Unpacking the SRC Election results
After months of planning, scheming and dealing, weeks of campaigning, convincing and pleading and 3 climactic days of online voting, the SRC elections are now finally over. With a total of 6442 unique voters hitting the poll to have their say, this election impressively saw the highest unique voter total in SRC history. Go democracy!
The elections included 4 ballots for different positions: President, Honi Soit editors, Representatives and Delegates to the NUS. These positions all full under the Student Representative Council and if you’ve only just joined us, this is a good breakdown on how the Council works. So, without further ado, here are the results and a rundown of what they mean.
President
3746 students voted for President with Lauren Lancaster (Switchroots) beating Matthew Carter (Unity) in a close race, 1961 to 1785 votes. Running on an unapologetically left-wing campaign, Lancaster will be the third Grassroots President in a row, following from current President Swapnik Sanagavarapu. Having promised a strong activist stance and with experience as the SRC Environment Officer and on the General SRC Executive, students can expect an experienced and impassioned President in Lancaster.
Serving as a figurehead and representative of the entire undergraduate population, the President takes charge of the bulk of the administrative and organising work of the SRC. The President also holds considerable influence over the organisational and political direction of the Council and Lancaster will undoubtedly be using her position to continue the work of her Grassroots predecessors to oppose staff cuts, push the University away from their involvement in fossil fuels and advocate for student support and services more broadly.
Honi Soit
The Honi Soit election saw another two-way battle, with Cake for Honi and Drip for Honi fighting it out. Whilst both tickets boasted comparable levels of experience and contributions to Honi, Cake for Honi won the esteemed editorship crown, taking away 2400 of the 4050 total votes. Notably, Cake will include 2 former Pulp editors, Ellie Stephenson (2020) and Fabian Robertson (current) alongside Roisin Murphy, Christian Holman, Zara Zadro, Khanh Tran, Thomas Sargeant, Sam Randle, Amelia Koen and Carmeli Argana.
The 10 editors will take charge of Honi in 2022, continuing the paper’s almost 100 year presence on campus. Famously Australia’s only weekly student newspaper, Honi is notorious for their colourful and sometimes controversial reporting and has a long history of uncovering important stories both on and off campus. The content of the paper is made up of student contributor’s work as well as that of the editors. They also release 7 special editions yearly including Women’s Honi, Queer Honi, International Honi, Indigenous Honi, Disabled Honi, Autonomous Collective Against Racism Honi and Election Honi. You can find their work in newstands across the university and online.
Council
39 Councillors were elected from 14 factions. Quota was 128 votes, meaning any candidate attaining 128 primary votes was automatically elected to Council. What follows is a short breakdown of each successful faction.
Switchroots: 10 Councillors
Switch and Grassroots enjoy a synergistic existence in student politics and have effectively combined their campaigning efforts to form the most powerful faction on campus. With Prudence Wilkins-Wheat as USU President, Lancaster’s win sees Switchroots leaders now presiding over the two primary student organisations on campus. Broadly, Grassroots is a left-wing socialist faction somewhat politically-aligned with the Greens club. Switch is an offshoot of Grassroots.
2021 Switchroots Councillors: Julian Alley, Ishbel Dunsmore, Lauren Lancaster, Eamonn Murphy, Onor Nottle, Ashrika Paruthi, Lia Perkins, Tiger Perkins, Alana Ramshaw, Felix Lockhart Wood.
Penta: 5 Councillors
Penta is the largest international student faction on campus. Under their previous name, Panda, Penta nominated a successful SRC Council Presidential Candidate Jacky He, who became fairly notorious for shirking his responsibilities and trying to censor Honi Soit during his 2019 tenure. This year, Penta threw their significant Wechat-facilitated voting power behind Switchroots, no doubt coming up clutch in Lancaster’s narrow election win.
2021 Penta Councillors: Yunshu Chen, Alice Guo, Celestia Wang, Jenna Wu, Nicole Yang.
Unite / Student Unity / Labor Right: 5 Councillors
Unite is the campaigning title of the powerful national faction Student Unity, the student faction of the right-wing sector of the ALP, Labor Right. Led by Presidential hopeful Carter, Unite has enjoyed a fairly successful election period.
2021 Unite Councillors: Daniel Bowron, Matthew Carter, Maddie Maronese, Ricky Rangra, Julia Tran
Ignite / Conservatorium: 4 Councillors
Ignite is the fledgling faction of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Ignite was instrumental in Carter’s Presidential campaign.
2021 Ignite Councillors: James Burgess, Bridgitte Holden, Martin O’Flynn, Alexander Poirier.
Engineers: 3 Councillors
Engineers broadly represent Engineering students hailing from the Peter Nicol Russell Building. They have a USU Board Director in Cole Scott-Curwood and have supported Switchroots in recent years against the campus right.
2021 Engineers Councillors: Bella Anderssen, Emily Storey, Riley Vaughan.
Phoenix: 2 Councillors
The other international student faction on campus and typically rivals to Penta.
2021 Phoenix Councillors: Cabiria Liang, Victor Ruifeng Liang.
Wave: 2 Councillors
Wave appears to be the only genuinely factionless ticket elected. Wave supported Carter for Presidency.
2021 Wave Councillors: Phillipa Bucknell, Michael Grenier.
Strive / Liberals: 2 Councillors
Strive is what the Liberals called themselves this year, featuring big names from the Conservative Club.
2021 Strive Councillors: Olivia Mangholi, Aileen Tan.
Colleges: 2 Councillors
This one’s pretty self explanatory.
2021 Colleges Councillors: Claudia Arabella Hopkins, Max Prince.
Pump / NLS / Labor Left: 1 Councillor
NLS (National Labor Students) ran under the header Pump this year. NLS is the student faction of the left-wing sector of the ALP, Labor Left. Politically, NLS is much further left than the ALP and is a strong rival of Student Unity.
2021 Pump Councillor: Rose Donnelly
Horse Girls / Labor Right: 1 Councillor
Horse Girls are aligned with Labor Right.
2021 Horse Girls Councillor: Charlotte Ainsworth
Left Action / Socialist Alternative: 1 Councillor
Socialist Alternative is a Marxist revolutionary faction and ran under Left Action this year.
2021 Left Action Councillor: Eddie Stephenson
StrikeBack / Solidarity: 1 Councillor
Solidarity is another socialist faction and ran under StrikeBack this year.
2021 StrikeBack Councillor: Angus Dermody
National Union of Students (NUS)
NUS is the national body featuring representation from 21 universities across Australia. The biggest event on the NUS calendar is the National Conference in December where delegates from each University vote on the organisation’s policies for the year.
NUS Delegates:
Matthew Carter (Ignite + Unity)
Grace Hu (Unity)
Drew Beacom (Switchroots)
Swapnik Sanagavarapu (Switchroots)
Cady Brown (Liberals)
Yasmine Johnson (Socialist Alternative)
Mikaela Pappou (NLS)
RepsEelect
Executive and Office Bearer roles will be decided in November at the annual RepsElect. Vice President and General Secretary roles come with a healthy stipend, while General Executives are unpaid. Although unpaid, Office Bearers are given funding to organise within their respective area of focus, making positions like Environment Officer, Wom*n’s Officer and Education Officer well-sought after.
These positions will likely be decided behind closed doors before RepsElect, as each faction schemes their way to attaining as much power and influence as possible within the SRC.