By Maya Auld and Hannah Farrow
Content Warning: mentions of SASH.
The Job
The General Secretary (Gen Sec) is responsible for the internal administration of ANUSA. They help the organisation of the various councils that represent the student body, which includes the Student and College Representative Council. The Gen Sec is responsible for interpreting ANUSA’s constitution, bylaws, and policies as well as Regulations and Policies of the Association. They also convene and chair the meetings of the Association whilst ensuring the minutes of meetings are recorded and retained.
More information about this role can be found here.
The Candidates
Milli McDonald
Running under the Stand Up for ANUSA ticket, is Milli McDonald. This year she has served as Women’s* officer at Unilodge. In her role, she has “felt let down. Let down by the Residential Hall System. So my policy is to introduce a residential officer to the executive of ANUSA.”
Phoebe Denham
Phoebe Denham is running on the ‘Together for ANUSA’ ticket. Denham is currently serving as the 2023 Women’s* officer in ANUSA’s Women’s Department and has also been Secretary for the Womens Department, and the Treasurer/Secretary and President at Fenner Hall.
Ainuojin (Anu)
Ainuojin has never previously had a role at the ANUSA elective and is currently running for a number of positions as an Independent member.
The Policies
Milli Mcdonald
In a September 15 Facebook post, Mcdonald announced she was running, “because I’ve seen the flaws in ANUSA’s ability or desire to push back on changes to policy or red tape that negatively affects students. I believe it needs reforming”.
In her campaign, she has underlined a number of policies.
Mcdonald proposes an SR Union, improvement in treatment of Rescom, and a complaint mechanism for people mistreated by their residential halls. She posits that this is needed as “The residential college system reeks of power imbalance”
“This issue isn’t only a problem here at the ANU. That’s why I want to be a delegate to the National Union Of Students. SASH in a university setting is all too common and we need to work at it by coming together in this forum.”
‘Stand Up!’ will also fight to end all lockout fees, overturn the current occupancy agreement in order to include basic tenancy rights such as the right to terminate a contract, and advocate for SRs and Rescoms to be treated fairly by the ANU.
This is a topical policy, as there have been significant complaints about residential regulation reform, with the $100 fee being implemented if students forget their room access keys.
Other policies include a “formal method of questioning exec at SRC”. This includes a potential creation of Question Time for ANUSA, livestreaming the meetings and tracking attendance of meetings. Policy regarding the Student Representative Council has also been pledged to be “permanently held in Marie Reay” and “greater communication included more rapid minutes and more advertising of meetings.”
Phoebe Denham
As General Secretary, Denham wants to ensure ANUSA continues to cater to the interests of all students – undergraduate, postgraduate and research students. “It has been a huge year for ANUSA bringing postgraduates on board, and I commit to collecting feedback about their experience and making changes to ensure that we are representing all students excellently.”
Policy updates and registers
Denham outlines there are many policies on the ANUSA website that require removal or updating . Specifically, the candidate will ensure that SRC political stances are kept in their own register and will be updated on the ANUSA website every academic term. With an updated resource, this will ensure ANUSA is compliant with establishing policy and will be useful in developing future policy. This will also include “Probity and disputes Committees”.
Another policy includes making ANUSA meetings more accessible. This is because Denham posits that the current ANUSA meetings are “inaccessible and unpleasant for many, and commits “to making improvements to ensure that all students are able and welcome to attend”
The candidate for Together for ANUSA also stated there will be an effort to “strengthen communication, document[ing] governance history”. This included strengthening the Election and Governance Reform Working Groups by hosting them fortnightly during teaching periods, beginning with high-level planning and setting us up to make any changes to election regulations well before next years election.
Voting for the ANUSA election has begun, and you can vote here. The results will be published on Friday the 29th of September.
For more details about policies, read here.
*This article was amended to adjust a policy for Phoebe Denham regarding Election and Governance Reform Working Groups.
Graphics by Will Novak
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