That article seems to be filed under the 'news' section but reads more like an opinion piece.
To revisit some of what cyc highlighted:
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Auckland took the voluntary path. It didn't go well. In 2000 numbers plummeted - just 3000 out of 28,092 students agreed to pay the $30 joining fee. By 2002 the numbers were still dismal - just 2700 out of 31,502 had joined.
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It didn't go well? Huh? That proves the opposite! It could only be considered not to have gone well if you were one of the fewer than 11% students who wanted to be members!
Another way of phrasing that quote is:
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In 2000, numbers exploded - 25,092 out of 28,092 students decided they didn't want to become members of the student union. By 2002 the numbers were still positive - 28,802 out of 31,502 had chosen not to join.
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Yay for voluntary student union membership! The vast majority of students who would otherwise be forced to join a union they didn't want to belong to demonstrated that making membership optional is a worthwhile thing!
Chris Barton is an idiot. He clearly believes that compulsory student union membership is a good thing but tries to explain it by showing just how few people actually wanted to join the union.
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Why, despite substantial membership drives each year do some 10,000 students not join the association? Odd, because those 10,000 are still paying for the association services - through the compulsory student levy.
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What the fuck? Seriously? That's some pretty poor reasoning. Maybe because... they don't want to pay twice for the same thing? Maybe because... oh, I don't know... they just don't want to and it's their fucking decision not to join if they don't want to? Maybe they're pissed off that despite no longer being forced to join the union, they still have to pay for a union they are not members of?