Page last updated 16/8/2025.
Disclaimer: no guarantees of factual accuracy. Some claims are based on best evidence.
This page is a condensed account based around the dismissal of the then-C&S President from the MSA Executive. It is not intended to be definitive. For more details see the live updating page.
Once upon a time, peace and harmony reigned supreme in the Monash Student Association’s governing body the Monash Student Council. Under Together’s hegemonic later years (the Pax Together), the Socialist Alternative, Labor Left, and former allies the Grassroots Left were all but completely purged of influence from the MSC. Unanimous votes were the norm and the administration was nothing if not stable.
However, by 2023, complacency and stagnation had set in as Together allowed the budget to blow out - what some characterised as a structural deficit - misstepped in proposing that students live with university staff, and invited scrutiny and rumour over its office bearers’ behaviour and use of MSA resources.
The Student Voice ticket, founded by the Labor Left during the pandemic, had twice been vanquished. The 2022 MSA elections saw Together practically unopposed with the Labor Left and the Socialist Alternative (SAlt) putting up no meaningful challenge. But change was afoot. Early on in 2023, talks were already underway to form a progressive coalition around the Labor Left to overcome the Together juggernaut. By July, the faction attempted to capture a seat on the MSC in a failed stack to take over Radio Monash.
Labor Left member Dilhan, the Wired president and a Clubs & Societies General Representative, was central in bringing together a coalition of loyal allies to support the Labor Left’s bid for power in the MSA general elections, despite the controversial figure declining to personally run for an MSA position. With promises of competent, progressive governance and fixing the budget, Change was narrowly elected to the MSA, overtaking Together on the back of preferences from SAlt ticket Social Justice.
While Change achieved a thin majority of the MSC, the council contained representatives from a diverse array of groups including the Labor Left, Greens, coalition Change, Together, Socialist Alternative and independents.
Election night was jubilant for the campus Labor Left, the old home of premier Dan Andrews. After years in the wilderness, with a generation of would-be student politicians having come and gone without a taste of MSA office, the student union’s natural governing faction had been restored to their rightful place. They now presented a united team ready to run the MSA and fix the mess left by Together, although their Mosaic powerbroker Dilhan would not, on paper, be with them.
It was not long before Dilhan was back in the game. Early on, after Together’s 2024 MSA president left the university, their undergraduate student seat on the Academic Board was vacated. Formally, this casual vacancy was to be filled by a nomination from the Monash student organisations collectively. In practice, the MSA through its president selects the replacement. MSA President Chloe nominated Dilhan who joined another undergraduate representative elected in 2023.
Meanwhile, Dilhan’s allies became disillusioned with aspects of the MSC’s direction. In March, an MSC General Representative elected on the Change ticket was replaced with Dilhan, who was subsequently elected as the MSA Executive General Representative. That position, which at the time required an absolute majority of MSC General Representatives to confirm an election, had previously been left vacant at the first meeting of the year as Change failed to select one of their two MSC General Representatives to nominate and a Together candidate came short of the support required to confirm their election.
Dilhan’s rise gave the MSA Executive the composition it maintained for most of the year: President Chloe, Treasurer Joshua, Secretary Zareh (all three elected with Change in 2023), Divisional representative the C&S President Paul (elected with Change in 2024), and General Representative Dilhan.
Throughout 2024, Change’s MSA and the Academic Board undergraduate student representatives delivered a number of wins, including a free public transport programme, halving late penalties and a 24-hour study space in Campus Centre. Along with absorbing SAlt into the ticket, these efforts won Change a more comfortable victory in the September 2024 MSA elections. But behind the scenes, resentment and frustration within the MSA had developed throughout the year, coming to a head soon after the elections.
For a while already, there had been tensions among the Divisions - the Monash University International Students Service, Mature Age & Part-time Students (MSA MAPS), Clubs & Societies (C&S), and Radio Monash - over Paul’s position as MSA Executive Divisional representative. As Divisional representative, Paul was expected to advocate for and defend the interests of the Divisions, particularly their autonomy from staff. All Divisions besides C&S had become disappointed with Paul’s performance. MSA MAPS and International went as far as attempting to sack him as MSA Executive Divisional representative in June.
The Divisions undersigned hereby no longer retain confidence in Paul Halliday to act as the Executive Divisional Representative to the Monash Student Association
The undersigned have lost confidence in the current Executive Divisional Representative for the following reasons.
- Failure to uphold the stated interests of the Divisions to the MSA Executive
- Failure to uphold the stated interests of the Divisions to MSA Staff
- Actively working against the stated interests of the Divisions
- Failure to support members of Divisions in disputes with MSA Staff
- Failure to pursue stated interests of the Divisions with MSA Executive
- Failure to pursue stated interests of the Divisions with MSA Staff
- Failure to show leadership amongst Divisions
- Failure to keep the Divisions informed of developments relevant to their interests
Due to the stated reasons, the Divisions request that the Monash Student Council dismiss Paul Halliday from their position of the Executive Divisional Representative.
The two Divisions were unable to convince enough members of their MSC to support their dismissal motion, with Radio Monash coming to Paul’s defence. This meant that Paul retained his position on the MSA Executive, although inevitably less secure.
Meanwhile, members of the MSA Executive were increasingly divided over the governance and finances of the student union. The first aspect of this was Executive approvals of funds. Dilhan and Zareh grew frustrated with other members of the MSA Executive using their quorate majority to pass large volumes of expenditure approvals with minimal notice or consultation with fellow Executive members.
The second aspect was the MSA’s annual budget. Despite winning re-election, Change had not yet been directly tested on budgeting since the 2024 MSA budget had been passed by the 2023 MSC. They had originally campaigned on putting an end to the massive deficits seen under Together and the financial situation had become a question of the MSA’s survival in the long term, so this was critically important.
Change and the MSA Executive were sharply divided internally on how to approach this, with an important consideration being whether potentially unpopular austerity measures would affect chances of future re-elections. Dilhan and friends, analysing the problem as a structural deficit due to ongoing permanent costs, favoured an organisational review with reductions in staffing on the table. Their opponents including Paul were reluctant to fire MSA staff, prioritising cuts to certain services and programmes. Chloe, Joshua and Paul were accused of blocking an comprehensive budget review, while Dilhan and Zareh were accused of regularly missing meetings with MSA staff to discuss budget measures.
Paul’s term as C&S President would finish in November, creating an opportunity for C&S President Jay to replace them on the MSA Executive for the remaining two months before a new MSC and MSA Executive started their term.
Soon after the elections, in early October Dilhan and his allies unexpectedly moved to dismiss Paul from the MSA Executive a month early, driven by concerns that Chloe, Joshua and Paul would make the most of Paul’s remaining time to execute their agenda. Seizing on a letter that was said to have been sent to some members of the MSA Executive by some Divisions, which outlined similar concerns as stated in the earlier effort by MSA MAPS and International in June, a Special MSC meeting was called with 48 hours notice and scheduled for 3 hours before an already planned regular MSC.
Unsurprisingly, Paul was not happy with the notice. They called into question what they saw as the misleading language, opaqueness of the context, failure to fully give proper notice, and a general smell of dodginess.
necessarily questions arise about whether the scheduling has ulterior motives such as to make it more difficult for members to attend or to reduce the number of student observers thus obscuring the process and actions of members from student oversight.
Following an exchange of emails in which Paul suggested that the MSC should investigate disciplinary action against Zareh for incompetence, the Special MSC meeting was cancelled just 2 hours before it was to commence. Instead, the regular MSC would exclusively address the motion to remove Paul from the MSA Executive.
The motion to dismiss Paul was hotly debated in the MSC meeting, chaired by Joshua. SAlt led the argument that staff should be cut and that Paul should be removed to enable this. On the other hand, Radio Monash condemned the motion and defended Paul’s character while agreeing that Paul should pursue stronger action on behalf of the Divisions. For his part, Paul suggested that the position advocated by SAlt, Dilhan and their allies was anti-unionist by going against the interests of NTEU members in MSA staff. MSA MAPS and International declined to speak, even when questioned directly about why they moved the dismissal motion, and Dilhan and Zareh were likewise absent from the debate.
The debate was ended by a procedural motion from SAlt, which was initially ruled out by Joshua. This ruling was reversed by a dissent in the chair motion by Dilhan, a mechanism which allows the MSC to vote on its interpretation of the rules and overturn a chair’s decision. During debate on the dissent motion, Joshua attacked Change, the ticket on which he himself was elected, accusing it of being a right wing Labor ticket.
With the numbers of the two rebel Divisions, SAlt, and Dilhan loyalists in coalition Change, the MSC voted 14 votes against 9 to dismiss Paul from the MSA Executive. Paul was supported by Radio Monash, part of the Labor Left and independents.
After engineering Change’s election victory, being appointed onto the Academic Board, putting himself on the Monash Student Council and putting himself on the MSA Executive, Dilhan had capped it off with an extraordinary, singular and ultimate exercise of his personal political power - the removal of a rival from the MSA Executive. With it, Dilhan and Zareh had effectively won control.
The next MSC meeting following the sacking of Paul from the MSA Executive proceeded as an ordinary one until general business at the very end. 2 hours into the meeting, Radio Monash had left due to other commitments. Dilhan took the opportunity to move to open nominations and run an election to fill the now vacant position of MSA Executive Divisional representative. Predictably, this move generated uproar given that Radio Monash was absent and not aware of the surprise election, with Paul alleging that “it seems quite clear that the point of this motion is to blindside people”.
Radio Monash eventually realised what was going on and attempted to rejoin the Zoom meeting, but Zareh refused to admit them from the waiting room. After Joshua asked to be made host of the Zoom meeting, Zareh responded by walking out of the room. The attempted election was withdrawn after Radio Monash was admitted.
On the first day of Jay’s term as C&S President, an MSC meeting was held with one of the items of business being the MSA Executive Divisional representative election. Jay was elected unopposed, with the confirmatory vote showing 3 Divisions in favour and 1 abstaining. Later in the meeting, Welfare Officer and incoming MSA Treasurer Campbell, an opponent of Jay and Dilhan, claimed that the election should be invalidated since there was no secret ballot. The second vote showed 2 Divisions in favour, 1 against and 1 abstention - without an absolute majority of the Divisions in favour, this would mean that Jay was not elected. Dilhan requested a recount which gave the same result - 2 in favour, 1 against and 1 abstention. Despite two secret ballots in a row returning the same result, Jay asked for yet another recount. This was ruled out by Joshua, but dissent in the chair overturned his decision. The result of the third count was 3 in favour, 1 against and 0 abstentions, finally electing Jay to the MSA Executive.
Until the very next MSC meeting. After legal advice was sought from the MSA lawyer, the election for MSA Executive Divisional representative held in MSC 13 had been invalidated since the ballot had not been entirely secret from the chair. It was decided to also rerun the MSA Executive General Representative election to avoid any doubt in Dilhan’s position on the MSA Executive, given the procedural problems around the Divisional representative elections.
Because he was now C&S President, Jay had resigned as an MSC General Representative. Zareh had selected a nominee for the MSC to fill the vacancy since he had not received any appointment from the Change ticket’s authorised officer, apparently blindsiding the bulk of the Labor Left, including the Change authorised officer himself. Zareh’s nominee ended up being approved by the MSC, but not unanimously. With 3 MSC General Representatives in favour and 1 abstention, Dilhan was uncontroversially re-elected to the MSA Executive.
After some questioning of the legitimacy of the MSA MAPS representative, the election for MSA Executive Divisional representative got underway with Jay the sole nominee. The chair, Campbell, returned a disputed result of 2 in favour, 1 against and 1 abstention and attempted to rule out Jay’s request for a recount. After a dissent in the chair motion was passed, a recount gave Jay 3 Divisions in favour and 1 abstention to once again elect him to the MSA Executive. With all positions filled, the MSA Executive could get on with drafting the 2025 MSA budget.
Before Change, the norm was that the MSA Executive would draft an annual budget after submissions from the departments and Divisions, which would be comfortably passed at the final MSC meeting of the year. 2024 was a fiasco.
With the budget not yet ready to be presented at what was to be 2024’s last MSC meeting on 6th December, due to disruptions and disagreements in the MSA Executive, another meeting was scheduled for 19th December. Both meetings were unable to be held as the minimum quorum attendance requirement was not met, with the 19th December meeting having a dismal 4 MSC members present. In the interim, Jay had again lost his MSA Executive position as the last election was invalidated.
By the 19th December meeting, proposed budgets (plural) had been tabled in the agenda. An unprecedented full alternative budget proposal, with a $593,714 deficit, was presented to the MSC, competing with the official $265,369 deficit budget proposal.
Extraordinarily, the C&S Executive passed a motion formally condemning the official budget proposal and the MSA Executive for a 32% cut to non-salary expenses allocated to C&S. Why did the drafters of the budget decide to make such a dramatic cut?
Within the C&S Executive, some think that their budget cuts were intended as retaliation against the decision to ban boat cruises. The move had been endorsed and reaffirmed by a solid majority of the C&S Executive, including members who are known to be ardent defenders of off campus events in general, due to the high frequency and severity of incidents seen on such events. Some C&S Executive members became convinced that student politicans were afraid that the boat ban would affect re-election prospects and so were trying to weaponise the budget to pressure C&S to reverse the decision.
An early draft of the budget also completely eliminated the $6000 honorarium for the Radio Monash president, against the rules. The honorarium was restored in the final proposed budget, with all honorarium allocations unchanged.
Desperate attempts to hold an MSC meeting to pass the budget saw meetings scheduled for 22nd December and 30th December, with each subsequently disallowed following complaints by MSC members. The failure of the MSC to meet in December to pass a budget meant that the MSA entered 2025, and a new MSC and MSA Executive, without a budget for the year for the first time.
The first meeting of the new MSC in 2025 was called with 2 days notice to elect the MSA Executive Divisional and General Representatives, a prerequisite for the budget to be finalised for MSC approval. Jay yet again was the sole nominee for MSA Executive Divisional representative, initially receiving 2 votes in favour and 2 abstentions. After asking for a recount, Jay was restored to the MSA Executive with 3 Divisions in favour and 1 abstention. In total, it took no less than eight counts for Jay to be definitively elected to succeed Paul as the MSA Executive Divisional representative.
On 5th February 2025, a new Executive-proposed budget was passed by the MSC with all but Radio Monash and MSA MAPS in support. C&S received a record $640,000 in allocated funding. The budgeted deficit is $1.2 million, the majority of which is a projected $700,000 loss on MSA Training and Professional Development due to government regulation changes affecting registered training organisations.
The 2025 MSC has revised several long-standing rules and regulations, with many changes being initiated by Jay and MSA MAPS. Such motions include:
Throughout 2024 and 2025, MSC members (who are directors of the MSA) have regularly complained about lack of transparency and consultation. In maybe the most striking instance, numerous MSC directors who were being asked to vote on Paul’s dismissal were initially given only the justification that some Divisions had lost confidence, and were in the dark about the budgetary and governance disagreements that precipitated the split in the MSA Executive. The motive for knifing Paul became clear only during and after the meeting. The practical reality is that those who controlled the numbers did not need to take the effort to engage the minority.
Concerns have also been raised over tendencies to change inconvenient rules on an ad hoc basis rather than work with them or conduct thorough reviews with legal advice. Additionally, MSC reporting (mostly by Labor Left members) has been repeatedly censored by the Executive, as is their right in potential defamation cases - at times following legal advice and at other times contrary to legal advice. For almost all of 2024, including the entirety of the Dismissal episode, Lot’s Wife was banned from MSC coverage.
MSCs have occasionally seen a range of student politicians undermine, condemn and attack their colleagues, often with the targets not present. The palpable vitriol displayed at these meetings, often shocking, is partly performative but it is clear that there is genuinely held resentment. The poisoned relationships and resultant polarisation have meant that numerous MSC votes have been determined not on their merits or even ideology, but on other factors such as personality or loyalty.
The complete demise of the MSA, predicted by student politicians in MSC meetings, has not yet transpired. The 2025 MSC has not yet been openly driven or riven by the division that characterised the back end of their predecessors’ term, but the echoes of that time have come up persistently. They have manifested in permanent rules changes, throwaway comments and bizarre passages in meeting minutes confirmed by the 2025 MSC many months after the original meetings in 2024.
At the end of the day, everything is and was only cold, hard politics. The king is dead, long live the king.