Sydney University Liberal Club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since January 2007. |
 |
This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. |
Established in 1933, the Sydney University Liberal Club (SULC) has long been the bastion of conservative and classical liberal political ideology on campus. The Club engages in policy debates, meetings with MPs and campaigns in student elections to spread the Liberal message, and puts out an biannual magazine entitled Libertas. Many present and former MPs have come through the club, including the Prime Minister, John Howard.
The Sydney University Liberal Club is a member of the NSW Liberal Students Association, and the Australian Liberal Students Federation. Whilst many members of the Sydney University Liberal Club are members of the Liberal Party, and the Young Liberals, the Sydney University Liberal Club itself is not formally affiliated with the party.
[edit] History
The Sydney University Liberal Club (SULC) was founded in 1933 - 11 years before the Liberal Party was itself founded by Sir Robert Menzies in Albury, and is the oldest, and largest, continuous surviving Liberal Club in Australia.
John Howard was a member of the Club in the late 1950s, as have been Kerry Chikarovski, John Brogden and Malcolm Turnbull. Whilst many club records have been lost over the decades, the achievements of many former members are notable, even if most did not go into politics, but instead enjoyed long and fruitful careers in business, academia and the law.[citation needed] Ironically, even a youthful Neville Wran, future Labor premier of NSW, was once a member of the Club[1]
The club's most famous former President is Jim Carlton, who was Health Minister in the Fraser Government and was the Member for Mackellar from 1977-1994. Jim was influential in establishing the conservative cause in the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party, which is so thriving today. He was awarded with an Order of Australia in 2001. Jim was also President of the Student Representative Council whilst at University.
Indeed, becoming the President of the Sydney University SRC is a rare feat for Liberals. Whilst the Sydney University Liberal Club has had many Liberal Presidents of the Student Union, it has had significantly less Victories in the Student Representative Council. Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey , both current Federal Government Cabinet Ministers were victorious in 1978 and 1987 respectively. Ted McWhinney, SRC President in 1948 went on to become a prominent Canadian MP. Other Liberal SRC Presidents included Greg Bartels (1953) and Mark Heywood (1985). The most recent Liberal elected as SRC President was Adair Durie, elected in 1997.
The Club has had many varying and constantly changing political views over the years. One of the defining debates in the Club over the past 30 years has undoubtedly been Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU). The Sydney University Liberal Club is committed to providing students with the choice to join or not join a student union, and has attracted significant national media coverage in recent years for its pro-VSU counterprotests [2].
It has been alleged the Club has become more conservative in recent times with the Sydney Morning Herald reporting in 2006 that one former member considered the club "too right wing" and "fanatically concerned with abortion" [3], a claim denied by club members who point out that no motions discussing abortion have been tabled in the past 5 years, and that the club executive comprises both pro-life and pro-choice members. In 2006, small elements of the Club proposed resolutions to reintroduce the death penalty for "heinous crimes", and to strip non-Christians of the Christmas and Easter holidays, while non-monarchists would lose the Queen's birthday weekend. This was reported in the Daily Telegraph[4] however, while these motions were ultimately voted down voted down by 17 votes to 2, they allowed party moderates to allege that this 'strong conservatism' risks the party's reputation as "a broad church", and with it a source of future members, [5].
Tim Andrews was elected unopposed to the position of President in October 2006, and also serves as the Federal President of the Australian Liberal Students' Federation, the Vice-President of the NSW Division of the Young Liberals as well as being the only Liberal on the Executive of the National Union of Students.
The Sydney University Liberal Club currently has two members on the Student Union Board, and six members on the Student Representative Council, including one Executive Member, and the Communications Officer.
[edit] Club Presidents
- 1946 - Ted McWhinney
- 1947 - Mali Stephen
- 1948 - Barry French
- 1949 - Mike Lazar
- 1950 - F.J. Nicholls
- 1951 - F.J. Nicholls
- 1952 - Brooks Wilson
- 1953 - Don Hayward
- 1954 - Don Hayward
- 1955 - Bill Gale
- 1956 - Jim Carlton
- 1957 - Janet Spratt
- 1958 - Vincent John Flynn
- 1959 - Malcom Beveridge
- 1960 - Don Harding
- 1961 - Brian Jardine
- 1962 - Brian Jardine
- 1963 - John Hamilton
- 1964 - Brian Jardine
- 1965 - Peter Middleton
- 1967 - David Mendelsson
- 1968 - David Mendelsson
- 1969 - Wal Browne
- 1970 - Paul McClintock
- 1971 - Paul McClintock
- 1972 - John Booth
- 1973 - Annabella Fletcher
- 1974 - John Quinn
- 1975 - Ian Whisken
- 1976 - Ian Whisken
- 1977 - Valdis Berzins
- 1978 - Kym Turner
- 1979 - Kym Turner
- 1980 - Michael Christie
- 1981 - John Holley
- 1982 - Tony Dimmit
- 1983 - Peter Griffiths
- 1984 - Mark Hayward
- 1985 - Stephen Coutts
- 1986 - Michael Hughes
- 1987 - Brendan Wong
- 1988 - Luke Bunbury
- 1989 - Joanna Doyle
- 1990 - Andrew Ethell
- 1991 - David Rook
- 1992 - Stephen Galilee
- 1993 - Justin Owen
- 1994 - Genevieve Turville
- 1995 - Tony Chappel
- 1996 - Tony Chappel
- 1997 - Parissa Notaras
- 1998 - Parissa Notaras
- 1999 - Adam Faulkner
- 2000 - Adam Faulkner
- 2001 - Kyle Kutasi
- 2002 - Kyle Kutasi
- 2003 - Dominic Perrottet
- 2004 - Sonia Stavreff
- 2005 - Charles Perrottet
- 2006 - Tom Watson
- 2007 - Tim Andrews
