10 things that happened at Question Time: Stupol Panel

Words/tweets by Jenny Nguyen
Photos by Angus Yallop

Hack (noun)
An ambitious undergraduate student who thinks it’s totally normal to yell out ‘shame’ and ‘hear, hear’ in real life.

Wintery Tuesday evenings are for Hacks to convene in Lower Napier. Hosted by the Arts Students Association, the panel aims to provide some transparency about student union elections and provides prospective candidates with the opportunity to get on their soapboxes. The turnout was quite impressive for week 5 lecture commencing at 6pm.

“It’s like Left, Right & Centre… but live” (On Dit 2017)

The speakers on the panel were Henry Blacketer (Swipe Right), Leila Clendon (Student Voice), Rachael Ingleton (Swipe Right), Olivia Savvas (Unite), Patrick Stewart (Activate).

1. Heaps of Hacks in the room

challenge: how many Hacks can you name from this photo?

2. The first topic was about eduction funding and whether we should make it free (again).

It was no surprise to see Activate and Left Action candidates agreeing with the statement (considering the campaigns they have ran on the SRC). Swipe Right representative Henry Blacketer was quick to rebut by emphasising on the fact that the earning potential of university graduates is much higher than non graduates.

It was not long before Swipe Right head-kicker (he’s a former editor of On Dit, you guys) chimed in on the debate

Thanks for playing, Leighton

To ^LMS’s dismay, Unite actually did have a response and a pretty strong one at that

3. We also discussed the dual-citizenship saga that is eating away our Parliament

While some factions abhorred the the nationalist sentiment of s44 of the Constitution, others called for legal reform. There was also passionate discussion on the importance of having Australian identities in Parliament.

4. It’s been in the news cycle for 18 months (and counting), the audience asked: how do we go about campaigning for the postal vote?

Members of the panel weren’t able to provide a succinct 30 second answer but did address why they were for/against the plebiscite vote.

That is the REAL question

5. This

Not seen: members of Socialist Alternative jeered at Blacketer and cheered on Clendon

The ‘Shames’ outdid the ‘Hear, Hears’

6. Is On Dit still relevant? 🍿🍿🍿

Hoooooo boy.

Some very nervous looking On Dit eds preparing for a proper roasting.

Thank’s Leighton.

I guess it means we’re STILL relevant? We were given a right of reply and this is what we wanted to highlight:

7. Then we started asking the real questions: what should the student union and SRC do in response to the HRC sexual assault survey?

Olivia Savvas and Patrick Stewart (Unite and Activate, respectively) were able to provide an answer to the question, Swipe Right representative Henry Blacketer focused on critiquing the merits of the Human Right’s Commission’s report on campus sexual assaults.

8. Hacks from other campuses also got involved:

directed @ Swipe Right representative, Henry Blacketer

This guy is the President of FUSA (Flinders) and enjoys reading Empire Times (hi guys! xD)

9. No one played our STUPOL bingo game :(

your loss, because you could have ticked off most boxes but for one

10. We were given special seating with ~ reserved ~ signs

Thanks for playing, Hacks; we’ll see you on grounds next week.
Until then, behave!

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