April 2025

I’m not apologising for this but it’s time to get political PART 2. The election date is locked in. Where are you going to be? Where are you going to vote? Are you going to pre-poll? And last but not least who are you going to vote for?

We already talked about preferential voting, but I thought we should just touch on the basics of voting for senators. The senate is the upper house, with equal representation for the states (and territories have less) serving staggered 6 year terms. You vote for your state only (so sadly I can only vote for angel David Pocock in my dreams). The tablecloth ballot paper can be a bit intimidating so it’s a good idea to go in with a plan of attack, or if you’re party inclined using one of their how to vote cards. There will be strict instructions on how to make your vote count, depending on how many candidates there are. You should decide before going in if you’re going to vote “above the line” or “below the line", with each requiring a different minimum number of boxes to be filled to be valid. But only choose one, above or below! Voting above the line means you’re preferencing individuals in the order their party chose. The more boxes you fill, the longer your vote stays live in the preferential system.

This ABC guide has more detail.

As always we are after contributions, including anything from research updates to movie recommendations. If you’re really keen and interested in joining fluoro as an editor (would love someone on the ground in Orange) please email [email protected] 😚 

🧡 Hot off the Pres🧡 

Hello everyone, Last week marked a historic moment in medical advocacy with the first Junior Medical Officer strike in New South Wales since 1998. This action was a response to long-standing issues around unsafe working hours, unpaid overtime, and the need for fairer conditions. While CHARMS was unable to release a public media statement due to discussions with SRM, we want to make it clear that we stand in full support of our JMOs. Our fellow medical student Presidents at other NSW universities and the incredible team at AMSA did publish a statement!

CHARMS is committed to having conversations about the future of our advocacy efforts. If you have thoughts or felt disappointed by our ability to act, we genuinely want to hear from you, so please feel free to reach out to me.

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the AMSA President’s Retreat where I worked alongside 24 other presidents and chairs of medical societies, associations, and councils from across the country. It was an inspiring and energising experience. One of the key outcomes I’m excited to share is that I will be proposing a change to CHARMS governance structure to better support advocacy for our students from 2026 onwards, stay tuned for updates. We also discussed pressing issues like placement poverty and financial hardship, and the growing impact of the cost of living on medical students. AMSA is currently coordinating a nationwide advocacy plan to push for paid placements, particularly for students who need financial support during clinical years. This is a huge step toward equity in medical education. Another big topic was the future of general practice and rural generalism. As this topic impacts us as a rural medical school, I advocated on our behalf that if governments want students to seriously consider these specialties, there needs to be a significant increase in Medicare rebates. Some schools are calling for them to double or even triple. I also brought up that better pathways need to be put in place for rural students to specialise, and bring those skills to our rural and remote communities. Another important point I raised at the retreat was the need for stronger collaboration between universities and medical societies. I'm pleased to share that UNSW students at the Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour campuses have already begun organising joint social events with our clinical students. It’s a fantastic example of inter-school cooperation in action. Sometimes our students really do show the adults how collaboration should be done 😉 

Across the pond, UTAS has also recently reached out to work with our Indigenous officers! We are starting to make a real impact. Our school is gaining recognition, particularly in areas where we’ve shown leadership, and that’s thanks to the incredible work students have already done. We still have room to grow, but we are being seen and that matters. Lastly, our SRM committees have kicked off their first meetings. Kaitlyn, our student wellbeing representative, has already been doing an amazing job alongside Achira. Scroll down to read Kaitlyn’s update on how the meeting went. Thanks for continuing to support one another and to push for the change we all want to see.

Jacques, MDIII

Committee Minutes

From here on Fluoro is going to try and feature links to the minutes from all of those committees that the legends amongst you attend, as well as highlighting any ICYMI/TLDR moments. There’s not a bunch to note as of yet, but below are a couple of notes from the wellbeing team.

• WANTED: clinical years wellbeing rep!

• WANTED: fresh ideas for wellbeing events!

• WANTED: everyone to fill out this quick survey

• Rural Health Positive is clarifying the process around volunteering in ways that represents the school, stay tuned or dm Heidi if you have any thoughts on this.

🧛 Vampire Cup

Team CSU is absolutely killing it, but there’s always room for improvement so keep that blood and/or plasma pumping. Don’t forget that you can win great prizes by posting yourself donating and tagging our instagram. Until the 20th we’ve got Orange Ten Pin vouchers up for grabs, but for the final weeks we’ve got something even sweeter up our sleeves 😇 (and don’t worry, it applies for those not in Orange too).

Don’t forget that friends and family can donate under our team as proxies, just steal their phone momentarily and sign them up to our team following these instructions.

Opportunities

• Summer Hill Creek Care

  • Tree planting at CSU’s Risky Paddock

  • Sunday 27th April, 9:30-12:00, with a picnic lunch following

  • reach out to Cilla if you’re keen to join! [email protected]

• Vic Rural Health Conference - Wodonga

  • May 16th-18th

  • RWAV are often keen to sponsor student ambassadors to attend so check their website as it gets closer

• Motor Neuron Disease Surveillance Study Presentation

  • Nurses Training School Room 2-4, Griffith Base Hospital

  • 31st May, 6pm-7:30pm

• AMSA Queer Con

  • 20-22 June

  • An LGBTQIASB+ focused medical student conference

  • Please RSVP by 28 May 2025 to: [email protected]

• RMA 2025

  • in Boorloo (Perth) in October, sadly often tricky around our exam dates

  • Sponsored Future RG Program

  • Student Volunteer Program

🏁 From the regions: Central West 🏁 

📚️ This month’s recommendation

All the books, aka the library

If you’re anything like me you sometimes forget that the library exists. Silly billy. Why are you buying hard copies of everything, especially if they’re not a local and/or indie writer? Why are you telling yourself that you need a physical book to read? Did you know that like all public libraries these days have not only their regular shmegular books on shelves, but also a host of apps for you to borrow ebooks, audiobooks, and epress to your devices? You can feel smug in knowing that you’re not just looking at your phone, you’re looking at a BOOK on your phone. I thought the transition would be hard but dear reader it was easy. This is shaping up to be a big Helen Garner year for me and I can borrow just about all of her stuff through Swan Hill Library borrowbox app, to read or listen to. Plus being “loans”, the expiry motivates me to get through what I’ve borrowed on time.

Check out the Orange library site and what services they have, or reactivate your library card back home (thank you internet). Grab a pal and hold each other accountable by having a monthly library date and review or a mini book club. And if you get really into it I highly recommend Bri Lee’s substack News and Reviews to make you feel like “a reader”. I will never flick past an instagram story ft. a book and can’t wait to see what you all pick up (and hopefully finish).