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Affiliations for Votes - An Initial Investigation


Note: 

We have not reached out to Brodie Scott at this stage, but have contacted The Adelaide University Engineering Societies president of 2017, Nuala O'Neill, for questions and comment.

Given the rapid nature of this initial investigation, she hasn't had time to contribute anything to our piece on the matter.

We'll hopefully be able to follow up on this tip-off, and reach out to the 2017 Adelaide Medical Student's Society president for comment based on our sources claim they were also approached by Brodie with a similar proposal.




"Affiliations for clubs into the AUU (Adelaide University Union) was not about them being members in the current framework the AUU already has. It was more about incorporating them into the union essentially as services. Brodie wanted to make it a tier system - the biggest clubs at the top with guaranteed funding, events promotion and the complete shut-down of smaller clubs with specific focus on one specialised area or another. 


"That's what he told me he wanted, in exchange for candidates to run from the club committees, ideally, with Progress in the elections. He went to the AUES president and AMSS president with that."




The conversation between our source, who chooses to go under the name '
Harbatkin', started with a video being shared of Mayor Quimby quotes. 

Mayor Quimby is a long-running Simpsons character, often portrayed in the show as incompetent and corrupt.


This was interrupted with a screenshot of AUES president Nuala O'Neill informing Brodie the committee had voted against the proposal to 'Affiliate'.

"Me and a few others came up with it when I was a committee member (we won't identify the club). It was essentially to get the union to treat clubs with students identified as vulnerable with better connections to Student Care, and funding for resources that helped them."

"It was supposed to be tailored for the Pride Club and the Mature Students Association first, and could possibly include other clubs with similar needs for their members. His attitude to Pride was that they would only vote for Activate, and he believed the Mature Students Association was incompetently run."




"Brodie talked about getting the committee's to endorse their club candidates, effectively under the table. That was essentially the idea. Given how many members the AUES have and how engaged they are, the idea was to tap into that to smash Activate at the election.

"Brodie saw no problems in the AUU constitution or guidelines to do what he wanted. He told me the management figures he spoke to didn't have a problem with it, but I don't know the full extent of what he told them, or who he consulted.

"It was supposed to be part of a big clubs overhaul he wanted to implement, favoring larger clubs and bigger affiliation requirements to destroy smaller clubs (such as raising the numbers of members to start a club).

"He didn't really care what it did. Its very hard to change his mind once he's committed to something. I was against the idea to an extent, but I didn't care either at that point. He promised me a lot of shit the union would do for students if Progress won. I helped with researching other university models for ideas, and genuinely believed that could happen. 


"A lot of us had faith that he would do the right thing, for them or for others. I regret thinking that..."



We will have updates as they happen

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