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Last week Act’s superstar MP Heather Roy, champion of the VSM bill, was in town, so Critic sent Julia Hollingsworth to grill her about students’ associations and VSM.

Should the change to compulsory membership have come from the students?
   I think that when you look at the voting patterns on the university, many students don’t really grasp the issues or they’re not interested in them. I think that, from my opinion, students are the only members of society that have to belong to an organisation in order to study. I think students should be able to study without paying the organisation fee. It’s about freedom of association, it’s about wanting to choose whether you belong to a student association.
 
   Many of the submissions were opposed to the bill. Do you think it is fair to still go through with the bill?
   There were between four and five thousand submissions in total, but most of those were form submissions, and so they essentially look a bit like a petition. So an association or an organisation has put together a one pager and students pick up a form and sign it, sometimes without reading it. I have looked at the 300 submissions that were comprehensive submissions, and so they looked very carefully at the clauses in the bill, they commented on those, and those 300 were much more informative in terms of giving proper feedback about the bill itself. Those 300 were from across the board.
 
   Students have had the ability to change compulsory membership to an association for years, merely by holding a referendum. If they wanted VSM, wouldn’t they have held a referendum to that effect?
   Ah no, I don’t think that they would. I think that there’s a large degree of ignorance I think, just not a huge awareness or a great interest. What’s been traditionally happen is a few people with a vested interest have been making decisions for the majority, but I don’t think that that decision has necessarily been what the majority would have wanted had they voted.
 
   What is the role of a student association?
   The role of the association is to represent their student population. What we see at the moment is a representation of a small minority within student bodies, not of students across the board. And so the student representations, and possibly the councils, are going to have to make a majority decision about what the students want.
 
   What do you think the associations will look like post-VSM?
   I think it’s difficult to say, I think that if associations are providing services that students want then they still will sign up. Also, the bill provides for contracting out of services, and so the smart associations will chose to contract out.
 
   In a situation where the associations contract out to the universities, so services are
provided out of university levies, students lose their check and balance on how money is spent. Is this a problem?
   The difficulty I have with the Auckland association at the moment is that there’s not a lot of accountability there either from the [university] council to the public to provide information on what they’re providing. There’s not the transparency and accountability that there needs to be. And I understand that the Government are trying to tackle that issue separately from the provisions in my bill.
 
   Auckland University and Universities in Australia currently have VSM but are finding it expensive and difficult. Why will it be different at other NZ universities if VSM comes in?
   I don’t think that we can predict exactly what’s going to happen. We’ve got some examples of how things can operate differently. I’ve actually got quite a lot of confidence in the student associations to find new ways of doing things. I think that they’ll be able to rise to the challenge and be able to do that. I don’t buy into the doom and gloom side of the story, that this is death to the student associations. I think if they’re providing services and facilities that students want then they’ll still be supported.
 
   How do you think that students will be able to afford fees?
   There will be no change to the way things are funded at the moment, students will still be able to use their student loan to pay their student association fees. They won’t have to find money out of their own pockets if they want to use their student loan to pay for the association fee.
 
   Student associations tend to be breeding grounds for left-wing socialists. Some may perceive your actions as a conspiracy against the left wing. Any truth in this?
   No, no that’s not true at all. I can’t speak for the National Party, but from an ACT Party perspective, it’s about freedom of association and the compulsion to join in order to be able to study.
 
   What are your views on the alcohol law reform bill?
   I’m with the keep it 18 people, I think it should be kept as is. I think 18 has become the designated age of adulthood if you like. You can vote at 18 (people can vote at 18, that’s something which people overlook), you can get married at 18, you can go to war at 18, and so to be able to do those really important things in life but be able to have a glass of wine or beer makes absolutely no sense to me. Which is why I will be advocating for and voting for keeping the law the same.