By Pia Bobeff and Will Cassell
“Some of the biggest changes students need [including legislative reform] will take years,” Malakai King, the presidential candidate for the Elevate ticket, told Observer.
However, Luka Knight, the Welfare Officer candidate under impact.’s ticket, claims that students can expect legislation to change within a year if his ticket are elected.
“Leila Clarke, the current Welfare Officer and impact.’s presidential candidate, has been negotiating with the ACT government on legal protections for on-campus residents,” Knight told Observer.
“I want to finish what Leila has started, and Impact will finish it.” Each elected ANUSA officer serves a term of one year, finishing on 30 November 2027.
Knight noted that an impact.-led student union would “push immediately for changes to occupancy agreements, tariff-setting and maintenance processes, while continuing the legislative track in parallel”.
No legislation, so far, has been introduced into the ACT Legislative Assembly.
Earlier this year, ACT Greens Spokesperson for Youth, Laura Nuttall, signalled her support for legislative reform “that puts power into the hands of renters and renters unions”. The ACT Greens hold the balance of power in the Assembly and require the support of ACT Labor or the Canberra Liberals to pass legislation.
Elevate can navigate this political environment, according to King, “As an independent team, we aren’t bound by a party line”.
“We can work with anyone who wants to improve students’ lives, from members across the Legislative Assembly, the University, external advocacy groups, and Representatives from other tickets at this election.”
Another area of contention between impact. and Elevate is the discounting of defective rooms.
The impact. ticket advocates for the “introduction of short-term discounted rent for rooms with disclosed defects until those defects are resolved,” under its renters’ rights program.
For Elevate, this is not the “policy answer.”
“We shouldn’t be negotiating over what our living conditions are worth,” King said. “Students end up paying for savings with their health and wellbeing.”
However, King concedes that “[s]tudents should absolutely continue to raise concerns regarding rooms that are below the expected standard in any form and seek remedies to those issues”.
This critique “proves our point rather than undermining it,” said Knight.
“They are right that a discount cannot substitute for a repair – that is precisely why our policy makes the discount short-term, tied to a disclosed and unresolved defect, not a standing option to pay less for a bad room indefinitely.”
A few weeks ago, the ANU announced increases to on-campus accommodation that are above inflation. If this were to occur in the private rental market, a tenant would have the right to challenge such an increase to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The ANU sets increases to rent for student accommodation under terms that are secret due to a confidential contract. However, in a statement to Observer, they stated that this decision was “not made lightly” and attributed rent increases to increasing costs outside their “direct control”.
The ANU stated that they are committed to ensuring that weekly tariffs do not exceed 75 per cent of market value, which they achieve through an external valuer’s independent assessment. They stress that “accommodation tariffs cover more than the cost of a room”, such as amenities, wellbeing support, and social and academic opportunities.
The ANU believes that “the cost of living on campus will remain competitive in 2027” and stated that they take “steps to minimise their impact on residents wherever [they] can” such as this year where they “absorbed increases in utility-related costs”.
ANU is the only Australian university that offers guaranteed accommodation to all students. The University recommends that students experiencing financial hardship reach out to its financial support programs such as the Student Urgent Relief Bursary and other emergency accommodation bursaries.
Students are pushing for the University to do more.
Elevate is calling for the ANU to increase transparency through public disclosure of the annual breakdown of accommodation costs, a clear explanation for any increase, and a formal review process involving student representatives.
The independent ticket wants to form an ANUSA that will “deliver now” for students “by closing gaps in existing support and using its resources more effectively.”
Elevate’s candidate for Postgraduate Member on ANU Council, Zhiyang Wei, promises to oppose tariff increases.
“Pricing out students for living on-campus during a cost-of-living crisis is a strategic and governance risk that deserves focus from the top,” Wei stated on the Elevate website.
impact. has several policies under its renters’ rights program, including requiring rooms to be independently assessed as uninhabitable, auditing laundry infrastructure across halls, establishing an ANUSA-run repair and escalation pathway, and running renters’ rights workshops with ANUSA lawyers.
Jack Derwent, the General Representative and UMAC candidate from Equal ANUSA, expressed similar concerns. “The mindset of [residential halls] and Unilodge management must change, as this is the first step to meaningfully improve student housing,” he stated.
“I feel as if one of the biggest quality of life changes that could be done which is of minimal cost to the university is making the halls feel less depressing.”
More to come.
Disclaimer: Will Cassell formerly worked as an Adviser to ACT Greens MLA, Andrew Braddock.
Graphics by Anushkaa Ahuja
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