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1966 – Vietnam War Fund
The Vietnam War was raging on and Australia had joined the war by this point.
The Semper Floreat in the 60s showed a keen interest in reporting on a wide range of student politics (‘stupol’).
Throughout my research into the period of Semper Floreat throughout the 60s and 70s, various editors took a keen interest in communists. Throughout this era, the United States was suffering through the cultural hysteria known as the ‘Red Scare’.
This was a time in which the United States instilled a great fear into their population of the threat of communists in people’s neighbourhoods and Russian spies lurking in their grocer’s shop and churches.
So enthralled was the United States that this hysteria spread to much of the English-speaking world, with Australia following suit. Only a decade prior, the federal government of Australia had attempted to ban any communist parties through a constitutional referendum.
As such it is unsurprising that Semper Floreat sought to report on the Sydney University ALP Club considering the establishment of a medical fund for the Viet Cong.
To give context, this would be the equivalent of students today establishing a Taliban medical fund. The Australian government was at war with the Viet Cong.
However, due to the strong opposition to Vietnam War by students, academics and unions, there was a strong movement within the youth of the Labor Party to support the communists in Vietnam.
1984 – Stupol Elections
The 1984 UQU elections ended in a victory for the conservative, ‘Nationals’-leaning student politicians.
Political strategy is described in this news clipping.
All in all, not much seems to have changed over the years of union stupol shenanigans.
There was apparently a government student who walked around the university in a “phantom outfit” who would say “Hi there. Man who cannot die votes for Barry Atkins.”
As a result of this political chicanery, the contribution to Berry secured 73% of the primary vote, which is pretty monumental.
The colleges seem to have had a deep interest in the results of the stupol elections. This is a change from what the colleges situation is currently, where colleges representation within union elections are a shell of their former glory.
Not only do they not command a significant portion of the votes when the stupol election season rolls around, but they also have a union officer role assigned to them, who just received a large budget cut due to their failure to engage or meet with any of the union staff or student representatives.
Like today, strong personalities are make-or-break for a stupol union campaign. Uncharismatic leaders did not win votes and anti-union sentiment can build if the administration refuses to listen to student demand.
1986 – Union Council
One key point within this excerpt I wanted to highlight, was the size of the union council.
In 1986, the size of the council consisted of 63 people!
This in comparison to the size of union council today is wild. In 2025 the size of union council is 24 student representatives.
For more context, the size of the student population at UQ in 1986 was around 16,000 students. Today it is around 55,000 students.
This raises an important question regarding the representative nature of the UQU council.
By having less representatives, has this made the council less representative of the student population?
1986 – Anti-Union Legislation
In 1986 the state government of the day was run by the notorious hardline conservative Nationals.
This excerpt highlights that the state education minister, Lin Powell, was in the process of drafting legislation that would make student unions non-compulsory.
This legislation would effectively kill student unionism. The power of a student union comes through the collective contributions of all students to create a movement much larger than individuals to advocate on behalf of all students.
The legislation would slice student services into two parts of which “services” would remain compulsory but “representation” would be optional for students to pay in to.
For example, campaigns run by the union to improve teaching could have been thrown out. It would have been disastrous if implemented.
Written by Samuel Wong
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