DRAFT MINUTES
PARSA OGM
25 March 2015
China in the World Auditorium
12noon – 1.30pm
Attendees: Ben Niles (Chair), George Carter, Chris Wilson, Upul Wiskramasinghe, Michael Curtotti,
Fausto Villota Alvarado, Hassan Riaz, Kimberley Ashley-Mitchel, Kim-Marie Spence, Jessica Rogers,
Bhavanik Kannan, Bishal Chalise, Arjuna Mohottala, Razi Pilli, Mohammad Karim, Aagam Shah, Nita
Sebastian, Inna Galat, Omar Gao, Rushikesh Vinod Nivalkar, Dominic Aloysius, Jane Wakeford, Vikes
Nagarajm, Ukkaish Khandelwal,Wenging Duan, Haikuan Lu, Swayonid Bhadale, Gurinterpul Sidhu,
Daniel Law, Troy Cruickshank, Kestin Brown, Nicholas West-Foy, Michael Windayer, Philoma Monat,
Llaw Yiley, Miranda Zhang, Louisa Tang, Dofu Wan, Chong Tan, Tang Sun, Wan Xi, Kert Tandog,
Joshua Pietras
Minutes: Gaea Cornelius
1. Welcome & Acknowledgement of Indigenous Australians
We acknowledge and celebrate the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and pay
our respects to the elders of the Ngunnawal people past and present.
2. Introduction by PARSA President, Ben Niles
On Wednesday 25th March 2015 at a PARSA OGM specifically held to decide upon the proposed
constitution, postgraduate students passed the new constitution by special resolution.
An Executive Summary from Ben Niles follows:
To open discussions, PARSA President, Ben Niles, presented the reasons behind the proposed
Constitution changes.
During the PARSA 2014 elections, he explained, a number of problems were encountered. These
included concerns about the elections system, removal of officers and organisational stability. These
concerns were expressed by PARSA representatives, postgraduate students and University
Executives. It was also covered in articles published by the ANU Student Newspaper (Woroni).
In response to these problems and concerns, as well as to overcome similar problems in the future,
the 2014-15 Postgraduate Representative Council (PRC) established the PARSA Constitution and
Electoral Regulations Committee to undertake a review of the PARSA constitution and electoral
regulations. Given the complexity of changes to be made, the Committee proposed an entire
overhaul of the Constitution as well as electoral regulations.
Constitution
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Move to a direct election model for all positions (formerly the executive were elected
internally by the 29 PRC representatives rather than directly by the student body)
Explicitly names the positions of the PRC and Executive, and institutes the position of
General Secretary on the PRC (formerly only named 5 of the 10 Executives)
Establishes an independent body (the Disputes Committee) and procedure to deal with
allegations of misconduct by PRC members, including a right and method of appeal (the new
committee is external and formerly a procedure was lacking or incomplete)
Sets out the methods of removing a PRC member, one through a lack of support, the other
through misconduct
Electoral Regulations
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Enshrines the direct election model for all PRC positions (allows for transparency in assessing
why a candidate is running for an officer position – formerly candidates did not need to
make this known to the student body, only to the PRC)
Establishes the option for eligibility criteria for each position to be implemented and
administrated by the PRC, and explicitly provides for
the International Officer to be an international student and
the Indigenous Australian Officer to identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Established the option for nominees to run on tickets
Outlines what constitutes an electoral offence and the punishments for such, including an
appeal mechanism
*The committee comprised the Chair, PARSA/ANUSA Lawyer, Michael Curtotti, an external expert,
College of Law Lecturer, Ryan Goss along with two PARSA student representatives.
3. Presentation by Chair of Constitution Working Party, Michael Curtotti
Michael (PARSA/ANUSA lawyer) presented on the processes for removal of a PRC representative
that have been included in the new constitution and spoke specifically of the development of an
independent disputes committee and the need to develop a process for handling removal of
student reps (the process needs to be not too easy as this leads to instability but not too difficult as
this does not encourage responding to student body needs/wants)
4. Presentation by PARSA Treasurer, Constitution Working Party member, Chris Wilson
Chris Wilson (PARSA Treasurer) highlighted that feedback provided to the specially formed
committee by PARSA members was considered and some amendments have been developed to
reflect these. He thanked all those who provided critical feedback.
5. Questions and Answers
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One student raised concerns about the possibility of 'ticketing ‘and stated that he favoured
indirect elections and also expressed the fact that he felt that student survey results which
favoured indirect elections were being dismissed.
Response: The PARSA President responded that the present indirect system does not
facilitate organisational stability and that ticketing was a risk that had been considered but
was not too much different to what happens already. The PARSA lawyer also responded that
it is possible for people of 'goodwill' to have differing views and that this was not to be taken
as dismissing what students want.
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The same student expressed concern that the new system of direct elections proposed was
not compatible with Apollo which is used to cast votes online
Response: Chris Wilson (PARSA Treasurer one of the members of the special constitution
development committee) indicated that we are presently meeting with Apollo and discussing
this. Two PARSA Reps in response to the student’s issues with direct elections responded that
there is no perfect election system but in a direct election system there will be no
more 'cloaks and daggers' while in the present system it is advantageous to not declare one's
intentions in advance. This is because in the direct election system, a student must indicate
the position he intends to run for and can be questioned about his plans/vision.
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The student then expressed concern that we were now meeting Apollo to discuss this when
the election is around the corner.
Response: Chris indicated that we are also looking to not bind ourselves in the future to
particular software.
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The same student indicated that he was not comfortable voting on an incomplete draft.
Response: Ben and Michael indicated that the committee felt that while we were cutting it
close the proposed constitution was in an advanced state of readiness and could be voted on.
8. Special Resolution put forward for students vote:
'Special Resolution that PARSA adopts the new constitution proposed and circulated to PARSA
members via notice of OGM on 4th March, 2015'.
Results: Students indicated by show of hands whether they were in favour, against or would prefer
to abstain from voting. Final results were as follows: 3 abstentions, 3 against, 31 in favour. The
motion was passed.
9. Final Remarks
Ben thanked students for attending the OGM. As a result, subject to ratification by University
Council the PARSA 2015 elections to be held in May, PARSA will be able to be held in line with these
new documents and new election method.
THERE BEING NO FURTHER BUSINESS THE MEETING CLOSED AT 1.30PM