ACT on Campus vice-president Peter McCaffrey recently put out a top 10 list of student unions misrepresenting their members. It’s been briefly mentioned in the Dominion Post, but on closer inspection the list manages to misrepresent more than a few things itself. I thought a good brisk fisking might be in order to set the record straight (as always, any dissent is welcome in the comments). So let’s get started.

10. NZUSA endorsement of Labour in 2008, despite more students voting National than Labour.

Not true – the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations put out a voters’ guide which can be clearly viewed here. Nowhere in the guide does it endorse Labour – even the colour scheme is non-partisan. What it does do is endorse universal student allowances, a policy adopted by Labour and the Greens in the last election, and it would seem this is the source of McCaffrey’s discontent. But there’s nothing illegal, questionable or even unusual about a lobby group endorsing a policy. It’s a very different thing from third-party electioneering  - more Federated Farmers than Exclusive Brethren – and McCaffrey should be smart enough to know this. Read the rest of this entry »