A Guide to Natcon and the NUS
The National Union of Students’ (NUS) annual National Conference (NatCon) is set to take place next week at Federation University in Ballarat. From Monday to Thursday, you will see extensive coverage from many student media outlets across Australia. To help you follow along, here is the Student Media Association’s brief explanation of the NUS and NatCon.
What is the NUS?
The NUS is the peak representative body for Australian undergraduate students. The NUS was founded in 1987 and aims to represent the interests of post-secondary students. It is funded through affiliate fees paid by Australian universities.
The structure of the NUS executive team includes a President, General Secretary, Education Office, Welfare Officer, Women’s Officer, Small and Regional Officer, Environmental Officer, Ethno-Cultural Officer, International Students Officer, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Officer, Disability Officer and two Queer Officers. There are also state presidents and an additional 12 general members that make up the rest of the team.
The NUS represents Australian students to the federal government, state governments, and other organisations. They run national campaigns on the issues affecting students, such as academic freedom, student welfare, environmental issues and the needs of minority groups in the student body, through governmental lobbying and activism. Some of the biggest achievements that the NUS was involved in this year were the National Student Referendum on Palestine that took place in universities around Australia, and the campaign for HECS reform.
What is NatCon?
NatCon is one of three conferences that the NUS runs each year, along with the Education Conference and the President’s Summit. NatCon is the Annual General Meeting for the union. The conference determines NUS policy for the year ahead and elects the new executive team for the following year. Additionally, the outgoing executive reports are presented here.
Each year delegates are elected from their accredited student organisations and sent to NatCon. Not all Australian universities are affiliated with the NUS. Student organisations around Australia pay accreditation fees to the NUS each year to secure membership, which usually costs tens of thousands of dollars. The accreditation fee of a university is calculated by the number of equivalent full-time study load (EFTSL) students enrolled, multiplied by $2.50. This rate has risen from $2.11 prior to 2025.
The number of delegates each organisation can send is dependent on the number of EFTSL students at the university. The delegates are awarded votes equivalent to the number of full-time students studying at the university divided by 100.
NUS Factions
Delegates can choose to go as independents or join one of the factions present at NatCon. The main factions include:
Unity: Student Unity was founded in 1991 and is the largest faction present at NatCon. They are aligned with the Australian Labor Party’s right faction. Historically, Unity has commanded the most delegates at NatCon and binds its delegates to factional voting. In 2025, they hold 38 per cent of the votes.
National Labor Students (NLS): NLS are typically the third-largest faction present at NatCon. In 2025 they have 10.7 per cent of votes on the conference floor. They are aligned with the Australian Labor Party’s left-wing faction. They also vote with factional binding. The NSW branch of NLS formally separated in February 2025 and is now a splinter faction known as NSWLS.
Socialist Alternative (SAlt): SAlt is the second-largest faction at NatCon. They support a Trotskyist political view and are affiliated with the Victorian Socialist Party. SAlt is self-described as the NUS’s “most left-wing faction”. SAlt delegates are bound to factional voting.
Grassroots: Grassroots, colloquially referred to as Groots, are one of the smallest factions within the NUS. They are not officially affiliated with any federal political party but closely align with the Greens. They consist of a broad coalition of left-wing activists. The party does not bind its delegates to factional voting.
Western Australia Independents (Windies): The Windies are one of the smaller factions at NatCon. Despite splitting from NLS, both factions broadly agree on policy. The Windies are not affiliated with any federal political party and only consist of delegates from WA universities.
Forge Alliance: Similar to the Windies, Forge is another smaller faction that split from the NLS. Most Forge members are delegates from WA and QLD.
Independents: The unaffiliated and unaligned remainder of delegates. They do not sit or vote with any faction on the conference floor, and they typically comprise a very small number of votes.
Factions exist due to differing political views and generally align with major political parties or ideologies. They take on delegates to garner votes and gain power over policy-making decisions. These groups are known to regularly split and realign, such as the Grindies, a coalition between Grassroots and Independents that was formed in 2018 before disbanding in 2022. Factions will meet prior to NatCon at individual precons to discuss strategies and voting, some of which include a bloc of factions with similar political alignments. Most motions are negotiated and decided on before they make it to the conference floor, with major factions such as Unity, NLS and SAlt binding votes. Thus, the majority of motions being voted on have predetermined outcomes prior to the start of NatCon.
The Conference Floor
NatCon this year will run over five days from 8th to 12th December. Most of this time will consist of the delegates sitting in the conference room and voting on NUS policy for 2026.
To get policy through on the conference floor the number of delegates in the room needs to reach quorum. For quorum to be met and sustained, 50 per cent of the votes and delegates need to be present. Quorum can be pulled if more than 50 per cent of delegates leave the room, a tactic that is used by larger factions to void motions or disrupt voting, such as in 2023 when NLS staged a walkout on the first day of NatCon.
Motions are presented in chapters, such as Women’s, Disabilities, Ethnocultural and Small & Regional. The motions in any particular chapter are voted on in order. To speed up the process, similar motions can be voted in en bloc, which means to group them together. At the 2025 NatCon, there will be over 450 motions on the agenda, nearly double the number of motions in 2024. This means there will likely be a much larger number of motions voted en bloc in order to speed up the process.
Student Media’s role at NatCon
Student media’s role is to provide clear and unbiased coverage of the conference. They ensure there is full transparency between the NUS and the students that it represents.
You can follow coverage from any number of student media publications that are attending NatCon this year. These publications include:
Why does this matter?
If you are a student, the NUS matters to you for a number of reasons. Firstly, the NUS advocated for tertiary students on a government level. They advocate for issues that directly affect all university students around Australia. Perhaps the biggest reason to care is that if you attend an affiliated university, you are paying for the NUS. Although the NUS has been criticised for being ineffective, it cannot get better without more involvement and engagement.
Over the next four days, you can follow coverage from student media to hear about what’s happening on the conference floor, what the representatives from your university are doing and how the results of NatCon will affect you.
