CAPA looking ahead at 2021 for casuals

Errol Phuah, President, Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA)

Greetings Comrades! As my first address to you all, I want to show my appreciation and warm welcome by the NTEU community since starting in January this year as the new National President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) for 2021. We have many challenges to tackle this year as a sector, so a strong working relationship is essential.

For the uninitiated, CAPA is a peak representative body for postgraduate students in Australia for 42 years. Where CAPA aligns more closely to NTEU than other peak representative student bodies is that many postgraduate students are also sessional staff. So it’s been quite natural for our interest to align and work together, a relationship we hope to continue for many years to come.

Wage theft

CAPA recently provided testimony at the Senate Hearing on Unlawful Underpayment of Employee Remuneration. By representing both casual staff and coursework students, we had the unique opportunity to discuss accounts of wage theft and highlight the links between wage theft and its impact on the quality of education. It was crucial to draw ties back to students as stakeholders and give international students some much-needed limelight.

"By representing both casual staff and coursework students, we had the unique opportunity to discuss accounts of wage theft

Research commercialisation

We are also staying on top of the consultation for research commercialisation. This is a hot debate that is yet to generate a general consensus, and nothing yet has been set in stone. I cannot stress enough the importance of monitoring this conversation closely. This discussion is a precursor to public research funding reform, and such changes will influence how universities behave and operate in the future. The risk here is that most of the discussions are from those in secure positions (i.e. executives and their advisors). The ideas generated could easily take on the perspective of management. Naturally, these perspectives may not take on our concerns of insecure work, and the dangers are a new research reform that encourages further casualisation of staff.

2021 and beyond

Nevertheless, 2021 has a few ongoing agendas to keep an eye on and creates opportunities for lobbying for a better and fairer system. This is why we need to work together and rally with solidarity behind the various campaign fronts this year.

Errol Phuah is a Bioengineering PhD student at Swinburne University of Technology and National President of CAPA for 2021. capa.edu.au