Breaking News: AUSA dismisses Postgraduate Education Vice-President via email

At 11:38 am on the 29th of September, TKR AUSA President Gabriel Boyd dismissed Fania Kapao as their Postgraduate Education Vice-President via email.

The important Senior Leadership Team (SLT) position on the Executive is currently vacant, with no official announcement as of publication on who will take her place or how long the position will be vacant. Although 2026's elected Postgraduate Education Vice-President, Eugene Lee, could be a likely choice to fill the role.

AUSA's Perspective on the dismissal

The President cited clause 24) 1) b) of the TKR AUSA constitution as the grounds for her dismissal:

"Members of the Executive will cease to be members of the Executive and cease to hold any other roles they have by virtue of being a member of the Executive when they do not attend three meetings of the Executive without being excused by a motion of leave being granted by the Executive"

Boyd said that on Friday the 26th of September Fania Kapao had missed "her third meeting with no communications" which he said "triggered that clause."

When asked if Kapao was given notice of her dismissal, Boyd responded:

"I tried to call her, sent her countless text messages to schedule meetings, emailed her etc... to meet and talk about this but she was unresponsive. This is in no way any sort of attack on her, she's been incredibly busy."

TKR AUSA President went on to clarify that there was no consultation with the Executive team or a vote held to remove Kapao from her position:

"Constitutionally and contractually she triggered clauses to cease membership. And again, I've spent weeks trying to contact her to have this conversation and try to work together in her capacity."

When asked if the sudden dismissal was done in good faith, Boyd repsonded:

"Yes. There's no requirement to meet or discuss the clause at all before dismissal, yet I tried to reach her for weeks. There were also meetings where she wasn't officially given leave, but I knew of extenuating circumstances and didn't count that towards her total as a result."

Fania's Perspective on her dismissal

To get both sides of the story, we reached out to Kapao so that she could share her thoughts on her dismissal yesterday morning from TKR AUSA.

First, we asked Kapao if she had accepted her dismissal on the grounds cited by TKR AUSA (clause 24) 1) b)):

"I haven't accepted my dismissal and emailed Gabriel to inform him of this. The three missed meetings he cited were May 15th, August 22nd and 26th of September. On all three of these occasions, I had very valid reasons not to be in attendance.

On May 15th, my partner graduated, and so I was at his ceremony. I had told them about this, and AUSA passed on their "warm congratulations". On August 22nd, I was at a funeral: work was not on my mind that day. On the 26th September, I always have a class scheduled at the time they scheduled the meeting on Fridays so I can't atttend it. I told AUSA about this during the semester break. Their response was to encourage me to skip my classes to make their meetings. My postgraduate classes are not recorded and are three hours long, so skipping it is not a possibility for me."

When asked if she felt the dismissal procedure was done in good faith by TKR AUSA, Kapao said:

"While Gabriel is constitutionally correct that in the specific wording in that document does not stipulate a need for consultation, AUSA has breached the Employment Relations Act 2000 for not giving reasonable notice of my dismissal. Reasonable notice is a minimum of two weeks. I understand that per our contract, we are contracted as volunteers, but we are paid and treated as employees. I mean I even have comms from the GM that says we can claim to be employees."

"Nothing in the wording of that clause also calls for immediate dismissal either. Immediately after Gabriel sent his email dismissing me I was removed from all AUSA group chats. I wasn't given an opportunity to tell these groups about the situation or at the very least, say goodbye. It was professionally humilating."

"So no, I don't think AUSA has gone about this in good faith at all. Good etiquette is alerting the member after their first or second missed meeting: "just a heads up, we could fire you for this", which wouldn’t have been hard if they were keeping such a close eye on attendance, citing a missed meeting from 4 months ago. I had no warning given to me in writing that I was going to or could be dismissed prior to AUSA dismissing me."

"For me, this blindsiding dismissal feels petty and personal. Perhaps retribution for my partner, being Craccum's Managing Editor, who is leading the SGM to ensure the survival of Craccum, and by extension, student media at UOA. The timing goes crazy. Same day my print issue interview endorsing the magazine is published, I'm... sacked?"

"I acknowledge that Gabriel did try to call me and did send texts but in those texts he never ever mentioned the prospect of my dismissal or that this was why he was trying to contact me. Professionally, you email people for important matters such as this; you don't call or text colleagues outside business hours, like he did the other night at 8:43 pm for example. Who answers work calls at that hour? I also did not receive any emails from the president about the prospect of my dismissal prior to my dismissal. Following his email yesterday morning I have told Gabriel that I would have sat down with him (and my support person) and discussed this if he had been upfront and professional by giving me proper warning beforehand."

"Furthermore, over the past while, I have been made aware of numerous instances where Gabriel has openly spoken ill of me in front of students, national student association Executives and members of our Executive whom I will not name, as I do not want to harm their employment or workplace relationships. I have collected official statements from these people attesting to Gabriel's misconduct towards me. Gabriel's words and actions caused extreme damage to my mental health as I trusted him with sensitive information about my circumstances. If this happened to you and the person you trusted with confidential information made fun of it publicly, would you feel safe enough to pick up their phone calls? Would you believe that they actually care about how you are? Would you trust them to handle your worries with care and due process?"

"By not recognising my mental health conditions as disabilities, AUSA has also breached the Human Rights Act 1993. None of what I say here is an "attack" either (weird wording from Gabriel imo), but rather the truth. In the corporate world, the breaches of the ERA and HRA are serious offences. It is concerning that student executives are not recognised as employees and therefore cannot unionise. That means when they face employment disputes, like me, they have to fend for themselves or rely on the association's "Independent Advice" service. Then if you go to seek help elsewhere, you are intimidated with accusations of defamation and reminded about your responsibility to maintain "confidentiality". How is OK to scare students, who can't afford the basics, into silence with legal action that could cost a fortune?"

We asked further about the President of TKR AUSA's attempts to reach out to her prior to her dismissal:

"Gabriel might be referring to what was offered to me as a "solution" prior to my dismissal via email on the 23rd of September, which was to split my role between me and the incoming PGEVP. I'm not even sure if this "solution" is constitutionally permitted, although he noted that he had implemented this with another Exec member. The comms felt more like a ultimatum than coming from a place of genuine concern for my welfare."

"I wasn't fully opposed to the idea of splitting my role either, as I admit my schedule is really packed. I hadn't responded to his email yet as I wanted time to think about it, as any person would. I was actually on campus yesterday (29th September) and on my way to the office to catch up with him and see everyone, but then I opened my emails and boom, I'm dismissed. Just three working days after being sent his "solution"."

In the aftermath of the events of yesterday, we asked Fania how she was feeling:

"You're the first one to ask me that. None of the executive members who I thought were my friends have reached out to check on me. People I defended and let cry on my shoulder. People whose calls I answered when they were in trouble or sad. I feel really let down in both a personal and professional capacity. I saw these people as family, shared my life and experiences with them. And yet... radio silence."

"And I'm still being made to jump through hoops. I have requested to be paid for the next cycle of 14 days in line with Payment in Lieu of Notice, as I've got to find another job now. Gabriel has told me that being paid the proper two weeks' notice will be up to the Exec to vote on. I know there have been cases were Exec members have resigned or been dismissed for gross misconduct who have been treated better, with multiple warnings, given proper notice and even been paid out, no questions asked. For me its not about the money but respect for the time and effort I have put into AUSA this year (working hours double what I was paid for)."

"It speaks volumes about the lack of respect that Gabriel and TRK AUSA have for me. They didn't even bother thanking me for my service in the email dismissing me or their statement to Craccum regarding my dismissal."

"Yesterday, I was so humiliated and upset by the dismissal that I had to send my partner in to clear my stuff out of the office. He said that the exec members there said nothing to him, passed on no messages of concern or anything about me. He sent me a picture, and they seem to have treated my desk like a dumping ground. Papers, boxes, bags and rubbish all over it that wasn't mine. When I saw that, it made me cry. I thought, "Wow, I gave as much as I could, I helped hundreds of students, and this is what they think of me as: trash." If, after all of that, I deserve to be dismissed without mana, then I suppose the general sentiment that students hold is true: AUSA doesn't care about anything apart from its self-preservation. It's a registered charity, so it should be... charitable. Not cold and heartless."

"I do feel jaded. I’m on 4 different meds prescribed to help me manage my stress, anxiety, depression and sleep. All of which have developed and worsened over the year due to the toxic work culture at AUSA. I’ve had to seek out extensive therapy, go through some real rough patches and pretend all was ok so that AUSA viewed me as at least competent. I've been through so much in that office, from being racially attacked, bullied, backstabbed, and belittled. I feel my dismissal is the final product of that abuse. I don't disclose this information for drama because honestly I just want to move on. But I feel that students deserve to know whats up within those walls. They deserve to hear from me directly, not a watered down and incorrect version posted on instagram where the victor (AUSA) writes the narrative."

Since AUSA won't give her their platform to say farewell, we thought we'd give Fania the opportunity to sign-off to the student body who elected her:

"Man, this is making me tear up. First of all, thank you to everyone who voted for me last year and put their trust in me to support them and be their voice at AUSA. I hope I have at least lived up to your expectations and I will always be grateful for your support. If you need me or ever want to talk about anything, my IG is @faniakapao."

"Although I hashed out the bad shit here to set the record straight on my dismissal, I'm proud of what I've done in my time at AUSA. I had some of the best moments at Uni while at AUSA, like enrolling students into a program they never thought they'd get into, or being invited to the graduation of students you've advocated for. Even led a protest rally in support of Fair Pay for women, which had about 170 people and five unions in attendance."

"For me, as hard as it was, it was never about the organisation or the money, but all about the students. Everything I did was to try make their university experience better. At the end of the day, I know how many people I've impacted, and I've done my best to ensure that indigenous inclusion in research is real and not tokenistic. I hope next year's PG EVP carries on the torch to advocate for Postgrad students at AUSA and at the University."

"I've done my best to represent PG students, and that's all I could ask of myself. I've done my best to hold space for people in their most vulnerable moments, like visiting sick students to take them food, attending classes with those who had social anxiety or buying baby formula for a new mother. Life is crazy, and it's a shame that after all I gave, AUSA couldn't acknowledge my work, even through my hardships."

"Anyway, now that I've cleared the air and debunked the missed meetings cited, it has been an absolute pleasure to be your inaugural PG EVP for 2025. It was a huge win for my people to be represented in academia, and I hope more Pasifika people rise to serve their communities."

"If anything, I hope my experience encourages you to hold those in power to account, work to uplift those who are excluded and to always respect the people and world around you. Fanz out!"

Craccum would also like to thank Fania for her service to the students of UOA at AUSA in 2025, and we appreciate the various contributions she has made to our magazine over the years.

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