By Lloyd Burr
Waikato University students protested in silence today against an ACT Party bill in the lead up to its third and final reading at Parliament on Wednesday when it is expected to pass.
The Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill, which has enough parliamentary support to pass on Wednesday, makes membership of students’ associations voluntary and creates an opt-in membership system rather than the current opt-out system.
The national body for students, the New Zealand Union of Students’ Association (NZUSA), organised ‘silent sit-in’ protests at Auckland, Waikato and Otago universities today.
The protests are part of the last-minute bid to convince the National Party not to support the bill, which NZUSA says will “undermine independent representation on campus”.
NZUSA co-president Max Hardy says voluntary student membership is “one of the biggest threats to a strong independent student voice for many years”.
“It will splinter and undermine the collective voice and contribution of students to the tertiary community.
“National still has an opportunity to drop its support for this extreme and inflexible Bill and instead work with students on fairer alternatives for improving student services and representation, rather than gutting them,” Mr Hardy says.
The bill, drafted by ACT MP Roger Douglas but now in Heather Roy’s name, was drawn from the ballot in 2009.
If it passes this week, it will come into force next year.
3 News