National Party tertiary education spokesman Dr Paul Hutchison says his party has no intention of making membership of student associations voluntary, despite some student leaders being confused by his comments at their recent national conference.
Under current legislation, it is compulsory for tertiary students to join a student association if one exists on their campus.
However, students have the right to petition a referendum on whether membership should continue to be compulsory.
Dr Hutchison told delegates at the recent student associations national conference his personal choice was for membership to be voluntary and that National would support the status quo, which gave students the right to petition for change if they wished.
But some student leaders interpreted that to mean Dr Hutchison supported a change in the legislation.
New Zealand University Students Association co-president Liz Hawes said while Dr Hutchison's initial answer "may have been a little ambiguous", he had later clarified National's position to her presidential colleague Paul Falloon.
However, she said it had been difficult for her and Mr Falloon to pin National down on its exact tertiary policies in the lead up to this year's general election.
"It has been hard for us to get a fix on their policies' bottom line."
Auckland University Students Association president David Do said he also found it hard to get a clear policy direction from Dr Hutchison at the conference, but accepted his later clarification that he supported the status quo.
Otago Polytechnic Students Association co-president Ryan Ward, who attended the conference and heard Dr Hutchison speak, said Dr Hutchison "seemed to have a definitive stance supporting choice", which he took to mean legislation might be changed.
Dr Hutchison had made similar comments at a presidents' training seminar late last year, Mr Ward said.
It would be devastating for his association if membership was made voluntary, he said.
"Basically, we would have one year [of existence] and that would be it."
Membership of the Auckland University Students Association became voluntary in 1999 following a referendum there.
The association had survived, but in a much reduced form, he said.
Staff were laid off after membership numbers plummeted from about 20,000 to 3000.
Membership had since climbed to about 20,000, but only because it was free and the association spent considerable time and money seeking out students and asking them to sign up, he said.
Otago University Students Association president Simon Wilson said he was never in any doubt about Dr Hutchison's comments at the conference.
"He gave a commitment that the National Party would not change the status quo, at least for its first three years in office."
The OUSA would be able to survive voluntary membership, but with difficulty, he said.
"We have been around for 118 years and about a third of our income come is from non-levy sources.
''I would be confident we could continue, but we would have to cut back on our staff and services . . .
''There would be some very interesting meetings to decide our future."
Association revenues:
Otago University Students Association
•Operational and capital budget (2007): $2.3 million
•Income from membership levies (2007): $2.29 million*
•Income from other sources (2007): $459,000
•Levy per full-time undergraduate student (2007): $171.94
*Includes property rebuilding fund levies
Otago Polytechnic Students Association
•Operational budget (2008 projected): $400,000
•Income from membership levies (2008 projected): $335,000
•Income from other sources (2008 projected): $63,500
•Levy per full-time student (2008): $120
