Vol 12 , Issue 6 HENRY DOW One of the very real advantages of attending Melbourne Uni is the strength of its student groups. I believe this is only amplified within the law faculty, with the calibre and ambition of students making for student societies capable of fantastic advocacy and even better events! In my two and half years at MLS I have clearly seen the impact students can make from within these groups. From the Later Law Student Network (LLSN) advocating on behalf of students with parenting responsibilities (how do you look after a baby/toddler/TEENAGER! whilst studying law!? I’m in utter AWE), to the LSS’s first ever Indigenous rep rightfully calling for greater recognition of Indigenous law and sovereignty in our classes.
This week nominations open for positions on the 2017/18 MULSS Committee. The LLSN will likewise have an AGM coming up soon. Similarly, toward the end of semester De Minimis has its AGM where you can nominate on the day for a number of positions. I would encourage any students interested to nominate and run for positions. Involving yourself in such groups on an organisational level is an extremely rewarding experience. Not only does it give you the opportunity to grow and develop as a leader, it also provides a platform from which you may genuinely influence the culture and future of the law school. Last Thursday evening the Queer Portfolio held its Annual Lecture where Lee Carnie from the Human Rights Law Centre spoke. In 2010 Lee was the Queer rep for the LSS and speaking to them, following the event, it became very clear how much student advocacy had done to make the law school a more welcoming place for LGBTQI+ students since that time. Lee actually resigned before the end of their term from the LSS in protest as it was impossible to get the committee to move on issues seen as “too controversial” … just 7 years ago! Lee is now heavily involved in the High Court Challenge to the Postal Plebiscite and the ‘YES’ campaign. In stark contrast, last year Mark Campbell was able to successfully push for non-gendered bathrooms, and in two weeks’ time the Queer Portfolio is hosting a Panel addressing how the law intersects with Transgender issues. Taking inspiration from our students, other LSS’s in Victoria are now similarly giving a voice to their LGBTQI+ students, with Monash creating a Queer rep position just last year. It is this kind of advocacy that will continue to make the legal profession a healthier and more welcoming space for our students to enter and flourish within. Equally the events facilitated by the LSS and others (I’m looking at you Melbourne China Law Society and your annual Dumpling Eating Competition!) are the lifeblood of our Law School. Last week was the final of the KWMTM Open Mooting comp. Not only were all those competing unbelievably capable legal minds, one of them was a first year! The opportunity to develop and showcase talent like this is not available at every law school in Melbourne and we are fortunate so many other students, faculty members and sponsors work together to put on such events. It should never be presupposed that such events will seemingly run themselves, or that someone else will be there to identify and raise your concern. With such opportunity comes the responsibility to contribute as meaningfully as your circumstances allow. If you have enjoyed an LSS event or loved the negotiation competition; if you have found writing for/reading De Minimis therapeutic or been supported by the LLSN - then please consider getting involved in these groups and giving some of your energy and time to making law school an even greater experience for you and your peers. It only takes a committed group of ordinary strangers to make extraordinary changes. Henry Dow is a third-year JD student and the current President of the LSS More articles like this: Also by Henry: The rest of this issue:
Concerned Citizen
28/8/2017 10:17:30 pm
One general concern I have about the LSS is the ever present risk of it being transformed from a body the main purpose of which is to provide support and services to students, to one that is used mainly as a vehicle for certain agitators to push their pet political causes, like practically every student union the nation over. I don't think the LSS is in any imminent danger, but once the rot sets in its very hard to remove.
Counterpoint
29/8/2017 05:27:37 pm
*Sound of a very long, very drawn out fart*
Unconcerned Citizen.
29/8/2017 06:38:26 pm
Excellent argument. I retract all my concerns unreservedly
Sick of this shiz
30/8/2017 02:58:43 am
Ughhhhhhhhhhhh @concerned citizen
Brigid Arthur
30/8/2017 10:43:14 am
Dear @concernedcitizen,
Ayu
30/8/2017 12:52:13 pm
I don't purport to speak on behalf of the Indigenous portfolio and other Portfolios that you have addressed, but the fact of the matter is that these Portfolios tackle issues of identity and one's identity in a political society is ALWAYS political. It is politicised in and through the language of advocacy and will continue to be politicised insofar as equality has not yet come into existence.
Zoe
30/8/2017 09:53:32 am
What a huge shame that you felt like it was your place to express 'concern' over the expression of people's identities, while so cowardly concealing your own.
TESS MCGUIRE
30/8/2017 10:22:29 am
Dear 'Concerned Citizen',
Tilly
30/8/2017 12:47:51 pm
@Concerned: as has been pointed out, the only 'rot' here is your racism, and you most certainly do not represent my views, nor many of our peers. I'm ashamed that I'm in the same building as you.
Distressed
30/8/2017 01:21:30 pm
How can MLS have so many fucking racists in it. Reading de min comments these days makes me feel despair. Fuck the alt right seriously
Lily Hart
30/8/2017 04:19:09 pm
I am thankful for De Minimis' comments section because although the comments can be very hurtful it makes it possible for us to see one reality of the law school. A reality, that for many people, is a dangerous place to be. Comments like concerned citizen's expose the inherent whiteness of MLS; a reality which won't be dismantled by silence or a hashtag (#humansofmls).
Very Concerned Citizen
30/8/2017 08:51:41 pm
Lets try to go over a few things hopefully without anybody foaming at the mouth shall we.
I get it now
30/8/2017 09:25:01 pm
You're a first year (who writes like a fourteen year old who just discovered Dawkins) and you think being able to regurgitate the ratio from Mabo makes you an expert on Indigenous sovereignty. Got it.
Brigid
30/8/2017 10:11:59 pm
What you unfortunately do not realise is that by attacking the Indigenous portfolio you do attack individuals behind this. The portfolio is inextricably linked to people- it is not a lobby group, it is a portfolio that represents interests that are incredibly close to some people.
CC
30/8/2017 10:37:32 pm
I didn't say the indigenous portfolio should not exist. I even said it should exist. So I'm not sure how you reach the conclusion that I have a problem listening to indigenous voices.
LILY HART
30/8/2017 09:26:12 pm
@ CC it is interesting though that you seemed to focus on the Indigenous portfolio with no mention of the Environments portfolio. The Environments portfolio seems more instinctively like a portfolio with a political agenda than one which exists to support Indigenous students at the MLS? This is what made me feel as if your comment has more to do with policing which identities should be 'allowed' at MLS and which are 'political'.
CC
30/8/2017 10:29:37 pm
I mentioned the indigenous portfolio because it was mentioned in the original article. Seeing you bring it up, the environment portfolio is arguably not concerned with political questions in the sense of normative values and opinions.
Mind my knee
30/8/2017 11:11:38 pm
You forget, because I'm guessing you belong to the enfranchised groups of the privileged across a number of intersectional categories, that you are already the default position. There is already representation of a viewpoint, but you don't see it that way, because it is your own.
Ayu
30/8/2017 11:28:57 pm
A person's lived experience forms the backbones of their advocacy and the basis of their political voice. You cannot possibly posit that they can divorce their lived experience from their representative role. We are all political subjects. There is no way that we do not speak by reference to our political subjectivity.
CC
30/8/2017 11:34:32 pm
The default position of things at MLS is one of soft left to not so soft left persuasion. It's right there in in LSS constitution, one of its purposes being 'Promoting a commitment to social justice and equality'. The LSS is overflowing with portfolios dedicated to various progressive causes. Conservatives and those with even soft right views are considered social pariahs and regularly pilloried. The soft left persuasion of most of the law school's professors should be obvious to anyone who studies here. Thankfully they are of such integrity that they rarely let it influence their work.
Claire N
30/8/2017 11:00:16 pm
CC: sometimes a useful tool, when evaluating whether you're just an ignorant bigot and not a highly enlightened mind rising above the general study body, is to ask yourself: why am I bothered by this? How does it affect me, personlly, if indigenous, LGBT and women's groups push their agenda and seek recognition and equality? Why should these groups exist merely to provide guidance to students? How can minorities live without it being an inherently political experience? Why do I believe they should avoid straying into the realm of advocacy? Well, it's probably because you've never had an elderly man spit at you, hiss 'faggot' and 'get your ass back to the orient'. This happened to a good friend of mine, a Chinese-Australian university graduate while we were walking our dogs in Carlton on Saturday morning.
CC
30/8/2017 11:55:30 pm
Let's pose another hypothetical question. An LSS affiliated group or portfolio is created which openly advocates for the restoration of the doctrine of 'terra nullius'.
Zoe
31/8/2017 12:21:52 am
Unsure how much clearer I could make this:
Claire N
31/8/2017 12:30:37 am
What do mean 'another' hypothetical question? I wasn't asking you any hypothetical questions, I'm posing some very real questions that perhaps you should ask yourself, either right now or a few years down the track.
VVCC
31/8/2017 03:06:38 pm
The reply was clearly intended to demonstrate how a person might reasonably take a position on an issue despite not having any personal stake in it.
Zoe
30/8/2017 11:28:39 pm
'Hey, Indigenous students, please go ahead and advocate for whatever you want, but don't do it on any of the key platforms where it might actually make a difference, and don't talk about sovereignty and the FACTUAL TRUTH that your land was never ceded, that's too contentious'.
CC
31/8/2017 03:15:17 pm
I don't apologise in the slightest for any hurt feelings of someone which are the result of reasoned argument to which that person happens to vehemently object. As far as I have made personal attacks, such as derisively calling your own comment 'laughable' or references to 'hysterics', I apologise.
CALLING ALL CONSERVATIVES
1/9/2017 01:05:25 pm
Reasonable right-wing conservatives, are you out there? I would perhaps be able to imagine you arent so different from my lefty self if you for once came out and denounced some of the repugnant things said by other self-proclaimed right-wingers - but you NEVER do. Your politics literally only survive at the expense of other oppressed groups and not one of you is willing to pull others up. Is it PC culture youre afraid of? Well the views of concerned citizen above very easily serve to uphold white supremacy and i guess you all feel pretty fine about that dont you
Reasonable right-wing conservative
1/9/2017 05:32:25 pm
Perhaps you would like to first explain how the view that the LSS should not be used for political purposes 'upholds white supremacy'.
GrowUp
3/9/2017 09:50:11 pm
Snow flakes get triggered? Not everybody view you don't like didums is down to patriarchy white supremacy or whatever buzz words you can think of Comments are closed.
|
Archives
December 2021
|