2026 WUSA Presidential Debate
The Tert held a last minute WUSA presidential debate, inviting both TRANSFORM’s Lloyd Toogood and Yeehaw for WUSA & NUS’s Antony Tzamouranis into Building 20 for an afternoon of discussion and questions for the upcoming election.
Unfortunately, TRANSFORM’s presidential candidate Mr Toogood was unable to attend due to being away on exchange, leaving Antony with more of an interrogation, an idea that the moderator entertained with the help of four Labor Right TRANSFORM members, a socialist from Socialist Alternative, and one straggler.
The interrogation started off strong with Mr Tzamouranis’s opening monologue, guiding through and highlighting himself and Yeehaw’s “broad ticket of increasing services for students, such as our free period products programs that we created and have been expanding year on year.”
He discussed their history of activism including: advocacy for a free Palestine, fighting the far right, anti staff and course cuts, fighting “corrupt uni management,” backing uni workers, and in general running off the same record they have achieved in previous years.
Antony also mentioned his praises of The Tert’s effort and his appreciation for the day's debate.
The first moderator question showcased the main takeaway from the day's debate: Tzamouranis’s clear answers and responses showcasing his own efforts and those of Yeehaw, and TRANSFORM’s flailing attempts at debate.
The response from the Yeehaw candidate included broad Australian and student issues: cost of living, debt, degradation of quality and variety of subjects, the abolition of degrees and pressuring students in their career and education, which in summary Mr Tzamouranis referred to as “scary times for young people and students.”
When asked how he was going to help and fight these issues, the candidate showcased Yeehaw’s direct response: their free period products program, with two years of the program ongoing.
Tzamouranis did take a tangent to explain the situation of WUSA, saying “our union is a small union, we get probably less funding than any union in the country, we’re probably the poorest student union in the country, I think it’s safe to say. We do a lot with the little money that we are given.”
“I think 90% of our budget is spent on free period products and The Tert. We don’t have a lot of money to spend but I think we spend it well and I think the goal has to be expanding those kinds of things. I think we can look at how we compare to other student unions like Curtin Guild or even ones closer to home like USyd SRC and UNSW, the ability to provide more services but not just for the sake of providing them.”
Tzamouranis clarified that “the whole point of a student union is student money in student hands, the whole point of the student union is students should decide whether that money is spent and control how it's spent.”
The candidate then ended by detailing his hopes to bring in new programs such as text book swaps and continuing their work with free sexual health products. Tzamouranis said that “that is one direct way student unionists and a student union can alleviate the cost of living pressures.”
With the moderator being happy with Antony’s response, he opened up the floor for questions from our audience, who made their best effort to stay off their phones and maintain interest.
Calling upon the crowd, candidate for WUSA Treasurer with TRANSFORM Ben Hancock spoke on job cuts, the Job-Ready Graduate scheme and how Yeehaw has “mentioned the Job-ready Graduates program, the job cuts, those issues, through Amplify and Yeehaw, you guys have been collectively [in power] for four years, these issues have been going on for a while now, what have you and your ticket done to counter that?”
Mr Tzamouranis’ response revolved around how the Job-Ready Graduates scheme is Federal Government based and not local, and how the National Union of Students (NUS) are able to advocate and rally against the federal government. Tzamouranis did agree with the crowd’s concern with the issue, and talked about putting effort towards the problem and engaging with other student unions.
With no response from the crowd, the moderator reminded everyone to not interrupt Antony while he is answering a question.
TRANSFORM’s Elyse Calleja, who has been elected to the position of Disability and Diversity Representative unopposed, spoke a few times and brought up how the cost of living has continually gotten worse for students in the last 3 to 4 years, and also accused Mr Tzamouranis’ ticket of causing union infighting and interacting with TRANSFORM with a lack of “good faith.”
“TRANSFORM is a coalition of candidates from diverse backgrounds [across] the political spectrum,” explained Calleja, “We have reached out to try and work with members of Yeehaw, unfortunately those conversations were not approached in good faith. We’re all about cooperation, to put it simply the students don’t need divided student politics by infighting.”
The Disability and Diversity Representative also put the pedal down on moving forward with TRANSFORM:
“In saying that, our previous representatives from previous tickets who have sat on SAC, are they here, are they on our ticket? No they’re not involved, we’ve got our own policies, we've got our own people, I don’t know what you’re trying to get at.”
In clarifying TRANSFORM’s plan for this election, Calleja continues by explaining how “our strategy is to look at the policies that are currently being used by administration governments to negatively impact student wellbeing. The union is supposed to, first, to address the position of power, student governance administration, when that fails we take to [organising].”
Mr Tzamouranis’ response expanded on the free period products plan and the small budget that Yeehaw has to try and work with, while also going on the offensive.
“Let’s make labels clear, you guys are Labor Right and Young Liberals, that’s who your ticket is,” stated the Presidential candidate.
“You said you tried to work with Yeehaw, I don’t know if you’re alluding to election negotiations if that’s what you’re referring to. If you’re not referring to that and you’re referring to the past two years [in WUSA council], as I said before, people from your ticket and your predecessors’ tickets who have been elected to our council have not rocked up to a single council meeting. The only work your current International Students Representative (Pratham Puri) [has done] is to put in [the] application to get paid the honoraria, they have actually done no work this year or attended a single council meeting.”
In the final part of Mr Tzamouranis’ address, he fought back on both of Calleja’s claims. “You mention infighting in the student union. I don’t know what you’re referring to. As I said before, at the student union council meetings we engage in debate with all parties and pass resolutions by democratic vote and I think it’s been very productive and very effective for the student union, especially when one considers the insufficient amount of funding we get in comparison to other student unions across the country.”
At this point a change in questioning was needed as the debate started falling into chaos again.
The continuous questioning and interruptions from TRANSFORM showcased the issue with their own ticket for this election. Everything that the members of TRANSFORM questioned Tzamouranis about, he had a ready to go informative and concise answer, a far cry from the floor’s bumbling awkward inquiries and interruptions. Every time the candidate was addressed on a topic, Yeehaw had either already proposed or worked on the policy. Worst of all, TRANSFORM agrees with many of the policies and strategies that Yeehaw has, yet argued against Tzamouranis on what he or Yeehaw would do in these scenarios. A frankly embarrassing representation of TRANSFORM, possibly even more embarrassing than their own presidential candidate not being present for the debate.
Luke Hocking, an associate of the Left Action - Free Palestine ticket, spoke across the room to the other ticket present, pointing out how TRANSFORM won't mention their Liberal Party connections, before grilling Antony on the optics of Labor Left members running a masculine bloke-y ticket with More Beers for WUSA & NUS and a feminine presenting one with Yeehaw.
“There are two other tickets this year that are organised by the National Labor Students, by the youth Labor Left. I know there’s a general kind of atmosphere of opaqueness and un-transparency, I doubt that TRANSFORM will talk about the fact that they’ve got people from the Liberal Party on their ticket. I do wonder how you justify especially having one ticket called I Hate Pauline Hanson, very obviously a left-wing ticket, but then having another ticket called More Beers which is pretty obviously an attempt to get macho bloke-y dickheads.”
Mr Tzamouranis disagreed that More Beers is an inherently right wing ticket because of its name. He stated that the ticket exists to meet the students where they’re at and target and engage votes from people who usually wouldn’t be involved in student elections. He reaffirmed that the ticket is based on student life and student services by fighting for more affordable UniBar services and expanding the free period products program, while also advocating for a free Palestine.
The discussion continued between Mr Hocking and Mr Tzamouranis on the perception of left wing culture if Labor Left continued to promote a macho-esque ticket. Mr Hocking argued that it creates an unnecessary gender division between tickets while Mr Tzamouranis feels that the tickets aren’t gendered at all, and any personal perception of that is more revealing of who holds those gendered values. They both agreed that the student union should both represent and be the voice of this university’s students, and push to convince students of the campaigns they’re building.
The moderator then asked another question, bringing up a constitutional move that Yeehaw made, giving the WUSA President power over publications made by The Tert and general concerns about journalistic freedom.
The candidate agreed that the student newspaper should be independent, but explained that the act was voted in as something needed for WUSA, while also acknowledging censorship concerns in student media, saying, “I agree that a good student media is one that is fully independent of any political grouping or student union, it should be independently run and independently able to dictate its content.” The reason why the act was passed is for the sake of student media being required to be held accountable by the student union: “it was part of the requirement for WUSA as a funding body to be able to ensure compliance when it comes to student safety and psychosocial hazard if something were to be published that was highly offensive, and I know that gets weaponised typically against other student media publications to control what is said about Palestine and the genocide, and that is a genuine concern of censorship.” Mr Tzamouranis capped it off by saying that “the act is not perfect, but [WUSA] can't just cut it.”
The moderator agreed, wanting to hold Mr Tzamouranis accountable for the future.
If this ‘debate’ is anything to go by, this might prove to be another difficult year for TRANSFORM and anyone else facing Yeehaw. Hopefully voters won't be absent like their TRANSFORM’s presidential candidate. For more Information on WUSA and voting for this year, see more on WUSA’s website.
Editor’s Note: This article was blocked from being published during the duration of the election by the Returning Officer, who deemed this article to be in breach of Clause 6.1.4 of WUSA REGULATIONS GOVERNING ELECTION. The clause states that “the use of WUSA resources for the purpose of an election campaign is prohibited.” As The Tert and its printed publications are considered WUSA resources, The Tert cannot endorse or support any candidates. However, this article was not endorsing or supporting any candidates, it was a report made by an observer of the debate who passed his own judgement on everybody’s performances within the event. On top of this, candidates for the WUSA election were removed from The Tert team in order to prevent biases and conflicts of interest seeping into the editing process of this article. A separate article written by August Turnbull, a review of a local theatre production, was similarly blocked as the publishing of an article by a candidate could be construed as campaigning for them, even if the article in question has nothing to do with their campaign.
