Words by Sebastian Andrew
There were seven factions contesting last night’s elections, in addition to various unaffiliated candidates. But out of all, one faction stood out.
The election was undoubtedly a resounding victory for Left Action, who have captured a majority of the Student Representative Council (SRC) seats. Left Action swept the office-bearing positions, winning eleven out of the available eighteen positions. Their victory represents an enormous comeback from last year’s elections, which saw them lose the presidency, their four office-bearing positions, and left holding only two General Councilors.
Left Action gained the offices of: Education Officer, Welfare Officer, Women’s Officer, Ethno-Cultural Officer, Postgraduate Officer (by Research), Postgraduate Officer (Coursework), Disability Officer, Environment Officer, Social Justice Officer, and Queer Officer. Although they failed to make any further gains, they held both of their General Councillor positions.
But the biggest prize claimed by Left Action was the office of President. After the distribution of preferences, El Hall won 843 votes, unseating incumbent Georgia Thomas (Unite), who received 734 votes.
Hall and Thomas both viciously traded barbs at last week’s StuPol Debate; with Hall using Thomas as a proxy to attack unpopular state and federal Labor Party policies (due to Unite’s and Thomas’ links to the Labor Party), with the issue of the looming university merger proving a point of particular contention. Thomas argued there were some silver linings to be found in the merger, which was met with ruthless criticism from Hall.
The merger, the growing threat to trans rights, and the university’s links to fossil fuel and military industries were all issues that Left Action ran on fiercely opposing. It was clear from the debate, and their campaigning pitches, that Left Action intends to reform the SRC into a body of strong political advocacy, something they argue it’s been failing at lately. They were quick to highlight their involvement (through their affiliate Socialist Alternative) in organising numerous protests throughout the year to respond to these issues.
To say that Unite ignored these issues would be false; Unite campaigned on measures to protect students and student unionism in the aftermath of the merger, and supports greater advocacy on political issues (such as fossil fuel divestment). They also campaigned more strongly on their record of providing services (free period products, expanded access to free breakfasts, increased club funding – services that shouldn’t be diminished!)
Ultimately, it seems left-wing students trusted Left Action more than Unite to walk the walk.
After their wipeout, Unite is left with only two Office-Bearing positions – Mature Age Officer and Roseworthy Officer (the latter of which they flipped uncontested). They have been reduced to one General Councillor.
Grassroots gained one General Councillor, at the expense of Unite. This was one silver-lining in an otherwise disappointing night for Grassroots. The party won none of the office-bearing positions they contested – their one gain only cancelling out the earlier defection of Lani Bushnell, who was elected last year as their sole member.
Progress fared slightly better than its governing partner. They stayed steady on four General Councillors, and hold three Office-Bearing positions – General Secretary, Waite Officer, and International Student Officer (which they flipped, although it was previously held by a member of Progress who later disaffiliated).
The freshly formed Transparency fell (way) short of stealing the presidency, but did manage to flip Rural Officer from Unite..
Neither Activate nor Swipe Centre won any positions.
Four seats will be declared as vacancies. Hall and Kalesh Govender (who was elected as Environment Officer) were also elected as General Councillors, while Alex Bastiras was elected to the roles of Social Justice Officer and Disability Officer, and Leila Clendon was elected to the roles of Postgraduate Officer (Coursework) and Women’s Officer. Since councillors cannot hold multiple positions, these seats will be declared vacant.
As has been the case for quite a few cycles, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Officer position remains vacant. All parties have highlighted this as an issue, and it remains to be seen how, or if at all this will go addressed by the new SRC.
SRC COMPOSITION
(number of members shown w/ changes from pre-election composition)
LEFT ACTION: 13* (+11)
PROGRESS: 7 (-4)
UNITE: 3 (-7)
GRASSROOTS: 1 (+1)
TRANSPARENCY: 1 (+1)
VACANT: 1
UNAFFILIATED: 0** (-2)
*I have counted the vacant seats that were won by Left Action as they are highly likely to be filled by their candidates.
** Outgoing International Student Officer Yegenah Sultanpour, and outgoing Roseworthy Officer Arnav Gupta both disaffiliated from Progress.
BOARD REMAINS UNCHANGED
The YouX Board managed to evade the left-wave that swept across the SRC.
Before the election, Progress held five out of ten seats, and this remains unchanged. Queenie Phan, Tom Zhai, and Adeline Tang won three seats for Progress. Kyan Jenkins gained a seat for Grassroots, and Sage Jupe (who was also elected as SRC Queer Officer) gained a seat for Left Action, both at the expense of Unite. Unite is now reduced to one member, who was not up for election.
Barring something unexpected, Progress and Unite retain control of the YouX Board, and will amongst themselves be able to elect the various executive positions: President, Vice-President, Student Media Chair (candidates for On Dit should watch this one!), Clubs Committee Chair, and Executive Members.
Interestingly, none of the incumbent Board members who were elected in 2021 decided to recontest. These were two members of Unite, and three members of Progress (one of whom is current Board President Luke Allen).
Merlin Wang (Progress), Jacob Allen (Progress), Nix Herriot (Left Action), Liam Johns (Grassroots), and Ruby Stewart (Unite) were not up for election this cycle and continue on as Board Directors.
YOUX BOARD COMPOSITION
(number of members shown w/ changes from pre-election composition)
PROGRESS: 5 (-)
GRASSROOTS: 2 (+1)
LEFT ACTION: 2 (+1)
UNITE: 1 (-2)
NUS Delegates
Also up for election were seven delegates from the University of Adelaide to the National Union of Students (NUS). For those not familiar, the NUS is the peak representative and advocacy body for Australian post-secondary students This is also the first time since 2019 that there have been elections to this position.
Unite, Left Action, and Activate were the only factions to contest. As with the SRC, Left Action dominated, taking four positions. Ellie Hall, Kalesh Govender, Alex Bastiras (who was elected to two SRC offices), and Nix Heriot (incumbent YouX Board member) were elected for Left Action. Unite took the remaining three; electing Ellie Venning, Anjali Malhotra (outgoing Women’s Officer), and Georgia Thomas (outgoing SRC President).
Activate failed to win any positions. The absence of Grassroots and Transparency failed to boost their chances of success. In fact, while Grassroots preferenced Activate ahead of Left Action in the few SRC office-bearing positions that they contested, the opposite ran true for the NUS Delegate race, where the Grassroots HTV directed voters to vote for Left Action instead of Activate.
Final thoughts
If you thought the SRC and YouX had a love/hate relationship now, expect things to only get worse. With the ‘apolitical’ Progress keeping the board, and the fervently political Left Action taking the SRC, one can only expect these tensions to worsen. One only has to look at 2022, when the United Left-controlled SRC (presided over by Ana Obradovic of Socialist Alternative) and the Progress-controlled YouX Board openly warred over the allocation of funds for political campaigns. Allegations of YouX deliberately withholding funds to impede the SRC were once again raised at the debate.
It also remains interesting that in the aftermath of the rebrand FOI saga, that the anti-establishment sentiment that swept the SRC largely avoided the body responsible for this $80,000 decision.
As a last point, official turnout was not initially reported by On Dit, but it is listed on the YouX Voting Stats page that 2867 students voted (at a rough estimate, that’s about 12%) – showing that less students voted this year than in last year’s elections. Which again strikes me as odd, given the various issues facing the University and the broader student community. On a more personal note, it would be heartening to see a much higher figure in years to come, considering just how much the outcomes in student elections impact the University and students as individuals.
In the spirit of past editions, I should probably give post-election ratings to the parties. To avoid relying unfairly on anecdotal evidence, ratings purely reflect election outcomes and do not reflect my assessment of campaigning successes.
Left Action: A+
They swept the SRC, gaining a majority in their own right, won another seat on the YouX Board, and took majority of NUS Delegates. What else is there to say?
Progress: B-
Progress weathered SRC losses far better than their coalition partner; keeping all their General Councillor positions and managing to win back International Student Officer. But they still lost a lot of offices. Additionally, they kept their YouX Board seats and will very likely maintain control of the body.
Grassroots: C
Losing every SRC office-bearing position they contested wasn’t great, and their one gain only recovered an earlier defection. However, amongst a Left Action wave, they managed to win a YouX Board seat, while their second preferences were crucial to the Left Action sweep of the SRC.
Transparency: D
Transparency had big ambitions but ultimately fell far short of reaching these. Still, as a freshly established party they managed to snag one seat on the SRC and won 300+ votes in the race for SRC President.
Unite: D
Last night was a disaster for Unite. They bled SRC office-bearing positions, and now hold only three seats out of twenty-six. Their representation on the YouX Board has been reduced to one. A strong-ish showing in the race for NUS Delegates is all that kept the election from being an unmitigated disaster.
Activate: F
Activate failed to improve its position after last year’s wipeout. It missed out on any representation on the SRC, the YouX Board, and amongst NUS delegates (for this especially; it should have been favourited for at least one position)
Swipe Centre: F-
Swipe Centre’s only candidate for anything received a mere 31 votes for SRC President. Honestly, at this point, saying any more feels like bullying…
Keep an eye out for further coverage; particularly when the YouX Board convenes to elect executive positions. While the race for SRC, YouX, and NUS has come to an end, now begins the less-talked about election – that for Student Media.
Full election results (including preference counts and stages of exclusion) will be available on the YouX website next week. Also check out our Facebook and Twitter for live coverage of last week’s StuPol debate, if you haven’t already had a chance!
Corrections/amendments:
In an earlier version of this article, it was not mentioned that Leila Clendon (Left Action) was simultaneously elected to two Office Bearing positions. The article has been updated to mention this.
Also, Grassroots preferenced Activate over Left Action for SRC, and Left Action over Activate for NUS. An earlier version had ‘Unite’ in the place of ‘Activate’
Additionally, I have amended the ‘ratings’ section to reflect the role of Grassroots’ second preferences in the SRC result.
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