Senator NETTLE (9:39 AM) —I move:

   That the Senate—

(a)   notes:

(i)   that the students at Monash University Clayton Campus are due to boycott classes at the commencement of the second academic semester on 18 July 2005 in protest at the Government’s intention to abolish compulsory student association fees,

(ii)   the staff at Monash University Clayton Campus support the students’ decision to boycott classes, and

(iii)   this action is just one of numerous acts of protest being organised on campuses around Australia in order to demonstrate the depth of concern students and university staff feel at the threatened loss of democratic control of student services on campus that will result from the Government’s moves to abolish compulsory student association fees;

(b)   congratulates Monash University students on their willingness to sacrifice their study time to defend their ability to collectively and democratically organise and preserve student services; and

(c)   calls on the Government to:

(i)   recognise the community-wide benefits that well-resourced student associations deliver in promoting campus democracy,

(ii)   recognise the demonstrated inability of ‘market forces’ to provide the appropriate range of services students need when they need them, and

(iii)   abandon plans to abolish compulsory student association fees.

Question agreed to.