National Liaison Committee

The National Liaison Committee (NLC) is a national faction in the National Union of Students of Australia. NLC operates as a faction independently from the organisation National Liaison Committee for International Students in Australia, despite sharing a name as well as its factional leadership.

While the NLC is a national faction, its major strength was based in West Australia and Victoria.Only over the past few years, it had re-established itself as a faction in Tasmania, South Australia and New South Wales.

Membership

In general, NLC used to draw its membership from international students involved in student unions as well as domestic students who are symphathetic to the international student cause.It is a general misconception in the union that National Liaison Committee for International Students in Australia operates as the faction. In reality, the faction has no relationship with the organisation besides sharing the same leadership.

Members of the faction include :
* members of the International Students Committee (National Executive of NLC)
* national executive of NUS elected under the NLC ticket
* individuals who align themselves with NLC at NUS conferences

Notable (non-international) past members include Dave Hughes, who attended the 1998 national conference under the NLC banner, and later joined Student Unity and eventually was elected into the position of National General Secretary of National Union of Students of Australia in 2002.

Mission

As a faction, NLC existed primarily to ensure that the interest of international students and the International Students Department are not ignored by the union. However with the shut down of the ISD due to VSU there remains little interest of international students within NUS to have a voice.While its presence is currently less visibile, there existed a movement to minimise the influence of NLC by the National Labor Students (NLS) faction to remove and reduce funding of the International Students Committee.

Political ideology

Many students unfamiliar with the NLC faction have mistakenly assumed that it is a right-leaning faction through the perceived cooperation with Student Unity in the previous years. In reality, due to the diversity of its membership, members of NLC identify with politics across the political spectrum. However, generally its members are politically neutral and avoid taking a stance on purely domestic issues with little or no connection to the welfare of international students. However at 2006 NUS Conference, the NLC faction supported a left office by endorsing all left candidates for office bearer positions and supporting an independent Mathew Chuk for the position of General Secretary.

Another reason has also been the dominance of NLS, the National Labor Students, on most campuses and their unwillingness to work together with the NLC.

The current President of the NLC is Eric Yenz Pang.

Campus politics

While the members of the NLC focus on running the International Student Organisations (ISOs) of universities in Australia, there has been a recent trend of international students from the NLC running in local student organisation elections. This has resulted in international students holding the highest position on the peak student representative body of a number of universities in Australia. The NLC at campus level have run on separate tickets either on their own as an international students group or by negotiating deals with local student political factions including Student Unity, NLS and NBL.

*Kirsten Koh - President, University of Tasmania Student Association (2005)
*Umile Gwakuba - President, Edith Cowan University Student Guild (2005)
*Justin Lee - President, University of South Australia Students Association (Two consecutive terms: 2005, 2006)
*Abhishek Devaraj - President, University of South Australia Students Association 2007

NLC Office bearers and Executive

(currently incomplete)

NUS National Office Bearers

*Ayan Dasvarma (National Queer Officer)
*Bernise Ang (National Women's Officer 2004)
*Shanton Chang (National Small & Regional Officer 1995)
*Eugene Sebastian (National Small & Regional Officer 1994)

NUS National executive

*Mohit Masand (2007)
*Eric Yenz Pang,Hun Sheng Chuah,Praneet Keni,Aman Poonia (2006)
*Tiffany Soh, Praneet Keni, Tan Zi Hao(2005)
*Wang Jia, Ying Qi Teh, Rhavy Nursimulu (2004)
*Adrian Wong, Tedy Gunawan, Ali Abusalem, Bernise Ang, Ginny Loh (2003)
*Naomi Nugraweni, Ching Ching Ko (2001, 2002)
*Adrian Wong (1999,2000)
*Chin Yihan, Jean Sin, +1 (1999)
*Caroline Sim (1997)
*Shanton Chang, Maya Thillakkannu (1994)
*Eugene Sebastian (1992, 1993))

NLC South Australia

*Praneet Keni (State President, 2006)
*Keith Hiew Wai Kong (Education Officer, 2006)
*Melissa Loi (Welfare, Small & Regional Officer, 2006)
*Nikhil Vasuki (General Secretary, 2005)
*Ankit Puri (Welfare, Small & Regional Officer, 2005)

NLC Tasmania

*Zi Hao, Tan (State President, 2005)
*Leslie Williams (State President 1993-94)
*Ali Mahmood (State President, 1992-1993)

NLC Victoria

*Jelita Azman (Women's Officer, 2004)

General Secretaries

*Pradeep Subramaniam(2006)
*Sarinda Perera(2006)
*Tenzing Gurung(2005)
*Melvin Lee(2004)
*Anne Tan (2001)
*Ayan Dasvarma (2000)
*Sofian Edy (1999)

NLC West

*Adrian Wong (Welfare, Small & Regional Officer)

General secretaries

*Hui Lin Chia (2006)
*Jolene Ho (2005)
*Naomi Nugraweni (2004)
*Kenny Sia (2003)
*Pagan Chee (2000)
*Jean Sin

References

# " [http://www.src.usyd.edu.au/HTML2/home_report_intl.htm Your Representation in Australia! | SRC International Student Officers' Report] ". URL accessed 11-9-06