Voluntary Student Unionism - VSU Legislation

VSU Legislation

On 9 December 2005, the Higher Education Support Amendment (Abolition of Compulsory Up-front Student Union Fees) Bill 2005 was passed in the Senate, and received the Royal Assent on 19 December 2005. Since 1 July 2006, Australian universities have faced fines of A$100 per student for compelling payment for any non-academic good or service.

Under legislation passed in 1999, VSM can be enacted at any New Zealand university by a referendum of students. At present, only students at the University of Auckland voted to enact VSM, affecting membership of the Auckland University Students' Association. Consequently, students enrolled since that vote go without membership in the student association unless they become aware of it, find out how to join, and afford the fees without the option of having it included in their student loan. Students at all universities can to choose to resign their membership of their student association. Students at the University of Waikato enacted VSM, but later returned to universal student membership, when a referendum was held during study week.

In October 2009, Heather Roy's Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill was drawn from the ballot. The bill was greatly delayed due to a large number of public submissions (4837 in total, including 132 oral submissions), necessitating the Select Committee stage to be extended from the normal six months to a full year. It was later delayed due to filibustering by the Labour Party and of particular note, Trevor Mallard, of a bill ahead of it on the Order Paper - the aim was to push the debate out so the third reading could not occur before the 2011 election, causing the bill to die as Roy was not seeking re-election. However, the bill eventually passed its third reading on 28 September 2011, 63 votes in favour to 58 opposed.