Today marked an end to the two day delay with the conference finally meeting quorum, following a deal reached between Socialist Alternative (SAlt), Student Unity and Student Left (SL).

NUS general secretary Aidan O’Rourke walked out onto the conference floor holding a piece of paper, to Unity and NLS members chanting “ULS” (ie. United Labor Students) together.

The deal signed was to make concessions to SAlt’s demands and stop the lock-out preventing them from taking any executive positions. SAlt confirmed that the factions agreed to support them for the positions of Education Officer and Queer Officer.

With a deal made, SAlt members who were pulling quorum outside began to enter and quorum was reached and proceedings could finally begin.

Brick of Motions

One of the first resolutions passed, a procedural motion, banned recording or filming proceedings on the conference floor, which was unanimously voted up across all factions.

“With that, comrades, if you’re caught with a phone you’ll be asked to leave,” O’Rourke said to the student media contingent. 

Urgency motions about Palestine were amongst the first to be discussed, sparking a heated shouting match between the factions. SAlt was tireless in their denunciation of the Labor factions. All urgency motions were passed. 

“The greatest crime of our generation, the decimation of Gaza, will go down as being aided and abetted by the Australian Labor Party”. Renee Deakin (SAlt) passionately voiced. Similar offences were used by SAlt throughout other motions. 

The NUS also considered motion 2.26, acknowledging the new Student Media Association (SMA), which was formed earlier this year at the Student Journalism Conference, which was held from the 15th to the 18th of August at the University of Sydney (USyd).

On the other hand, members of New South Wales Labor Students (NSWLS) got up to speak against the motion, with former USyd SRC President Angus Fisher condemning USyd student newspaper Honi Soit and calling them a “#shitrag” on X. Fisher’s term as President saw much conflict with the editors of Honi with Fisher controversially rejecting a satirical “fuck, marry, kill” headline in the paper’s student election edition.

The vote to recognise the SMA received support from all factions but NSWLS.

In total, the conference got through around a quarter of motions in the policy book (109 out of 419). One of those motions was withdrawn and 81 were voted on together as blocs (groups) of varying sizes. The smallest blocs comprised two motions and the largest was made up of thirty motions regarding the Education chapter, as illustrated by this anonymous photo from a conference participant.

Several procedural motions were passed, such as one prohibiting the conference’s Business Committee (or “BizCom”) from tearing up conference papers, and another or to rename BizCom to “Big Chungus”. Motion 4.67 was targeted for obvious reasons, with synchronised ‘6,7’ chants heard amongst Unity and Student Left. 

The single Liberal delegate, Anthony Ma, also attempted to make a noticeable appearance, delivering memorable opinions, such as “opposing mass migration is not far right, its common sense” and “there is no genocide” in Gaza. Ironically, this for once, united all factions as Ma was utterly drowned out by delegates’ heckling.

Ma was not the only delegate heckled with factions upholding the common tradition of yelling at speakers at the conference. Speakers were continuously disrupted by heckling and shouting from other factions. Regardless of whether this is a deliberate strategy or simply impulsivity, it is effective only in passing around earplugs rather than motions. 

All in all, NatCon day three was a spectacle where everything had happened – contrasting with the past two days where nothinghappened. Hopefully, day four will more closely resemble a conference.