Mr Young’s unexpected comments come following yesterday’s article in The Australian , which reported on the threatened disaffiliation of the Catholic Newman Society from the UQ Students Union for distributing literature displaying an image of an eight week old foetus earlier this month.

Mr Young explained that the union’s ‘pro-choice’ policy dated back to 1993 but was changeable.

"We've had a referendum that the union was pro-choice in 1993 which is concurrent until another referendum is held.  The Newman Society or other bodies need to follow procedures to activate … [another referendum], which I encourage.”

Mr Young explained that the Newman Society's twelve month probation period was merely bureaucratic disciplinary action, which had to be taken to uphold a 'pro-choice' policy that as president of the union, he is constitutionally bound to uphold.

Mr Young continued by indicating that there were situations he had inherited this year as president that seemed outdated. “Because of this, we'll most likely be making sweeping changes," he said.

Earlier in the day, national president of ACSA (Australian Catholic Students Association), Camillus O’Kane threw his support behind the Newman Society, describing the UQ student union’s actions in threatening to disaffiliate the Newman Society as ‘outrageous.’

"It is a disgrace that this incident has occurred at one of Australia’s leading universities, a place of learning where we should be able to express our views freely," Mr O’Kane said.

The confrontation originally broke out when secretary of the Newman Society, Elise Nally, expressed dismay at the failure of the Union to properly articulate the problem.

"The image that we used was a scientific image - when pregnant women have scans they don't have problems with it - so we're still waiting for an explanation as to why such an image or wording is inappropriate, " said Ms Nally.

"Our stall in no way had distributed information that suggested women could keep the child or put the child up for adoption but the union still chose to take disciplinary action against the society," said Ms Nally.

The UQ Catholic Newman Society and its members will be represented at World Youth Day 2008 at Universitas, the International Students Gathering to be held at Sydney University during the week of WYD2008.

For more information on the Catholic  Newman Society or the Australian Catholic Students Association visit www.catholicstudents.org.au