Student Choice Calls for NZUSA's Accountability

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Student Choice Calls for NZUSA's Accountability

Student Choice (SC) has condemned NZUSA's involvement in Auckland University 's referendum on voluntary student association membership. NZUSA has invested thousands of dollars paying people to promote compulsory union membership on Auckland's Campus, in contravention of it's own constitution.

"The fact is," explains SC spokesperson Glenn Peoples, "NZUSA's own constitution forbids them from interfering with on-campus politics of individual associations. It's just a case of them breaking the rules when it hastens their own political goals to do so." He went further to cite the case as evidence that NZUSA knows that if it were simply left up to students, compulsory membership would be rejected.

"You have to ask what they're afraid of. Why is it that they feel they have to come in as outsiders and spend all this money? Do they think that students wouldn't support compulsory membership? If so, why aren't they content to let students decide their fate? Are they presuming to know better than the people they supposedly represent?"

Peoples called on NZUSA to allow student voices to be heard, instead of pursuing it's own far left political goals in spite of the student population.

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Glenn Peoples (03) 473 8638 11 August 2003

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