Page last updated 12/10/2023.
2023 elections of the Monash Student Association
Disclaimer: no guarantees of factual accuracy. Some claims are based on best evidence.
A context
See the background post on the State of the Monash Student Association.
Who is running?
Updated 29/9/2023 based on finalised notice of nominations posted by MSA. Nominations ruled ineligible are excluded.
Three tickets have nominated candidates for the 2023 MSA election: Together, CHANGE!, Social Justice. All three nominated enough unique candidates to qualify for the voting booklet cover.
Together, the incumbent ticket since the 2017 election, nominated 120 candidates. The Labor Right participates in this ticket.
CHANGE!, renamed from the pandemic-era Student Voice ticket which did not contest the 2022 elections last year, nominated 70 candidates. This ticket is led and organised by the Labor Left. Their platform calls for greater advocacy, and seems to be pitched broadly towards those seeking “change” from Together running MSA.
Social Justice, the latest manifestation of the perennially unsuccessful Socialist Alternative-led ticket, nominated 60 candidates, up from 5 Climate Action/Climate Justice candidates in 2022. Their platform is the explicitly left wing and activist one typical of Socialist Alternative student tickets.
The numbers above include candidates who nominated for multiple positions, so Together nominated fewer than 120 unique candidates, for example. Together nominated 7 candidates to 2 positions, and Change nominated 9 candidates to 2 positions. Social Justice nominated 8 candidates to 2 positions, 6 candidates to 3 positions, and 1 candidate to 4 positions.
Only Together nominated candidates for the Mental Health and Resilience Committee, so they have been elected unopposed. Only Change nominated a candidate for Indigenous Officer so they have been elected unopposed. Disabilities and Carers Officer will be contested by Together and Change.
Queer Officer will be contested by Social Justice and independents. Incumbent ticket the Rainbow Collective, traditionally winning Queer Officer unopposed, did not register or hold preselections this year. However, an incumbent Queer Officer elected as Rainbow Collective candidate in 2022 has nominated again.
Education (Academic Affairs) Officer and Lot’s Wife Editor will be contested by all three tickets as well as an independent. The remainder of the committees and offices, including the President, Secretary and Treasurer, will be contested by all three tickets.
Based on these nominations, this year marks a significant departure from 2022’s almost entirely uncontested election, with Together facing possibly its stiffest opposition ever.
Clubs and Societies
In early September, the C&S Council, composed of all C&S club presidents, held its AGM to elect the 9 members of its new C&S Executive. 4 of the newly elected C&S Executive are candidates of Change for MSA. 2 other members of the incoming C&S Executive were previously elected to MSA on the Together ticket, but are not contesting the 2023 MSA election. 1 of the new C&S Executive will be contesting the 2023 MSA election as an independent.
Referendum
Concurrently with the 2023 MSA election, a referendum will be held to change the MSA Constitution. The question approved by the Monash Student Council is “Do you agree that the MSA Constitution should be amended to state that a “carer” has the same meaning as in the Carer Recognition Act 2010?”
Election Regulations changes
In August, the Together-controlled Monash Student Council unanimously passed 5 changes to the Election Regulations. Substantial changes include:
- “Voting digitally on behalf of or for someone else, with the use of their electronic device.” is now prohibited conduct.
- “Blocking doors, lifts, stairways and the pathway of students with disabilities, whether or not they utilise mobility devices.” is now prohibited conduct.
- “Do Not Approach” badge that “students with disabilities can wear should they require the accommodation of not being approached by campaigners during election week due to the detrimental physical, mental and emotional consequences suffered”.
- Requiring the digital ballot be compatible with screen readers.
Update 26/9/2023 - shock resignation rocks the adult Labor Left - 13 days until polls open
The most senior member of the Victorian Labor Left, and the Victorian Labor Party, announced their unexpected resignation today. Over the next few days, the Labor factions will jostle and negotiate for their replacement and other senior positions.
Update 29/9/2023 - nominations confirmed and Election Guide released - 10 days until polls open
Nominations have been finalised. The Who is running? section above has been updated. 3 Change, 7 Social Justice (including their Authorised Officer), 7 Together, and the independent Indigenous Officer candidate’s nominations were ruled ineligible for a variety of reasons. Last year, Together had only 1 invalid nomination despite more nominations in total, so they are a bit less tight this year.
The Election Guide has been released, containing statements from all candidates (who submitted one).
Update 29/9/2023 - student politician enters adult election - 10 days until polls open
Following the resignation of the most senior member of the Victorian Labor Left from the Victorian Parliament, a by-election will be held to determine their replacement. The Victorian Socialists candidate in the by-election has also nominated for NUS Delegate, Queer Officer and Student Welfare Committee on the Social Justice ticket in the 2023 MSA elections. This individual was previously elected NUS Delegate in 2021 on the Restore Democracy at Monash ticket, came 3rd of 4 candidates on primary vote for President in 2020 on the Student Fightback – Climate Action ticket, and lost elections in 2019 on the Climate Action ticket and in 2018 on the Left Action ticket.
Update 30/9/2023 - Rainbow Collective is indeed running, and Together are faceless - 9 days until polls open
In their joint candidate statement published in the Election Guide, the independent nominees for Queer Officer claim to be Rainbow Collective candidates. It is not clear what preselection process Rainbow Collective undertook.
Meanwhile, whilst almost all other officer candidates submitted a photo of themselves for the Election Guide, Together submitted none. Not even Together’s President, Secretary and Treasurer candidate statements have faces to them.
Update 30/9/2023 - MSA candidate previously disqualified from MGA election - 9 days until polls open
The elections for the Executive Committee of the Monash Graduate Association were held earlier in 2023. 2 candidates were excluded (link updated 31/12/2023) by the returning officer for serious prohibited conduct breaching Election Regulations. One of these disqualified candidates is running for MSA Creative and Live Arts Officer on the Change ticket and was the individual who withdrew from the fraud-affected Wired presidential election.
Update 1/10/2023 - Rainbow Collective comment on Social Justice - 8 days until polls open
Rainbow Collective claims that their candidates were “elected from, by and for Queer Students”. This year, they did not call for public nominations, so perhaps this was an internal Queer Department preselection. Core to their pitch this year is the autonomy of the Queer Department, separated from regular student politics.
According to the Rainbow Collective, “this year the Monash Socialists (under the party name Social Justice) have opportunistically decided to run two candidates who are unknown to the Queer Department”.
Update 1/10/2023 - who could not be bothered to submit a candidate statement? - 8 days until polls open
Together, not content with just being faceless, can also claim fewest candidate statements submitted. Together did not submit a statement for any MSA Committees and NUS Delegates. The Together candidate for Secretary exceeded the word count.
Change was most disciplined, submitting statements for every contested position. Social Justice did not submit a statement for MSC General Representatives and Creative and Live Arts Committee. The independent candidate for Education (Academic Affairs) Officer did not submit a statement.
In 2022, Together like this year submitted no statements for MSA Committees and NUS delegates, and no photos at all. In 2022, unlike this year, the MSA elections were practically uncontested.
Candidate statements and photos were due before the ballot draw and before nominations were made public. Were Together really that complacent? Did they think they would have it as easy as last year? They should not have been - members of the Labor Right previously predicted that the Labor Left would mount a credible challenge, there were several instances of public dissatisfaction with the Together-controlled MSA’s conduct this year, and one imagines that during candidate recruitment there would have been signs of opposition ticket formation.
Update 2/10/2023 - Social Justice reset - 7 days until polls open
Following their campaign launch on Sunday 1/10/2023, Social Justice has deleted all their Facebook posts. Today, they have reposted the announcement of their candidate for MSA President, coinciding with a flood of posts from Social Justice candidates. The presidential candidate attacked Together’s MSA as “a boring internship program for Labor party beauracrats”.
I had initially assumed that Social Justice was an exclusively Socialist Alternative (Monash Socialists) ticket. Whilst most candidates are indeed Socialist Alternative members, my assumption was not correct. Members of the Greens are split between at least the Change and Social Justice tickets.
Update 2/10/2023 - NTEU to strike in election week - 7 days until polls open
As part of their ongoing dispute with Monash University management, the National Tertiary Education Union’s Monash branch will strike from 12:00pm Monday 9 October to 11:59am Wednesday 11 October. MSA election polling, available online and at voting booths on the Clayton campus, will be open from 9:00am Monday 9 October to 5:00pm Thursday 12 October.
It will be interesting to see how the strike will affect Social Justice’s ground game. Socialist Alternative, the group behind Monash Students Support Staff Strikes, would be expected to participate in the demonstrations and pickets, and this may reduce the number available to campaign particularly as picketing moves to the Caulfield campus on the Wednesday. Those more inclined to suggest conspiracy might suggest that the timing is not a coincidence.
Update 4/10/2023 - student Voice - 5 days until polls open
Today, the Liberal Club ran a stall advocating a No vote in the upcoming referendum, since “as many of you can attest to, it is not easy to find any opposing views on the Voice on campus”. They were joined by Senator for Victoria and Commonwealth Shadow Minister for Education Sarah Henderson. The stall was held right outside the Menzies Building (which is also a common meeting place for the Monash Socialists) on a major pedestrian thoroughfare. Unsurprisingly, socialists picked a fight with the Liberals. Simultaneously, Social Justice used this to attack “the current people in control” of the MSA, who they claim “have no interest in any sort of left wing activism whatsoever”.
The Socialist Alternative, while initially reluctant to support Yes, eventually did so despite its reservations primarily since it saw the No campaign as dominated by racism.
The referendum is to be held the Saturday following MSA election week, with election week overlapping with referendum pre-poll. When I wrote that the staff strike would likely distract the Socialists from MSA election campaigning, I did consider whether Labor members and sympathisers in the Change and Together tickets would also be drawn away from campaigning by referendum pre-poll volunteering or even the NTEU strike too. My assessment was that Labor students were likely to be less tightly committed to Voice campaigning (remember that Change dropped the Student Voice label this year) than to the MSA election, and less compared to the Socialists’ commitment to the strike. Local Yes campaign organisers have confirmed to me that they have found it difficult to find sufficient numbers of volunteers to staff pre-poll, since one of their major pools in Labor-aligned university students have decided that MSA elections are more important than a permanent constitutional amendment.
In addition to the Voice referendum, MSA election week will also overlap with many club AGMs (including possible stupol fights at Radio Monash and WIRED EGM), the New Zealand general election on Saturday, and plenty of Week 11 assignment deadlines.
Update 7/10/2023 - adult politicians visit pre-poll - 2 days until polls open
Federal and state Labor politicans Penny Wong (leader of the Government in the Senate), Carina Garland and Paul Hamer joined Yes23 volunteers at Box Hill pre-poll today. As it happened, members of the Monash Labor Club were there volunteering. How fortunate!
Update 7/10/2023 - Hamas attacks Israel - 2 days until polls open
In Social Justice’s original Facebook announcement post on Facebook, now deleted, Palestinian rights were a key issue. Since the attack, as far as I can tell none of the tickets have issued a statement (some student unions are known to comment and advocate on global issues). However, the Socialist Alternative, Victorian Socialists and Monash Socialists have shared statements supporting Palestine and blaming Israel.
Update 8/10/2023 - housing - 1 day until polls open
A member of the Monash Labor Club, who is not a candidate in the 2023 MSA elections, posted in the Monash Stalkerspace Facebook group this afternoon a reminder of an incident from earlier in the year.
Update 9/10/2023 - polls open - 3 days until polls close
It was a lovely, quiet morning on the Clayton campus. At 9am, all Monash Clayton students were emailed a link to cast a vote in the elections and referendum.
“Our campaigners will be out in force chatting to everyone and anyone about our vision for a fighting MSA.” - Social Justice
Also, the NTEU strike commences at midday.
Update 9/10/2023 - Change endorses Rainbow Collective - 3 days until polls close
“It’s important that we keep the Queer Department autonomous and controlled by the Queer community.”
Update 9/10/2023 - Academic Board nominations open - 3 days until polls close
It was student representatives on the Academic Board who led the Student Voice insurgency in the 2020 MSA elections. Since then, Together has run candidates for Academic Board each year. Nominations for this year’s elections will close this Friday. By that point, we may know the results for the MSA elections.
Update 9/10/2023 - Liberal Club get on national television - 3 days until polls close
On 6/10/2023, Sky News brought the Liberal Club Secretary on to cover the earlier 4/10/2023 incident between the Socialists and Liberals at the No stall at Monash Clayton campus.
Update 10/10/2023 - Rainbow Collective and Social Justice clash - 2 days until polls close
In addition to Change’s endorsement, Together’s how to vote also instructs voters to vote for the Rainbow Collective candidates over Social Justice for Queer Officer.
As far as I can tell, there is no hard requirement (other than box ticking) to satisfy in order to run and vote for Queer Officer.
Several individuals have posted to Facebook with a common statement accusing Social Justice of running for Queer Officer “purely to gain a seat on Monash Student Council”, emphasising the “apolitical” (with respect to student politics) nature of the Queer Department and Rainbow Collective ticket. Social Justice appears to be focussed on the “apolitical” aspect, publishing a post which asserts again that “the Queer office SHOULD BE POLITICAL” and voters should “Make MSA Queer left wing”.
Update 11/10/2023 - who gets paid, anyway? - 1 day until polls close
This is not an update, but an ask. Which elected officers get paid an honorarium in the MSA and how much?
Update 11/10/2023 - Social Justice and Rainbow Collective clash - 1 day until polls close
New Facebook salvoes in the stoush over Queer Officer. Social Justice made the following Facebook post:
“MAKE THE QUEER OFFICE POLITICAL, ACTIVIST, AND LEFT WING.
Madi Curkovic and Kelly Cvetkova [also Victorian Socialists candidate for the Mulgrave by-election] have a proven track record of fighting for queer rights. They contributed to the activist campaign to expose the transphobia of Kelly-Jay Keen, a virulent anti-trans activist. Through 2023 they have fought against the far-right, as the right have been attacking queer rights and queer events.
Queer rights are under attack by right wingers, nazis, and religious bigots, here in Australia and internationally. Our opponents have spent the week saying we need to keep the queer office APOLITICAL. We need the opposite - a political, activist, and left-wing queer office, ready to fight the right, and fight for queer students.”
In a comment to this post, the outgoing GLEAM (Queers in STEM) President and Rainbow Collective candidate for Queer Officer made the following case:
“Fantastic work that both of you have been doing, thank you. I’d just like to remind you all that we have clearly stated we are apolitical in student politics. Of course Queer rights are political, but not every aspect of being a Queer Officer is political. Most of it isn’t. It’s about being there for the queer community on a personal level, on a community level, about running events where people can be themselves, giving confidence to queer students, and fighting for them personally. As someone who is deeply involved with many different queer communities at Monash, I can tell you people want safe spaces to be able to exist and build community. Activism is critical, but only after your look after your community at home.
Whatever the outcome of this election, I hope we don’t have to see each other as ‘opponents’ and can work together to support and care for the queer people on Monash to the best of our abilities.”
Update 11/10/2023 - regulations - 1 day until polls close
You hear people say campaigners breached election regulations. Of course they would. And if you were a pedant, you would point out that the Returning Officer has not placed any notices relating to the election on the MSA notice-board, which is required by MSA election regulations.
Update 12/10/2023 - queer - 5 hours until polls close
Rainbow Collective on Facebook:
”!! SOCIAL JUSTICE CAMPAIGNER ENCOURGING VOTERS WHO DON’T SELF-IDENTIFY TO VOTE IN QUEER ELECTION !!
We just witnessed a Social Justice campaigner direct a voter (who did not self-identify as queer) to tick the queer election box.
It is now more important than ever to reach out to your queer networks and make sure they are voting!!
This is not the first time this has been complained about this week (however, it is the first we managed to get with evidence to complain to the RO)”
Update 12/10/2023 - polls close
Results are expected tomorrow. Where are the tickets’ campaigners gathering tonight?
Monash has Changed
Change has won the 2023 MSA elections, victors over Social Justice and incumbents Together.
5260 students cast their vote in this election representing 12.1% of eligible voters.
Preliminary results released Thursday night reveal that Change has won the elections for President, Secretary, Treasurer, Residential Community Officer, Lot’s Wife Editor, Education (Academic Affairs) Officer, Education (Public Affairs) Officer, Welfare Officer, Environment & Social Justice Officer, Activities Officer, Creative and Live Arts Officer, People of Colour Officer, and Indigenous Officer.
For the Presidential election, on primary votes Together was first on 1806 (36%), followed by Change on 1737 (35%) and Social Justice (28%) on 1411. Following exclusion of Social Justice, 1087 votes exhausted (did not indicate any second preference), representing a 77% exhaustion rate. Of the remainder of Social Justice votes that did not exhaust, preferences overwhelmingly flowed to Change at a rate of 72%, letting Change narrowly overtake Together to secure the Presidency with the final vote tally being 1970 (50.9%) - 1897 (49.1%).
For almost every office bearer position, the result was very similar. The high degree of vote exhaustion reflects the fact that no tickets instructed voters to select second preferences.
The only exceptions were Residential Community Officer (uncontested by Social Justice), People of Colour Officer (autonomous ballot with Change ahead on primary), and Indigenous Officer (unopposed).
The only office bearers which Change did not win were the autonomous ballots: Disabilities & Carers Officer and Women’s Officer won by Together, and Queer Officer won by Social Justice.
Despite being backed by both Change and Together, Rainbow Collective lost. There were allegations of fraud being encouraged by Social Justice campaigners. Social Justice received 608 votes to Rainbow Collective’s 331. For comparison, the Disabilities & Carers Officer had 222 voters in total, Women’s Officer 444, and People of Colour Officer 468.
I have previously commented that
“The practice of directly electing office bearers by the general student body means that single tickets tend to “sweep” office bearer positions even if a substantial minority of the electorate support another ticket, since students preferring a certain ticket are likely to vote for that ticket across all positions. This all-or-nothing system favours the development of larger tickets and pre-election coalitions, and recent history shows that incumbent tickets remain dominant for a long period of time. The phenomenon of large tickets is probably cemented by the 2019 introduction of booklet voting.”
This has played out, with Change taking out almost all office bearer positions despite coming second on primary with 35% of the vote and only narrowly winning the two-candidate preferred with 51%.
The Mental Health and Resilience Committee will be controlled by Together who were unopposed. The Student Welfare Committee and Women’s Affairs Committee will both be split evenly, with each ticket controlling 3 seats. The Activities Advisory Committee will be controlled by Change with 5 seats to Together’s 4 seats.
Results are not yet known for the Student Affairs Committee, Environment and Social Justice Committee, Creative and Live Arts Committee, and People of Colour Collective as an affirmative action count will need to be taken.
Delegates to the National Union of Students will be 3 Together (Student Unity/Labor Right), 2 Change (National Labor Students/Labor Left), 2 Social Justice (Socialist Alternative).
MSC General Representatives will be 2 Together, 2 Change and 1 Social Justice.
The results mean that Change will control the Monash Student Council, with 14/24 seats. All three tickets will be represented on the MSC.
The referendum failed with 91% in favour but turnout of only 1.77%, far below the 5% required. Only Together seemed to advocate a Yes vote, or any vote at all.
Plenty more to talk about.