Whoops

We wonder how many university students realise that the New Zealand Union of Student Associations has teamed up with Grey Power to sponsor the petition calling for a CIR on the government's plans to sell minority shares of selected state assets? DPF reports:

NZUSA (actually now the NZ Union of Student Associations) has no mandate on this issue. It is not an issue that student have a common view on. It is not an issue in any way to do with tertiary education. This just reinforces that all too often, NZUSA is the student wing of the Labour Party.
I understand that NZUSA did not even consult its member student associations on this issue of supporting the referendum. Both VUWSA and MAWSA Presidents have said that if they had been asked, they would have said that the issue is out of scope for NZUSA.
If I was a member of a students association that was a member of NZUSA, I’d be demanding to know why NZUSA is throwing away any chance it has of being seen as a professional advocacy body for students.
UPDATE: I understand LUSA is also aghast that NZUSA has decided to campaign on the issue of asset sales.

Oh dear. It seems as though some loose cannon with politcal aspirations has decided that the NZUSA should be involved in an issue totally unrelated to its core purpose. Is it any wonder that the Labour Party fought so hard to keep membership of student associations, long regarded as a de facto apprenticeship for aspiring Labour Party MP's compulsory?

Wouldn't it be interesting if law students from one of NZUSA's member student unions were to take legal action against their parent body, and undermine the legal standing of the petition? Perhaps an interim injunction against the NZUSA might be a good starting point...