Welcome to Glass’ live coverage of the 2026 QUT Guild’s Student Representative Council Elections! This blog will be regularly updated during the campaigning and voting periods of this year’s election.
DAY 1: Tuesday September 29
Candidates have commenced Week One of campaigning at QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus. Voting opens Tuesday 6 October till Friday 9 October. The provisional declaration of results will be announced Monday 12th October at 7PM, with the final election results published on the Guild website the next day. The Welfare Officer, Queer Officer, First Nations Officer, Disability Officer, Health Councillor, and Media Editor(s) have been elected unopposed.
There are four major factions running in this year’s election: Socialist Action: Free Palestine, Progress, Elevate, and the People’s Party. Today, presidential candidates Progress’ Emmett Morrisson and Elevate’s Isaac Oliver will be debating at 1PM in the Grove Bar.
The debate was an hour of incumbent Welfare Officer and seasoned candidate Isaac Oliver going up against first-year Emmett Morrison’s desire to leave the SRC “in a better place” than when he found it.
Morrison, who is a current Business Faculty Councillor, stated that Progress’ top priorities for the term include extending shuttle bus hours, implementing a permanent food bank at Gardens Point, and ensuring the $1.2M Student Amenities funding (SSAF) is managed well for students and clubs. Oliver, whose platform is centred on systematic governance reform and expanded cost-of-living support, emphasized the current work the Guild is doing.
Both candidates traded criticism regarding executive track records and institutional transparency. Audience questions, most of which were intended for the Progress candidate, allowed Morrison to defend his running as a first-year, highlighting his ticket’s unopposed Welfare Officer while challenging Elevate’s past “inability” to successfully deliver on long-running student campaigns. To this, Oliver asked “what are you gonna do that hasn’t already been done by me?” He referenced Progress’ lack of engagement with the Foodbank.
Oliver questioned the Progress tickets’ management of club funding and criticized their removal of term limits, arguing it stifled fresh leadership within the SRC. He shared that this year’s Health Councillor was “pushed out” by the SRC, and cited the newest ticket, the People’s Party’s come-up as student’s direct response to unhappiness with their student representatives. That’s why, he said, Elevate explicitly partnered with them, ensuring new, authentic, and diverse voices can be brought directly into the Guild. In rebuttal, Morrison noted that students who did not campaign with Progress in last year’s election are now affiliated because they’ve seen that “Progress is who actually gets things done.”
Oliver brought up Progress taking credit for events and initiatives run with and by the SRC and Guild Professional Staff (GPS) on their Instagram such as increased SSAF, Foodbank funding, and upgrading the Botanic Bar: “Progress..is not starting the fight, its ending it. It’s stuff that’s been done by GPS and SRC and they’re just finishing the cake.”
Morrison’s final words reemphasized a commitment to “concrete policies with measurable results,” He concluded “Progress is the ticket who can deliver.” Oliver stated that “Elevate has been delivering this entire year. Whether you like it or not, we’ve got these tangible deliverables.”
