Page last updated 21/1/2025.
Disclaimer: no guarantees of factual accuracy. Some claims are based on best evidence.
“literally wtf”
The 2024 president of Clubs & Societies has been controversially removed as Divisional Representative on the Monash Student Association Executive, in a hastily organised Monash Student Council meeting on 4 October. This is the first time anything like this has happened in living memory at the MSA. It follows an earlier unsuccessful attempt by two of the MSA Divisions in June, with C&S now having lost the support of a majority of the MSC.
Subsequently, the 2025 president of Clubs & Societies has been elected to be Divisional Representative on the MSA Executive, which drafts the annual MSA budget.
The MSA is the student union for the Clayton campus of Monash University.
The MSC is the governing body of the MSA, led by the MSA Executive. The MSA Executive comprises 5 members: the President, Secretary and Treasurer, all elected directly by the student body, and one person each elected from and by the MSC General Representatives and the Divisions. It drafts the annual MSA budget and is responsible for other general duties relating to finances and the employment of staff. The President as chair has a casting vote only in the MSC and the MSA Executive in the event of a tied vote.
The MSA has four Divisions: the Monash University International Students Service, Mature Age & Part-time Students (MSA MAPS), Clubs & Societies (C&S), and Radio Monash. Mainly for historical reasons, Divisions with special privileges are distinct from both MSA departments and regular clubs and societies. Unlike regular clubs and societies, each Division gets one seat on the MSC ordinarily represented by the president of the Division. Unlike MSA departments, the Divisions elect among them a Divisional Representative with a seat on the MSA Executive and are generally supposed to exercise a greater degree of autonomy.
International runs on annual elections in which international students vote, while the rest of the Divisions elect their officers at Annual General Meetings. Student politics has been a factor in all of the Divisions.
The internal politics of International are not well known, but its shenanigans have led to spillover impacting other student organisations. Broader student politics has had influence in this Division, whose elections are usually pretty much uncontested.
MSA MAPS, not to be confused with the competitive programming student team, operates on a membership basis and is controlled by right-wingers. There are rumours of dodgy activity around recent MSA MAPS AGMs in particular.
The C&S Council comprises affiliated clubs and societies. It is led by the C&S Executive, elected at AGMs of the C&S Council. Crossover in people between student politics and the C&S Executive is common, but it is not really much of a conspiracy. C&S is currently the only Division with allocated staff.
Radio Monash runs on a membership basis. Committees in the recent past have included politically active people, but the Division is intent on guarding its apolitical orientation and autonomy from the MSA, a point repeatedly emphasised by its president in MSCs. Radio Monash was the target of an unsuccessful political stack in 2023.
In the context of the MSC, I identify the Divisions with their representative, generally the president.
There are a few political groups and factions represented in the MSC, with individual members aligned with them to varying degrees and the factions not necessarily closely coordinated. I am fairly loose with identifying links to parties. Groups include the Labor Left (Change), coalition Change, the Socialist Alternative (Salt - Social Justice, 2025 Change) and the right (Liberals, Together). Some MSC members act like independents.
Paul was the 2024 C&S President and the Divisional representative on the MSA Executive. Coming out of the Music and Theatre Society and the Society for Anime & Manga Appreciation, he was previously a 2023 C&S Executive General Representative. In the 2024 elections, Paul was elected one of the two 2025 MSA Education (Academic Affairs) Officers and a National Union of Students delegate on the Change ticket. He is linked to the Labor Left. The 2024 C&S term ended at the start of November, with Paul elected the 2025 C&S Treasurer.
Dilhan is the General Representative on the MSA Executive. In 2022, Dilhan organised with friends to be elected president of Wired, the Faculty of IT Society. Later that year, he was elected a 2023 C&S Executive General Representative, a position open to C&S or club office bearers. In July 2023, he was a candidate with the attempted stack of Radio Monash. In February 2024, he was nominated by the student associations (including MSA) to fill one of two undergraduate representative positions on Academic Board, after the 2023 MSA President departed. In March 2024, the MSC General Representative elected second on the Change ticket vacated the position, which was filled by Dilhan. Subsequently, he was elected to be the General Representative sitting on the MSA Executive, a position which had been left vacant after insufficient support for a candidate at an earlier MSC meeting. The position of Authorised Officer for the Change ticket had changed hands and ended up with Dilhan. This gave him the power to appoint people to fill vacancies if a person elected on the Change ticket resigned from their MSA position, besides office bearers but including MSC General Representatives. Part of the Labor Left, Dilhan is basically seen by some as a person pulling the strings of conspiracies to advance his agenda (and even, it is suggested, his power).
Joshua is the 2024 MSA Treasurer. In that role, he also acts as Deputy Chair and has chaired many MSC meetings when the President is unable to preside. Joshua was also elected the 2024 C&S Vice President, but resigned from that role in semester 1. He was previously the 2023 C&S Treasurer and has previously appeared as Returning Officer at the 2023 Wired AGM.
Joshua, Paul and Dilhan served together on the 2023 C&S Executive.
Stuart was the 2024 MSA MAPS President. There are claims that the 2023 MSA MAPS AGM which elected him was improperly stacked. He was re-elected as president at the 2024 AGM, also under disputed circumstances. However, he has since been removed from office since he is not a mature age student as required under the MSA MAPS constitution. Previously, Stuart was the 2023 MSA Welfare Officer. He is a Liberal.
Jay is a 2024 MSC General Representative and 2024 C&S Treasurer. From November, he is the 2025 C&S President. He has previously appeared as 2024 Wired Secretary and Authorised Officer of the Change ticket during the 2023 MSA elections.
Campbell is a 2024 Welfare Officer, appointed partway through the year from the Student Welfare Committee. He will be the 2025 MSA Treasurer. Part of the Labor Left, in July 2023 he was a candidate with the attempted stack of Radio Monash.
At the start of 2024, the MSC held elections for MSA Executive Divisional Representative. Stuart nominated Paul who was elected unopposed. This is pretty routine - C&S basically always becomes the MSA Executive Divisional Representative.
In June, MSA MAPS and International attempted to remove Paul as MSA Executive Divisional Representative. Stuart had tried unsuccessfully to unilaterally do this.
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.
Their motion failed. Radio Monash gave a speech in favour of Paul.
At this point, 2 out of 4 Divisions do not support Paul. No specific examples of grievances are known.
An MSC had been scheduled for 5pm Friday of week 10, 4 October, since the start of the year. On Wednesday 2 October, with 48 hours notice, the MSA Secretary called a Special MSC for 2pm the same Friday. This was the minimum required notice for a Special MSC, with regular MSCs requiring 7 days notice.
A letter was received by members of the MSA Executive, signed by divisions stating they had lost their confidence in the Executive Divisional Representative, Paul Halliday, and requesting a Special Monash Student Council meeting be convened to resolve the matter.
It is clear that Paul Halliday no longer maintains the confidence and support of a majority of the Divisions of the Monash Student Association. On this basis, members of the MSA Executive have made the decision to put the following motion to a vote.
The motion was moved by Dilhan and seconded by the Secretary.
There was some dispute and confusion over the meaning of the phrases relating to the “support of a majority” but the situation was this. At the start of the year, Paul had the support of an absolute majority (specifically all) of the Divisions. Since June this is no longer the case, with Paul opposed by MSA MAPS and International and backed by C&S and Radio Monash. This could be sufficient justification to spill the position of MSA Executive Divisional representative and run another election, but the MSC did not agree to this principle in June so there must have been another reason, unstated in the preamble above, to push the motion at this time.
In the preamble, “signed by divisions” does not mean an absolute majority of the Divisions and “members of the MSA Executive” in both instances does not mean the MSA Executive itself nor an absolute majority of the MSA Executive. The letter in question has not been produced. It is unclear whether the letter reflects the issues expressed in the preamble of the June motion, but the claim that the letter was “received in confidence and under strict confidentiality requests” might imply that any such letter might have added something different.
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.
On “student observers”, there is almost no way that I would have known about and attended the Special MSC. Consequently, I would not have known about the removal of Paul from the MSA Executive and I imagine that I would not have been alone. In fact, I did not find out about the Special MSC or the motion until the regular MSC on the day. It is not known whether there were in fact “ulterior motives” or the issue was that urgent, but answers have not been given.
Following an exchange of emails with Paul, in which he suggested that “the MSC should investigate disciplinary action” against the Secretary for incompetence, the Secretary cancelled the Special MSC just 2 hours before it was to commence. Instead, the regular MSC would exclusively address the motion to remove Paul from the MSA Executive and an additional MSC was scheduled for the following Friday.
The meeting was chaired by Joshua, seen to be a friend of Paul. The MSA Secretary, responsible for administration around meetings and minutes, is regarded by Paul and his supporters as allied with Dilhan.
Whereas the motion proposed for the Special MSC was moved by Dilhan and seconded by the Secretary, the motion in this meeting was moved by Stuart and seconded by International who both did not speak during the meeting.
Part of the debate revolved around how to address the budget deficit. Change was elected in 2023 partly on criticism of Together’s massive financial losses and the 2024 MSA budget was also in the negative. The MSA Executive is responsible for drafting the budget - it appears that Dilhan and the Secretary favour cutting staff, whilst Paul, who accused Dilhan and the Secretary of often failing to attend MSA Executive meetings with MSA staff to discuss budget measures, prefers to first look at alternative measures such as reductions in services and staff-run departments. With Paul removed, Dilhan and the Secretary would together hold an absolute majority of the voting power on the MSA Executive since the President does not hold an ordinary vote, and could push through their agenda themselves.
SAlt argued strongly for cutting unelected staff, especially management, and transferring more power and money to student-run departments and office bearers. To Paul’s suggestion that this would be against the interests of members of the NTEU (those who are MSA staff), SAlt argued that a student union, especially in deficit, is fundamentally different to a business and that workers’ rights was irrelevant to the discussion.
MSA MAPS and International did not speak, but Radio Monash brought up some issues which may reflect their concerns as Divisions. Despite supporting Paul staying on the MSA Executive and condemning the irregular context of the motion, Radio Monash did agree that Paul could have pursued stronger action in the interest of Divisions. Issues included interference from MSA staff and erosion of the Divisional autonomy which distinguishes them from departments.
After some time, SAlt moved a procedural to end debate and immediately go to a vote to remove Paul. This was ruled out by Joshua as chair, to which Dilhan moved dissent in the chair. This is a mechanism which allows the MSC to vote on its interpretation of the rules and overturn a chair’s decision, with debate and the vote itself overseen by a temporary chair in this case chosen by Joshua. Joshua picked Paul to chair.
Dissent in the chair is one of the few times that a chair gets to debate, besides when they give up the power of chair. Joshua took full advantage of this opportunity to accuse SAlt members of doing deals with “right wing parties”. SAlt members had run in the 2024 MSA elections on the Change ticket which he contended is a “Labor ticket, which is a right wing party”. Joshua, of course, was elected MSA Treasurer on the Change ticket, an experience which he says proved this. For this stunt, he was named by the temporary chair Paul.
Dissent in the chair passed and the procedural passed. The ultimate outcome of the motion was 14 votes to remove Paul, 9 against the motion. With an absolute majority of the MSC in agreement, Paul was removed from the MSA Executive. Opponents of Paul included Dilhan, Stuart (MSA MAPS), International, SAlt and part of coalition Change. His supporters included Radio Monash, C&S, part of the Labor Left (including the 2025 MSA Treasurer Campbell) and some independents. Most of Paul’s supporters were in the room while most of their opponents were on Zoom.
Following his removal, Paul tried to move an urgency motion to “condemn irregularities in the convening of meetings”, in reference to the cancelled Special MSC 3. The MSC refused to consider the motion.
This was the meeting added to deal with the agenda originally intended for MSC 10. It was for the most part an ordinary meeting, running for over 3 hours. 2 hours in, Radio Monash left due to other commitments. Joshua was chairing, with the President online and leaving after 2 hours due to other commitments.
In general business at the end of the meeting, Dilhan moved an urgency motion, seconded by the Secretary, to open nominations and run an election to fill the now vacant position of MSA Executive Divisional representative until the end of the year. International intended to nominate for election.
Given that Radio Monash was absent and not aware of the surprise motion, questions were raised over the fairness of it. So Joshua tried to strike the motion due to the lack of reasonable notice. Jay disputed his interpretation, and Dilhan moved dissent in the chair which passed, so the motion was considered.
Dilhan declined to speak to the motion. Paul argued that “it seems quite clear that the point of this motion is to blindside people […] maybe moved opportunistically” after Radio Monash left the meeting.
Radio Monash eventually realised what was going on and attempted to rejoin the Zoom meeting, but the Secretary failed to admit them from the waiting room. Joshua asked to be made host of the Zoom meeting, to which the Secretary’s response was to walk out of the room.
After Radio Monash was admitted to the Zoom meeting, Jay pointed out another regulation which he claimed would not allow the election to be held. Joshua did not agree with this interpretation but Dilhan took this to withdraw the motion.
This meeting was on Friday of swotvac, 2 weeks after MSC 11, and started about a half hour late. As it happened, it was largely those who had been on Paul’s side present with most of their opponents absent. Most of the meeting was inquorate, but quorum was met briefly before Jay departed citing prior commitments. According to people present, Stuart, who had recently lost his MSC position officially over constitutional eligibility issues, had been messaging other MSC members claiming that the meeting was cancelled. The Secretary set up the Zoom meeting and recording but was otherwise absent.
Without an absolute majority of the MSC present to vote in favour, a motion to extend the contracts of the 2024 Lot’s Wife editors failed. For similar reasons, a motion from one of the 2024 Disabilities & Carers Officers, who is also the sole 2025 D&C Officer, to sack the other D&C Officer could not be voted on.
A portion of the meeting was used by several people including Radio Monash and Campbell to vent about those not present and the axis which had conspired to remove Paul from the MSA Executive.
This meeting was spent dealing with unfinished business. Lot’s Wife got part of their contract extension motion passed, with their original motion defeated without an absolute majority in favour due to the abstention of a faction. Due to the late notice, it was not possible to consider the motion to sack one of the 2024 D&C Officers.
This was the first day of the 2025 C&S term, which meant that the election for MSA Executive divisional representative had been delayed for long enough (almost a month by this point) that Jay as 2025 C&S President was now eligible to run. So he was the sole unopposed nominee, seconded by International who had intended to nominate at MSC 11. The initial nomination process ran early in the meeting.
Later in the meeting, Campbell claimed that the election was not conducted in line with procedure, and asked Joshua as chair and Returning Officer to invalidate it since there was no secret ballot. Jay disputed this, and Dilhan prematurely moved dissent in the chair which Joshua shut down. Now Joshua’s actual ruling was to not reopen nominations but still run another vote to confirm the election, requiring an absolute majority of the Divisions in favour.
C&S and Radio Monash were in the room and used secret paper ballots, while International and MSA MAPS (no longer Stuart) were on Zoom and sent private messages. The result was 2 in favour of Jay becoming the MSA Executive Divisional representative, 1 against and 1 abstention. Without an absolute majority of the Divisions in favour, it failed.
Dilhan requested a recount, supported by Jay and International. After voting commenced, an adjournment was called. When the meeting returned, Joshua gave the in-person Divisions new ballots to vote. Joshua offered to allow Jay to scrutineer the counting, but he declined as it would violate the secrecy of the Zoom ballots. The outcome of the recount was the same as the first take, 2 in favour, 1 against, 1 abstention.
Joshua quickly moved onto general business, but Jay asked for another recount. Joshua tried to reject the recount and looked for an excuse. Jay called dissent in the chair, then it was pointed out that since the meeting had moved to the next agenda item, a recount would not be possible. When Joshua took this to block the recount, Dilhan moved dissent in the chair then decided to reintroduce the motions, seconded by Jay, to open nominations and run the election as urgent motions in general business.
One of the 2024/2025 Education (Academic Affairs) Officers (also a 2025-2026 Academic Board undergraduate representative and briefly a 2024 C&S General Representative), questioned why the election was being repeated again after two counts already. “For democracy”, said an ally of Dilhan. In response, Joshua ruled out the motion since it had already been discussed in the same meeting. No doubt that many in the meeting were wondering whether the outcome would ever be different and if a faction of the MSC would hold it hostage until they got the outcome they wanted. However, Dilhan claimed that a Division had told him that they had not been able to put their vote in, that their previous vote had been counted instead, and that their new ballot was not issued. It is not entirely clear what specifically this could refer to. The ballots of the first count were supposed to have been ripped up. After the adjournment, Joshua had received fresh ballots from both in-person Divisions but had not offered the Zoom Divisions a specific opportunity to change their vote.
Dilhan attempted to move dissent in the chair to re-run the election but Joshua granted the dissent to Jay instead, who pointed out that it was not mandatory for Joshua to strike the motion and the MSC had already voted to accept the motion for consideration. Dissent in the chair passed and nominations were re-opened. Jay again was the only nominee.
After the vote to confirm Jay commencing, it was realised that the MSC had failed to allow the urgency motion to be considered. So that was done and the vote re-started.
The result of the third count was 3 in favour, 1 against, 0 abstentions. With an absolute majority of Divisions now in support, Jay joins the MSA Executive, replacing Paul both as C&S President and as MSA Executive Divisional representative. In time, the MSA Executive will produce, presumably in consultation with the 2025 MSA Treasurer, a draft 2025 MSA budget for approval by the 2024 MSC.
This meeting was chaired mostly by the 2025 MSA Treasurer Campbell. 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 elections to avoid any doubt in Dilhan’s position on the MSA Executive. The elections in this meeting would be run using an online voting platform, with the eligible voters emailed a link to vote. It was plagued with difficulty.
But first, because Jay had become C&S President (by virtue of the office a member of the MSC), he had resigned as MSC General Representative for the remainder of the 2024 season. Now there was a vacancy, so the Secretary had emailed the authorised officer of the Change ticket to nominate a replacement. However, the email was sent to the Gmail address of the Change ticket rather than a personal or student email belonging to its authorised officer, so it is uncertain whether the email was seen at all. After receiving no reply, the Secretary selected a fellow civil engineer, an ancillary member of the Association of Civil Engineering Students committee, for nomination to the vacancy. This was accepted by the MSC, although not unanimously.
In the MSA Executive General Representative election, the new General Representative tried to nominate Dilhan but had to settle for seconding in the end with Dilhan self-nominating. Dilhan was approved by the 4 MSC General Representatives present with 3 in favour and 1 abstaining.
As the election for MSA Executive Divisional representative approached, Jay asked for confirmation of the eligibility of the MSA MAPS representative who had supposedly been appointed as Social Secretary by the MSA MAPS Committee earlier that day. The MSA Secretary had received an email from the acting MSA MAPS president, a Labor Right member and former MSA Secretary, and was confident in the representative’s eligibility. However, Paul disputed this and revealed that MSA Finance had confirmed only that the MSA MAPS representative was a student but had not seen proof of the appointment. While the MSA Secretary was unable to produce the email, Jay was sent a screenshot of it from an MSA MAPS source which satisfied the chair Campbell, enough for the election to proceed for the time being.
Jay was again the only candidate to nominate for MSA Executive, seconded by International. Voting was open for 2 minutes. There was some confusion from MSA MAPS over their vote. After the 2 minutes elapsed, 3 Divisions had voted and 1 Division had opened the voting link but not submitted a vote, which Campbell took as an abstention in the face of protest from Jay. The result declared by Campbell was 2 in favour of Jay becoming the MSA Executive Divisional representative, 1 against and 1 abstention. Without an absolute majority of the Divisions in favour, it failed.
Subsequently, Jay requested a recount with new ballots. However, Campbell claimed that legal advice was that another recount could not be run. Dilhan suggested that the MSC could nevertheless decide its interpretation of the constitution. Jay, moving dissent in the chair, argued that another recount could and should be done since not every eligible voter had taken part in the vote, implying that it had not actually been a valid count in the first place. Campbell insisted, based on the legal advice, that any subsequent count would be invalid regardless of the MSC’s decision. Dissent in the chair was passed, and a final recount was conducted.
Ballots were sent out again, and 4 ballots were sent back. But MSA MAPS insisted that they had not submitted their new ballot. In any case, this count, which Campbell continued to claim was invalid, recorded 3 Divisions in favour and 1 against. Confusion over the ultimate outcome.
Jay proposed a motion, seconded by the new MSC General Representative, to confirm the elections of Dilhan and Jay to the MSA Executive as valid. Campbell tried to strike the motion by claiming that it would change nothing about the legality of the elections, but this ruling was overturned by dissent in the chair from Jay on the basis that the MSC can interpret MSA rules. There was a bit of debate, in which Campbell temporarily relinquished the chair to criticise the motion. As he was speaking, the new MSC General Representative interrupted to move a procedural to end debate and immediately vote. The procedural passed and the motion passed, the MSC deciding to accept the final elections.
For convenience, a summary of the counts for Jay’s election as MSA Executive Divisional representative.
MSC 13
MSC 14
…To be continued?
MSC 14 ended with general business, a chance for anybody to say anything. Campbell handed to Radio Monash “to end on a good note”. Radio Monash proceeded to decry the lack of transparency for observers and even MSC members not allied with a political faction, particularly the prevalence of motions with hidden political implications that are not openly expressed undermining the ability of MSC members, as directors, to appropriately fulfil their governance responsibilities. Paul agreed with Radio Monash, also complaining about the lack of notice of MSC meetings for ordinary students and the failure to speedily upload MSC minutes. Disabilities & Carers agreed with Radio Monash, also suggesting that certain MSC members are following voting directions from particular individuals. A SAlt member agreed with Radio Monash, from the point of view that transparency around the substantive meaning and context of motions enables MSC members to easily make an informed decision.
Dilhan agreed with the principle, but suggested that people unsure should come directly to him, or other MSC members, to ask about it and argued that understanding the context and meanings would require wading into politics. He dismissed the need to proactively present all MSC members with all information when an absolute majority is already on board with a motion anyway - “politics is politics”. Jay declared that the discussion pointed to the need for reform to separate advocacy from governance, or as an incremental step increasing the proportionality of the MSC. Dilhan agreed that politics should be separated from service provision. My view is that the MSC should be fully proportional but anybody should be very sceptical of separating advocacy (politics), services and governance such as by the establishment of a Board.
To close the meeting, Campbell handed off the chair to speak freely. Now he attacked those who had sacked Paul from the MSA Executive. The MSA losing SSAF and disappearing, along with the livelihoods of MSA staff, was his projected outcome. “We are a reckless board”, he claimed, directing an MSA “on the brink of collapse” - not due to a “structural debt” issue as asserted by his enemies but a governance one. Campbell apparently believed that collapse is almost inevitable, but he called on those present to bring people along to MSC.
“If this goes, student culture is destroyed” said Radio Monash.
“Have a great day” the parting words of the sick 2024 MSA President.
This meeting was called with 2 days notice to address an urgent item, undisclosed to the public, which was withdrawn at the last moment as there were insufficient numbers to keep it in camera. It presumably would have related to a “confidential personal, staffing or legal matter”. Members of the MSC had gathered for the meeting before learning that the motion had been pulled.
Originally, this 6th December meeting was the last scheduled MSC meeting for the year. Usually the last MSC meeting each year approves the MSA budget for the following year. There was no budget on the agenda for this meeting. The 2024 MSA Executive had not yet finalised it and was expected to introduce it in the third week of the month, following the National Union of Students National Conference.
The day before the meeting, MSC 16 was scheduled. MSC 15 failed to meet quorum and so did not run.
The date of the meeting initially published was 20 December, but was soon revised to 19 December.
On the agenda - the 2025 MSA budget.
The usual process is that the departments and Divisions make submissions for their desired budget allocations, the MSA Executive drafts an initial proposal which is distributed across the MSA, the MSA Executive then approves a final proposal for the MSC’s consideration, and the MSC passes the final budget. Radio Monash and C&S both submitted appeals to revise the Executive-proposed budget, a privilege of the Divisions. This is not in itself unusual, but there are other factors at play.
In addition to submitting a budget appeal, the C&S Executive officially condemned the MSA Executive-proposed budget and the MSA Executive itself in an extraordinary move. With a 32% cut to non-salary expenses amounting to $66,000, C&S staff reckon that compensating for cuts using the reserves is not workable. Why did the drafters of the budget decide to make such a dramatic cut?
C&S has the largest budget allocation of any MSA department or Division and also boasts substantial reserves. So it could be easy and convenient, from the perspective of some in the broader MSA, to cut some of it in an austerity budget which is how it might look at first glance. However, something else besides financial considerations may have contributed to the decision to cut the C&S budget.
On 16 December, C&S-affiliated clubs were notified about a ban on boat cruises imposed by the C&S Executive. It was a decision 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. The boat ban was introduced due to the high frequency and severity of incidents seen on such events, in addition to the fact that they occur on an isolated boat. It was an act of self regulation with the fear of potential university intervention against a broader set of off campus events in mind.
Within the C&S Executive, some think that their budget cuts were intended as retaliation against the boat ban decision. They have become convinced that some MSA people are afraid that the boat ban would affect re-election prospects and so are trying to pressure C&S to reverse the decision using the budget.
Compared to C&S and most other MSA departments, Radio Monash has a small budget allocation. They initially proposed an ambitious budget submission that would have doubled their expenditure allocation, but the MSA Executive instead proposed a 20% cut to their budget.
There are some hints that it was even worse in the initial proposal, contained in a statement and presentation submitted to MSC 16, and the table provided for Radio Monash’s budget appeal. They indicate that the $6000 honorarium for the Radio Monash President, smaller than any department, would have been slashed completely resulting in a 47% cut to the overall budget allocation. This was restored in the final Executive-proposed budget, with all honorarium allocations unchanged. Underscoring the importance of the presidential honorarium is that unlike every other Division, Radio Monash has neither dedicated staff nor entitlement to central staffing support. Instead, it is entirely run by its volunteer 21 committee members and 25 subcommittee members, the largest committee of any department or Division.
Besides the Divisional appeals, an unprecedented full alternative budget proposal was submitted to the MSC. The Executive-proposed budget had a $265,369 deficit while the alternative budget had a $593,714 deficit. The 2024 budget deficit was over $700,000.
The meeting was also supposed to run yet another election for the Divisional representative on the MSA Executive. While at the National Union of Students National Conference, Jay had been removed from the MSA Executive after the election of MSC 14 was invalidated.
A range of other matters were to be considered, including the opening hours of Sir John’s Bar and Uniride, a 1-hour notice period for the MSA Executive, and asserting that only an MSA Executive meeting can approve central funds requests without possibility of delegation.
4 MSC members came to the meeting so there was no quorum. Also present were a few proxies, who do not count towards quorum, and a sizeable number of observers from C&S and elsewhere.
Late on 19 December, a Special MSC meeting was scheduled for Sunday 22 December fully online to consider everything missed from MSC 16. On 20 December, the meeting was disallowed for being exclusively online.
A regular MSC meeting was quickly added for 30 December. It was subsequently disallowed for the inconvenience.
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.
Divisions can continue to spend from their reserves without central approval. All salaries and contracts were not affected. Spending up to $11,000 from central funds would need to be approved by an MSA Executive meeting.
The Special MSC meeting was called with 2 days notice to elect the MSA Executive’s Divisional representative and General Representative. It is normal to run these elections in the first meeting of the year, but uniquely those who joined the MSA Executive this time would get to shape the 2025 MSA budget. At the time of the notice, the MSA MAPS representative (its own mess) and an MSC General Representative had not yet been confirmed. A Change MSC General Representative elected in the 2024 MSA elections had resigned. By the meeting, both positions were represented by people linked to the Labor Left.
For MSA Executive Divisional representative, Jay from C&S was the only nominee, seconded by MSA MAPS. The vote was 2 in favour and 2 abstentions. Jay asked for a recount, resulting with 3 votes in favour and one abstention. Therefore, Jay was restored to the MSA Executive.
For MSA Executive General Representative, the new replacement MSC General Representative was the only nominee. 2 MSC General Representatives did not submit votes, with the remainder going 2 votes in favour and 1 abstention. As an absolute majority is required, the election failed.
The MSA Executive now comprised the President, Treasurer, Secretary and C&S President. It gets to propose a budget for the MSA’s 2025 which is expected to be presented at the first regular MSC meeting.
More to come, keep an ear out.
It is not rare for some people to complain about the lack of regular student journalism at Monash University, especially covering student unionism and the MSC specifically. Student journalism publications which have covered Monash student politics include Lot’s Wife, which is under the MSA, and MoJo News, which is under the School of Media, Film and Journalism. Grotty, linked to the Wholefoods Collective and the grassroots left, was another paper during the past decade but has long since shut down. On the rare occasion, the University of Sydney’s Honi Soit publishes major stories about Monash.
Towards the early days of the current season of the MSA, Lot’s Wife used to report on MSC proceedings live. Since being barred from doing so (it is not clear exactly what mechanism if any was used), they have not covered the MSC. However, editors have attended every MSC in person, as far as I know.
Caulfield-based MoJo News is basically a teaching tool for journalism students. It used to cover student politics, but have stopped doing so since after the pandemic. MSC coverage was always rare, and MSCs under the previous administration were pretty boring with rare exceptions.
There are a few points to make. The first is that no particular person has any obligation or can be expected to report on the MSC, except the minutes. Certainly not MoJo News.
It could be argued that Lot’s Wife should be expected to report. It is worth noting that the MSA Executive can censor the paper. My personal opinion is that this year’s Lot’s Wife editors (of which there are three) have done a good job. They have lifted publication from four editions to six editions in the year and each edition now has many non-creative pieces. I do not think it makes sense to expect the editors to be journalists - I do not get the impression that these editors are journalists - and they cannot publish anything that is not submitted to them when student journalists do not exist. In saying that, I do not know if they would publish a piece from a student journalist but there is no reason to assume otherwise. Concerns have been raised that the publication cycle of Lot’s Wife does not allow for breaking news as it happens, but the early live reporting of MSCs suggests that these editors are open to reporting outside the standard editions.
My opinion is that Lot’s Wife editors, or the editors of the major student journalism outfit at the University, should be independent of those who run the MSA. That means not elected on the same ticket, not from the same political faction, and generally not friends of the student politicians - especially those in control of the union. That is not to say that the paper should be apolitical. It is not a personal insult to the current editors, who like their many predecessors are elected on the winning ticket of the MSA elections. A fighting union needs a fighting paper and we know that independent and political student newspapers are possible from the experience of other universities.
As of October, MSC minutes have not been published on the MSA website since MSC 5/Special MSC 2 in June. All MSCs since the first attempt to unseat Paul have not had minutes released. The Secretary is responsible for keeping minutes and once minutes for a meeting are prepared, they are approved at the next MSC. I do not know where the blame lies for minutes not being public.
I have been told that I have an obligation to report things and report accurately. I think that is unfair on both points. It should be obvious enough why I cannot be expected to report on things at all.
In terms of accuracy, I do care a bit about that, as much as I do not wilfully lie or misrepresent the facts. I take corrections. But it should be clear that anything I say should not be entirely trusted. I do not only say something if I am entirely certain of it and there is verifiable and reliable evidence, for me to be convinced of it is enough. I have kept myself outside the student politics bubble and that will not change. I have observed only a few MSCs, and none in full as far as I can remember. It so happens that I am not in regular contact with anybody who is in or is very knowledgeable about current Monash student politics and no student politician is my friend. There are a few known and anonymous people who talk to me or give me things occasionally, which is appreciated but not expected. Most of my material could be derived from quasi-public sources, or those that should be public. This includes material that is available to all clubs and societies, members of clubs and societies, and MSCs.
What about Radio Monash? They do some journalism things, especially music and culture. One of their recent initiatives was interviews with clubs and societies. However, Radio Monash does not have a tradition of political journalism and there is no expectation for it to happen. I do note some facts. Its president at MSCs has often emphasised that as a media organisation, Radio Monash is apolitical. Campbell ran for president of Radio Monash on a platform of political journalism and activism. Some of its members are engaged observers of student politics and campus affairs - its president recently contributed a piece in their personal capacity to Lot’s Wife. In my long life I have found many things to admire, and Radio Monash and its people count among them.
Another thing to keep in mind is that most people do not care about what goes on at MSCs. Interest in MSCs is niche, usually boring and arguably relatively inconsequential as far as the average student is concerned. I was not very interested in the MSC, partly due to the initial Lot’s Wife coverage. There are better things that I can do rather than recounting these events to a frankly small and narrow audience. There may be better things for Lot’s Wife and MoJo News to cover. Maybe.