Anger over JCU payout

A CAIRNS-based former James Cook University Student Association vice president has defended approving a $190,000 redundancy payout for a senior association bureaucrat, even though the employee had only been in the role for less than 18 months.

Kenneth Damaschke, a 23year-old law student, said he sought “advice on our contractual obligations” before signing off on the redundancy for then Townsville campus director Wayne Preston.

Mr Damaschke said “negotiations in which Mr Preston made generous concessions led to a settlement for less than his entitlements”.

The redundancy was offered as the student association moved towards closing the Uni Club Bar in Townsville last year, off the back of stalled student safety negotiations with the university’s Vice Chancellor. The bar has since been reopened.

“We needed to restructure the organisation from a very big commercial operation on the Townsville campus to one that was going to be financially viable on the Cairns campus,” Mr Damaschke said.

He also said “the introduction of franchised commercial outlets on campus (and) draconian trade restrictions on the club implemented in 2012” left the association “behind the eight ball” in Townsville and contributed to the plan to close the Uni Club Bar.

The redundancy payment amount has been seized on by current association president Maclane Schloss, who said the cash-strapped body could have spent the money on students.

The Student Association is facing big financial difficulties after last year posting a deficit of $713,431. This followed a loss of $152,954 in 2013.

“Imagine the possibilities if that money was still able to be spent on students,” Mr Schloss said. The war of words follows a letter by Mr Damaschke to the Townsville Bulletin, where he wrote he had been prevented from volunteering at the Cairns campus pub, The Boathouse, because he held “a different perspective” than the current association.

“I believe that one of the most destructive (things) is the infestation of political influence that everyone just seems to accept as a part of the sector,” he wrote. Mr Schloss hit back, and in a statement said Mr Damaschke was “disgruntled” after having lost the last election. “After losing the last election when he was running for president, Mr Damaschke refused to hand back control of the JCU Student Association Boathouse Facebook Page,” he said.

Mr Damaschke defended his right not to hand over the page’s password: “The Facebook page is a group me and my friends created in our own spare time.”