The intense world of student politics at the University of Queensland is reaching its peak this week.
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Voting in the UQ Union election for office bearers and the council closes on Friday, with seven parties in the running.
The incumbent, Focus, a coalition affiliated with the Young LNP and Labor right, is lobbying for a late-night convenience store, while Momentum, a progressive party more affiliated with Labor Left, wants more accessible mental health services and to end sexual assault on campus.
In a first, students interested in this year's "stupol" elections at Queensland's largest university can access independent information about the parties and discover how they stand on topics such as campus culture, amenities, student rights and health, via an online "democracy app" called UQvotes, created by NewVote.
The website also allows people to raise, debate and vote on issues between elections, such as smoking on campus or introducing a McDonald's, in order to lobby the candidates to make changes.
NewVote director Dion McCurdy said the app was designed to get students politically engaged.
"In the last election, only 28 per cent of UQ's 52,000 students voted. We hope to see a lift in the numbers," he said.
Mr McCurdy, a Brisbane lawyer and UQ graduate, said UQvotes gave candidates a chance to communicate their message beyond the usual Facebook pages, A-frames, flyers and direct pitches to students.
It also gave students a chance to tell aspiring university politicians what they cared about, he said.
"It's grassroots, so anyone can add an issue or a solution, so that's the crowd-sourcing aspect of it - we don't have to wait for the politicians to come up with something - they can come up with a solution," Mr McCurdy said.
"It's not just a complaints factory - it's there to solve problems and make decisions."
Mr McCurdy said the plan was to roll the platform out to other universities, with the potential to also introduce it during council and state elections.
UQ student and NewVote volunteer Michael Partington said the app would continue running at the university after this week's election.
"Students will continue to shape policy with their newly elected representatives long after the campaigning is over," he said.
NewVote was created in 2016 and is based at the UQ iLab, a hub for start-ups, where it currently has 16 student volunteers from the areas of business, IT, political science and marketing.
The parties vying for power during the UQ Union election 2018
- Focus - Incumbent, a coalition affiliated with the Young LNP/ Labor right. Focus pledges to deliver a new campus bar, provide coffee vending machines in study spaces, a medicine fridge and is lobbying for a late-night convenience store.
- Momentum - Progressive, Labor left-affiliated. Advocating for accessible mental health services, fighting to end sexual assault on campus, introduce social welfare officers at events and provide free breakfasts five days a week.
- Student Action - Activist, left-wing party. Wants no upfront fees for international students, concession TransLink fares for part-time students, more computer labs, more gender-neutral bathrooms on campus and opposes Islamophobia.
- Smokers' Rights - Wants to end the ban on smoking, arguing there are safety issues for smokers who have to smoke off-campus, bring back cheaper tobacco sales on campus and provide free patches and gum to people who are trying to quit. Smoking and vaping on campus was banned in July 2018
- Team Rocket - Independent. Hopes to ensure no political party faction gets too much power and provide checks and balances, more accessible bathrooms in the new union complex redevelopment, push for more 66 buses at night.
- International Students Assembly - Representing international students. Concerned about the under-representation of international students in the UQ Union.
- Revive - Conservative. Aims to re-establish a pro-life student organisation on campus, introduce the Ramsay Centre's western civilisation degree, ban the Confucius Institute, which promotes the learning of Chinese language and culture, deliver a smoking area in the student bar, and contain student enrolment numbers.
