Events

The Melbourne University Liberal Club holds a wide variety of events throughout the year - social, policy and political.

Monday Meetings

Every Monday of the academic year, the Melbourne University Liberal Club holds a general meeting where we hold a policy debate on various issues of public policy concern.

Monday Meetings are a great way to keep in contact with your MULC mates and to take part in an interesting political debate outside your Leftist tutorials. Newer members of the club are especially encouraged to take part in our weekly debates, and can often choose the subject too!

Topics we have debated over the course of the last year include:

• The role of the United Nations
• The minimum wage
• The trial of a 2 am lockout in Melbourne
• The Rudd government's introduction of an Alco Pop tax
• Embryonic stem cell research
• Voluntary euthanasia

Traditionally the first meeting of every new academic year involves a debate on whether Australia should become a Republic. Make sure you come along and have a go!

After our Monday meetings, we head to our favourite Carlton pub, where the debate often continues in a much less formal setting while we enjoy a couple of frothies or alcopops.

Social Events

MULC is well known for its social events and this is where the Melbourne University Liberal Club really excels. In fact, we make a point of avoiding the stuffiness for which other youth political organizations are renowned.

The MULC social calendar starts the week after University of Melbourne Orientation Week with the annual Parliament House tour, led by a high-profile Victorian MP, after which we hold Rooftop Drinks on the roof of Liberal Party HQ. A few weeks later, we head out of the Melbourne for our traditional Annual MULC paintball day.

In late March, MULC holds its Annual Dinner, a chance for current and former members to swap stories, listen to an interesting Liberal figure as guest speaker, and wine and dine to our hearts content.

But these events are just the tip of the iceberg! MULC has social gatherings throughout the year almost fortnightly. If you want to get involved, make sure you contact the MULC President. He will tell you what events are coming up and how you can get involved.

Policy Forum

Policy Forum is a great chance for MULC members to take part in the exchange of policy ideas.

Several times throughout the year, MULC invites experts from various areas of policy research to speak at one of its Policy Forum luncheons, followed by a question and answer session.

Over the last year, Policy Forum has included discussions on future areas for liberal economic reform, approaches to high school curriculum, the science and economics of climate change, and many more relevant and fascinating topics.

These Policy Forums are often open to the public, giving MULC a chance to engage non-Liberal students in high-order policy debate. Policy Forum is a highly rewarding opportunity for MULC members to meet liberal and conservative public intellectuals and listen to what the finest policy minds have to say about public affairs in Australia.

Student Elections

Every year MULC takes part in University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) elections. These elections are a great chance to learn indispensable campaign skills while taking the fight up to the left and giving Melbourne University students an alternative to the plethora of radical socialist groups that otherwise dominate campus life.

Our focus on the development of political campaigning and campaign management skills is one of the things that set Liberal Students apart from other youth liberal organizations. The large number of MULC alumni now in professional politics reflects the vital training MULC members receive while organizing and executing student election campaigns.

Student elections are also incredible fun! There is nothing quite like battling the Left on their home turf.

Canberra Trip

Every year on the second week of May, MULC organizes an annual trip to the nation's capital to listen to the federal treasurer deliver the annual budget, or more importantly these days, the Opposition budget reply speech.

MULC traditionally tours both the old and new parliament houses, and gets to meet several Federal Liberal parliamentarians in their own Parliament House offices throughout the day and get to here their frank views on current political issues.

Sessions are also held with the Menzies Research Centre, the Liberal Party's public policy institute, and the Liberal Party of Australia's Federal Secretariat.

The Canberra trip is also the first chance for new MULC members to meet Liberal Students from across Australia. Other members of the Australian Liberal Students' Federation (ALSF), the federal organization of which MULC is a member, also take the trip to Canberra.

Last year was a new feeling, not having Australia's most successful treasurer in history Peter Costello deliver the budget, but the trip was incredibly fun all the same.

Note: A few scholarships are rewarded every year to outstanding and needy first-year MULC members so that they can also take the annual pilgrimage to Canberra to be acquainted with Australia's main Commonwealth government monuments and its public servants' favourite nightspots.

ALSF Federal Council and Activist

The peak body for Liberal Students is the Australian Liberal Students' Federation (ALSF), which holds two major events throughout the year.

During the mid-year break, constituent clubs from across Australia meet for the weeklong ALSF Federal Council. The week involves numerous policy debates, a variety of guest speakers including Liberal parliamentarians, diplomats, other important public figures, and the ALSF Annual General Meeting, where we get to elect the next year's executive.

There are also a number of nighttime events, the primary social event being the ALSF Annual Dinner.

ALSF also holds an annual event called Activist!, an opportunity for Liberal Clubs across Australia to meet in Melbourne to share ideas for student election campaign strategies and to plan issues-focused political campaigns.

Activist! coincides with the National Union of Students (NUS) National Conference, where Labor students from across Australia meet to fill their resumes.