Today VSU was passed. As one Senator put it: “Today is Freaky Friday in the Senate”.
Anyone who read the papers yesterday or this morning was left in no doubt that VSU couldn’t manage a passing mark this year. Fair enough. First, it was too much of a fluke that such a contentious bill could pass in the final week of Parliament, let alone in the very last 30 minutes of the final sitting this year. Secondly, a number of alternative means set for next year had already been proposed to an extent that the standard process of passing legislation through two houses suddenly seemed extraordinary and unconventional.
This morning, at 10:22 am, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age had a clear and confident take on the issue: “VSU bill misses Christmas deadline”.
Voluntary student unionism laws will not go through parliament this year, Prime Minister John Howard concedes.
After failing to woo Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce or Family First senator Steve Fielding to support the bill, the government does not have enough votes to get it through the Senate.
The Senate sits for the last time in 2005 today, with Senator Joyce insisting on an amendment which would allow universities to charge an amenities fee to protect non-political activities on campus.
A few hours later, headlines took a 180 degree turn: “Student union fees bill is passed”.
Family First senator Steve Fielding delivered the government a long-sought win over student unions without cutting a deal, in a heated final day of parliament.
Their fortune-cookies were off beam, but that’s forgivable. Yet taking a long hard look at the circumstances wasn’t a matter of crystal-ball gazing. VSU has had an on- and off-relationship with the media. Initially there’s been much about the nature of the law and its impact. Then, apathy followed. In the past weeks, scoops on the issue were straightforward and dry, lacking analysis and commentary despite a plethora of developments and alternatives in getting the bill through. The media had a ‘no comment’ outlook on the referendum for example, except for the ABC. We were left in the dark.
1 response so far ↓
1 -H- // Dec 10, 2005 at 2:25 pm
Face it. The final bell has tolled and the end of an era is here. Since i started my university career i’ve seen student fees jump by 25%, my Studen Union demoralised and demolished and soon federal voting will no longer be a mandatory activity - forcing the emerging “youth” populous even further into the darkened dwellings of social impotence.
It’s beginning to fell like our generation has become that ugly girl who’s always sitting in the gutter at the end of any party; her eyes filled with tears and vomit in her hair. Only a fool would go on to get a higher education in Howard’s Australia - Ho ho ho - All the smart ones will eagerly be grabbing trade apprentiships to ensure themselves some form of viable future. Our parents will live forever and the Baby Boomers will not retire, there’ll be no room at the top untill the year 2033 when the world hits a shortage and the once abundant Fomalduhide (sp?) stocks begin to run low…
These are grim predictions and predicaments for our future, enough to even put Nostradamus to shame. But the fact is that we live in fast times when any hasty bill can be shotgunned through the senate in the final half hour before christmas… Our society has turbocharged it’s way into the fast lane, and there’s no room for wreckage out here on the edge. You just push and push and push and push untill you finally push just a litte to far and POOF! You dissapear over the edge, never to bee seen again. Untill some scientist in the year 4032 digs up a mummified body from the ice-caps of western brisbane and pries a “no vsu” flyer from the clasp of their angry hand.
Selah.
-H-