University students divided by Indigenous voice to parliament war of words

Indigenous voice to parliament referendum splinters debate among university students, as far-left opposers quash Labor-affiliated union campaigns.

A University of Sydney student representative council meeting erupted in chaos last month.

The Indigenous voice to parliament has splintered debate among university students, as radical far-left opponents quash the attempts of Labor-affiliated student unions to run campaigns in favour of the referendum.

The Australian last month revealed the National Union of Students agreed to support the voice and would actively campaign in favour of the referendum through rallies and educational programs.

But many of its member universities have been unable to take such a staunch view, with heated disputes flaring up within university council meetings as students struggle to form a cohesive stance.

A University of Sydney student representative council meeting erupted in chaos last month after students from the “notoriously woke” Socialist Alternative group refused to pass a motion to support the voice, student Benjamin McGrory told The Australian.

“The meeting went past midnight and it was as if the Socialist Alternative – who held the majority of votes in the room – were going to hold people up for as long as they could,” he said. “They kept saying ‘We don’t support a voice, we don’t support a voice. We need a treaty’.”

McGrory, who is also the First Nations officer for the USYD SRC, said no other Indigenous Australians were invited to the meeting and none were permitted to vote, which meant the room became “a bunch of non-Indigenous students speaking on behalf of Indigenous students”.

“We need to focus on having more conversations,” Mr McGrory said.

“I spoke to the University of Sydney Union and we are going to run an educational speaker series for students, where we invite people from the left and the right to speak. People like Lidia Thorpe, Linda Burney and even, like, Jacinta Price.”

Universities will kickstart their first campaigns for or against the voice this month as orientation weeks commence and students pour back on to campus.

NUS First Nations representative Patrick Taylor told The Australian the union had chosen to support the voice “because we’re a union and we are Labor students”.

He said he was less worried about the radical left throwing off a pro-voice campaign, and more worried about the lack of education around the referendum on campus.

“We need to get information to a wider population of students that are not political and have no idea about the voice,” he said. “We know there isn’t enough information out there for students, so we need to circulate information more widely.”

But Australian National University student association president Ben Yates told The Australian the union would not stand with the NUS in support of the voice yet, because the issue was “complicated”. He said the NUS was “dominated by ALP-aligned students”.

“We go our own way a little bit,” Mr Yates said. “ANUSA is committed to being led by Indigenous people.”

University of Melbourne student union Indigenous office bearer Brittney Henderson said the upcoming referendum would be “traumatic for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people regardless of the outcome”, but refused to give a firm opinion on the vote.

“Discussions of our communities’ futures without fully grasping the past’s irreparable damage are distressing,” Ms Henderson said.

“I cannot give a concrete position, because at the moment there is no correct answer.”