of the job, you said have it, have the trade union, have the student union, rewrite the constitution, execute executive powers! We don’t give a single shit because I don’t need it for my own career. I do not understand how you sleep at night. You’re a scab! You’re all scabs! And there’s no place for a scab in this student union. And if you had any self-perspective, you would resign at this very second!”
Once Brunning calmed down, the Chairperson approached and calmly asked him to leave the room, stating Brunning had been named three times during his rant. Brunning disagreed and refused to leave, so the Chairperson instead implored him to respect the forum in which these important situations needed to be discussed. This only made Brunning start yelling (and swearing) again, despite other members of the SRC stepping in and trying to diffuse the situation. He was named again.
Luisce was given a chance to resume her opportunity to discuss the motion, and said she believed that the SRC member’s actions were made out of ignorance rather than malice.
Engagement Officer Erin Rayner also took the opportunity to speak up on the matter, but after being interrupted by Brunning, the Chair named him a third time and he was asked to leave, being told he was no longer welcome to participate in the discussion. Brunning took this opportunity to continue yelling at the room on his way out.
Rayner resumed speaking, agreeing with Lee, that in order to move forward the Guild must come together and learn from their mistakes. Rayner swiftly defended her right to speak as multiple members of Left Action tried to speak over her. “That’s the only way that we’re going to get things done because at the end of the day, we’re all here for students, right? So, why are we fighting against each other?”
Kerr spoke again on the issue before it was taken to a vote. “If what [you’re doing] is just working politely with the university, then you don’t belong in a student union because a student union has interests that are fundamentally counterposed to the university. So, I don’t accept it at all when people say it’s just an honest mistake. If you were in a trade union, you would be voted out immediately.”
The motion was put to a vote and passed. The votes were as follows:
For: James Reid, Sebastian Page, Calissa Layden, Paulina Luisce, Jake Olver, Erin Rayner, Isabella Foley, Jovan Fersando, Erin Milne, Courtney-Elyce Lewis, Daniel Soltermann, Jasper Vermeulen, Lauren Cuthbert, Ethan Johnstone, AJ Lee.
Against: None
Abstain: Milani Rawlinson, Maya Rawlinson.
QUT Guild endorses a ‘yes’ vote at Special General Meeting for Palestine
In May, UQ Union hosted a Special General Meeting for Palestine, where students were given an opportunity to protest the university’s ties with weapons companies supplying to Israel. It was reported that around 2000 students attended and it became the largest protest for Palestine on an Australian campus in history. The QUT Guild will be holding their very own Special General Meeting for Palestine on Thursday the 15th of August, at 4pm at GP Z411. This motion asked that the Guild endorses a ‘yes’ vote, campaign to inform students of the meeting, and defend the right of students to hand out leaflets and posters on campus in relation to the meeting. The motion was moved by Erin Milne.
You can read the full motion here.
Milne said, “This special general meeting is QUT’s chance to have our time in the sun to take a strident stance for Palestine and to say that QUT students stand with students at UQ, but also students around the country, which are all having their own sort of version of this meeting as well for Palestine.”
The motion was seconded by Sebastian Page, who, as Secretary, has done most of the planning for the meeting.
Isabella Foley and Elowyn Gampe also spoke in favour of the motion. Declan Kerr moved a procedural motion to open up an informal discussion, so that each SRC member could share what they could do in support of the SGM and to arrange stall holders. The procedural motion did not pass.
The original motion was put to a vote and passed. The votes were as follows:
For: James Reid, Sebastian Page, Jake Olver, Isabella Foley, Ethan Johnstone, AJ Lee, Milani Rawlinson, Jovan Fersando, Erin Milne, Courtney-Elyce Lewis, Daniel Soltermann, Maya Rawlinson, Lauren Cuthbert.
Against: None
Abstain: Erin Rayner, Jasper Vermeulen
Defend the Right to Free Speech at QUT
This motion asked for the SRC to defend the right of all QUT students to leaflet, do stalls, and poster on campus, and for the SRC to defend activists around the country and at QUT who are targeted and denied the right to free speech by the university management and security. The motion was moved by Yuanyi Tham.
You can read the full original motion here.
Tham explained, “We’ve been explicitly told that we are not allowed to leaflet on campus, we have actually been followed around campus, including to the toilets where they have basically waited for us to come out and search our bags…There was an incident today where they basically threatened to call the cops on us for the crime of handing a leaflet to a student.”
The motion was seconded by Elowyn Gampe.
AJ Lee spoke up against the motion and proposed that an amendment be made, stating that the Guild would not stand with protesting students who were aggressive in their conduct or made students uncomfortable when handing out leaflets.
He said, “I support a lot of your guys’ plans, but I’ve received a lot of complaints from students about the nature of actually what takes place when these stalls set up, particularly leaflets handed out. And that’s generally one of alienation, discomfort, and generally not much of an understanding or of [someone not] wanting those kind of experiences.”
Maya Rawlinson spoke up and asked the mover how this motion may leave the Guild vulnerable by giving other student protestors a chance to use this policy as a loophole.
Erin Milne responded to Rawlinson’s question by saying the Guild should be focusing on defending student’s right to free speech, rather than worrying about potential scenarios that haven’t happened yet.
Kerr stated that a big part of the problem was campus security, calling them “a bunch of right-wing thugs” and saying that they use their position to attack student activists with the university’s permission. Kerr also stated that it doesn’t matter if students are made uncomfortable by protestors, because protesting should make people uncomfortable. “If people aren’t uncomfortable about [what’s happening in Palestine], something is deeply wrong with our society actually. I think it’s the role of activists to be the conscience of society, and if being the conscience of society means handing out some leaflets and a couple of students don’t like it, then we should say that’s OK.”
Lee decided to withdraw his amendment.
Lauren Cuthbert proposed a new amendment to the motion to say the SRC defends the right of all QUT students to leaflet, do stalls and poster on campus in relation to the upcoming SGM. The amendment also stipulated that the SRC will specifically defend Palestine activists around the country and the QUT who are targeted and denied the right to free speech by university management and security. “I feel like that protects us from the threat of that being applied to more extremist sort of political causes and general opinions,” she said.
Cuthbert’s amendment to the motion was put to a vote and passed. The votes were as follows:
For: James Reid, Sebastian Page, Lauren Cuthbert, Ethan Johnstone, Jovan Fersando, AJ Lee, Milani Rawlinson, Jasper Vermeulen, Maya Rawlinson
Against: Paulina Luisce, Isabella Foley, Erin Milne, Daniel Soltermann, Jake Olver
Abstain: Erin Rayner.
Sebastian Page proposed another amendment, recommending that the university requires all security guards to undergo impartiality training, to make campus safer for students. This amendment was seconded by James Reid.
The amendment was put to a vote and passed. The votes are as follows:
For: James Reid, Sebastian Page, Lauren Cuthbert, Isabella Foley, Ethan Johnstone, AJ Lee, Milani Rawlinson, Erin Milne, Daniel Soltermann, Maya Rawlinson.
Against: None.
Abstain: Paulina Luisce, Jake Olver, Erin Rayner, Jovan Fersando, Jasper Vermeulen.
Elowyn Gampe proposed a third amendment to the motion, which called for QUT to defend students fighting for any progressive political issues. Yuanyi Tham seconded this amendment. This amendment wasn’t put to a vote because the mover of the motion agreed to adopt it.
There was a lot of confusion regarding all the proposed amendments; how to interpret the Guild Regulations, if there was a limit to how many amendments could be passed, and who ‘owns’ an amended motion. But in the end the SRC came to a collective agreement regarding the amended motion and were happy to proceed. All amendments were put in writing to the Chair.
The final amended motion, which you can read here, was put to a vote and passed. The votes are as follows:
For: Sebastian Page, Paulina Luisce, Jake Olver, Erin Rayner, Lauren Cuthbert, Isabella Foley, Ethan Johnstone, AJ Lee, Milani Rawlinson, Erin Milne, Daniel Soltermann, James Reid, Maya Rawlinson, Jasper Vermeulen.
Against: None.
Abstain: None.
Proposed Changes to Election Regulations
This motion, moved by Isabella Foley, asked to reword election regulation 14.8 to remove the word ‘influence’; “No candidate or any other person may seek to influence or coerce any elector while that elector is in the process of, or preparing to, cast their vote using any electronic device that allows them to vote.”
The motion also called to insert a new regulation; “12.5: In-person campaigning is permitted during voting week.”
You can read the full motion here.
Foley spoke on the decision to remove the word ‘influence’ from this regulation, saying “you do want to influence people. You want to win their vote. That’s totally normal. It’s how it works at UQ.”
The motion was seconded by Erin Milne, who spoke on introducing in-person campaigning on campus. “I think being able to campaign in person during the week that students are actually voting will dramatically increase students voting in the elections because right now what happens is [students] hear about [the elections] the week before and then you just basically cross your fingers and hope that they remember to do it the week after.”
AJ Lee spoke against the motion, explaining he didn’t think in-person campaigning would result in more student engagement in the elections, but would instead encourage disingenuous behaviour from campaigners.
Milne explained that easing rules on campaigning on campus would allow for students running in the election to have more open and honest conversations with students. “The reason that other universities have better turn out is because there is literally more campaigning. More students encounter the campaign because it goes on for a longer period of time… I think it’s kind of crazy that if you came onto campus during voting week, you would have less of an idea that there’s an election than you would the week before, in campaigning week. Because of the fact that there’s no people campaigning in person [during that time].”
As per ER19.2, Election Regulations may only be amended following a special resolution of the board and special resolution of the SRC, which requires at least 75% of the eligible voting members to vote in favour of the motion.
The motion was put to a vote and passed. The votes are as follows:
For: James Reid, Sebastian Page, Isabella Foley, Ethan Johnstone, Milani Rawlinson, Erin Milne, Daniel Soltermann, Jasper Vermeulen, Maya Rawlinson, Lauren Cuthbert.
Against: AJ Lee
Abstain: Erin Rayner, Paulina Luisce.
And with that, the Chair closed the meeting at 8:52, resulting in a rare Council finish before 9pm!
