Film · 2004 · Documentary

The State of the Union

The bloodiest election in the history of student unionism.

Student politics at Melbourne University has a reputation for being particularly dirty. The campus' student union elections have been skullduggerous affairs contested by groups including Young Labor and Liberals, the More Beer Club, as well as a strong contingent of revolutionary socialists. In 2003, the Melbourne University Student Union (MUSU) was on the verge of financial collapse. Allegations of corruption against the union's right-wing student leaders featured in the foremost pages of both The Australian and The Age. Having spent two years in the political wilderness, the campus' left wing factions united in a desperate bid to wrest back control and save the union. The State of the Union is a documentary capturing the bloodiest election in the history of student unionism, providing an illuminating and often humorous insight into the microcosm that is university politics, and perhaps politics in general.