SRC Election 2025 - Who's who?

The final schedule of nominations for this year’s SRC elections has been published. This year, there are eight different tickets running alongside a myriad of independents. 

This article covers the ‘who’s who’, beyond just their names and tickets! 

Kensington Fried Chicken

Kensington Fried Chicken is a ‘new’ ticket this year. This ticket’s primary policy involves overturning the Nene Chicken establishment at UNSW by getting cheaper fried chicken on campus, heavily implied to be through fast food chain KFC. Other policies of the ticket include improving the microwaves on campus, chips in week 10, and a very bold plan to disaffiliate Arc and the SRC from the National Union of Students. 

This ticket appears to be a substantially reformed version of the Spice Up ticket from previous years, running many of the same candidates. Their candidate for president is Anthony Ma, who does not hide his affiliation with the Liberal Party. He is the current president of the UNSW Liberal Club and has worked for various Liberal MPs. While Ma certainly holds the leadership experience to handle the top job, also having been involved in organisation-heavy roles in the UNSW Law Society, United Nations Society, and countless others, his affiliation with the Liberal Party could turn the generally left-leaning student population away. 

Noise understands that various other candidates running on the ticket are also affiliated with the Liberal Party or are otherwise members of the UNSW Liberal Club. 

Caesar Boehme, also known by Noise as ‘Blue-Shirt Guy’, is running for both Environmental Officer and Students with Disabilities Officer (although notably, he is running for that position as an independent!). For context, last year Boehme was a proxy for Louis Pan at one SRC meeting. He attended an SRC meeting in person (back when most people attended remotely) and was the only non-Socialist Alternative individual in the room, which led to some interesting drama. 

The ticket posted a reel, responding to a post by rival ticket Shoutout, where they emphasised “we’re not left wing… we’re not right wing… we’re for chicken wings. Kensington Fried Chicken is for everyone no matter what you believe. We’re not interested in politics.” Other tickets seem to very much disagree. 

365

365 is returning this year with an almost entirely new roster of office bearer candidates. This is likely a result of most of their elected representatives finishing up their degrees, something many people in the student politics space should consider. 

Diya Sengupta, incumbent SRC President, and Billy Moran, unsuccessful Environmental Officer candidate and former Noise SRC correspondent, are the two main familiar faces. However, this year, 365 have used an old Revive tactic from 2023, running Sengupta as General Secretary and Moran as their President candidate. 

Moran, in contrast to Ma’s extensive leadership experience, appears lacking in this department. Noise understands he was a founding Secretary of UNSW’s Republic Club over 3 years ago, but has had little experience since. If elected, we would expect Sengupta to need to guide Moran significantly, but this is contingent on them both being elected.

365’s policies for 2025 include expanding Clothes Hub, cheaper meals, bringing back recycling bins to campus, and universal short extensions. 

It will be fun to see Ma and Moran facing up again, as they did last year in the campaign for Environment Officer. While both were ultimately defeated by Emma Terry from Left Action, between the two, Ma got 300 more votes than Moran. Maybe the takeaway from this is that Left Action needs to run a candidate for President! 

365 is one of the few tickets to have Mandarin translations of its posts. These were completed by Ken Wang, who was originally running for President as an independent but appears to have since withdrawn his candidacy. 

Left Action - Free Palestine

This year, Left Action’s office bearer candidates are some highly familiar faces. Jamie Tyers is aiming to hold on to his spot as Education Officer, while Emma Terry is making the jump to Welfare Officer. Louisa Chen and Avasa Bajracharya are attempting to move from Councillor to Environment Officer and Ethnocultural Officer respectively.

Left Action’s key points involve ending UNSW’s ties to the weapons industry, free education, climate justice and affordable housing. 

Importantly, this year, it would seem that all Left Action candidates are part of the Socialist Alternative (alternatively known as the people always trying to hand out flyers on the main walkway). Previously, non-Socialist Alternative members have run under the Left Action ticket, as it is nearly impossible to succeed as a true independent in student politics. These include Diya Sengupta, who ran with Left Action in 2023, and Conroy Blood, who ran with them in 2023 and 2024. Importantly, neither Diya nor Conroy are members, or have ever been members, of Socialist Alternative. 

Last year made one thing abundantly clear — Left Action’s pure numbers and ability to catch people on the spot to make them vote is expected to swing the election in their favour. The main difference from last year, however, is that the Labor-aligned faction is no longer split. We would love to be proven otherwise, but it would seem highly likely that Left Action’s how-to-vote card is exactly how the results will flow again this year. Getting a preference deal with Left Action is a commodity in this space. 

Together

Together has also made a comeback this year. Their focus appears to be on taking the stress away from students by pushing for 5-day short extensions for all courses, standardised 11:59 pm deadlines, guaranteed lecture recordings, maximum 40% weighted final exams, coffee on campus past 5 pm, special considerations for religious and cultural holidays, and paid practical placements for all courses.  

Together is affiliated with ‘Unity’, the Labor Party’s right-wing faction - this is the faction where MPs such as Jim Chalmers and Tony Burke come from. 

Together is the only ticket not to lose any elected members. General Secretary Akash is aiming to make the jump to Education Officer, facing off directly with Left Action’s Jamie Tyers. 

Meanwhile, Luke Cox and Daniel Gulic are jumping from Councillor all the way up to President and General Secretary respectively, facing off directly with 365. Cox and Gulic have had a significant presence in the SRC this year, speaking on a number of issues and getting into many disputes across all sides of the political spectrum. 

Cox has always had an interesting relationship with student politics, receiving a 12.5% vote penalty in his run for Arc Board early last year after he had a Western Sydney University student assist with campaigning. The personality and character he brings to SRC meetings is, however, without question, and many tune in just to see what he has to say. 

We might see more people from this ticket get elected this year as last year they were impacted by splinter group ‘Revive’, which divided resources and votes significantly. 

Shoutout

Shoutout is a brand-new ticket in this year’s election. Their policies include expanding short extensions, native floral gardens on campus, an SRC-run vaccination drive, divestment from fossil fuels and weapons companies, putting coffee, tea and hot water in kitchenettes on campus, putting free pill testing kits in SRC rooms, and an affordable second-hand textbook marketplace.

Noise understands that the ticket is a mix of National Labor Students (NLS), NSW Greens and some independents. NLS hasn’t had a presence on campus at UNSW in a few years, so it's interesting to see them making a comeback. 

Notably, none of the members known to be associated with NLS have run for office-bearer positions, instead running for the NUS spots. This follows events earlier in the year,  when the Labor-left faction was splintered, resulting in the formation of a new faction known as NSW Labor Students. This meant a large chunk of NLS’s standing in the NUS was lost to this splinter faction. Running members for the NUS are aiming to fill the void that the NSWLS drama left. 

Meanwhile, the candidates we know to be associated with the Greens include Conroy Blood, current Student for Disabilities Officer, and Milo Griggs, running for Environment Officer.

EDGE

Another independent ticket, regrettably still named ‘EDGE’, is running again in this year’s election. Their focus is on improving campus facilities, cost of living relief, improved transport to campus, expanding mental health support, and better drainage on campus. 

Ethan Lin is re-running for Ethnocultural Officer. He has done a lot of work in the role in building the Ethnocultural Collective community, as well as promoting a grant for clubs. Lin will be running up against Bajracharya from Left Action. This is the first time Socialist Alternative has contested the position in a while. It is definitely a role with a lot to offer in terms of anti-racism activism, especially in today’s context, but it could undermine the Ethno-Collective community Lin has built. 

You Wei Chung is EDGE’s presidential candidate. He is certainly enthusiastic about politics and student activism, noting his active participation in the Noise community Discord server, and his occasional appearance as Ethan’s proxy at SRC meetings. Additionally, he has a small amount of leadership experience as an executive of UNSW’s Touhou Society. Why EDGE have put Chung up instead of Lin, who has breathed new life into the Ethnocultural Officer role and is directly experienced as an office bearer, is quite a puzzle. 

GOON for SRC

This ticket is a bit of an enigma. They only have two candidates, Annie Yu and Cow Chou. Despite this, there is an Instagram account called “GOON for UNSW,” describing itself as “Grassroots Organising Outreach Network”. Posts on this account have been authorised by Gerry Selvaraj, however, Selvaraj is not running for GOON, he is running under Together’s ticket! 

We are unsure if this Instagram account is actually affiliated with the people running for GOON; however, it is clear from the posts that the Instagram account is supporting Together. 

The account certainly does not enjoy media scrutiny, posting both Gamamari’s article and a DM they received from us at Noise on their story, stating in both cases that “The lion does not concern himself with the opinion of [the publication].” 

We know nothing about their plans if elected or what the ticket stands for. So far, it can only be viewed as a way to post crude memes about other tickets without fear of consequences for Together. 

Ban High Schoolers on Campus 

This ticket is only running Councillors and NUS candidates. They have not started any social media campaign that we are aware of. We know nothing about their plans other than their apparent commitment to banning high schoolers on campus. If you are running this ticket, we would love to hear from you!

Independents

As with every year, the occasional independent pops up - usually someone unfamiliar with student politics. However, some roles, such as the Queer Officers, are almost always run separately from tickets. We won’t be able to cover them all, but here are some of the highlights.

Running for President is Parisha Singh. We do not know much about her, but if anyone knows who she is and can put us in touch, we would love to get in contact! Singh is running for various other roles too, including General Secretary and International Students Officer. 

Danielle Moutopoulos and Edward Zhong were both confirmed to have been elected unopposed. Danielle’s election is impressive - this will be her fourth year on the SRC, having gone from Paddington Domestic Officer to Paddington Representation Officer the past two years, back to Paddington Domestic Officer. It is important to note that the SRC has a maximum of two terms per role! Maybe Moutopoulos should be running for President instead of some of our less experienced candidates. 

Edward Zhong similarly has had quite a lengthy tenure with the SRC as Paddington Domestic Officer for the past two years, now swapping with Danielle to Paddington Representation Officer.

Furthermore, Tara Chen was elected as one of the Queer Officers while the other position was reopened for nominations, with Eugene Tang and Violet Bustos-McNeil both contesting the remaining position. 

Voting opens on Monday, when all students will receive a unique link in their university email. If you are interested in finding out more about the candidates, Noise is also hosting a debate this Thursday at 6 pm - you can join here.