institution, predicated on the notion that Western ways of thinking and learning are superior to the First knowledges of Indigenous peoples.
Honi Soit publishes on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. Sovereignty was never ceded. All our knowledge is produced on stolen Indigenous lands. The University of Sydney is principally a colonial
At Honi Soit, we rebuke this claim, and maintain our commitment to platforming and empowering the experiences, perspectives and voices of First Nations students. This basis informs our practice as a paper. As a student newspaper, we have a duty to combat the systems and mechanisms of colonisation.
As student journalists, we recognise our responsibility as editors of a radical student newspaper to oppose the inherent racism and exclusivity of mainstream media outlets. We also uphold the struggle of other Indigenous communities worldwide and acknowledge that our resistance is intertwined.
As an editorial team of both Indigenous and non–Indigenous heritage, we are both victims and beneficiaries of colonisation. We are committed to unlearning our colonial
premonitions and working to hold current institutions accountable. We are galvanised by our commitment to Indigenous justice.
This week Australia will vote in the first referendum of this century. I implore you to write yes on your ballot.
Gerard Buttigieg, Aidan Elwig Pollock, Sam Han, Mehnaaz Hossain, Lily Kitteringham, Lauren Lancaster, Annabel Li, Freja Newman, Jayden Nguyen, Aidan Pollock, Nafeesa Rahman
Artists
Editors 4 6 9 10 11 14 16 18 20 22 21 23
Aidan Elwig Pollock, Margot Roberts, Kate Zhang
Emma Qi Front Cover
The polls don’t look hopeful, but if there is one thing that editing this paper has taught me, it is that things can all come together right at the end. This (seemingly miraculous) coming together happens because people care and work hard. I think the same thing can happen in this referendum.
A yes result is well within our reach — it will just take a hell of a lot of conversations before October 14th to achieve. This week I was lucky to speak with Senator Malarndirri McCarthy about the upcoming referendum. I asked how she was feeling about it all, and she replied “I’m excited. When I visit the polling booths Yes people are always so happy, so excited. The No campaigners I’ve seen at the booths are a miserable bunch.”
“People voting can feel that.”
It’s been ringing around in my head ever since. History is often viewed as this amorphous blob of inevitability, a deterministic marching through time and space that is changed by the powerful, so there’s not much use in the rest of us trying. I disagree. I believe in a politics of hope, a politics of care — a politics that begins with curiosity, conversations, and leaving a space at your table.
You may dismiss this as juvenile, idealistic mushy crap. I don’t want you to think that this politics is blind positivity. Fury, anger, disgust — these are core tenants in the politics of hope and care. Screaming against injustices and imagining new systems,
crumbling in defeat, wondering how to live another day, and then being rebuilt by the people around you who lend shoulders, tissues, and frozen lasagnes. This is hope and care. This is where change is born.
I believe in this because I see people engage in it daily — indeed, this paper is one such iteration of it.
In this edition, Luke Cass debunks labelling the voice as “divisive” (p. 7), anonymous breaks into International House and is transported back to an era where the student experience mattered to University management (p. 11), and Bipasha Chakraborty examines menstrual support (p. 10). Sam Han finds community in a hardcore moshpit while Jayden Nguyen decolonises Cabramatta and builds the case for refugee and First Nations solidarity (p. 9).
If Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were the only ones voting in this referendum, the result would be a resounding yes. All settlers who are voting no, or still undecided, should remember this.
The sun will rise on October 15th. I hope it will rise over a nation who has voted yes, who has acknowledged the ongoing genocide White Australia has inflicted every day since invasion. Whatever the result, a no or a yes, we must continue to fight against these systematic injustices that seek to silence truth.
Always was and always will be Aboriginal Land.
Caitlin O’Keeffe-White
Dear Honi editors, I write to you about your carers feature article. I thought it was a well-written and important article. Young carers deserve more.
Hi Honi Soit, I cannot say that I agree with Will Thorpe’s claim that the weather supressed the vote at the SRC election. I think the reason for lower-voter turnout is a mix of complex factors ranging from the cost of living crisis to the struggles of stupol in a postpandemic world. I would imagine that a writer of their quality would realise this. Disappointing. That sort of thing belongs in your misinformation section (which I imagine must be full, as the referendum approaches. HA!)
A stupol observer...
Aries: Ice play on the lawns of Regiment accommodation can cure the black summer approaching us. Start with some zing on your nipples and all the way down to your clit as you finger yourself. Brrrr, I am coming!
Taurus: Untighten your muscles in the SUSF bathrooms by using a vibrating massager on your neck and then down your ass as they hold your hands over your head. People next door might be shaken by the moans but who cares what the world thinks when you’re reaching maximum relaxation.
Gemini: Let me tie your legs to the abandoned beds of International House and fuck you spookily. The pianos will serenade a sex playlist for you with their secret magical fingers and you will be screaming into the darkness with several fingers inside you.
Cancer: Queen Mary Building’s kitchens are rather boring, but not when you’re being fucked on the industrial table tops. Hot pasta cooking in the background when you’re dripping your own salty sauce? Yum. My favourite carb is you, baby.
Art by Kate ZhangMeow Honi, Meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow meow.
Meow, Big Puss The Cat (we warned you)
Wednesday 11 October
Mister Ott // Lazybones Lounge // 7.00pm
Thursday 12 October
Delta Sleep // Crowbar // 7.00pm
KiNG MALA // Lansdowne Hotel // 7.00pm
The Grogans // Oxford Art Factory // 7:30pm
Hobo Johnson // Metro Theatre // 8.00pm
Friday 13 October
Strung Out // Mary’s Underground // 7.00pm
Dice // Crowbar // 8.00pm
Saturday 14 October
Peach Pit // Metro Theatre // 7.00pm
Big Gee // Manning Bar // 8.00pm
Sunday 15 October
Summer Dean // Factory Theatre // 7.00pm
Soaked Oats // The Vanguard // 7.00pm
Horny Soit whispers sweet nothings.
Leo: Hair pulling in the Abercrombie accomodation’s hallway with you fucking them from the back is the midnight snack you deserve. They will be beating your dick against you as you like it and we can only hope that the residents have good headphones, because wow that hallway is one echoey hellhole.
Virgo: Tickling feet as a foreplay on the Mandelbaum rooftop makes the city shine so bright. However, your face will shine brighter with a load all over you. Taste that jizz (if you enjoy) and tell them how delicious they are.
Libra: Darlington Terraces might be getting sold but who said you cannot take your buffet of vibrators over and simmer in the glory of the space? You will be sweating from all the hand motions slippery sloping and those filthy thoughts in your head.
Scorpio: Fuck UniLodge for their ridiculous prices and service but those cosy studio apartments are perfect for a night in of Netflix and chill. There will be no Netflix happening, just them eating noodles off your cooch and let me tell you, that won’t be the only sauce smothered on their face.
Sagittarius: What happens in MacDonaldtown? Nerdy sex when high out of your fucking minds. Stucco parties can be a mess but you might find your own sleazy mess who will talk theory to you in the tub, and rip apart your clothing swap outfits in bed. Spank, spank, read me some Foucault, hottie.
Capricorn: Sydney Uni Village is usually a hot spot for cockroaches but there’s some orgy planned with housemates on the cards for you. Triple penetration can be a shocking discovery but it has endless destinations to explore. Hang in there, my little traveller.
Aquarius: The hottest sex happens after you vandalise St. Paul’s and burn some filthy stuff outside. There will be three fingers inside you after jumping over gates with you — that adrenaline rush can keep you up all night for a strong pounding.
Pisces: We don’t go to Women’s College for their feminism, but that sandstone architecture makes me want to fuck you royally. Sneak into their dining room and have a quiet fucking session on the greasy tables. You will be struggling to hold your laughter back in as they keep eating you out when you’ve come thrice, but it’s all worth it for the abolition of colleges.
The Wentworth Building’s FoodHub, a joint initiative between the University of Sydney Union (USU) and the Students’ Representative Council (SRC), has introduced a registration process and waiting list for students seeking free food and essential items.
Students must now register 48 hours ahead of time via booking service Humanitix, bringing their digital or printed ticket with them, and can “only visit at [their] allocated time”. The USU Instagram account cited the reason for this initiative as “ensur(ing) the safety of our volunteers and students”. If a student’s preferred time slot is full, they can join a waitlist to use the service.
The introduction of a registration process follows last month’s reduction of FoodHub’s hours to 11am to 2pm,
which, as USU President Naz Sharifi then told Honi, served “to ensure that any staff member on the floor is not inundated with a significant spike in numbers without the resources to aid in the proper restock and management of foot traffic.”
In a statement provided to Honi on the registration process, Sharifi said that “the USU is extremely pleased to see the continued increase in the number of students on campus and using FoodHub. We appreciate that the rising cost of living continues to impart significant challenges on the life of students and hope to continue offering services that are accessible and build a sense of community.
“We also recognise that to do so effectively and for as many students as possible it is imperative that we have in place the correct logistical frameworks.
Sydney Young Labor members and Inner West locals packed out Leichhardt Town Hall on Saturday 23 September for a summit on renters’ rights. Organised by Sydney Young Labor, the renters’ summit saw a discussion of current issues surrounding housing security and rent increases, and proposals for solutions to the housing crisis.
Adam Connor, an organiser of the summit, opened the event by calling on the Labor Party to take a bolder stance on renter’s rights. As a renter in Sydney’s Inner West, Connor reiterated the importance of making rent prices more equitable, stating that “renters need stability and security in their housing.” Connor’s speech was followed by a panel discussion and Q&A. The panel primarily discussed problems facing renters regarding housing affordability, with UNSW’s Dr Chris Martin and Jemima Mowbray of the Tenant’s Union calling for a hard percentage cap on rent increases. Martin suggested limiting rent increases by three per cent. Labor MLC Cameron Murphy echoed the other panellists’ sentiments, calling for housing to be treated as a human right, saying landlords “cannot make money off a human right like housing”.
Following the panel discussion and Q&A, participants were invited to partake in small-group workshops where they had the opportunity to share experiences of renting and brainstorm policies that the Minns Government could adopt to protect tenants and promote housing stability in NSW. A motion was passed unanimously at the end of the event that called for increased rent control measures to
be implemented by the NSW Labor Government.
Sydney Young Labor president Rachel Hauenschild told Honi that the renters’ summit was organised because governments, particularly the NSW state government, “need to recognise that housing is an essential service”.
“It has become really evident in the past couple of years [that] there are vast numbers of working people who are struggling to find suitable, affordable, stable housing near where they work.
“We should be doing whatever we can to let people have somewhere they can live, call home, and look after their families. That part of it is not controversial at all.”
Honi spoke to several event participants who echoed Hauenschild’s sentiments. One participant said that they thought the summit was necessary as “the current state of the housing market is [that] essentially, one-third of the population have [land]lords… We must have a control on rents so that not too much of your income is being lost so you can hold income for yourself.”
The summit was organised against the backdrop of the recently passed Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF). Many argue that these recent measures are not enough to accurately support the current housing crisis across Australia.
The cost of rent in many Sydney suburbs has risen by nearly or over 20% in the past year while 70% of renters nationally faced a rent increase in the past twelve months. A quarter of these rent increases rose by 10%, making rent security measures a priority for both the NSW Minns Government and the federal Albanese Government.
To ensure that this increased demand does not impact the quality and consistency of experience, the new process is being used to help facilitate the smooth running of FoodHub.
“These measures will allow us to ensure that our essential items are re-stocked for everyone who attends FoodHub by spreading the attendance out across the day. We want to re-iterate that the registration process will be made as easy as possible and will be a method of improving and increasing these services, rather than restricting them.
“We are also committed to working to improve the system to address any concerns students may have about the process and to ensure that all feel comfortable accessing FoodHub.”
The SRC’s Vice Presidents, Daniel Bowron and Rose Donnelly, told Honi that they “have taken lead from UNSW
who uses a similar ticketing system and has reported better results.”
“Over the year we have since seen the demand for FoodHub grow exponentially due to the cost of living crisis. We have been working alongside the USU to ensure FoodHub is reaching the students who need it most.
“We want FoodHub to be as straightforward as possible and encourage the University to allocate funding for a second paid worker at FoodHub, to ensure the new coordinator does not have to rely on volunteers.
“The ticketing system helps combat the organisational issues that increased demand presents, but it does not address the labour issue — that the initiative requires more than one paid worker because of how many students are in need of an operational FoodHub.”
Coles and Woolworths employees represented by the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU) went on a two hour national strike on Saturday to secure better wages and working conditions.
Key demands include introducing a base rate of $29 per hour, measures to protect workers from abuse and threats, job security for casual workers, the right to a minimum shift length and the elimination of junior rates, trainee rates “and any other poverty wage rates.” According to RAFFWU, both chains have refused to “offer anything on any claim at the bargaining table.”
“Coles Supermarkets and Woolworths Supermarkets workers were the essential worker heroes of our pandemic,” RAFFWU said in a press release.
“They turned up to work throughout the entire pandemic, put on the frontline and the employers were slow to put in place safety measures. They got sick, their families got sick. Their loved ones were put in harm’s way while Coles and Woolworths made mega profits.”
This strike marks the first national supermarket strike in Australian history.
RAFFWU members also implemented thirteen bans on Friday, which included a ban on cleaning up vomit or bodily fluids, cleaning the manager’s toilet or crushing cardboard boxes. Coles said that it would not pay workers who engaged in the ban and has threatened to stand them down, while Woolworths has said that they would continue to pay workers who took part.
The decision to engage in industrial action comes amidst the worst cost of living crisis in generations, with Coles and Woolworths employees being paid base rates as low as $12 to $26 per hour. Coles and Woolworths recently boasted annual profits of $1.1 billion and $1.62 billion respectively.
Approximately a thousand Coles and Woolworths employees belong to RAFFWU. A much larger portion of employees belong to the controversial Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), which has backed agreements that underpay the workers that they represent and opposed same-sex marriage. RAFFWU was founded in direct opposition to the SDA in 2016, and this strike action represents a part of the wider struggle within the union movement.
RAFFWU has set up a fund to support workers on strike, which has raised almost $19,000 at the time of writing.
The October SRC Meeting was characterised by shouts from all corners of the room, quorum concerns, and late-night regulation checks. With a particularly long list of apologies and proxies, the meeting opened with repeated quorum counts, as the first count suggested the meeting was one councillor short of meeting the twentyone required.
In her President’s Report, Lia Perkins (Grassroots) congratulated everyone involved in the elections, including incoming President Harrison Brennan (Grassroots) and fellow Presidential candidate Rose Donnelly (NLS). Questions from Socialist Alternative and Labor focussed on Perkins’ work in University committees and whether this was advancing left-wing causes or being communicative with students. Perkins explained that attending committees was part of the role of President and that the work occurring there was shared in her reports. With Labor and SAlt refusing to support the report, the President’s report did not carry.
Vice-President Rose Donnelly (NLS), in the absence of co-Vice President Daniel Bowron (Unity), discussed the staffing issues with FoodHub that have led to its reduction in hours and the organising currently occurring for the Voice referendum. Donnelly encouraged other councillors to sign up for phone banking and to get active on social media.
General Secretaries Tiger Perkins (Grassroots) and Jasmine Donnelly (NLS) promoted the “Climate Action Now” rally and the “Rally Against Racism: Yes to the Voice!”, and spoke about their work
on SSAF funding applications to provide more support for activism and Office Bearer stipends. Education Officers Ishbel Dunsmore (Grassroots) and Yasmine Johnson (SAlt) spoke about the activism of the SRC and their recent disruption of the Times Higher Education summit.
Iggy Boyd (Grassroots) delivered the Womens’ Officers’ report, discussing the recent work occurring for the upcoming Radical Pride and Consent Week.
Disabilities Officers Jack Scanlan (NLS) and Khanh Tran spoke about the launch of the Disabilities Room and Disabled Honi later this semester. They brought a physical copy of the results of the Disability Royal Commission to accompany their report, and emphasised the importance of the results. Jamie Bridge (SLA) delivered the Queer Officers’ report and spoke of recent QuAC events and the gender affirmation supplies drive. The Environment Officers’ report was (mainly) delivered by Simon Upitis (SAlt) and Maddie Clark (SAlt) who promoted the Rising Tide blockade.
Satvik Sharma (Liberals) spent the Global Solidarity report reading out a poem about Rose Donnelly (not for the first time, too).
A procedural moved the meeting to the next report from Interfaith Officer Thomas Thorpe (Liberals), who described justice through an analogy about “pushing a lady in front of the car”. Welfare Officers Ella Haid (SAlt) and Harrison Brennan (Grassroots) condemned the capitulation of the Greens after their support of Labor’s Housing Australia Future Fund in their report.
After a mandated break, the meeting returned to the Refugee Rights Officers’ report, where Annabel Petit (SAlt) described seeing “lots of randoms” during
the SRC election and encouraged the other factions to bring those “randoms” (and ten other randoms who those randoms know) along to every rally.
The Social Justice Officers’ report was delivered by Jordan Anderson (Switch) and Julius Whitforth (SAlt). Anderson discussed their work organising for the Voice referendum and Whitforth highlighted how the Religious Discrimination Bill reflects the growing push of the far right. The final report of the night was the First Nations Officer’s report, where Ben McGrory shared his organising work for the Voice Referendum, work on a Student Life Grant to organise a Voice Ball, and intention to organise a future Treaty campaign.
Amidst these final reports, Secretary to Council Julia accurately recorded in the minutes: “Cacophony ensued.”
The focus on the Voice continued into the first motion of the evening which called for the SRC to actively campaign for a Yes vote to fight the racist No campaign, moved by Shovan Bhattarai (SAlt) and seconded by Deaglan Godwin (SAlt). With almost all factions describing that more needed to be done, the motion carried.
Motions R8 and R14 were then heard on bloc, both focussing on support for encouraging a Yes vote in the referendum, moved by Rose Donnelly (NLS) and Victor Zhang (Engineers). Maddie Clark (SAlt) spoke about the impact of the progressive No campaign leaving students conflicted about how to vote. Mikaela Pappou (NLS) argued that if the referendum fails, the failure will be “on the shoulders of every leftwing activist here.” Deaglan Godwin
(SAlt) shouted back that it would be “on the shoulders of Albanese and the Labor party who’ve stirred up a culture way they knew they couldn’t win”. With the tension increasing, Godwin and Pappou were screaming at each other with such intensity that they were advised to stay two metres apart, with Perkins having to shoo them away from each other.
The next motion, moved by Liberals Satvik Sharma and Thomas Thorpe, was labelled “Motion on the voice” and described the Voice as “divisive, legally unsound and bad for the country”. Yasmine Johnson (SAlt) responded stating that this is the kind of racism that needs to be fought in this debate. Amidst the debate on their own motion, the Liberals left the meeting attempting to pull quorum to force the meeting to end.
After some regs confusion, the meeting continued. Motions R3, R4, R10, R11, and R12 — all moved by the Liberals — were heard en bloc. These motions included calling for the SRC to “pressure” the Honi Soit Editors to have an autonomous faith edition, to recognise Italy, to acknowledge God and to endorse certain Liberals as “based individuals”. The motions all failed unanimously.
Motion R5 “Support The People’s Blockade in November!” was moved by Maddie Clark (SAlt) and seconded by Tiger Perkins (Grassroots) and passed with no dissent. Julius Whitforth (SAlt) moved the final motion heard in the meeting, “Support Oct 22 Protest for LGBTI+ Rights: Defend Trans Rights and Drag Storytime”. The motion carried with no dissent.
With another break about to be called, the meeting had lost quorum — as Penta had left quietly — ending half an hour before its midnight limit.
Indigenous activists and scholars convened to discuss the future of the Voice to Parliament referendum as the voting date approaches. The event, held at an undisclosed location, featured prominent speakers Erin O’Leary, a Dunghutti activist with a strong background in advocating for Indigenous rights, and Paddy Gibson, a researcher from the Jumbunna Institute at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
Both speakers addressed the mounting challenges facing the Voice to Parliament proposal and offered insights into alternative pathways for achieving meaningful change for Indigenous communities.
Erin O’Leary, in her opening remarks, candidly acknowledged that while many individuals may cast a “Yes” vote as a means of opposing the divisive rhetoric of political figures like Peter Dutton and Jacinta Price, there are genuine reservations about the Voice’s ability to bring about substantive change for Indigenous communities.
“The Voice is at risk of becoming a token gesture,” O’Leary said. “We need to ensure it goes beyond symbolic recognition and leads to real progress in addressing the issues faced by Indigenous Australians.”
Paddy Gibson delved deep into the nuances of the Voice to Parliament proposal and the imperative for a renewed commitment to grassroots
protest movements. Gibson argued that Indigenous communities should not rely on the Voice as the sole vehicle for change, emphasising the paramount importance of direct action and activism.
“The declining support for the Voice underscores the fact that more substantial, community-driven initiatives are necessary to tackle the pressing issues of Indigenous rights, self-determination, and social justice.”
The discussion throughout the event was robust and dynamic, showcasing the multifaceted nature of the Voice to Parliament debate. While there was recognition of the potential value of the Voice, there was an overarching sentiment that additional measures, including persistent activism and
community mobilisation, would be indispensable in achieving comprehensive and long-lasting change.
One attendee, an Indigenous rights advocate, added, “The Voice should be a tool for us, not just a symbol. We’ve fought too long and too hard to settle for anything less than real change.”
The event concluded with an impassioned call to action, urging Indigenous communities and their allies to persist in their fight for justice and self-determination, irrespective of the referendum’s outcome. As the referendum date draws closer, the resolve to affect tangible change remains unwavering in the hearts and minds of those committed to justice for Indigenous communities.
Write “YES” or “NO” in the space provided opposite the question set out below.
A PROPOSED LAW:
A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
Do you approve this proposed alteration?
Honi Soit proudly says “Yes” to the Voice to Parliament. We believe that all who support a vision of a just Australia, all who oppose racism, and all who stand for First Nations sovereignty and self-determination must vote “Yes” on October 14.
So-called Australia is a colonial project built upon the forced dispossession and genocide of First Nations peoples, the benefits of which are reaped in perpetuity by White Australians. From the moment of British arrival, First Nations people have been brutalised and removed from their lands under successive White governments which sought to erase over 65,000 years of culture, knowledge, kinship and diplomacy.
Forcing people into missions, and separating children from their families is state-sanctioned and supported violence — violence that this nation must acknowledge and disavow.
First Nations peoples have survived and resisted ongoing attempts of extermination by White Australia. But history cannot be suspended in the past, and these legacies do continue today. First Nations people are six times more likely to commit suicide, and are proportionally the most incarcerated people in the world. More than 550 First Nations people have died in custody since
the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and there remains a difference of a decade in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. These legacies of invasion and colonisation cannot be undone without acknowledgement.
The mainstream coverage around this referendum has stoked uncertainty.
In 1967, Australia voted to remove references in the Constitution that discriminated against Indigenous peoples. In 2023, Australia will vote to recognise Indigenous peoples and enshrine a Voice in the Constitution to advise on matters that directly impact them.
The mainstream coverage around this referendum has stoked uncertainty and reinforced the blindness of everyday people to their privilege as settlers. The No campaign has been centred around a falsely colour-blind view of Australia that constructs the Voice as an excessive measure imposed upon a nation that is already equal.
Supporters of the No vote have spread misinformation, obfuscating what the Voice is and the intentions behind it. This dog whistling has emboldened racist rhetoric on the streets — in Melbourne, an antivoice protest group gathered at the foot of State parliament, with a “Voice = Anti white” banner. They
performed a Nazi salute.
Though not all those voting “No” are so extreme, their vote will have the same effect — it will set the Indigenous rights movement back significantly and embolden racist rhetoric. This is why so much of the messaging has focused on uncertainty and confusion. It permits non-Indigenous people to carry on with their lives without reflecting on the political realities they exist in; “Don’t know, vote No”. It permits people to avoid thinking about the Voice and the reality of Australia that it seeks to address — the reality that Australia was founded on racial division and that this continues to affect the lives of Indigenous communities today.
The Voice represents decades of activism by Indigenous people to achieve constitutional recognition, and establish pathways to undoing the harms of colonialism since the 70s. In dialogues around the 1967 referendum, a representative body was considered.
Currently, polls indicate that 80% of First Nations people support the Voice. It is the product of grassroots movements — First Nations people staking their claim to self-determination. The reality is that, if only First Nations people were voting on the Voice, it would pass in a landslide. This fact should
be instructive for non-Indigenous people as they head to the polls.
The sovereign No movement, which has been headed by First Nations people, has rejected the Voice in favour of other, more radical policies. Recently, highprofile figures from the sovereign No movement have reconsidered their position and settled on a Yes vote.
Tarneen Onus Browne and Meriki Onus are two people who have done so. While they highlighted the imperfections with voting Yes, they also noted that the consequences of a No vote would be more harmful.
Honi stands behind a progressive Yes. This Yes does not end with the outcome of the referendum, but instead extends beyond, into treaty-making and truth-telling. The Voice will help pave the way for these changes to occur, and afford First Nations people necessary and unprecedented representation in co-designing critical legislation and policy.
Regardless of the outcome, It is incumbent upon activists to continue fighting against child removals, over-policing and disproportionate incarceration in Indigenous communities.
in the past, and these legacies do
today.
The argument that the Voice is “divisive” is confusing. But it’s working. Perhaps that’s the point.
When Voice opponents claim that the advisory body is “divisive” they make, I think, two separate claims: first, that the Voice is “divisive” in the sense that it is “polarising” or corrosive to national unity. Essentially, the harm of the Voice here is in people disagreeing. Second, that the Voice is “racially divisive”, in the sense that First Nations people should not be “treated differently”, or at least not in the Constitution.
The national unity, or polarisation, argument is clearly weak.
Perhaps there could exist some proposals which are intentionally designed, or are so likely to lead to harmful disagreement. But it is hard to see how the Voice is one of those. At no point have anti-Voice campaigners pointed to evidence that the Voice proposal is one which is deliberately aimed at dividing the nation through beginning some sort of culture war. Indeed, the opposite is true. The makers of the Uluru Statement from the Heart have invariably framed the Voice as an “invitation” or “reaching out” to White Australia. Even a cynical political analysis as to why the Albanese government is putting the Voice to a referendum leads to the conclusion that the Voice is not designed to be divisive: Labor put the Voice to a referendum because they thought that it could win, and in doing so create the kind of productive “national conversation” which would provide the blue-print to proceed with further changes beyond an unambitious firstterm policy platform.
Moreover, it is hard to see why the Voice is so likely to lead to harmful disagreement. It proposes a modest change: to establish a non-binding advisory body to recognise First Nations people in the Constitution. It has the support of 83% of First Nations people, leaders of both sides of politics, NGOs and broad swathes of corporate Australia. The federal Coalition also supports Constitutional recognition, and the legislative establishment of the Voice. In doing so, they implicitly accept the Voice’s value. Why is combining Constitutional recognition and a Voice so divisive?
To the extent that disagreement was likely, No campaigners cannot
claim that this harm is one caused by the Voice itself, or Albanese. Rather, any increased polarisation or culture war emerging from the Voice is at least equally attributable to the existence (which was not inevitable) of a hostile No campaign, which has relied on dishonesty and disinformation. The No campaign is, by and large, a product of Peter Dutton’s political strategy to oppose the government no matter what. It is hypocritical for Dutton’s No campaign to pin the harm of polarisation to Albanese and the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
These arguments need not even be true. The biggest problem with the claim that the Voice is antithetical to national unity is the fact that disagreement is inherent to democracy, and indeed all systems of government. Disagreement is inherent to a proposal that, on the referendum ballot, requires a “Yes” or “No” answer. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It is lazy to claim that the Voice is “divisive” because people will support it and oppose it. That is true of almost every proposal. That is, essentially, to argue that people should oppose the Voice because some people, already or soon will, oppose the Voice. Indeed, it is counterproductive to make this argument; to encourage people to shy away from debate is to weaken democracy, and in the process to disengage people when it is in everyone’s best interests to be politically engaged.
The claim it is “racially divisive” for First Nations
Luke Cass divides Australia. people to be recognised in the Constitution is perhaps less nonsensical, but should be rejected regardless.
The Constitution is not, as No supporters claim, “raceblind”. Section 51 (xxvi) of the Constitution, the so-called “race power”, has always allowed the parliament to make “laws … with respect to people of any race”. Although the provision originally excluded First Nations people from the ambit of this power, at the 1967 referendum 97% of voters voted to explicitly give the parliament power to make laws with respect to First Nations people. It surely makes sense for First Nations people to be allowed to provide input into these laws.
Claims which frame the Voice in terms of “race” are misfounded. The Voice is not a matter of race, but of recognising the rights of First Nations people, who have been custodians of the land now called “Australia” for 65,000 years. Indigenous peoples worldwide, inherently, morally, and under international law, have a right to self-determination. The Voice is a very small step towards the fulfilment of this right — which extends to the ability to make binding decisions, not just to advise upon them — in an Australian context.
But, at its core, the argument that the Voice is “racially divisive” boils down to the claim that First Nations people should be treated equally to everyone else.
been treated on the same footing as White Australians.
The violence of the past cannot simply be forgotten, or moved on from. This is a matter of principle: inaction legitimises historic injustice by leaving unchallenged the enduring structures which perpetuated it. It is also a matter of policy: colonisation has had severe and ongoing negative effects for First Nations people. They are the most incarcerated people on earth, die eight years younger than non-indigenous people, and only seven per cent of young First Nations people have a university degree. Undoing the intergenerational disadvantage and trauma of First Nations people necessitates differentiated treatment. The Voice, in listening to First Nations people on the laws which affect them, will give this process the best chance of succeeding.
Besides the fact that poor outcomes are themselves evidence of unequal treatment, First Nations people are still sometimes singled out for differentiated treatment. In launching the Northern Territory Intervention, the Howard government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act. The government is uniquely paternalistic towards First Nations people. It is wrong, and doesn’t work.
In all of this, it is clear that treating First Nations “equally” as non-indigenous people does not lead to equal outcomes. Voting “No”, rather than leading to equal treatment, will entrench the inequalities present in Australian society.
It is impossible to ignore Australia’s history when responding to this argument. Australia was founded upon racial division. The settlercolonial project of Australia was premised upon the destruction of First Nations people and their replacement by the colonial system now known as “Australia”. Australia’s history of violence against First Nations people is abhorrent. From the violence of invasion, to the frontier massacres, to the Stolen Generations and beyond, First Nations people have never
To an extent, most of these arguments are made from the vantage point of White Australia, or at least they appeal to it. Eighty per cent of First Nations people support the Voice. The Uluru Statement from the Heart is an expression by First Nations people on how they wish to belong in White Australia. The claim a No vote will maintain unity, by avoiding division, invites the questions: unity for who? On what terms? Any “unity” produced by a No-vote will support a vision of Australia in which the wishes of First Nations people are ignored. It will be a unity on White Australia’s terms. It will be a false unity.
Vote Yes on October 14, 2023.
To encourage people to shy away from democratic debate is to weaken democracy.
The violence of the past cannot simply be forgotten, or moved on from.
There is a story I know that is lived by many. A desperate mother and a tirelessly working father; with a beatendown suitcase, two handfuls of change and a steel-built exterior, abandoning their past and fleeing their homes for a better life on Australia’s shores.
And a better life did many of us lead. We relished a promise of equal opportunity and boundless possibilities, served to us on a platter of hard-earned winnings and diligent labour. We reaped the fruits of an unceded land, and dredged unknowingly on the dirt of a bloodstained soil. As settlers of this land, it’s time for us to rightly recognise the owners of this land and give back.
Over 120 multicultural and ethnic communities have pledged their support for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament under the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia, but 18% of non-Anglo voters still remain undecided. Broader support for the Voice has continued to dwindle, with national polls conducted by YouGov showing a drop from 60%
Burney’s perspective: “We are migrants here. We know what it’s like to lose connection and be disconnected to our homelands.”
While research conducted by JWS Research suggests that those coming from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds were more likely to be supportive of the Voice, they were also less likely to be exposed to information regarding it. One attendee at a BBQ for the Yes Campaign from Sydney Chinese Drum Art Troupe shared, “At first, we didn’t know what was going on. Most of the people in our group is Chinese background — they don’t understand English much. If someone translated and explained in our language why we should say yes, then people will follow up. We are immigrants and we have a strong reason for why we need to say Yes.”
The disconnection between
mandatory referendum, with another sharing that he felt it was not his place as a non-Indigenous Australian, to answer, stating “I wouldn’t answer that question. It’s not fair for me to answer”. Most interviewees were much
multicultural communities and the broader national dialogue has proven to be much more disastrous in other parts of Sydney. When following Channel Nine’s A Current Affair
less aware that there was a mandatory referendum in two weeks, let alone whether they would be voting “Yes” or “No”. Dai Le, federal member for Cabramatta, underlined that the Voice was simply not a priority for a lot of multicultural communities: “People here have other priorities. What people talk about out here is cost of living. The multicultural community, here, in Western Sydney, is struggle street. So, where does the Voice fit into people’s lives? They’re not thinking about it.”
The general apathy toward the
stating, “migrants who have come to our country recently or many generations ago… this is an opportunity in this campaign to express your view, like millions of other Australians, that we are all equal.” Similarly, Warren Mundine who is leading the No campaign, went as far to state that migrants too, should be included in our referendum, citing the US constitution on the basis that “all men are created equal”. To frame all Australians as “equal” largely mystifies and obscures our colonial past, and to reproduce such a narrative, especially to Australian migrants who may not be aware of such history, perpetuates a model minority myth that pits multicultural and Indigenous communities against each other, all while maintaining white superiority.
I am certainly not the first or last person to have questions about the Voice. How much can this really achieve? How much difference can a Voice to Parliament really make? Will this improve the circumstances for Indigenous communities at all? But, it is our due diligence, as non-Indigenous migrants who have made this stolen land our home, to give back as much as possible to First Nations people. It begins with casting an affirmative vote week’s referendum, and then untangling the knotted narratives that have been woven around
The general apathy toward the referendum and the broader state of Indigenous affairs is palpable within the referendum, and is indicative of the continual erasure of the brutal, violent and centuries-long colonial history of Australia.
As settlers of this land, it’s time for us to rightly recognise the owners of this land and give back.
The Red Rattler Theatre hosted a First Nations led Yarning Circle organised by The Blak Caucus on September 24th, where activism beyond the Voice Referendum was discussed. There is privilege in being personally unaffected by the outcome of this referendum, and the institutionalised disadvantage of First Nations peoples continues even if a ‘Yes’ vote prevails. Being Vietnamese and from South–West Sydney, I thought about how people from my communities are so absent from important conversations like these. Our immigrant communities are often distanced by geography and language, but must not be prevented from re-learning the history of where they now live — and the role their communities have played in dispossession. A resolution begins by realising on whose land we live.
Macquarie, but in a way where Aboriginal history has become peripheral to Vietnamese inhabitancy. For us of immigrant backgrounds, we must realise our position as inadvertent beneficiaries to Indigenous dispossession.
I have always known Cabramatta as a place of cultural linkage between my grandparents, my mother and myself. It is among a constellation of immigrant–rich suburbs in South-West Sydney by design. The multicultural histories and representations of Cabramatta and similar places in South-West Sydney have shaped the perceptions of immigrant communities in Australia at large –– recently, the SBS series Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta and Punchbowl provided a necessary, new perspective of immigrant communities in Sydney during a stretch of xenophobia that lasted decades. Accordingly, there have been generational adjustments of immigrant families into Australian life. In Cabramatta today, the Vietnamese language that ornaments the decaying temples and storefronts along its streets spell out a dualistic displacement; one continually and visibly from Asia, and the other invisible yet Indigenous to Australia. The latter is an Indigenous aspect of place that has inadvertently been drowned out by immigrant inhabitance. Cabramatta, the name itself, is now colloquially detached from the Cabrogal People; its etymology rests in cabra (an edible freshwater grub) and matta (place or locality) –– though since the 1970’s, Cabramatta has become rather known for Vietnamese organised crime and phở. While it is important to realise the pervasive and decades-old political antagonisms against the Vietnamese community of Cabramatta, it is now even more necessary to realise the community’s role in Indigenous dispossession. Of course, not in the sense of white colonisers such as Lachlan
Western Sydney is continually depicted as a massive, ethnically diverse population seemingly unaware of its collective voting power. The volatility constantly associated with ethnic WesternSydneysiders’ voting patterns is drawn from the strong ‘No’ vote on same–sex marriage, and more specifically, falls on the excuse of not being an immediate priority in the lives of ethnic Australians. The enormous question, “how will Western Sydney multicultural Australians vote in the referendum?” has made disadvantaged immigrant communities the spectacle of political campaigns, of whose result the entire country depends. Regardless of Cabramatta’s depiction, an essential point is made –– immigrant communities are lacking knowledge on the Voice referendum and are typically unfamiliar with Aboriginal disadvantages and activism, yet it cannot be solely expected of these disadvantaged communities to acquire the same political awareness as their counterparts elsewhere in Sydney. Practically, it is the role of us all as allies of First Nations activists, to continue conversations of politics and history concerning Indigenous dispossession beyond the referendum. We need to also hold ourselves and our peers to account when support at First Nations rallies is inconsistent. Those of us coming from communities like Cabramatta have a particularly essential role to play –– that is, through education.
Gentrification plays a significant role in the geographical displacement of First Nations communities. The dominant Indo-Chinese populations of Cabramatta originated in migrant hostels and housing commission developments in which refugees found safety during the Vietnam War. As a consequence, it is plausible that Indigenous communities have been displaced as a new Asian culture and population has since settled. Reactionary issues like homelessness and overcrowded housing remain disproportionately severe for First Nations communities. Though, even before Cabramatta became massively populated by Vietnamese refugees, it mainly consisted of Eastern and Western European migrants –– so gentrification cannot solely be the result of Asian
immigration. The most descriptive, archived information available on Cabramatta before colonisation is that the Cabrogal tribe, a subgroup of the Gandangara tribe, lived in the Fairfield area for over 30,000 years. Their peaceful inhabitance was first significantly disrupted by a French landowner Gabriel M. H. Kerilleau, who received a grant of 100 acres in the centre of Fairfield in 1807. Overall, the absence of accessible historical information about the Cabrogal peoples prevents us from forming a coherent hypothesis of displacement. However, gathering from the militant instructions of Lachlan Macquarie in the Frontier Wars; which is also greatly written about by Professor Henry Reynolds, it is probable that the method of colonisation was undertaken through massacre and cultural erasure. While documented history of the Cabrogal people is scarce, information on the settled Vietnamese community in Cabramatta is bountiful, representing a normalised, cultural dispossession of Aboriginal land. A layered sense of dispossession is evident through population density and historical visibility.
I do not intend to solely blame immigrant communities with the institutional issues directly linked to British colonisation. While the Vietnamese and First Nations communities of Cabramatta experience different types of institutional and social racism, it is vital to realise the potential good to come from ethnic solidarity. The erection of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy coincided with the Vietnam War: we share a relatively common history of defiance against the military–industrial complex –– and its perpetuator, the Australian State –– and should prioritise our shared struggle and solidarity. If we are able to harness the progressive political activism of refugee communities with a shared history of displacement due to war, then justice for First Nations communities could accelerate. It all begins with our immediate efforts to educate in a culturally sensitive way; and to decolonise where we come from.
Jayden Nguyen re-learns the meaning of Cabramatta.
Bipasha Chakraborty is begging for better menstrual support.
In a survey conducted by Plan International Australia in April earlier this year, 64% of menstruating Gen Z respondents admitted to finding it more difficult to pay for menstrual products in 2022 than in previous years. Socks and rags are used in place of menstrual products as the cost of living crisis
The survey also revealed that one in five change their single-use products less often than recommended due to its rising cost — increasing their risk of complications, such as toxic shock syndrome and reproductive issues. With the high upfront costs of reusable menstrual or period underwear, sustainable and costsolutions is barred This cost is greater in remote areas — a woman in Coolgardie, Western Australia was fined $500 in 2015 for stealing a $6.75 box of tampons.
Honi Soit conducted a survey among USyd students that garnered 142 responses, and found that 38% of respondents believe menstrual products on campus are inaccessible or unaffordable at all times, and 50% believed them to be affordable or accessible only half the time. USU-run convenience stores stock packs of pads that range in price from $7 to $12, — expensive when compared to pads from supermarket stores in Broadway, ten minutes down the road, starting from around $2 a pack.
Despite the fact that free products are available in USU buildings, 43.7% are unaware that the USU provides these products, and 88.7% of respondents were unaware that FoodHub also supplies period products. The viability of acquiring period products from Foodhub raises questions with the introduction of their ticketing system requiring students to register 48 hours in advance. Respondents added that the products that are currently provided by the USU or other faculty buildings are “unhygienic” “often out of stock,” and have poor “rollout” and “promotion”. Despite being inadequately available, 97.2% of respondents believe the University should provide free period products to all students.
Earlier this year, the NSW State Government introduced the Menstrual Hygiene Program in public schools which allows students to access free sanitary hygiene products such as pads, tampons, and period underwear.
underfunding towards menstrual equity is prevalent across different universities in New South Wales. This inequity is made more stark by the record-breaking surpluses these institutions record each year.
Kimmie Nguyen, Western Sydney University’s (WSU) Women’s Collective Engagement Officer, said in a statement to Honi that WSU “proudly fights period poverty by providing free menstrual products (pads and tampons) on every campus. Additionally, every campus has at least one restroom with a (free) period product dispenser.”
After a trial of free products on WSU’s Parramatta campus, the initiative expanded to all WSU campuses in May this year. The project was led by Dr Sarah Duffy and Dr Michelle O’Shea, and is funded through WSU’s Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF).
Western Sydney University, out of all the universities contacted, is the only one that actively campaigns to target period poverty on their campuses. On the other end of the spectrum, the University of Newcastle’s 50-acre campus hosts a single Share the Dignity vending machine in our library as told to Honi by their media office.
A similar campus-wide initiative is currently in the works at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
UTS Women’s Officer Aylin Cihan commented that “The UTS Students Association (UTSSA), alongside the Women’s Collective, is currently working with UTS in introducing free hygiene products across campus by installing dispensers in selected bathrooms that offer pads and tampons.
“This new initiative will begin sometime soon this semester and will run as a trial process to test its effectiveness and account for any bottlenecks. We have hopes in extending the initiative and placing dispensers in most of the bathrooms on
Before this, free products were limited to the women’s space on campus which “did face a few challenges in itself considering not all students were aware of our services and the funds available to the Women’s Collective is limited to an extent that could not possibly supply these products to all students on campus year round.”
At Macquarie University, the Women’s Collective “stock pads, tampons (both applicator and non-applicator) as well as nappies in [their] Women’s Room,” explained Hemisha Lal, MQU’s Director of Community Partnerships.
“We receive all our products directly from university bodies and highly encourage all students to freely take what they need. Our Women’s Room is centrally located on campus, however, we do acknowledge that since Macquarie holds quite a large campus. It can take 5-10 minutes to walk from one side of the campus to the other. “
Despite MQU’s WoCo freely providing products in the Women’s Room, “the widespread knowledge of the Women’s Room, what it provides, and how to get there can be improved with greater promotion made directly by Macquarie University. Macquarie University does not consistently stock pads/tampons in its bathrooms … [or] provide a vending machine of such products throughout campus for students to purchase.”
Honi Soit’s menstrual survey found that an alarming 64.1% of USyd students admitted to having missed classes due to their period, and 94.4% of respondents experienced an inability to focus in class even when attending. Some respondents added they feel uncomfortable disclosing menstruation-related absences to their tutors, often opting for “vagueness” or not explaining at all, with a respondent commenting “my very old male lecturer asked whether I was sure I couldn’t hold out like my other colleagues”.
Sydney Colussi, a co-convenor of the University of Sydney Body@Work Project and a PhD candidate researching law and
policy reform in the field of reproductive health and work, commented that “It’s critical that university policies and infrastructure can support the menstrual health needs of students and staff on campus.
“If university students are missing classes due to their period or are unable to access or afford menstrual products on campus, this is concerning from both a health and wellbeing and equality perspective. It’s time to dispel menstrual stigma, and one way to do that is to make sure our schools, universities and workplaces are not inadvertently penalising people for menstruating.”
First introduced in Japan in 1947, menstrual leave could solve the discomfort and pain of menstruation. Conversations surrounding menstrual leave for students are much further behind — this year marked the first time menstrual leave for students has been legislated, with the southern Indian state of Kerala setting a strong precedence. In Honi’s survey, 93% of respondents supported menstrual leave for staff, and 97.2% supported menstrual leave for students.
In 2000, the USyd SRC’s enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) included a clause under sick leave that allowed staff members one day off per month for menstrual stress. In 2003, this clause was absorbed into the overall sick leave entitlements.
SRC Caseworker Melissa de Silva explained “The menstrual stress leave was suggested by one of the Presidents[...], and was for 10 days a year, and my memory was that it would only be accessible after you had exceeded your sick leave. It wasn’t particularly well titled I think, as it wasn’t for menstruation, or stress, or PMS, or anything like that. It was for endometriosis — so quite severe impact menstruation. time that introduced we amount of sick so it was quite relevant/important at that time.
“Around 2003/4 the bosses asked to remove it from the agreement and we said we were not willing to do that, as reducing the amount of leave available was a reduction in conditions and the union would not allow that. So instead we changed the wording so that the leave would be accessible for serious illness, not just endo. The discussions at the time included lots of factors, including who it left out, including anyone (not just men) who did not experience endo; what alternatives were available to staff who experienced serious ongoing illness; and suitable adjustments for staff.”
The rising cost of living continues to deepen period poverty in broader Australia, yet little is being done to combat the stress of menstruation. Progress is slow, especially considering the tampon tax was only eradicated in 2019 after years of campaigning, but advocates across universities are fighting for support that should be freely distributed and made available.
Those who frequent City Road at night might notice a different pattern of lights illuminating from International House each week. Some days the lights in the dining room are on, but other days it’s pitch black inside. It piques curiosity. If International House was shut down at the end of 2020, then what is happening inside?
The only way to find out was to break in.
Once behind the fenceline, you have to find a way into the building itself. If you’re lucky, there will be an open door or a window that sits ajar. If not, you’ll have to get creative. When you make it in, remember the exterior of International House is almost entirely
made of windows and — if you walk past one in a well-lit hallway — people will see you. Unless you want to take your chances with members of the public (or prowling University University seccies), commandocrawling may be necessary. Don’t wear your Sunday best.
It is eerie to wander down the halls and duck into the empty rooms. International House does not feel abandoned, it feels
frozen in time. If you were to sneak in tonight, you’d find that almost everything is still in its place. The bins are still lined with plastic bags. The shelves are filled with books. The plates and mugs haven’t been washed, and the pool table is still mid-game. It’s a snapshot of student life, suspended in amber. A relic from a time when the University valued the student experience over surplus dollars.
What makes International House feel most alive is what has been left behind by its former residents. They live on through unwiped whiteboards filled with study notes, half-baked doodles, and warnings like “don’t take law gaizzz.” Storage rooms are filled with long-forgotten personal belongings. Polaroids and printed photos lie strewn on desks — photos of dress-up parties, or gathos on the now-empty rooftop terrace. The doors of the dorms are adorned with the names of people who lived there. Jen. Rohan. Serena & Astrid. Their names lie untouched, as though the space is still theirs.
frozen in time.
It’s a snapshot of student life, suspended in amber.Anonymous breaks in.
The main office still had keys to every single room scattered across its tables, and boxes filled with placards of every student that had previously stayed at International House since its opening in the late 60s. Years of lives and stories left behind.
A former resident commented in an interview with Honi that in the lead-up to the closure of the house, “the facilities guy was very understanding. He’s just like, if it’s not bolted down, it’s yours, you can take it. There was a lot, there was an auction, for some other items in the house, including the pool table. An Australian guy bid, I think it went for 50 dollars, and then said how difficult that would be for him to get out and move. And then, I guess if it’s still there, no one ended up taking it.”
It’s been nearly three years since International House closed its doors, and the University hasn’t touched it since then.
“Compared to the other colleges, International House had a much less toxic culture… You got a lot of the perks of the colleges, but with a more diverse group of people who were also held to a higher behavioural standard,” a former resident said.
“As a student it was formative, and it was a brilliant experience. It just exposed me to this very diverse community of people from all over the world,” another resident said.
The most recognisable feature of International House is the rotunda, an iconic example of modernist architecture. Including the groundfloor dining room, the rotunda is three storeys high (and echoes tremendously, so tread lightly). Now gathering dust and piled high with armchairs and folding tables, its common area — the Wool Room — was where parties, balls and the annual International Night was held. Part of the reason why International House was so beloved by its residents was because the architecture embodied community — with common rooms, and the dining hall, naturally encouraging relationships to grow and friendships to be formed.
“We had a lot of cultural festivals… we had a night where everyone would cook food from their country,” a resident said. “We’d all come down and be able to share in each other’s culture and different foods.”
“Even the simple memories are great. I didn’t sleep the night before my first day of uni, because we all ended up having a dinner, playing table tennis and trying to get to know each other, and it was suddenly 5:30 in the morning and I had an 8am maths lecture,” was what another former resident described.
“I don’t regret it. I was really tired during the lecture, but it was a very reflective start to the great community, the people I’d met, and the good memories.”
“I had very fond memories of it, and I continue to this day to be in touch with people that we knew who were other residents in the International House,” another said.
A former resident explained that, after being moved out of International House, many of the previous tenants ended up in more expensive and poor-quality housing, or were priced out of the Inner West and faced a lengthy commute to campus.
this year. And yet, International House remains empty and underutilised — inhabited only by dust, detritus, and forgotten memories.
Across the country — but particularly in NSW — students, renters and lowincome earners are facing a housing crisis. As debate and policymaking focuses almost entirely on the issue of supply for home ownership, public discourse largely ignores the reality that affordable student housing is failing to meet rising demand. As COVID-19 restrictions ease and enrolments for those on student visas return to prepandemic levels, the University has failed to accommodate for this growing disparity. In September this year, the Student Accomodation Council noted that the current crisis has “reached a critical stage” with the need to increase dedicated student housing for both domestic and international students.
Students at the University of Sydney have to fight for the limited affordable accommodation available on campus, or else resort to paying the exorbitant amounts charged by either on-campus or external providers that provide shoebox living arrangements and
International House opened in 1967 with the aim of cultivating the concept of “global citizenship”. It was to be a space where domestic and international students could live and work together, at a time when international students represented a tiny portion of the University’s makeup. Since then, over 6000 residents have lived in the House, representing more than 100 nationalities. For many, it provided an opportunity to live on campus and meet people from across the world in an environment that was markedly more appealing than the insular, privileged and misogynistic culture which still exists in the colleges.
There’s an untouched gym on the second level where dumbbells lie beside yoga mats and medicine balls. A large dipping bar stands up against the wall in pristine condition.
“The gym was only set up in 201819. Before that, it just used to be a dance room, where people would go to dance.”
From the rotunda’s second-floor mezzanine, a door leads to a computer lab and a communal library that houses hundreds of books on shelves and in piles on desks. The kitchen also remains fully stocked with dining and cookware. The commercial kitchen equipment is still functional and, outside in the dining room, plates and cutlery are laid out, ready to welcome a new cohort of residents that will never arrive.
Another former resident noted “there are probably 200 students who are living in a much worse situation than International House”. Earlier this year, Honi wrote on the housing crisis — finding that many students were at risk of homelessness, or living in houses that posed a risk to their health. International students are on the frontline of this crisis, after the University enforced a return to campus
lacklustre student experience. And yet, International House — containing almost 200 desperately needed beds for students — remains empty, just a short walk from campus.
Along with International House, a log cabin in the Belanglo State Forest still stands, built by residents and alumni in 1977 and is under ownership by its alumni association. The state of its maintenance is currently unknown. The last public update was provided in a Facebook post from August 2020 by the Sydney University International House Alumni Association, which explained that “the University recently cleared the vegetation that grew around the cabin and cleaned the insides, so no rubbish is left to invite animals to visit. If the primary purpose of the cabin is to give international students ‘a taste’ of the Australian bush, there was discussion of whether other University facilities would be better suited for this goal, such as the Arthursleigh facility just outside Marulan.
The cabin held a lot of “good times,” as
“there are probably 200 students who are living in a much worse situation than International House”Lit corridors of International House Dorm doors still left with residents’ name Study room whiteboard still left with notes Images strewn across desks Storage room still filled with personal belongings left behind Keys scattered across the main office
recounted by a former resident, from firewood chopping to stargazing, and provided “a good introduction for a lot of international students to the Australian bush.” Perhaps a sneak-in to the log cabin in Belanglo is due soon.
Although no visible signs of extreme disintegration at International House were observed (beyond missing ceiling tiles) a former resident explained that “the fabric of the building was not in good shape.” All former residents interviewed noted the faultiness of the elevator. Usually out of order, the faulty elevator was responsible for “the remaining [60] residents” being “moved down to the lower floors” just a year before
said for the now-disused Darlington Terraces or Darlington House. A former International House resident commented, “there were always sort of leaks on one side of the building [...] but the house in general is built like a tank.
“I remember when they were going to close it and decant us into Regiment, they were talking about the fire safety of the building not being up to code, and we were all looking at that a bit curiously, because they retrofitted the building to have hydrants on every floor, all of the doors were fire doors.
“It was all brick, and we were thinking, if the colleges that are like 200 years old with wooden staircases can pass fire inspection, it’s kind of incredulous that International House wouldn’t. The building was never flashy, people would prefer dual flush toilets or something like that, but there was never any real feeling that the building wasn’t stable at all.”
in such a way that there wasn’t a possibility of really putting a large amount of money aside, unless it was approved by the University.
“The University was not in favour of pouring a lot of money into a building that they considered to be past its use-by-date.”
Despite the demonstrable value that International House brought to many students, it’s clear that the University values profit above all else. When the Queen Mary Building provides 800 beds, and
“our priority is to ensure that any accommodation we provide to our students is safe to occupy. We’re still in discussions with International House about options for the building and site and continue to provide regular updates to International House alumni.”
International House was closed.
The building’s drainage system also had issues, at one point being in “such bad shape that they decided that they would hang a drain from the ceiling along the corridor outside the food collection area.” Additionally, the height of the railings in the stairways are no longer “in conformance with the fire regulation and health and safety guidelines.”
However, despite these internal structural issues, residents noted that they had never felt as though this accommodation was unsafe or falling apart — the same cannot be
The issues that recur in conversations with former residents have been sustained over years of operation, although the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to have given the University an open licence to shut down a building of historic value and significance.
Although International House had established councils and alumni associations, it did not “really have any financial autonomy”. Instead, it was treated as a “unit of the University
International House has a capacity of 200, the University deprioritises the latter accommodation. However, the University fails to take into consideration the formative experiences that many alumni have recounted — experiences that cannot be replicated at any other accommodation provided on campus.
The communal value provided by International House has not been prioritised in other accommodation provided by the University, instead deepening divisions between students — particularly between international and domestic students. A former resident highlighted that “especially going back to uni at the moment and seeing that there’s a big sort of divide between a lot of international students and domestic students, it does definitely feel like something pretty substantial was lost.”
A spokesperson for the University commented that
In terms of the increasing inaccessibility of student housing, the University claimed that “we provide a range of support and advice to help our students find affordable housing options on- and off-campus, including providing emergency accommodation and financial assistance if needed.” While the redevelopment of International House is continually delayed, the University has proceeded in selling off over $70 million in property — including student accommodation — and increasing rental rates across its housing by 6% on both the Camperdown-Darlington campus, and the Camden campus next year.
For now, International House remains frozen in time — a reminder of a different world, one where the University of Sydney had different priorities. You leave feeling as though you’ve consumed years’ worth of memories and experiences etched into the fabric of the building. A sense of uncertainty and fear follows you out the door — the sense of losing a structure that provided such value and worth for students, a feeling that your University experience cannot match up to what once was, and the exhausted anticipation of another long trip back to your mouldy, overpriced apartment.
“if the colleges that are like 200 years old with wooden staircases can pass fire inspection, it’s kind of incredulous that International House wouldn’t.Cards containing information of students that have passed through International House Pool table mid game The Rotunda
It was only in 2019, when Les Murray passed, that I discovered I was related to a poet. My granddad, Pa, grew up on a dairy farm three miles from Krambach, a village on the mid north coast of NSW. Not far off in Bunyah, lived his cousin, Les. They were both born in Nabiac hospital, only a day apart in October 1938, and attended Nabiac Primary School together. Les was considered Australia’s unofficial poet laureate. He published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, two verse-novels, eight prose collections and five edited volumes.
A stack of Les’ work sits on a shelf
in the Taree home my grandparents moved into just over two years ago. A copy of Les’ New Selected Poems that he gifted to Pa on his birthday sits atop the pile, and scattered amidst the various collections are newspaper clippings of Les’ poems published in the March 1998 issue of the Quadrant and articles commemorating Les’ life and memory in The Manning Community News.
As I’ve devoured more of Les’ work since his passing, I find myself not only learning more about Les’ life, but my grandparents’ lives too. A mentioning of the poem, “The Milk Lorry”, turned into an excited retelling of the countless
After a week and a half of campaigners accosting passers-by on Eastern Avenue last month, students voted in the 96th Student Representative Council election. Despite the full engagement of the most politically inclined on campus, a meagre 2168 votes were cast — only 5.5 percent of the 39,000-strong student population. Votes were concentrated at the Jane Foss Russell Building and Fisher Library. A mere 39 were cast at Susan Wakil, and the only other campus that received a polling station, the Conservatorium, saw only 73 votes.
This is a troubling state of affairs that goes to the very heart of the SRC’s mandate to act on behalf of students. The student population is incredibly diverse, with 39,000 students over different faculties often having little interaction with one another. In order for the SRC to truly represent students, serving as a common forum to discuss their visions for the University, participation must be increased drastically.
Low turnout is an ever-present issue in student politics, with politically engaged students continuously reflecting on how to increase engagement. For instance, Ariana Haghighi advocated for the introduction of compulsory voting in Honi last year. To grasp why students decide against voting, I reached out to a number of those who avoided the polls. A variety of responses followed, ranging from disinterest in student politics to active frustration at the way it functions. Some expressed a distaste towards what they viewed as unrealistic campaign policies, while others felt intimidated by campaigners who surround polling stations.
“I didn’t vote in the SRC election because the type of climate that student politics creates is not the best for someone living with anxiety,” remarked one student. “In addition, many people who run for student politics, I would argue, are doing so for
the wrong reasons and it’s frustrating to see some people be so facetious when there are genuine issues on campus that need rectifying.”
Some students had issues with specific factions. “The conservative caucus on campus is so out of touch with the current status quo that it is beyond laughable … they are nothing but reactionary shills who grift votes from nepo babies.” Another student remarked “if a majority of stupol commits to actually rectifying [issues on campus], then I might vote. Also some factions of the left on campus … can be pretty toxic … if they sort their own things out and stop harassing anyone who comes within five foot of the polls then maybe.” Socialist Alternative was mentioned in particular.
Among the students I spoke to, there was considerable doubt in how much they believed in the SRC in the first place. Another student remarked that they’re “usually not the type to get involved in student politics unless it causes significant change to the already homogenous system,” not really seeing “that much of a point” in voting. Another student labelled persuading people to vote “irresponsible”.
times Pa would hitch a ride on the back of the milk lorry whenever he missed the bus to school. He shuddered as I read out an excerpt from Blood and The Cows on Killing Day, as he remembered the gruesome reality of the days before abattoirs when you had to kill your own livestock. He smiled nostalgically as I read out The Disorderly, where the thought of being sixty-two in the year two thousand was unimaginable.
“He was a gentle sort of fellow,” my grandad said one afternoon as he showed me the tomato vine he planted just the week before. “He was often bullied a lot in primary school because
of his size. They’d punch his arm and he’d just take it and not do anything… I got into a lot of fights at school to stick up for him.”
Les attended the University of Sydney on a scholarship in 1957 where he met Geoffrey Lehmann and Clive James, who would become his close friends, as well as his writing and editing partners and confidantes. Les wrote and edited for Honi Soit, as well as Hermes and ARNA, annual literary journals at the University. It was here where he could finally study the arts and languages, or rather the “glamour subjects” that never came his way as a kid.
living crisis, and the continued lack of affordable housing on campus. To this end, the SRC and the postgraduate body SUPRA have done well recently to call for concession fares to be extended to international students. In the recent past, student representatives have preserved thirteen week semesters and maintained five day simple extensions. Such advocacy, relevant and achievable, is at the core of the SRC’s mandate, as are services such as FoodHub and legal advice.
Electoral Officer Riki Scanlan pointed out that turnout grew from last year. “Turnout this year increased by around 10% — which is a strong rate of growth under any normal conditions. Expectations that turnout would or should bounce back to over 4000 immediately are unrealistic, misleading, and unhelpful.” The view that this increase in turnout reflects a student politics scene on the right track is not universal.
2021 SRC President Swapnik Sanagavarapu is less than optimistic about the future of student politics, believing that “student politics has sort of suffered irreparably” from the pandemic. “I think many people treat it as a world historical tragedy, basically a lot of people unironically believe that they will change the world via student politics which is overstating the case a bit,” he commented, opining that the success of student politics lay in it exposing students to political debate and being “a fun spectacle” that a lot of people could “begrudgingly or not’’ take away from their university experience. Though Sanagavarapu said that “people probably rightfully see [stupol] as a bit divorced from reality,” he noted the value of being able to engage in political debate within an institution of higher
“A lot of that was lost when things went online [because] the real thing
was that stupol imposed itself forcibly onto the public consciousness by public campaigning.”
Scanlan connected turnout to the presence of campaigners and the vibrancy of campus more generally.
“The drivers of turnout in SRC elections, as a voluntary election, rest in campaigner motivation and numbers. This year, motivation was in abundance, but the number of campaigners remained less than in the past. Primarily, this is because of the hollowing out of campus life — from clubs and societies to SRC collectives — caused by the pandemic. It is therefore not surprising to witness a slow growth in turnout as students begin to rebuild the infrastructures and networks of political life at the University of Sydney.”
“The in-person engagement of over two thousand students — plus those who spoke with campaigners yet chose nevertheless not to vote — is a crucial part of that process, and all campaigners this year should be congratulated for their efforts.”
During this year’s SRC election, Labor (running under the “Revive” banner) charged Grassroots with presiding over a decline in engagement with the SRC. Revive’s proposals to increase engagement, in turn, faced criticism. In an election cycle which was dominated by the dichotomy of activism versus service provision, it cannot be forgotten that the SRC has a peculiar and multifaceted role. It is a key part of the life of the University, providing FoodHub and funding this masthead whilst simultaneously involving itself directly in campaigns and advocacy. Students must have faith in its ability to do good to be eager to participate in elections. With turnout low but having increased this year, it remains to be seen whether it will significantly improve — what happens will certainly depend on the actions of our councillors.
Pa spoke of Les’ love of language with fascination, pride, and a hint of regret. While Les’ genius meant he could afford to skip countless schooldays and not fall behind, the thought of Les spending most days alone reading by the creek saddened him.
“After his mother, Miriam, passed from a miscarriage when Les was twelve, he only had his father, Cecil, to talk to,” Pa said. “He was quite isolated.”
Grief and guilt consumed many of his poems. As I read “Burning Want” and “The Last Hellos” aloud, poems about his mother and father’s death respectively, the comforting silence that often filled my grandparents’ country home shifted; not out of discomfort, but in commemoration and
contemplation. My grandma, Mardy, spoke of her sisters’ deaths and Pa spoke of his father’s.
“An Evening in Bunyah” from Les’ first poetry book, The Weatherboard Cathedral, is my grandad’s favourite poem. He spoke with his hands as he recounted Les’ descriptions of the “shabby house” he grew up in and the rain and light that would sift through the cracks.
Les’ work has become a new entryway into my grandparents’ lives. Poetic vignettes of wildlife in the bush have welcomed stories I could never imagine, like the time my grandma quite literally killed and chopped up a snake with a shovel to protect my aunt who was sleeping in a bassinet nearby.
Picture this: You’re a student on campus who eats halal food, and with already limited host of options available to you, you enter the airy walls of Courtyard Café doubtful that you’ll be able to consume a meat-based lunch today. But, lo and behold, you see a “Pasta of the day” with “Chicken (Halal)” on the ingredient list. You order it immediately — after all, you’re a sucker for any kind of pasta. But, there’s a catch. Just underneath you notice another ingredient so laughably at odds with the ‘Chicken Breast (Halal)’ that you have to take a photo to send to your friend: bacon.
“permissible” – referring to something that adheres to Islamic law. Muslim consumers need assurance that the meat they purchase and consume has been slaughtered according to Islamic practices and completely separated from non-halal meats, pork, and alcohol. Australia currently supplies halal meat to over 110 countries, of which the Middle East is a big export partner. As such, a lot of Australia’s meat factories use systems authorised by the Australian Government Authorised Halal Program (AGAHP) which oversees meat processing, segregation, and certification. Before being exported internationally or supplied to food venues across the country, the halal meat certificate is signed by both an Australian Export Meat Inspection System officer and representative of a recognised Islamic organisation.
Given such rigorous production and distribution processes in Australia, it is concerning that halal food remains such a mystery at the University. Part of this confusion seems to be around which places are halal certified, with some students and staff believing that all USU food venues offer completely halal products. Current USU President Naz Sharifi, a consumer of halal food, revealed that this is indeed a myth.
“It was the most awful feeling,” she said. “After I did it, I rang Pa and then poured myself a stiff whiskey.”
I’ve even found parts of my own life in Les’ poetry through his writings of Sydney and his travels. As he describes the Australian bushland I’ve driven through every year since I was young, I find myself wishing I had the chance to meet him. My younger self remembers the “dream of wearing shorts forever in the enormous paddocks”, the unbearable humidity and the “cool night verandah.” My present self knows “performance”, of “queuing down bloody highways all round Easter”, of saying “last hellos”, lamenting a “forest, hit by modern use” and listening to “birds, singly and in flocks hopping over the suburb.”
I was always at peace in my grandparents’ home. I had clusters of memories from my mum and her four sisters’ childhood to cling onto, and I had memories of my own; lying for hours on the sunroom tiles at Christmas reading old comics and fairytales that had been left behind. Now, I sit on the seat beside my granddad’s nursery, finding equanimity in Les’ poetry. In his friendship with writing and its lyrics of reverie, and in his resurrection of stories from my family’s past.
“In the high cool country, having come from the clouds, down a tilting road into a distant valley, you drive without haste.”
“Driving Through Sawmill Towns” by Les Murray
This is no isolated incident. Time and again, food venues across campus lack enough halal options for students, leaving them to reluctantly turn to vegetarian, vegan, or pescatarian options. When food venues do supply halal options, there are frequent cases of mislabelling, lack of certification, and lack of knowledge among staff about halal produce, if their venue is halal certified and if the meat is prepared separately to avoid cross contamination. Is there a misunderstanding of halal at the University of Sydney?
The Arabic word “halal” comes from the Quran and translates to
The USU operates a number of food venues. While some of these venues offer halal options, Sharifi’s presidential campaign was focused on diversifying these options for all multicultural students, encouraging explicit labelling of food ingredients, and ensuring more rigorous training for staff to accommodate religious guidelines and answer student questions. As a Board Director, Sharifi has had multiple meetings with the USU Operations Team to organise more “roundtable conversations with ethnically and religiously diverse groups such as SUMSA” (Sydney Uni Muslim Students Association) for their experiences and input on
how to diversify halal options, the need for clearer staff training on the “nuances of halal” such as avoiding cross-contamination with non-halal food and alcohol in the kitchen, and the need to speak regularly with halal certifiers to confirm whether kitchens have ethical food preparation processes in place.
This marks a shift from before Sharifi’s campaign, when halal labelling was not clearly represented and there were confusions about certification when halal meat was being processed with non-halal products. Sharifi notes that Muslim students like herself would often have to resort to limited options such as UniBros in Wentworth food court or vegetarian food. Sharifi recounts having to venture outside campus grounds, to more expensive cafes and restaurants, to find “food that I was actually able to eat — that was affordable and had proper certification.” This level of selfassessment and lack of accessibility alienates a significant group of people at the University.
While it would be ideal, it is unrealistic to maintain absolute halal certification for every meal option, given that this would require the creation of two separate kitchens in every existing food venue. Sharifi clarifies that far from this, the USU aims to increase halal options, and create clearer labelling to “take the onus off the individual to confirm” the halal status of the food they consume. This would, in theory, reduce the awkward experience of asking staff behind the counter whether “you guys serve halal food?”, only to be met with blank stares from the other side.
So far, the USU has been receptive to implementing these changes. Sharifi says she has “explicated expectations about training programs and the nuances of halal food” to the USU Operations Team, who are continually working to improve both the kitchen environment and labelling
process for Muslims. These training programs aim to make kitchen teams aware of the nuances of halal food preparation, for example, not cooking halal certified chicken in the same oils that bacon or non-halal beef was cooked in. Importantly, this chain of communication should be consistent from chefs to servers, and “continual supervision and checking on these processes” is required.
Unfortunately, too often the marketing department tend to print and assign halal labels to food that was never intended to be halal without consulting staff, resulting in the massproduced labelling of meals as “halal” despite being served/cooked with nonhalal meat. Tightening the chain of communication between these two bodies is thus necessary. Alongside this, community engagement is important to assess progress and receive feedback which is why Sharifi says that the USU are “trying to engage with as many stakeholders: SUMSA, focus groups, religious organisations, and so on”.
It’s strange that it has taken so long for issues around halal, and more broadly, food and dietary options for ethnically and religiously diverse communities to be actively addressed at the University. We acknowledge the groundwork laid out so far by the USU, led by Sharifi. What we now need is more representation of minorities in positions of leadership to ensure that these strategies for improved labelling, diversified food options, and ethical food preparation are met with tangible action. Continual correspondence between minority stakeholders and the USU, coupled with comprehensive education and guidelines for kitchen staff should ensure that access to suitable and culturally sensitive food becomes an enduring aspect of the university experience. Maybe this will mean we put an end to monstrosities such as Courtyard’s “halal” chicken leek bacon pasta once and for all.
My memory of the 2020 fire season is extraordinarily visceral. My nose stung and my throat dried when I stepped outside; faint ash settled along the decaying windowsill of my sharehouse room, and the distinct purple-yellow haze of daylight during that summer still plays in my mind.
Fast forward to 2023, and images of record-breaking wildfires across the Northern Hemisphere have punctuated the news for months. The conditions that created chaos up north will soon arrive in Australia, with the Bureau of Meteorology recently announcing an El Niño event that will bring dry conditions, hot winds and extreme fire risk for the first time since 2015-16.
This will likely produce the loss of homes, schools and businesses as it did during 2019-20. Yet despite this state of affairs being heralded as the “new normal”, it does not seem that current governments have, at least in public fora, turned their minds to the mammoth task of planning for the future — in both an environmental and housing sense.
Amid increasingly extreme climate conditions and a growing population along our coastlines, how do we prepare for recurrent and inevitable fires?
Ben Dowling has been a professional full-time firefighter with NSW Fire and Rescue for 32 years, based in Nowra for the past 20 years. He worked at the Emergency Operations Centre in Nowra at the start of the 2019 fires, coordinating firefighting along the coast down to Batemans Bay and substantially inland. When he was off the clock, he stood by at the homes of friends and family, on guard to help them defend themselves. After the fires ended, he went to rural communities in Southern NSW to conduct building impact assessments, sometimes the first person to visit the properties since they were ravaged by fire.
In his view, the structural and geographical risks of poorly planned housing will be a significant and evolving harm factor heading into future fire seasons.
“At every level,” Ben said, “the 2019-20 fires were significantly more difficult [to fight] and more severe [than anything he had seen in the last 20 years]”. The El Ninõ extreme drought conditions in the months prior generated epic proportions of dry undergrowth and starved older canopies of water — the perfect recipe for what Ben identified as “crown fires”, where undergrowth and the entirety of larger trees all burn, generating a massive wall of heat that is particularly effective at destroying buildings and razing forests.
Crown fires were one of the ways that the season’s fire behaviour took even experienced firefighters by surprise, as noted in the 2020 NSW Bushfires Inquiry report. High rates of spotting and arid windstorms pushed embers sometimes 10-20km in front of the main fire fronts around the state. Ben reflected that “you had [those conditions] occurring across the state, and all resources were severely stretched”. Firefighters, most of whom belong to the volunteer Rural Fire Service, worked around the clock in apocalyptic conditions with no pay.
Ben says there would always be criticism as to the readiness of fire responders after the fact. Still, the response in 2019-20 was “reasonable given the experience and history of NSW being fairly well prepared”. However, he believes that in looking forward, supplementary to mere funding and resourcing questions, there are deeper issues with how Australians live that will make us vulnerable to disastrous fire seasons far into the future.
Our national geography causes “warm air to heat up in the central deserts and then get blown down across temperate forest areas that border with dwellings along the coastline”. Hazard reduction like back-burning can be effective for short-term undergrowth reduction in dense bushland areas but can also impede the consistent growth of older canopy, which burns slower. Backburning is often carried out on the peripheries of suburban or regional areas with the goal of safeguarding populated areas. Ultimately, though, “this hazard reduction is not going to stop a megafire,” Ben said.
As booming housing developments sprawl across Australia’s coast into previously untouched bushland (bordering protected ecological zones like national parks), Ben noted that if “we keep encroaching homes right up into the forest,” we create “the problem [of vulnerable housing] for ourselves”. Labor’s “Commitment to Affordable Housing” promises 1.2 million new homes in the next five years. If they aren’t apartments, these are often easily reproducible stand-alone dwellings in the outer suburbs of larger metropoles. They are more likely than not to use timber frames, as opposed to the less flammable double brick or steel. During building impact assessments, Ben reflects that these timber-framed houses are generally “not designed to withstand th[e] kind of bushfire
The ordinary person is subject to a degree of surveillance that has never before been seen. Such surveillance often occurs in the name of generating safe communities by both pre-empting and preventing crime. In particular, supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths have expanded their security measures, focusing on the development of in-store technology systems that aim to collect even more data from their customers. This poses the question: does the recent expansion of supermarket security into the realm of AI facial recognition and detection impinge on our right to privacy?
These developments can be understood within the larger phenomenon of “Big Data”. The term “Big Data” refers to the collection and use of vast data sets to profile, predict trends and influence consumer behaviour. The collection and utilisation of data is so ubiquitous within
the digital age that it has been enshrined as the core economic asset of the 21st Century, enabling surveillance capitalism to flourish in line with the expansion of information economies, according to scholar Shoshana Zuboff. This type of data is being developed, captured, and utilised by large corporations in inconceivable volumes every second.
The key argument that the big supermarket chains have forwarded in light of criticism hinges on the growth of the retail theft crisis in Australia, which costs big chains $100 million each year. This has led the supermarket giants to respond by rolling out $40 million investments to develop AI CCTV technology and body-worn cameras to “prevent crime before it happens”. At the same time, these big supermarkets continue to record huge profits whilst employing these invasive and punitive
measures in a cost of living crisis.
These investments are simply the tip of a very sophisticated, and expensive, security iceberg. Whether you knew it or not, if you have walked into any Woolworths from 2020 onwards, then chances are you likely would have been monitored by “Auror”, their “Retail Crime Intelligence Platform”, that attempts to combat theft through deterrence measures that promise to “improve store reporting, gain visibility, and understand what is going on with malicious loss.”
Auror actively gathers data on consumers through complex networks of security cameras that identify individuals who have engaged in theft or been recorded as recurring nuisances to staff. The data is then used to provide alerts to staff when supposed suspects enter the store, or alternatively to police who
activity” seen most recently in NSW and Victoria.
The solutions to this problem are not simple propositions. As Ben said, they involve a “wholesale rethink of how we live in coastal environments, rather than doing consistent [short-term] hazard reduction”. Housing developments should repurpose existing buildings or go up instead of out. Residential buildings must not rely on newly logged, flammable timber products but recycled non-combustibles like steel. We should improve urban living arrangements so that people can live comfortably and with dignity while being close to each other, their communities and work. There must be a recognition of and strategic commitment to living amongst nature, not on top of it. Such logic will help us plan housing that is resilient to fires and other natural disasters like flooding and extreme heat.
In the meantime, Ben encourages everyone to inform themselves and their community about fire response plans and, if you can, volunteer for the RFS. All views expressed by the interviewee are personal opinions and do not represent the positions of the organisations with whom they are affiliated or by whom they are employed.
Art by Aidan Elwig Pollockmay access the profiles of millions of Australians. According to Auror, this use of data serves a trifold public interest: (i) developing closer relationships between community stores and police in the prosecution of crime, (ii) empowering retail workers to deal with crime and (iii) deterring larcenous activities by focusing on loss prevention.
These systems operate on the premise that increased surveillance equals increased safety. However, this premise is significantly flawed. Samantha Floreani, the program lead at Digital Rights Watch, told The Guardian that “supermarkets are turning into an environment where an incredible amount of data collection and surveillance is becoming normalised”.
These comments were made in response to new trials by Woolworths to implement technology that
In January 2022, the desert between Broken Hill and Menindee, in far Western NSW, was a landscape transformed from orange to green. From the passenger seat, I watched a verdant blanket unfold beneath scraggly sloping hills. Amongst the bountiful emerald grass and blue saltbush strode huge gaggles of emu. But it was at the sight of a different bird that I yelled “stop the car!” As I wound down the window, a breeze glided between overcast skies and the thirst-sated earth, carrying with it an eerie, high-pitched chortle. A cluster of pastel pink birds — almost white at this distance — sat on the gidgee branches, a gang of ghostly figures. And then it happened; a crest shot from an otherwise bland head — a flash of fluorescent orange and yellow, unnatural in its striking shade. This was the first time I’d ever seen a Pink Cockatoo in the flesh, one of our most beautiful, enigmatic native birds.
The Pink Cockatoo, like any animal in a colonised environment, has many names. The Wiradjuri people of western NSW call it wijugla, whilst John Gould recorded the name jakkulyakkul in Western Australia. Kokatha people of the South Australian Western Desert call the bird kikkalulla, whilst Arrernte call it nkuna and ungkuna. The Pitjantjatjara name —– a language group of Central Australia —– for the Pink Cockatoo is kakalyalya. The word Cockatoo itself has a long history too, emerging in Dutch as kaketoe in the 1610s. This itself was likely borrowed from the Malay word kakatua. The bird’s scientific name is Lophochroa leadbeateri, positioning it as the lone species within its genus — although more closely related to basal Cacatua
Cockatoos (your standard crested types) than the Galah, which sits alone in the genus Eolophus. Common names in English for the Pink Cockatoo have a complicated history. Pink Cockatoo was actually an early common name ascribed to the bird, and is visible in the 1926 official documentation of the Royal Australian Ornithological Union (RAOU). Pink Cockatoo was only beaten by John Gould’s original name of Leadbeater’s Cockatoo —–named after Benjamin Leadbeater, an English naturalist. The other name commonly associated with the bird —–and still labelled as such by the NSW Government’s official website on the animal —– is the Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo.
By July 2022, the desert at Lake Mungo, in far southwestern NSW, still exhibited the signs of the rain that had drenched areas of the interior since the severe drought of 2019 ended. The low, flat pan of the ancient lake, dry since the end of the Ice Age 10,000 years ago, lay draped in a coat of thriving saltbush, punctuated by little muted-red flowers. Following a winding historical walk into the dunes on the western end of the lake, opposite the famous Walls of China, we walked into a wood of native Cypress. Admiring the whirling bodies of long-dead trees standing amidst the relatively lush new growth, I heard that familiar, esoteric chortle. There! Two Pink Cockatoos raced by above the crest of the dune, flashing their brilliant orange-pink underwings. It was a glimpse that set my heart racing, a special excitement that welled through my diaphragm and emerged to make my day.
Major Thomas Mitchell didn’t name the bird after himself —– his notes call it the Red-top Cockatoo. However, it was the excited way in which he
described the animal that inspired the renaming of the bird in 1977. Mitchell wrote that “Few birds more enliven the monotonous hues of the Australian forest than this beautiful species whose pink-coloured wings and flowing crest might have embellished the air of a more voluptuous region.” It was a poll of the membership of the RAOU that fixed on the name Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo. Unsurprisingly, Mitchell himself was a less-than-savoury figure.
In 1836, Mitchell —– an “explorer” of the Australian interior —– directed a massacre of Kureinji and Barkindji people on the Murray River. Because of growing awareness of the Frontier Wars in Australia, and a necessary examination of our national history, BirdLife Australia has recently officially reverted to Pink Cockatoo as the name for this beautiful animal. Names are an important vehicle through which colonisation operates: the renaming of organisms by white settler scientists forces the natural world within Imperialist ideologies of discovery. By picking a new name, settler-societies deny the presence of an old name, and positions themselves as the original “discoverers”. In particular, the naming of organisms after colonial “heroes” lionises these figures within such mythologies, and associates organisms that are culturally important, aesthetically beautiful and intrinsically valuable, with brutal dispossession, violence and murder. “Pink Cockatoo” may not be a First Nations’ name (of which, due to the regional diversity of First Nations’ language, there are many), but it is a start.
The carpark at Kwatatuma-Ormiston Gorge sits beneath one of these bestubbled
Aidan Elwig Pollock looks up.rock faces, with a gravel path twisting into yellow scrub towards the famous waterhole. It was walking this path, in December 2022, that I saw a brilliant flash of white. Looking up, I was struck to be surrounded by a crowd of Pink Cockatoos, watching me from intelligent eyes. My chest swelled with pure gratitude as a particular individual allowed me to stand and watch (at a safe and respectful distance) as it contemplated me from a bobbing black branch. My solitary mind buzzed with a single plea: give me a look at that exquisite crest. After a photograph framed by the rock face, she obliged. Before joining the rest of her flock, who by now were flying in pairs towards the eucalypt grove that marked the opening of the gorge, she flashed her brilliant orange-and-yellow crest and took flight.
The publicity associated with this renaming could not come at a more pressing moment. Just this year, the Pink Cockatoo was added to the threatened species list. Unlike some other species, Pink Cockatoos have not benefited from the clearing of Australian bush for agriculture and pastoralism. They are a desert bird, rarely seen outside the arid interior of our vast continent, and so incapable of reaping the benefits of urban areas that their relatives have exploited. Furthermore, Pink Cockatoos will not nest near other Pink Cockatoos, meaning their reproductive cycle is uniquely affected by the fragmentation of habitat associated with colonisation. If this species is to survive, like the hundreds of Australian species at risk of extinction, we must all recognise its intrinsic value, environmental importance, cultural significance, and exquisite beauty. It would be a tragedy to lose the Pink Cockatoo, one of our most ethereal birds, and a symbol of the rugged, understated beauty of the Australian interior.
Art by Aidan Elwig Pollockstore. The program utilises technology in the roof which will only allow the customer to exit once they have correctly paid for all their products. While Woolworths has assured customers that their digital identity on the system would be deleted after they leave the store, in an article about surveillance in public places, Associate Professor Moira
Paterson states that the simple act of expanding surveillance into every facet of public life, treats individuals as criminals and “may make individuals more self conscious about how they interact, and what they say to other people, and even less willing to enter specific public places”. Even when consumers are uncomfortable with these increased surveillance measures, the emerging popularity of these systems among stores leaves customers often unable to simply choose to shop somewhere else. Customers are seemingly placed at the mercy of the powerful supermarket chains that exploit the vulnerability of consumers who are merely attempting to go about their day-to-day and grab their groceries.
The broadening use of technologies that collect “Big Data” in public stores including supermarkets is not unique to Australia. In particular, the Canadian Privacy Commissioner stated that the use
of Big Data necessitates the development of “Big Privacy”. In Australia, privacy reform has been an area of focus recently as part of the Privacy Act Review. The current form of the Privacy Act provides limited protection against emerging invasions of privacy. The Australian Law Reform Commission has stated that this is because a cause of action for serious invasions of privacy does not exist within Australian law, despite the High Court leaving the capacity of this development open in the 2001 case of Australian Broadcasting Corporation v Lenah Game Meats Pty Ltd.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has recommended that a statutory tort for breach of privacy be introduced. This would create a unified common law response to invasions of privacy where there is a corporate duty of care to protect consumer information and take “reasonable measures” to use data fairly.
According to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, this would
provide greater coverage and protection than what is afforded currently under the federal Privacy Act, as per Article 17 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights by ensuring that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy”.
But hope is not lost for consumers worried about the development of Orwellian surveillance beyond 2023. On Thursday 28 September, while not explicitly encoding a statutory tort of privacy, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus responded to the recommendations of the Privacy Act Review Report agreeing in principle with the right to sue for invasions of privacy that are “serious”, among other improvements to the Privacy Act. While not certain, the acknowledgement for a need for change represents a positive advancement towards developing comprehensive privacy protections. We need privacy reform to challenge the surveillance practices of companies that are translating even more of our lives into data.
Art by Margot RobertsA roulette wheel spins in front of you. The Bernie Sanders ice cream, Travis Scott burger, Wendy’s mixtape, Lady Gaga Oreos, USYD x the Mujahideen, Martin Luther King Jr. in Fortnite, Nicki Minaj in Call of Duty. Names, places, ideas, all have become a surrealist assault. Drake is getting married to a penguin to spread
restaurant began to face difficulties.
“So you wanna know why it closed down,” Nathen said. “And you know, it’s very simple. Paramount terminated the licence agreement… Covid, and the lockdown… [I] really worked hard to, you know, bring a taste of Garfield through delivery… and until we were
looked up to him so much, and when I first shook his hand, and you know he was strong and tall. It was a magical moment for me, and I was starstruck also.”
I asked him whether he felt like he was “grieving the loss of Garfield”. “You carry this idea of Garfield within you… would you say there’s a sense of
“I did, I went on a hiatus,” he said. “I left Instagram for about 6 months, and I had to grieve, I had to grieve. I mean, I wore him for a while. That’s what they taught me in branding and marketing courses, live the brand, feel the brand, be the brand. And what I did is I took it too far and I lost myself. I forgot who Nathen Mazri was. The cat will never leave me.”
“Have you seen Wandavision?” I asked.
“No,” he replied.
“Oh, well,” I said, “Vision says to Wanda Maximoff: What is grief but love persevering?”
The boundaries of capitalism are pushed, but so are those of sexuality.
“You seem to hold quite high value to the fact that Garfield is celibate,” I said. “Could you explain why that holds such importance? Obviously, it’s extremely valid.”
Nathen clarified his position. “Garfield is almost 43 years old, I think. And yeah, obviously, you know, he might have crushes here and there, but he’s a selfish person who loves himself, and yes, he’s celibate, and so am I.”
Scooby-Doo.
To this end I must admit, before this interview Nathen Mazri was a character to me. I looked at him like a crow looks at a scarecrow, not as an aggregation of components, but as a cultural representation without any heart. I didn’t consider this as weird, either. Contemporary culture has created a world where fame’s clock spins around us like the sun and everybody gets their 15 minutes. It feels only natural that those in the public eye are not individuals, but colossal representations of stereotypes and schema. We reject the reality that celebrities are people, affixing to them the fictions and psychostereotypes of socially understood caricatures. I had been told so much about Nathen Mazri, and very little in his own words.
In 2018, Nathen, as the world’s youngest ever Garfield licensee, opened a Garfield-licensed restaurant: GarfieldEATS. Beginning in Dubai, it soon expanded to Toronto in 2019. Shortly after, this largely innocuous
still download it on Android, by the way.”
GarfieldEATS was such an “entergaging” (a Mazri-made portmanteau of entertaining and engaging) moment of corporate food history that it’s easy to forget the process, both before and after, that led to its creation. For us, the peanutgallery public, it is just the blink of a lizard’s eyelid on a bald night. For Mazri, it was everything.
During the brief window that it was open, Nathen and GarfieldEATS have created an outsized effect. The concept drew both hate and love: there were articles mocking North America’s first Garfield-licensed restaurant, while Garfield fans welcomed a place to dish down a pizza the shape of their favourite cat’s face. Beyond this, Nathen himself has vocally waged a war on injustices of our society, taking shots at “land monsters” (a neologism made to replace landlord), and taxation, with a recent Twitter post (now deleted) calling for a “tax-free country.”
“Honestly,” he said, “I’ve spent 1.5 million dollars on GarfieldEATS. Yes, but I haven’t made that. Imagine having all this taken away from you after you spend that much. They don’t give a shit. They don’t give a shit. No one gives a shit, imagine how people wanna try to take away from you, but they don’t know that there is a fight in good men. There’s a huge warrior inside of good men, and once you keep pushing, if that warrior comes out they will win. Why? God is with the good. And now we’re getting ourselves trademarked. My father wanted me to be a corporate lawyer.”
“Whoa,” I said. “That’s a heavy expectation.”
“Yeah well,” Nathen replied, “You know I always wanted to make him proud. But you know, he is proud now… I’ve done something, and I would love to tell other, you know, young people out there. Don’t be scared. Get out there, you know. Get out there and do something… Stop blabbing about me and others on social media. Really?”
“Jim [Davis] and I are best friends,” Nathen said. “We still email and he’s doing great. You know he’s an elderly man now, and he’s lived quite a life. I really saw him as my Godfather, I
Nathen explained this to me. “Even closing down a business needs a budget... And the landlord, I call them the “land monster”, he gave us hell… I always said, you may have the keys, I have the Garfield fans. And with that I won and kept the rent as low as possible until he wanted more and more… Why is someone still [struggling to buy] a piece of bread? It’s all about money. You talk to me about ethics, morality, and [it’ll] override it! We live in a triangle. There’s someone up there in the pyramid that is really controlling this world. I mean I know who, but maybe we’ll leave it for another interview.”
Talking to Nathen Mazri was akin to seeing The Capture of Christ by Bartalomeo Manfredi for the first time. I recall being struck by how lifelike Manfredi’s painting of Jesus’ arrest was, how it seems so revolutionary to see Jesus as human, taken by human hands. And Judas, so lovingly portrayed in Borges’s Three Versions of Judas, whose betrayal has thundered for millenia, was himself simply acting on human feelings. To speak to Mazri was to uncover the skin under the sculpture, the man behind the mockery, the heart that beats in us all.
“I’m at 11pm, my time,” Nathen said at last.
“Oh wow! It’s midday for me!” I replied.
“Well,” said Nathan, “Have a lasagna and go to class!”
To speak to Mazri was to uncover the skin under the sculpture, the man behind the mockery, the heart that beats in us all.
Han steps into the mosh. Picture this.
You’re going to a show tonight with some friends. It’s a genre you’re not actually super into; hardcore. You’re usually into something lighter, less intense, less aggressive. But your friend insists you get into it, he loves this stuff, and you love him, so you give it a go. You’ve heard about the infamous mosh pits, seen clips of people whirlwinding across gaps in the crowd, arms flailing violently through the air. Footage of people diving off the stage into the sea of people before the band.
You gather with your friends and make your way to the bar. The support act finishes and the atmosphere changes. This is it. You’re nervous, everybody around you is so excited, you don’t really know what to expect. The band comes on. Legends of the hardcore scene, you’ve been told. Thunderous applause.
This is the story of my experience with the American Band Fiddlehead, their live show at the Crowbar, and feeling alive again. In an age riddled with chronic loneliness, social isolation, and doing everything in your power to avoid small talk, live music, specifically the hardcore scene, stands as a beacon of connection.
Hardcore is a genre adjacent to punk rock and emo, but is described as more aggressive and “full on”. Serving as a reaction against the hippie movement in 1980s America, the genre goes
against the commercialisation of the music industry. Hardcore music is generally more violent and mean, but the mosh pits are unusually kind. Yes, you’re getting thrashed around and knocked over, maybe accidentally punched or landed on. But you’re always getting picked up. Never once have I heard the phrase “I’ve got you, I’m not letting you fall,” except at a hardcore gig, and from a stranger, at that. The pit opens up for you when you fall on your back, you are held up by the caring, sweaty hands of half a dozen random people to keep the show going. To keep the mosh on.
The hardcore scene enables a level of connection beyond words. You are cared for at a hardcore gig. No questions asked. The Aussie scene in particular is tight-knit, but not gatekeepy. It is the most welcoming group of people I have ever met. Everybody knows everybody, and people turn up to shows without prior organisation. There is the guarantee that there will be a friendly face at a hardcore gig, which is something you can’t really say for a job, or in a class, or on public transport.
The mosh experience is religious. It is a ravenous, primal experience that is not found anywhere else in society. There are no emails, no sense of bothering anybody with your mere existence, nothing to worry about except the immediate care of those around you. It is just you and the all
encompassing tidal wave of sound, violent skin to skin contact and the movement of the crowd. The ebb and flow of bodies through the sluggishly hot room. When you get into it, you are bound by a force higher than yourself telling you; “Mosh. Push back. Dance. Scream.” For someone like me who is guarded in every social encounter, a space like this is refreshing.
Fiddlehead began their last song with a few words from the frontman Patrick Flynn speaking to the inevitability of death. He did not say this to intimidate the crowd, to rile people up in an edgy way. “We are all going to die,” he says. “Your parents are going to die, your friends are going to get sick, you are going to get sick.”
“This is a lion’s roar in the face of death.”
And the band comes in, full force. Never have I been so confusingly forced to tears before, let alone whilst two-stepping my way through a crowd of tall, sweaty men. In that moment, I realised that this is what life is all about; living to the fullest, in honour of those that can’t do it with us. So much of life is a distraction from death, we edge around it, not talking about it, why would we? It’s easier to pretend like we will live forever. But Pat reminds us. Hardcore reminds us. That our bodies are fragile and our lives are only held together by intangible social constructs that can
(and are soon to) fall apart. What’s real is this; the human neighbourhood.
A few years ago, I lost a childhood friend to cancer. Though she was sweet, and kind, and taken too soon, I have spent the better part of the last few years trying to forget about her. To not think about what I could have done to make her life better in the end. To not think about how unfair it was that she was taken from us.
There is no avoiding death.
I met someone I recognised after the set, a friend of a friend. Both our faces were soaked from sweat and tears. He told me that on that day, 11 years ago, he had lost his grandfather. I told him I was sorry, and he said no, it was a great thing that he could celebrate his life like this, to live on for him.
This, I think, is what music is all about. Remembering love, and remembering what is worth living for. In my time in the pit, I have been reawakened and broken personal boundaries, and hardcore music has allowed me to genuinely grow into a more confident person. I pledge to you readers to at least give the scene a go. Give some albums a listen, visit a local gig if you can afford the ticket. It’s fine if you don’t love it like I do, but at least take away the fact that there is a community of people living life to the fullest right here in Sydney.
In a small little corner of Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs is a small little gallery exhibiting small little sculptures. Over the next month, Redleaf Gallery at Woollahra is presenting the finalists for their annual Sculpture Prize, an international mixedmedia competition which has sculptures made across cultures, mediums, and sizes.
The scale is quite miniscule, considering no sculpture is allowed to exceed 80 cm in any dimension, which leads to some quite fascinating bases for the artworks: there’s a sock, with pumpkin seeds sown into the sock by Jaqueline Bradley as a demonstration of liminal capacity; Kendal Murray’s small ceramic
sculpture is a whimsical tower of teacups that look deserving of a sunny beach day and limitless imagination; a concrete cube by Samantha Hanicar crudely captures steel springs, and is at once intimidatingly claustrophobic and seemingly useless, as if a chunk had been taken out of an Eastern
What it lacks in size, the exhibit deeply makes up in character. The fifty pieces, picked out from over six-hundred entries, are cloaked in personality, thought, and clear consideration for art as a medium. Every sculpture is a story, infused with the artist’s cultural sensibilities and personal history. I went at night, and in glassy rooms overlooking the water the rooms feel tight and inquisitive, with artworks on pedestals, on walls, on floors, scattered around a small set of corridors which loop and feel infinite.
The dynamic displays make the small details feel more poignant. Brigid Vidler’s piece, a gorgeous coral sculpture constructed with jerry cans, salvaged denim, and recycled plastic, springs from the ground like a deformed beast of nature, as if a coral farm had been choked by the tonnes of fast fashion we dispose of every day.
A personal favourite was Blair Garland’s The Lantana McHappy Meal a woollen depiction of a Happy Meal with a design based around the Lantana camara plant. Initially captivating for its delicate handiwork, the meal becomes disarming when you discover that the Lantana camara is an invasive species brought to our shores by colonisers, and suddenly the tray of hollow containers becomes an epicentre of capitalist critique, discourse around accessibility vs. regulation of fast food, and the ways in which female labour (including cooking and sewing) is consistently underappreciated and scrutinised.
William Winter zooms in.The winner of the prize, Anita Johnson’s Tenderness, was a smashed-up cricket ball reformed inside using possum fur and a wet leather cast of the artist’s breast. The ethos behind the piece is striking: in an object which could only be destroyed so cleanly through violence, there can be hope remade through the tender nurturing of delicate hands, through the love and hope which flows from the body and
The beauty of a showcase like this is the fact that details which are historically small and passive, of culture and background and gender and lineage, these are not inhibitors to art being prestigious or creative or meaningful: they are the exact features which fuse art to such purposeful displays of love, personhood, and tenderness.
The Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize is on exhibition at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf from the 28th of September to November 5th. Entry is free.
Hi! The SRC is preparing for the Rally Against Racism and Yes to the Voice on October 11th! All students and staff are welcome. Last week, we put up posters and painted banners to get ready for the rally. With the Referendum date in a few days come out and vote Yes, and encourage anyone you know to do so too. It’s important we come out
ROSE DONNELLY DANIEL BOWRON
Hello fellow students!
We hope that all of you have Saturday
October 14 Referendum: Say YES to the Voice: We are holding a voice rally 1pm Wednesday October 11 at Fisher Library to demonstrate support for the YES.
October 9 Enviro Rally: We have been flyering and postering and making reels for the October 9 rally, Protest Enviro Minister Tanya Plibersek: Climate Action Now, organised by
and oppose the racism of the Liberals’ “no” campaign, and seriously engage in showing up on the date and going forward.
A few other things I did last week included the (second last!) SRC Council meeting, I attended some of the Disability in Higher Education Panel organised by DisCo, and other collective meetings. Myself, the General Secretaries and Harrison are currently working on the SRC’s SSAF application for 2024. I will be going to the National Housing Summit,
14 October marked down on your calendars, because it is the allimportant referendum day for the First Nations Voice to Parliament! We were so honoured to attend the Final Push for Yes at Parramatta Square last Sunday (8 Oct) and hear the many wonderful speakers and singers. We hope all of you vote YES to send a clear message to the racists and support your fellow First Nations students.
the cross-campus Enviro Collective. By the time the paper comes out this week, this will have happened, hopefully successfully! What we can say in advance is that Tiger was very excited to chair this rally and take a stand against the Labor party’s climate inaction. On Monday there was also a snap action in solidarity with Palestine, it is more important than ever to stand against Israel’s illegal occupation - from the river to the sea!
Mandarin speaking solicitor: Lia and Tiger interviewed candidates this week alongside the SRC legal service, who have stressed for some time the importance of having a Mandarin speaking solicitor to deal with a large
ELIZA CROSSLEY
ALANA RAMSHAW
GRACE PORTER
ZOE COLES
What a busy time! We hope that everyone is holding out as the semester reaches its end. Over the past month we submitted recommendations to the University’s Sexual Misconduct Reporting Procedure. Notably we want to make the procedure more accessible on the University’s website and omit clause 14 which could serve as a gag-order and silence victim-survivors. Hopefully these recommendations will be implemented.
We have also been working on Radical Pride & Consent week which is THIS WEEK! We have events on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, it is going to be lots of fun and the sessions are definitely worth coming along to! For informative sessions come to: Someone you know is a sex worker on Tuesday at 4.30pm and Decolonising and decorporatising Mardi Gras on Wednesday at 3pm. We are also putting on a life drawing session on Thursday at 5pm and a film screening of the Hunting Ground on Friday at 5pm. The Rally Against Racism: YES TO THE VOICE is also on Wednesday at 1pm. See you there!
hosted by Action for Public Housing on Sunday.
Next week, the SRC’s Radical Pride and Consent week will be taking place across numerous days, beginning with a Welcome to Country on Tuesday at 12pm. Workshops, forums and film screenings to follow are all available on the Women’s Collective Facebook and Instagram pages. I encourage everyone to come along to these sessions –you’re bound to learn something interesting! On Monday, the Cross Campus Enviro Collective is holding a
If you want to do more than just vote, then turn up to the RALLY AGAINST RACISM on Wednesday at 1pm outside Fisher! We would love to see you all there showing your support for the Voice.
In other news, FoodHub has changed to a registration system, meaning that anyone who wants to use it must register before each time they visit.
number of students who, according to the legal service, face a large enough language barrier with the existing solicitors that we have not been able to provide effective legal advice to a large number of students. We have since offered someone the job.
SSAF Funding Applications: We have begun the process early this year of applying for an uplift in our SSAF base funding. For your interest, here is the list of things that we will be applying for in addition to the existing annual base application: Enshrining the following Office Bearer stipends into the base, which were funded through contestable for the last five months of this year; 15% increase to activism and
rally beginning at UTS and marching to Tanya Plibersek’s Office. Given the recent news about Palestinian resistance against the occupation and the deadly acts of the current right wing government, the Palestine Action Group Sydney have called a snap solidarity action on Monday night.
As always, you can email me president@src.usyd.edu.au if you have any questions or want to get involved in the SRC.
The link to register can be found on the SRC’s website and the @usueats Instagram bio.
Also, exam timetables should be released on October 9. We pray that you all get a good timetable!
Love Daniel and Rose x
OB budgets, the pool for distribution amongst the collectives and offices is currently $63,000, this would take us to $72,450 to be distributed amongst office bearers next year; Wages for the new Mandarin speaking solicitor; Funding application to cover the NUS affiliation fee which has risen with inflation; SRC Research Officer - part-time role, caseworkers are too overloaded to complete the ‘policy’ part of their role; Elections uplift - as wages for polling booth attendants etc. as well as general costs go up, our funding needs to go up, particularly when the elections were in deficit last year; Also Orientation and transition (welcome week)..
The International Students officers did not submit a report this week.
EDDIE
Hi Abe, I have a few health things going on, and the cost of doctors and medications is really hard to manage. Also, I haven’t been to the dentist since I started uni, and my parents can’t help with any of these expenses. Do students get any help with this kind of thing or am I on my own?
Regards, Toothache
week period, you can apply for a low income healthcare card. The benefits include cheaper prescription medication, bulkbilled medical and dental care (subject to the practitioner’s discretion), ambulance cover, and in some cases, discounted power bills.
What is contract cheating?
The University defines contract cheating as getting someone to complete part or all of your assessment (hand in or exam). This includes:
• buying an assignment from a tutoring company;
• having a friend complete some of your assessment;
• having someone coach you through an assessment;
• using a model answer from a tutoring website or social media (e.g., facebook or wechat);
• uploading or downloading lecture notes, assignments or exams to an information sharing site, e.g., CourseHero, Github, CHEGG;
• getting someone to do your exam; or
• submitting an assessment which has been generated in whole or part by artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT.
Is it serious?
The University considers contract cheating very seriously. It puts your integrity and the integrity of your course at risk. It also leaves you vulnerable to blackmail in the future, where we have seen some students being threatened with being exposed to the University, family, or future employers, if they did not pay an ongoing “fee”. The likely penalty for contract cheating is a suspension from the Uni for a semester or two.
How can you get help for your assessments?
If you need help with your assessments the best place to start is with your tutor. Ask them to clarify information you do not fully understand. If you are not satisfied with the help you are getting from your tutor, talk to
your lecturer or subject coordinator about getting extra help. Tell them the websites or tutoring supports that you would like to use and ask them if it is ok. If you are in any facebook or wechat groups for your subjects, do not use any answers to assessment questions that are published, nor should you share any answers or course notes. Be aware that most of those groups have members who are contract cheaters who are there to try to make money. It is extremely likely that anytime you use sites like CHEGG, Github or CourseHero that you will be accused of contract cheating, so it is best to completely avoid these sites. If you are working with another student on an assignment only talk generally about the concepts, rather than specifically discussing the structure or content of your assignment. Do not make notes while you talk. Do not give them a copy of your assignment or take a copy of theirs.
If you have any doubts at all, explain your situation to your tutor to check if they think you are legitimately cooperating or if you would be considered academically dishonest. What if you are accused of academic dishonesty?
SRC Caseworkers can help you to respond to allegations of academic dishonesty or student misconduct. Start by reading our online information on Academic Honesty & Integrity (see link below) to get a better understanding of your situation, then contact an SRC caseworker (bit.ly/SRCcaseworker) and send them the relevant documents to get advice specific to your situation. The SRC is independent of the University and caseworkers will give you free, confidential advice.
Dear Toothache,
If your income averages under $702 per week as a single person with no children, over an eight
Even though lots of conditions apply, e.g., must be an Australian resident, lots of students are eligible for this card and they may not even know it. It’s definitely worth applying to see what happens.
Regards, Abe
EXAM TIMETABLES were released on MONDAY 9th October
If you have a clash or if you need a special arrangement (e.g. a different time zone), contact the exams office as soon as possible.
For more information on exams see: sydney.edu.au/students/exams
Across
1. Electrovalent linkage between charged atoms (5,4)
6. Every once in a while (3,3,5)
12. Balancing CO2 emissions, Australia’s goal for 2050 (6,7)
13. Du Maurier novel, adapted by Hitchcock (7)
14. String along (4,2)
15. Lazy (4)
16. Large, dangerous reptile (9)
18. Avoid getting to the point (4,5,3,4)
20. Shop in Picture A (4)
22. Occuring when there is less demand (3-4)
24. A person that hunts turtles (7)
26. Colloquial language (5)
27. Voice recorder (10)
29. Geological era, noted for its fad diet (10)
32. Small bitter fuit (5)
33. Get (7)
34. Salt lake bordered by Jordan and Palestine (4,3)
36. Sicilian volcano (4)
37. Italian cowboy film, such as those directed by Sergio Leone (9,7)
41. Big ask (4,5)
42. Partly open (4)
44. Ill, decrepit (6)
46. Composer of The Barber of Seville, Giacomo ... (7)
47. Figure of ridicule (13)
48. Dessert in Picture B (7,4)
49. Comes close (5,4)
1. In William Wordsworth lyric poem ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’, the poet rejoices at “a host of golden” what?
2. Which French-American actress is the daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis?
1. Novel by author in Picture C (2,4,5)
2. Band Picture D (7)
3. Brownie flavour (9)
4. Pig sound (4)
5. Celtic shaman (5)
6. Fish in Picture E (5,5)
7. Mowgli believed he was a ... (4,3)
8. Nervy b, in full (7,9)
9. Poetic name for England, meaning white (6)
10. Island chains (13)
11. Tidying (9)
17. Element of a roast dinner in Picture F (9,7)
19. Ship that sunk in 1912 (7)
21. Norweigian capital (4)
23. Made up, turned fact into a story (13)
25. Most skinny (7)
28. Grew up (4)
30. One who consumes cigarettes in rapid succession (5-6)
31. Books, often those considered classics (10)
32. Successfully stage a coup (9)
35. Fire lighters (9)
38. Tarzan believed he was a ... (7)
39. Instalment of a television show (7)
40. /// (6)
43. Leaf-eating insect, eaten by ladybugs (5)
45. Ancient Peruvian (4)
3. What Jaipur-set 2011 film starred Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, and Dev Patel?
4. Which Australian rapper came to prominence with their 2011 hit song ‘Pu$$y’?
5. In Greek mythology, which vain youth fell in love with his own reflection?
6. What links the previous five answers?
Address: http://misinformation.com.au
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one!”
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“Neigh...Neigh...Neiiiiiiiiiiighhhh!”
Horse picks up PrEP prescription after being ridden one too many times.
“Call me sir”
A soldier’s strange request in the bedroom takes things from vanilla to nuclear.
Man who says Voice is divisive failed long division
“I just like don’t know what this whole Voice thing is like... but let’s fuck!”
Someday Soon, launch “music now!”
History Society refuses to exist: “That would defeat the point.”
“It just doesn’t bounce the same on grass!”
Handball Society outraged after denied access to Courtyard.
WTF?
Mountaineer disappointed after joining the wrong ALP club.
Caterpillar shown to have 100 sets of balls between those legs
UH OH: Honi hit with malware attack after editor clicks on CHEAP $$ VIAGRA spam email
“Imagine”from
