FOUR decades of sometimes turbulent history in student politics have come to an end at Macquarie University in Sydney with the liquidation of the elected student council.
The Macquarie University Students Council, presided over by Victor Ma, was "no longer viable", according to NSW Supreme Court judge Clifford Einstein, who made a winding-up order on Thursday.
The university went to court after Mr Ma failed to answer auditors' questions about finances at MUSC and the student services union, Students at Macquarie.
Mr Ma had led both organisations. The university sacked him as SAM president on May 4.
Mr Ma declared last week he would resign as MUSC chairman, saying he had been a scapegoat for university managers determined to merge and control all student bodies on campus after 40years of independent representation.
In his decision, Justice Einstein said MUSC would have no cash to pay debts once it returned $95,000 transferred from SAM's catering business, Venues at Macquarie.
Venues' provisional liquidator, Trevor Pogroske, told the court he could find "no legitimate reason" for the transfers.
These and two other transfers to an unnamed lawyer's trust account -- $115,000 from Venues and $118,000 from SAM -- were still being investigated, Mr Pogroske told The Australian.
Macquarie's vice-chancellor, Steven Schwartz, said transactions early this month by Mr Ma and other directors had put Venues and its employees at risk.
Mr Ma said he had made legitimate use of a trust account "to protect the student organization from the university's planned hostile acquisition".
Justice Einstein said MUSC had "very few fee-paying members" and "no real prospect of any further income" following the abolition of compulsory student unionism halfway through last year, which levied students and financed student politics and services.
Macquarie's registrar, Brian Spencer, told The Australian the university would have to finance a new, merged student organisation. Students would have a voice but Macquarie would have a majority on the board to ensure accountability.