Dialogue: No one should have to join any sort of union

By CLINT HEINE*

Freedom of association has been seriously undermined by Government legislation passed last month. This should concern all New Zealanders worried about the erosion of civil rights.

Freedom of association was one of the fundamental freedoms the country sought to protect through its participation in the Second World War and is one of the civil and political rights supposedly protected by the Bill of Rights Act.

The notion of freedom of association has two simple principles. The first presumes it is our right to associate for legal purposes with whomever we wish. We are free to choose our friends and the clubs, churches and political parties we join.

The second means individuals should not be forced to associate with others.

The Education Amendment Act violates this second principle because it allows people to be conscripted into membership of tertiary student associations, the political incorporated societies at tertiary institutions.

Referendums held last year resulted in about half of all student associations moving from compulsory to voluntary membership. The new act permits opponents of voluntary membership to attempt to overturn voluntary results and impose compulsory membership. Where membership is compulsory, freedom of association is extinguished.

The aim of the act is to take the decision about joining a student association away from the individual and to have it decided by a vote. If a majority of people who vote support compulsory membership, all students must join an association before they can study.

Supporters of compulsory membership cynically argue that referendums are democratic. The act, however, allows the minority to dominate. In an institution of 15,000 students, for example, the majority of students could be compelled to join on the basis of 100 or so votes.

Having membership of incorporated societies decided by a vote is also in stark contrast to the situation that exists outside tertiary institutions.

Motorists don't vote to decide if all car-owners should be forced to join the Automobile Association; people in your street don't vote to decide if you should join the Neighbourhood Watch group. In these cases the decision is made by the individual. Membership is voluntary.

The act was designed to eliminate an alleged bias towards voluntary membership in the previous legislation. However, membership of almost every incorporated society is biased in favour of voluntary membership. That is exactly what freedom of association means.

Two stock arguments are made in favour of compulsory membership. Both are flawed. The first says that all students must join so all can be represented. Students, however, are a diverse group with a wide range of political views and cannot be represented by a single organisation.

Compulsory membership is also defended on the grounds that associations provide services. These services, however, can be funded without students being forced to join political organisations.

So why is the Government willing to trample civil rights?

Despite spurious arguments about representing students and protecting services, the legislation is designed to serve the Government's political interests. Labour and the Alliance regard the education sector as their home turf and are willing to do things in this area that they would not contemplate in the wider community.

In the workplace, for example, the Government has claimed the Employment Relations Bill will not threaten voluntary membership. In tertiary institutions, however, it is willing to treat students like cattle.

The act aims to overturn voluntary membership and impose compulsory membership because compulsory associations overwhelmingly support the Government and want it to move further to the left.

Having all 200,000 tertiary students press-ganged into membership of pro-Government student associations would create a bloc that mirrors the support the Government receives from trade unions, teacher and tertiary staff associations.

A total of 200,000 students each forced to pay about $100 for association membership creates up to $20 million that can be used by pro-Government student groups. All students, regardless of their political views, would be forced to provide indirect support for Labour and the Alliance.

In the same way that new employment legislation will increase the number of workers joining pro-Government trade unions, this act will increase the number of students who have to join pro-Government student associations.

Whereas the Government claims its employment bill will correct an imbalance in favour of employers, the education legislation creates a huge imbalance in favour of compulsory membership.

Supporters of compulsion include almost all student associations, the university staff union, the vice-chancellors, most tertiary councils, Labour and Alliance activists and the Government itself. Given the combined resources of these groups, individual students - the main supporters of voluntary membership - will have a hard job trying to achieve or defend voluntary membership.

By the Government's own standards the act is unfair. In March it said that one of its goals was to celebrate the defence of freedom and fairness.

How can it be consistent to bemoan the loss of civil rights in other countries while it suppresses freedom of association at home?

* Clint Heine, an Otago University student, is spokesman for Student Choice, a group advocating voluntary membership of student associations.