National Council 2021

COVID-19 restrictions have meant that both last year’s and this year’s National Council meetings were moved to being fully online. This year's Council has been separated into two meetings, one held on 1 October and the second to be held on 3-4 December.

NTEU’s governing National Council normally meets in early October every year, with over 120 delegates from every Branch coming to Melbourne for the three day meeting. With COVID restrictions during the last Melbourne lockdown applying at the time when Council would normally occur, it was impossible for staff to provide the in-person administrative support to the National Officers that is necessary to ensure a smooth running of all of Council’s business and operations, even if conducted fully online.

Therefore, National Executive decided that a 2 hour online session of Council would be held on 1 October to consider the business necessary under the NTEU Rules, specifically the presentation of the financial statements and the 2021/22 Budget.

National Councillors also briefly discussed growth strategies as part of the October meeting. This was followed by an online forum around a presentation by Jim Stanford, Director of the Centre for Future Work, on the research paper An Avoidable Catastrophe – the Pandemic and Job Losses in Higher Education and their Consequences, recently prepared for NTEU.

The rest of National Council business, including the debates and discussions on resolutions around NTEU policies, priorities and actions, as well as considering any rule changes, is scheduled for a special online meeting on 3–4 December. ◆