List of presidents of the ANUSA

The following students served as President of the ANU Students’ Association

• 1962 Don Brewster
• 1963 Chris Higgins
• 1964 Tony Hartnell
• 1965 John Yocklunn, Peter Paterson
• 1966 Keith Baker – SRC/ John Yocklunn – ANUSA
• 1967 Alan Brooks
• 1968 Alan Brooks
• 1969 Bob Erwin
• 1970 Mark Cunliffe
• 1971 Michael Wright
• 1972 Richard Refshauge
• 1973
• 1974 Michael Dunn^[source]
• 1975 Julius Roe
• 1976 Liz O’Brien
• 1977 Jon Nicholson
• 1978 Peter Cardwell
• 1979 Stephen Bartos
• 1980 Louise Tarrant
• 1981 Jeffrey Dalton^[source]
• 1982 Gary Humphries
• 1983 Bill Redpath
• 1984 Peter Taylor
• 1985 Lesley Ward
• 1986 Neil McFarlane
• 1987 Kate Andrews^[source]
• 1988 Andrew Major
• 1989 Mary Todd
• 1990 Jon Coroneos
• 1991 Elizabeth O’Leary
• 1992 Amanda Chadwick
• 1993 Kath Cummins
• 1994 Caitlin Wyndham^[source]
• 1995 Hamish McPherson^[source], Craig Cork, Pip Bolding^[source]
• 1996 William Mackerras^[source]
• 1997 Matt Tinning^[source]
• 1998 Harry Greenwell^[source]
• 1999 Helen Stitt
• 2000 Russell Egan
• 2001 Maciej Wasilewicz
• 2002 Joanne Yin
• 2003 Steve Michelson^[source]
• 2004 Max Jeganathan
• 2005 Aparna Rao
• 2006 Laura Crespo
• 2007 Claudia Newman-Martin
• 2008 Jamila Rizvi
• 2009 Sham Sara
• 2010 Tully Fletcher
• 2011 Leah Ginnivan
• 2012 Fleur Hawes, resigned, Dallas Proctor
• 2013 Aleks Sladojevic
• 2014 Cameron Wilson
• 2015 Ben Gill
• 2016 Ben Gill
• 2017 James Connolly
• 2018 Eleanor Kay
• 2019 Eden Lim
• 2020 Lachlan Day
• 2021 Madhumitha Janagaraja
• 2022 Christian Flynn
• 2023 Ben Yates^[source]
• 2024 Phoenix O’Neill
• 2025 Will Burfoot
• 2026 Charley Ellwood

1960s

1961 Bush Week begins

1963-4 Bush Week Feud with RMC

Vietnam protests

1965 Alinga St sit in – first Canberra sit in for Vietnam

1966 First teach in – Childers Hall with CP Fitzgerald

1966 protests at President Johnson’s visit to Canberra – Rex Hotel

1970s

May 7th 1970 – Vietnam Moratorium

1971 Springbok tour protests

1972 Troop withdrawal from Vietnam

1972 Tent Embassy established w student contributions

1973 ANU Radio begins

1974 Fees abolished by Whitlam government

1974-5 The Troubles – internal protest at ANU – included demands for staff/student control of course content, student choice of the means of assessment, an end to over crowded classes, representation of non academic workers on Council, and the institution of a Women’s Studies course at the ANU.

1974 April Occupation of the Chancelry

1975 Whitlam Dismissal

1976 2xx FM starts broadcasting

1977 ‘Homosexuals at ANU’ begins

1977 Environment Officer position created

1979 Wimmin on Campus begins

1979 1979 Amendents to ANU Act, protests at Parliament house

1980s

1980 education campaigns

1981 first counter course handbook produced by education collective

1989 HECs introduced, annual fee of $1800

1990s

1993 Women’s Department Begins and Rapunzel Room opens

1994 Sexuality Department established

1994 8 day occupation of the Chancelry by 150 students

1995 Occupation of Chancelry over GDLP fees of $9000

1998 Sexuality department becomes the Queer Department

1999 anti GST rallies

2000s

2003 Protest against the Iraq War

July 2006 VSU introduced

VSU protests

2006 Disabilities Department established

2010s

2011 Woroni independent from ANUSA

2012 SSAF introduced

2012 Cuts to School of Music, Save the SOM protests

2014 Deregulation legislation introduced

Chancelry read in over deregulation

2016 Ethnocultural department launched in October

“1996 Wadgate”

The 1996 ANUSA elections saw the losing “Rage” ticket embroiled in scandal. 146 votes for the “Rage” presidential candidate Daniel Jenkins were excluded by the Returning Officer after allegations of ballot stuffing^[6]. The fraud was discovered when a student sitting in a cafe saw a voter attempt to stuff a wad of ballots into the ballot box. When the Returning Officer opened the ballot box, five wads of ballots were found, all of which gave their first preference to Jenkins.

The scandal was dubbed “Wadgate” by the student newspaper Woroni and was subsequently reported on the front page of the Canberra Times (5 February 1997) and elsewhere.

Location

ANUSA moved into premises in the Concessions Building in Union Court in 1999, following a major refurbishment. The Brian Kenyon Student Space was opened in 2011, named after Brian Kenyon, who drove ANU’s late night bus for 26 years until 2014.

As part of the Union Court redevelopment, the Concessions Building was demolished in 2017. ANUSA and the Brian Kenyon Student Space are now located in the Di Riddell Student Centre.

Independence of Woroni

In 2011, ANUSA was incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act 1991 (ACT). The ANU Student Newspaper, Woroni, was previously published by ANUSA, however, the successful 2009 Stand Up! ticket ran on a platform to deliver an independent student newspaper, similar to student publications at North American universities. As a result, ANU Student Media was formed in 2010 as an independent association, and became incorporated in 2012^[7].

Student Services and Amenities Fee introduction

2012 saw the introduction of the Student Services and Amenities Fee by the Gillard Government^[8], leading to a doubling of the ANUSA budget. This was a catalyst for a new phase of growth for the Association, most apparent in the significant increase in staffing that has occurred.

Campaigns

Key campaigns in recent years have included ‘Save the School of Music’ in 2012, an attempt to prevent structural changes to ANU School of Music proposed by the university^[9]. The campaign attracted national media attention, and was featured on the ABC’s 7:30 Report. A petition was signed by over 24,000 people. In 2014, an anti-fee deregulation campaign was spearheaded by Education Officer Laura Wey, also achieving national media coverage^[10]. One of the protest marches was comically featured on Channel 9’s The Footy Show. In 2017, the ‘Month of Strength and Solidarity’ campaign was conducted in order to advocate for the changes regarding sexual assault and harassment on campus.

Postgraduate representation

In 2023 ANUSA starts representing both postgraduate and undergraduate students after PARSA winds up operations.