Nationals Foreshadow VSU Battle

The Nationals have passed a motion at their Federal Council meeting calling for changes to the Voluntary Student Unionism bill permitting universities to charge a fee for student amenities. Don't mistake this for a stepdown on the issue, but what it may do is vindicate the very risky position Labor has taken, of abandoning its support for the principle of VSU in order to woo the Nationals and other potential dissidents into supporting alterate funding models that ensure campus amenities do not die off altogether. Such an idea has its merits, but could leave Labor with a bath bereft of both baby and bathwater if we have another rubble from Barnaby and co. Implicitly, it also endorses the ludicrous idea that student unions have even the remotest connection with trade unions in anything other than name. I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's a good thing they didn't call Medicare `The Health Union', otherwise the government would be using that as the perfect excuse to get rid of it. It's semantics, pure and simple.

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