This week in the PIS - an unexpected change of meeting place

Since the introduction of VSU mid-2006, and the Melbourne Model in 2007, the Political Interest Society has been embattled and sometimes struggled to survive. There have been drastic measures such as the 'infinity percent tax rise' of the $2 joining fee, and setbacks like the failure to produce an edition of our journal, Audi Alteram Partem, for 2009. (If there are any students in the club with journalistic ambitions who would like to help get it off the ground again, we'd love to hear from you!)

This week, we almost suffered another setback of this difficult era in the life of the politically interested when we lost our booking Alice Hoy room 242. Once again, the politically interested masses of the University of Melbourne find themselves estranged from the traditional homeland of Alice Hoy.

Fortunately, after hours of searching through the harsh wilds of Parkville Campus, your PIS committe have found another place where we can eat biscuits and shout at each other, all the way next door in the Doug McDonell building.

So, for this week, and for the rest of semester barring any more similar difficulties, the Political Interest Society will meet at 1pm Tuesday in Doug McDonell Room 711. Don't be put off by all the scaffolding out the front, the place is still open; you can access it by the fire door at the front of the building or the entrance to the lower floor on the northern side.

This week's topics to shout about:

Peter Garrett
Peter Garrett made his name as the frontman of radical green-left band Midnight Oil, but is now a minister in a government that supports policies which are nothing like those he used to support. Is this hypocritical?

Pakistan
Where do we stand on the crisis in Pakistan?

Robert Doyle, Lord Mayor
He wants the bogans out of the city, wants to ban hailing taxis at night and now says Adelaide should be shut down as it has no redeeming features. How do we like the new Lord Mayor so far? And will he ever act on anything he says?

Queensland state election
Is it at all possible for Labor to lose this election? Can Pauline Hanson win a seat standing as an independent or is her time up?


Followed by drinks at the pub from 2pm until we run out of change - which will be later than usual since our trips to the pub now come with free bar snacks - chips, wedges and nachos at the pub will now be coming out of the Political Interest Society's budget instead of your wallets.