Good News Everyone!!! (The joysplosion thread)

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Spoiler

We did it.

WE DID IT!

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SpoilerTHE campaign for control of one of the last right-wing-held student unions ended this week after a farcical two-month election campaign characterised by allegations of corruption, bullying and dodgy electioneering.

The bitterly fought student elections at the University of Queensland have brought to an end the six-year reign of the Liberal National Party-aligned Fresh group, which finished third after counting concluded on Monday night.

It trailed the left-wing Reform ticket and Lift, a Fresh splinter group.

During the campaign, several harassment claims were filed with the police.

And a Fresh campaign manual that was circulated highlighted some absurd campaign tactics. It suggested campaigners "dress like ordinary students ... Guys - go casual bogan ... Girls - hot clothing is a guaranteed vote-winner if you're comfortable in it. A bit of midriff, leg, all good".

The manual instructed campaigners to "do whatever it takes" to win votes from international students, including telling them "that it is compulsory they vote and need to vote (for Fresh)". The manual suggests several ripostes for graduating students who say they don't want to vote, including: "Just do it and stop being a queer."

The manual was first used in 2009, but has been updated.
Elections were called off in August after the UQ Union electoral tribunal found the appointment of returning officer Peter Travers was invalid. Reform was set to win that vote before Lift's Jared Peut lodged an appeal.

Last year, the Fresh party passed a new set of rules three days before the election date was announced that allowed it to register the names of rival tickets, forcing them to run as below-the-line independents.

Joshua Millroy, the incoming president, said the past six years were characterised by a "strong shift away from core student support services".

He accused the Fresh team of stripping funding from environmental, women's, gay, lesbian, transsexual and political groups. He said Fresh would refuse to affiliate any club or society that it perceived as an electoral threat.
He added: "While the initial Fresh teams did some good work, in recent years they focused heavily upon winning and manipulated electoral regulations to cement their incumbency."

An audit of union funds conducted by the university earlier this year found nearly $64,000 was directed towards Fresh election paraphernalia, including $51,000 for 13,000 T-shirts with the Fresh logo.

But Rohan Watt, the outgoing president who was elected on the Fresh ticket last year, said the matter and been dealt with and they had been well within their right. He said it was his view that such expenditure was no longer desirable, but it was a reaction to student demands to know who was running the union.
"You don't get six years (in office) unless you're doing something right," he said. "Reform ran on a platform of electoral reform whereas we have focused on getting things done. Our plan was more than a year long - it wasn't ideological."
Reform has promised to investigate improper spending and said constitutional and electoral changes were on the cards.

LNP members including Brett Mason and George Brandis have long crowed about the Right's control of UQU and hailed their "friends" on the campus.