Australian Liberal Students' Federation
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:BiasThe Australian Liberal Students' Federation (ALSF) is a political grouping of university students informally associated with the Liberal Party of Australia. As such, it is the only major openly conservative force within Australian student politics. The grouping is frequently referred to as Liberal students or incorrectly as Young Liberals. Most members of the ALSF are members of the Liberal Party, but the ALSF itself is not formally affiliated with the party.
Liberal Students, as do the senior Coalition parties in Australia, avoid usage of the terms faction and caucus to describe themselves, viewing them as being too strongly associated with the Labor Party.
The Federation is organised along the basis of campus Liberal clubs, with the various clubs affiliating nationally, wielding candidates and voting as a club. State affiliated bodies also exist and they in turn act as state divisions of the federation. These include the New South Wales Liberal Students' Associaiton (NSWLSA), the Victorian Liberal Students' Association (VLSA), the South Australian Liberal Students (SALS) and the West Australian Union of Liberal Students (WAULS).
ALSF exists independently of NUS, holding twice annual conferences. At the July conference the executive is elected by delegates from the consituent university Liberal clubs of the ALSF, which exist in differing levels of strength at virtually every University campus around the country. At each annual July conference the ALSF awards its coverted 'Club of Year' Award. In 2005 the award was presented again to the UNE Liberal Club, a Club which has dominated student politics at the University of New England.
Though not usually holding a significant number of NUS delegate positions, the ALSF is nevertheless one of the most vocal and controversial groups within the National Union of Students (NUS) organisation. Its central policy platform is the principle of Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) and it supports, and had input into, the reforms to Australian Higher Education introduced by Dr. Brendan Nelson (former Minister for Education, Science and Training). The ALSF asserts NUS to be simply an excuse for Labor students to spend students' money on political campaigns, citing the large sums of money used by NUS to advertise for the ALP in the 2004 federal election. The ALSF supports increased deregulation of the tertiary sector, and, particularly with the implementation of VSU, presents itself as being an advocate for freedom of choice within universities.
No other faction carries the notoriety attached to the ALSF at NUS National Conference. Opponents claim that the ALSF attempts to disrupt proceedings; the ALSF however claims that the Conference does not permit freedom of speech and despite preaching tolerance, the conference acts to gag dissident opinions. A demonstration of the political slanting of NUS is that there has never been a liberal officebearer at either state, or federal level despite their large success in campus unions around the country.
As of 2005, the ALSF President is Julian Barendse, of the University of Melbourne, who was re-elected unopposed to the position at the ALSF's AGM on Friday, 8 July 2005.