Labour and Greens want voluntary student associations to fail

By delaying a bill to introduce voluntary membership of student
associations, Labour and the Greens are attempting to sabotage associations’ preparations for voluntary membership, Student Choice said today.

Over recent months Labour and the Greens have filibustered a minor bill in order to delay the passage of the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill. By delaying the Freedom of Association bill, Labour and the Greens hope to reduce the amount of time that associations have to prepare for voluntary membership.

Formerly compulsory associations will have to plan thoroughly for voluntary membership. Associations will have to market themselves to potential members and adjust their budgets to reflect the income they can attract through voluntary membership.

Without thorough planning, associations will find it difficult to succeed.

Labour and the Greens want large numbers of voluntary associations to fail so they can claim that voluntary membership does not work. However, such a claim will ignore the fact that thousands and thousands of organisations in New Zealand operate very successfully with voluntary membership.

Instead of colluding with Labour and the Greens to delay the bill, the New Zealand Union of Student Associations (NZUSA) should be helping student associations plan for voluntary membership. NZUSA could be helping associations with strategic planning, marketing and employment advice.

Instead NZUSA is colluding with Labour and the Greens to plot for the
failure of voluntary associations.

Student Choice commends the efforts of the Otago University Students
Association to plan for voluntary membership. It’s too early to see if OUSA is on the right track but at least the association is ignoring the backroom politics of Labour, the Greens and NZUSA and getting on with the job of becoming an organisation that students actually want to join.

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