GUEST BLOG: Kate Davis – The State of the Student Nation …or is just Albany?

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apathy-in-the-classroom

Students politics are dead and our student media is in terminal decline.

The most disappointing thing about university is the politics, or should I say lack of? I was raised with the idea that students held the power.They were the voice of the radical and idealists could still be heard loud and clear, where change was possible and protest a compulsory part of the process…yeah nah.

Thursday night was cold and blustery. Still, in the winter of my political discontent I hauled my arse off the couch and headed back to the Massey Albany campus for a debate. A real honest to goodness debate with representatives from each party talking to students about students. I was still quietly optimistic when I arrived onsite. The car parks were all full. Admittedly, they always are.

The debate had ben organised by the ASA (Albany Students Association) and NZUSA. I approached the building with trepidation and a sinking heart. The lobby was deserted. Oh well, what did I expect. I should know better by now. Lets face it just a couple of days prior Jacinda Ardern had visited and she had only managed to pull a crowd of twelve and she’s popular! I even know of a couple of students, mainly male, who would be able to identify her in police lineup. Okay, it’s true they probably couldn’t name her electorate or shadow portfolio but they know her face. The week before that the Politics Club had tried hosting a Pub Trivia event. No-one turned up at all.

I got to the top of the stairs and was greeted by the sight of at least forty students. On this campus, that’s a boomer crowd. Amongst them were a few of the people I had begged to join me. Straight away I was asked about the free pizza. “You said there was going to be three hundred pizzas Kate. Where are they?” Oops. Did I really say that? Surely not.

A mere hour and a half later the thing was done and dusted and I felt it had been a total waste of time. I had learnt nothing I didn’t know before. The pizza arrived. Not three hundred. More like thirty. People ate, mingled and left.

Therein lies the problem. Not a cross word, not a spontaneous outburst, not a single heckle. Not a controversial question, no-one interrupted. WTF?
I may not be a great fan of effigy burning but I would have given anything for a single FJK!

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But what about the debate I hear you ask. Really? You want to know ?

Maryan Street from Labour owned the discussion and is also responsible for the best line of the event. Apparently she knows someone who is producing tonnes of high quality coke. Street has years of experience and a real interest in tertiary education. She was good.

Julie Anne Genter from the Greens was on message and well received. Albany Campus and a student discount on public transport sound like a dream team right? But what good is a cheaper service if the buses drop you down the road on every second blue moon? The Green message was good but like Labour there was nothing that was going to really get students fired up. The student portion of the missing million are still out.

The dark horse was Roshni Sami from the Internet Party. Though she was new and inexperienced, it came across as refreshing. Sami was also the one who managed to talk to a room full of students without sounding patronising. Unfortunately she did have a tendency to meander off topic. Fair play she’s only been at it for 4 weeks. Unfortunately in the pizza scoffing after match I was struck with a Tourette-like outburst. Straight after I congratulated her on a great performance, through a small mouthful of luke warm Dominoes, I followed my compliment with ‘ But you really need some media training.’ Shit. Her face tried valiantly not to fall. If I could have sucked the words back in I would have swallowed them with more cheese-less crust. I felt like I had just kicked a puppy.

Some media training is a good thing. Too much is not.

Mark Mitchell from the Nat’s …well lets just say maybe he shouldn’t venture out or speak without his Lusk and Slater mouth monitoring devices..but then that’s exactly where I’m up to in the book and I make no secret of my bias. He introduced himself by saying his name and telling us he was from Rodney. Then he told us where Rodney was. The audience is a room full of uni students. Not toddlers. Does he want me to call him Daddy?His message throughout the night seemed to be get your degree and get out. Go overseas and turn that degree into cash. Really. He then gave an analogy about getting a history degree and having to compete for the only two Historian jobs in the world. At least 30% of the audience were Arts students. Like me. Like Street.

So yes I want politicians to have some media savvy, but i don’t want politicians that are totally manufactured by spin doctors. I would rather them real, like Sami, not so desperate to be elected they need a team to make them palatable.

The truth of the matter may be that if we want students to show more passion for politics than pizza, maybe we need to encourage the chanting and the bonfires. Maybe we need politicians that aren’t the product of polish and PR but politicians that students can identify with and who can speak to the issues they give a shit about. The Internet Party is making a start and I will be keen to see how Roshni Sami stacks up in another four weeks.

In the meantime I’m going off out to check out some hoardings. #Fuck John Key.

 

Kate Davis is completing her B.A English & politics. Previously she has worked for the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective & currently volunteers as an advocate for Auckland Action Against Poverty.

7 COMMENTS

  1. The good are not willing to rule either for the sake of money or of honor. They do not wish to collect pay openly for their service of rule and be styled hirelings nor to take it by stealth from their office and be called thieves, nor yet for the sake of honor, [347c] for they are not covetous of honor.

    Plato. What a guy.

    • During this Government’s time in office: titles – “The Right Honourable” and “The Honourable” – bestowed upon the PM and MPs, generous pay rises accepted, tax cuts and numerous scandals involving expenses and interests. All in all pretty much the antithesis of Plato’s good ruler.

      It’s not FJK it’s The Rt Hon F-JK.

  2. I recall MPs coming to the quad at Auckland Uni when I was there in the early 1990’s. The quad would be full. There would be plenty of debate and heckling.

    Is this a generational difference? Has the Millennial generation been so ground down by neo-liberal economics which took over after 1984 in NZ that they are disaffected, disenchanted and apathetic? Are they constantly distracted by social media, too immersed in the minutiae of their daily lives?

    Dunno. But the Internet-Mana roadshow seemed to be pulling some crowds.

    I hope todays students realise that what politicians do affects their daily lives and get out and vote.

    • No, today’s younger generation have actually worked out that politicians are largely irrelevant to their lives.

      They seem somewhat more intellectual in that regard that their parents generation.

  3. Good report article Kate.

    Yes, if you are at the university, then do what it takes to get the students all fired up.

    Maybe if you were the one who started shouting “FJK”, then the others might have joined in with you?

    Society has been brainwashed (gas-lighted) into believing that everyone and every thing has to be so politically correct. And this is the entire point Kate.

    Stop being PC, and just get it out there from your heart!

    Rip down the NATs billboards. Chant FJK! Get them all going by lifting them out of their deliberately conditioned apathy. If you are on the ‘inside at the uni, then you can do this! Those young voters that chanted FJK were not arrested, so what is everyone so scared of? Making waves I reckon. But this is revolution time – waves must be made, and they need to be great giant waves. Eventually the waves will turn to ripples and land nicely at the shore.

    You probably already know this, but anyone can legally say anything they like if they use the words opinion and belief – so, No Fear!

    Opinion and belief.

  4. It’s not all doom and gloom. In the Labour campaign here in Wellington there are many students engaged in door-knocking, phone canvassing, etc; others I know are similarly busy in the Greens, yet others operating websites like askaway.co.nz

    And don’t under-estimate the cumulative power of informed conversations with friends and acquaintances.

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