An opinion piece by Harry Rae.
Friends, our democracy is at stake. And it comes from a threat far greater than anything we’ve seen before. Mikayla O’Flynn coached a team that beat a team I coached in debating and I’m incredibly salty. Now, she stands unopposed as candidate for UQLS president, and the time has come to take a stand. I will (threaten to) run from the floor to defend our society.
It happened twice. First time in round 4, and then again in the semi-final. The worst part: Mikayla O’Flynn had paid every single adjudicator that voted against me. This is true. All three adjudicators that had the audacity to award Mikayla victories were also adjudicators for the Brisbane Girls Debating Association. An organisation Mikayla was president of this year.
Coincidence? I think not. In fact, I’m certain not. They are all great adjudicators; it’s no wonder both QDU and BGDA wanted them. But it doesn’t help my narrative to dwell on that, so instead let’s focus on Mikayla paying off adjudicators just to spite me.
You might be thinking, “Harry, you clearly feel very strongly about this. But why vote for you? What is your platform?” 3 things.
1. All candidates must disclose all payments made to QDU adjudicators.
2. Anyone who skips dress rehearsal of law revue to watch the debating team they coach win the state final should be disqualified from running for UQLS office.
3. We must reform UQLS election procedure to make preferential voting compulsory rather than optional. This is serious (not that the other stuff isn’t), optional preferential voting is basically asking for undemocratic outcomes due to vote exhaustion.
Are any of these remotely as useful as Mikayla’s policy platform of making the UQLS more inclusive, accessible and responsive? Who’s to say? For sake of abiding by UQLS election by-laws I am explicitly not answering that question.
Do I know literally anything about how to run an organisation on the scale of the UQLS? To answer that would potentially sway your vote in a manner impermissible in this forum so I shall leave that to the imagination.
But am I incredibly hell-bent on victory? You bet I am. (And if you do so, Luke Allen and I will be collecting those bets at the door of the AGM, as well as any bets on other positions. Chances are, you’re about to lose. What’s gambling really costing you?)
Be there, at the UQLS AGM on Thursday October 31st to watch as Mikayla runs for president against (maybe) me. Unless you think this is some kind of joke, in which case come along anyway because there’ll be lots more of that coming from the Obiter and there’s free pizza.