‘Where it becomes toxic is when you're dealing with socialists': Inside student politics, 2025 edition

The Age

2 days ago

It is a sunny winter's day on the sprawling grounds of the University of Sydney, and throngs of students are perusing the dozens of student club stalls jammed along the main campus thoroughfare.
There's the Society for Creative Anachronism, the Chocolate Society and the Taylor Swift Society (USyd's Version).
A young woman with dyed blood-red hair, pigtails and a scruffy faux fur coat peers into the Sydney University Labor Club tent. It is nestled appropriately to the right of the Socialist Alternative Club and just to the left of the more politically conservative ALP Club. She strikes up a conversation with a student sitting behind a desk.
If she joins the Labor Club, she will be the 205th member to sign on this year. The stall, festooned with rainbow flags and posters promising to fight fascism, offers a few clues as to what student politics in 2025 involves.
'I think what's unique about us is we send a very clear message that we're about changing politics, not being changed by politics,' says the current president of the club, William Yang.
But politics is a numbers game, and Yang – armed with a clipboard – does not wait around for students to happen upon the club's tent.
'I would try to go up to as many people, regardless of what they look like,' he says.
This month, the club will celebrate its 100th anniversary inside the hallowed walls of the university's neo-Gothic MacLaurin Hall. The anniversary marks the establishment of the then titled Labor Group, in 1925, founded by H.V. 'Doc' Evatt. In 1931, the Herald reported on the Labor Club's first annual meeting, noting that university management said partisan political meetings were not allowed.
The club has produced some of the biggest names in Labor politics, including Gough Whitlam and John Kerr, while its more recent alumni include prominent NSW MP Rose Jackson.
But one famous living graduate, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, will not attend the centenary celebration.
His office has told organisers he had a prior commitment, though some students speculate it is largely because the faction that has controlled the historic club since 2013 – the Socialist Labor Society (also known as the Ferguson or Soft Left) – is not aligned with Albanese's.
Factions might be a necessary evil of student politics, but in Gen Z parlance, the experience of political involvement is a 'side quest' that fits between study, friends and family, says Yang.
'We want to do more than just vote, and we discover that through collectively fighting or through collectively being active, that's the best way to do it,' he says. 'First and foremost, we become comrades.'
There's another side to student politics: infighting, backstabbing and factional deals – the equivalent of a finishing school for the politically ambitious who dream of a career in the conniving world of politics.
Wang says that experiencing the casual brutality of political machinations at university can discourage some students from pursuing the political scene forever.
'Deals are done or people are destroyed over screenshots of text messages being sent out at midnight. And it's pretty astonishing, like, being able to sit at a table where you just have a couple of people hand over printed emails or printed screenshots to bring someone down because of these personnel disputes,' he says.
'I think most people who are in the Labor Party, and most people who have gone somewhere in the Labor Party … haven't actually been subject or part of that kind of nitty-gritty aspect of it. They've obviously seen that. But I think by seeing it, that's what makes your maturity grow exponentially.'
On the other side of the political spectrum at Sydney University stands the Conservative Club.
Its president last year, Freya Leach, says that joining a right-leaning political club is like finding a refuge for students who might not feel like they fit in with the rest of the university community.
'There's a lot of interest in politics ... particularly in centre-right politics because the campus is so left wing; they're looking for people who are values-aligned,' she says. 'We don't have too many crazy people.
'I always enjoy debates and robust discussion. We did a number of debates against young Labor – it was fun,' Leach says.
'Where it goes too far, and it becomes toxic, is when you're dealing with the socialists.'
Leach has left university and will have her own nightly show on Sky News starting this month.
While you can study political economy in class, and volunteer to campaign for existing party members, perhaps the best way to learn about running a successful campaign or jostling for a party position is doing it at university – where the stakes are low.
'I had a really great experience in Sydney [...] It is really good to practise and experience,' Leach says. 'It does actually prepare you for party politics ... debating issues, forming coalitions, winning votes and doing deals.
'I would say a lot of people get their start in student politics.'
One former student politician, speaking on the condition of anonymity, says more moderate students who possess an interest in politics are increasingly concerned that being associated with some clubs could be more of a liability than a help when it comes to building a career.
'There's social media now, and there can be a stigma around being in the Liberal Party because it is a broad church, including MAGA adherents,' he says.
Last year, two male students tore up copies of a landmark report that exposed a systemic culture of sexual violence and hazing in front of a student meeting that was live-streamed.
Of course, controversies and stunts in student politics are nothing new, and those of today are probably less violent than those of the past.
In 1967, three female students from the Labor Club were tackled by police, arrested and bundled into a police van after protesting against the Vietnam War at a performance by the US Vietnam Headquarters band.
That year, then NSW governor Sir Roden Cutler became collateral damage when he was 'jostled, pelted with fruit and almost tripped over' and others were knocked unconscious in a fracas that erupted between left- and right-wing students.
Loading
But the battle lines on campus have been redrawn in recent years. The Sydney University Liberal Club (whose alumni include John Howard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull) appears to be defunct on the student union website.
The Conservative Club's current president, Bryson Constable, says that's because involvement in clubs has shrunk and university students are primarily left wing.
'Student politics from a right-of-centre perspective is quite boring as there is only one group,' Constable says. 'It is a big group of, I think, quite wise and moderate perspectives.
'The emphasis for me has really always been on using it as a learning experience. You get to be in control of things and try a whole range of roles which exist in a student political scene, where you don't have access to anywhere else.'
Compared with the 1960s, political tension between students is now probably more likely to divide students on the left of politics.
Back at Labor's welcome week tent, abuzz with students, club members might cop some flak for ties to the current federal government, even if the club itself is controlled by a faction that self identifies as socialist.
'I've had some side eyes from some people that I've noticed when they see Labor,' Ciara Sietsma says.
'I do give a spiel that, like, we don't like some of what the Labor Party does, and kind of the whole point of our movement is to push for better politics and just kind of, like, advocate for our theory of change because the Labor Party is a very democratic party.
'You know, democracy isn't functional without educated people that know what's going on.'
At its very best, she says, student politics is about 'engaging young people and getting them involved in the issues that affect them'.
'The worst thing is the infighting – I'd say there's just a lot of unnecessary drama.'