Welcome back to Glass’s coverage of the QUT Guild’s Student Representative Council (SRC) meetings! This is our coverage of the meeting held on Thursday the 27th of March at KG-E258 on Kelvin Grove Campus.
All current students are welcome to 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 a link to the minutes from the meeting on this page once published, and you can read our live coverage on threads.
AND WE’RE OFF!
The March 2026 meeting of the QUT Guild SRC commenced at 6:17PM, chaired by Michael Pendergast.
Roll call confirmed the attendance of the following officers:
President – Caleb McGiffin
Secretary – Samuel Hulls
Treasurer – Matthew Bloder (Online)
Welfare Officer – Isaac Oliver
Engagement Officer – Miles Hirst (Online)
Clubs and Societies Officer – Geoffrey Latz
Environment Officer – Yuanyi Tham
International Officer – Rajinder Singh
First Nations Officer – Mimi Lewis
Queer Officer – Lauren “Ren” Johnstone
Disability Officer – Felix Park Weir
Health Faculty Councillor – Ethan Johnstone
Health Faculty Councillor – Caitlin Brennan
Science Faculty Councillor – Connor Lowe
Science Faculty Councillor – Rajit Bhargava
CIESJ Councillor – Elowyn Gampe
Education Officer – Georgie Dobbs
Women’s Officer – Keely McConnell
The following officers were absent with apologies:
Postgrad Officer – Vaibhavi “V” Bisht
CIESJ Faculty Councillor – Lucas Gordon
Engineering Faculty Councillor Chan Nguyen was absent without apologies.
The following officers have resigned from their roles:
Business and Law Faculty Counsellor Georgina Marmol
Engineering Faculty Counsellor Alex Bradbury
These roles are now vacant and to be filled at the next meeting of the SRC.
Before moving to motions, the Chair Michael Pendergast reinforced the importance of Regulation 6.7, which outlines that no person shall interrupt another while they are speaking. They made a standing warning that anyone speaking or interjecting when not making a point of order or information will be named. They also threatened to name anyone using any ableist or otherwise offensive language and that they will be asked to withdraw their words.
MOTIONS WITH NOTICE
Amend Guild regulations to allow club presidents of clubs and socs committee to send club executives as voting delegates if unable to attend CSC.
The first motion of the night was moved by Clubs and Societies Officer Geoffrey Latz.
Geoffrey explained the significance of his role regarding the funding of clubs and their affiliation and dissolution.
“Club presidents do send a lot of leave because they’re busy with life and all that. So, this amendment makes it so that they do have that presence that they’re entitled to.”
They called to amend the Guild regulations to state that club presidents unable to attend subcommittee meetings may send another person in their stead as a voting alternate.
Seconder International Students Officer Rajinder Singh waived their right to speak.
The motion passed, with the Science Faculty Councillor Connor Lowe and CIESJ Councillor Elowyn Gampe abstaining.
Condemn the Crisafulli Government’s Expansion of ‘Adult Crime, Adult Time’ Laws
Disability Officer Felix Park Weir moved the second motion, urging the Guild to condemn the expansions to the Making Queensland Safer Act 2024
“Youth crime has been dropping steadily for years. It has continued to drop, and I don’t really understand how that going down can be a justification to expand these laws while at the same time saying that the laws need to expand because we are in a crisis.”
Indigenous Officer Mimi Lewis seconded the motion: “Young Blak boys with disabilities are the most represented people in the justice system. These laws target them. They make it so that Blak boys with disabilities end up in this justice system. These laws create criminals. They do not punish them. These laws make people criminals.”
Women’s Officer Keely McConnell spoke for the motion, speaking to the lack of necessity for the “disgusting” laws.
The motion passed unanimously.
Education Officer Georgie Dobbs began speaking out of turn, talking across the room to President Caleb McGiffin about Steven Miles voting for the Adult Crime, Adult Time Laws, and was named by the Chair for interrupting.
CIESJ Officer Elowyn Gampe then raised a point of information stating that officers are allowed to speak and have “free discussion” without interrupting. The Chair reiterated their rules that anyone who wishes to speak must raise their hand and wait to be handed a microphone for accessibility purposes.
Following the rules, Elowyn asked a question directly to the Auslan interpreters present in the room about whether multiple people speaking at once disrupts their work.
Health Faculty Councillor Caitlin Brennan, who requires the assistance of interpreters, took issue with this comment, declaring that “ableism looks good on you guys, especially when you call yourself socialists,” before leaving the room.
A number of officers then spoke about the matter of accessibility, notably following the Chair’s rules of raising their hands and waiting to speak in turn.
Disability Officer Felix Park Weir explained to Elowyn that it is bad practice to speak directly to interpreters stating that “they are not paid to mediate discussions between us.”
Elowyn stated that they should be trying to ensure that the ability to have democratic discussion isn’t removed. They asked whether the live meeting transcript is sufficient enough.
Georgie Dobbs spoke against being named for speaking about politics: “I made a political comment that was about drawing attention to the fact that the Queensland Labor Party have been culpable every step of the way about locking up Indigenous kids and I was shamed for that and named for that.”
The Chair clarified that they were only named for speaking out of turn.
Georgie continued speaking, interrupting Michael to state that no other student union operates in the same way and that QUT’s SRC is inherently dysfunctional.
Georgie was then asked by the Chair to withdraw their statements for being ableist in “implying that someone’s democratic right to be here and engage is less important” than theirs. Georgie refused, stating that “everyone’s right is equal.”
CLOSING
The meeting was then adjourned by the Chair until 7PM in light of Caitlin Brennan’s walkout. Caitlin returned to gather their belongings and left the meeting. Quorum was then pulled with many others leaving in solidarity. Only CIESJ Officer Elowyn Gampe, First Nations Officer Mimi Lewis, Women’s Officer Keely McConnell, Education Officer Georgie Dobbs, and Environment Officer Yuanyi Tham remained.
The meeting closed at 6:58PM.
The following motions without notice were not read:
The QUT Guild condemns new laws banning Middle Eastern migrants and refugees
QUT Guild condemns arrests at Queensland Student Strike for Palestine
The QUT Guild condemns the Australian Labor Party Government for Imperialist
Warmongering
The SRC was to also discuss the regulations relating to their meetings and how to improve them.
The next meeting is to occur on the 23rd of April at Garden’s Point Campus.
That concludes Glass Magazine’s coverage of the February SRC meeting for 2026.
