‘Another 50 years”: Rebuilding the Reputation of the Environment Collective Post–OGM

By Sophie Blewitt

After a motion to reduce the ANU’s Environment Collective from an autonomous department to a ‘committee’ failed at the ANUSA OGM on 26 March, the Collective is looking to recover from negative coverage and continue its fifty-year history of climate action.

Since the publishing of an independent report into the financial operations of the Environment Collective (also called the Environment Department) by not-for-profit consultants ‘NFP Success’ in December, the Collective has faced accusations of historical inappropriate spending on political conferences outside of SSAF (Student Services and Amenities Fee) guidelines. 

These allocations included budgets of $3000 for the ‘Keep Left 2023’ conference and the ‘Marxism 2023’ conference ($295.10 and $3447.60 expended, respectively). 

Members of the ANUSA executive also charged the Collective with being under the influence of Socialist Alternative (SAlt). ANUSA President Will Burfoot stated during the OGM that “I believe SAlt is so opposed to this because they think they own the Enviro Collective.”

Such accusations of inappropriate spending and SAlt influence have led to a “loss of trust” between the student body and the Collective, according to Environment Officer Sarah Strange. 

Strange, who came into office after the controversial expenditures were made, has stated that “Socialist Alternative does not own the Environment Collective. The reality is the Environment Officer is elected at a democratic election… the only way that [SAlt] will get to control the Collective is if students decide to vote for them.” 

Nick Reich, a representative of SAlt, noted the negative coverage of the Collective – including an article by ANUSA General Secretary Sam Gorrie in favour of reconstituting the Collective – labeling it a “red scare” which “paints the Environment Collective as something chock-full of communists trying to bring down society for their own nefarious ends.” 

Responding to the statement in the original ‘NFP Success’ report cited by the executive that pointed to excessive spending on “divisive political campaigns”, Strange stated that “I’m happy for the Collective to continue engaging in divisive political campaigns to the extent that everything to do with environmentalism is divisive… after all, some people still don’t even believe in climate change.” 

Though the controversy summoned 125 students voting in favour of protecting the Collective, and has led to a minor uptick in its Facebook follower count, Strange noted that the negative attention has been harmful to the Collective’s climate action. 

She stated several students left midway through the first Collective meeting of the year after being “turned off” by “nonsensical factional disagreement.” Additionally, “articles concerning abolishing the Collective come up when you Google it, before the website or [event pages].” 

Referring to President Will Burfoot’s ongoing five-month freeze of the Collective budget, she also stated that “the President has been difficult on this issue, because he hasn’t given [the Collective] a path forward to actually being able to use our own funding.” 

In pursuing such a path, the Collective’s general meeting on 15 April saw Strange push a motion to require any spending above $750 by the Collective to be approved by the ANUSA Treasurer, a potential solution reached during consultation with the executive. This motion failed, as members pointed to the potential threat to the Collective’s autonomy and increased bureaucratic limitations. 

To some student activists, these pressures on the Collective’s activity demonstrates a general suppression of campus activism and an indication of the effects of Trump’s second term on political engagement. “We have a lot more students who are openly reactive towards activism, and openly saying that they support Donald Trump’s environmental policy,” stated Strange.

Reich commented that such attention on constitutional change has distracted from climate action and, indeed, any other student action: “I would much prefer my student union to be spending its resources and time organising a resistance to the recent cuts at ANU.” In general, however, the Collective has observed lower engagement in recent years, with students more likely to express general “climate apathy”, stated Strange.

Looking forward, the Collective has organised a series of climate protests and events, a surge in activity compared to the single event operated in 2024, according to Strange. The Environment Officer hopes to refocus interest in the Collective towards education on climate change, noting that “a lot of students believe that climate change is bad, but just don’t see the impact that it will have on them… the left, including the climate movement, has to do a better job of explaining why our ideas are the right ideas.”

On 1 May, the Collective returned with an educational “Seed Balls” event accompanying the ‘No Cuts at ANU’ protests, particularly in protest of recent course cuts to majors, such as Environmental and Resource Management. 

While the protests outside the Chancelry mainly addressed mass staff layoffs which could amount to up to 638 jobs lost (according to ‘No Cuts at ANU’ spokespeople), the chants also took an environmental turn: “Hey Julie [Bishop], what’s that sound? Wasted cash on flying around!” Referring to cuts to degrees, travel expenses and staff layoffs, ‘No Cuts at ANU’ convenor Ell Lappin stated “The ANU has $2 billion in liquid assets… there are other places they can take this money from.” 

Other recent activity relates to the Collective’s ANU Zero campaign, which recently published a report on the ANU’s investment in oil, gas and coal in comparison with other Australian universities.

As the activity of the Collective regains steam, Strange remains “completely willing to cooperate and negotiate in good faith with any kind of roadmap that’s given to me [by the ANUSA executive] about what we need to do to unfreeze our funding.”

Anyone wishing to get involved with the Collective can find information about their next meeting here. 

Graphics by Will Novak

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