Meet the Pres: Aidan Donoghue

By Darcy Lawrey (he/him)

The day I interviewed Aidan Donoghue, the 2026 VUWSA president, he was already getting stuck into the job addressing VicCom, the commerce students’ society. I sat down with him in VUWSA’s long-forgotten Pipitea office to hear how he got to where he is, and what his plans are for VUWSA.

Donoghue grew up in Rotorua, where he was the Head Boy at Fraser High School. On the very last day of year 13 he was selected as the youth MP for Gaurav Sharma, the Labour MP who was expelled from Labour following allegations of bullying; Aiden’s first foray into the political world. He recalls being hounded by a journalist for comment on the MP’s behaviour.

After college, Donoghue headed south for Wellington to study at VUW with his now fiancé, who he met working at McDonalds at age 15. He gives major credit to his friend William Bell-Purchas, the VUW Student Board Representative for getting him stuck into politics here in the capital. In 2022 he unionised his workplace, the Taranaki Street McDonalds, which saw him negotiating a collective agreement with the Auckland head office.

That led to a job at the Council of Trade Unions working on fair pay agreements, and then one at NZEI, the primary school teacher’s union. Last year he became the Engagement Vice President at VUWSA, his second time running for the role. This year, he’s got the top job. 

He’s both very proud of his win, and of the massive increase in engagement VUWSA has seen this year. “I’m still reeling from it, it still hasn’t really sunk in yet,” he said.  

Donoghue believes that VUWSA has the power to be an economic driver of change within Wellington. As an organisation that represents roughly 10% of Wellington’s population, he believes VUWSA has the numbers to throw its weight around when it comes to setting affordable prices for things like rubbish bags. 

His primary focus for VUWSA this year is providing increased and improved services for Students. But he’s still keen for VUWSA to keep up its political campaigning, which he thinks will be bolstered by VUWSA engaging more with students through services on campus. “Politically, the key thing I want to stress is that the student vote is not guaranteed”, he says. “I want to see specific policies from any side of the table which address student concerns.”

He brings the spirit of labour organising to the role. If he could change one law, he’d make union membership opt-out, instead of opt-in. He’s big on community, and says the number one change he wants to make on campus is providing more third spaces and opportunities for students to connect: “More services, more interaction, and just more bang for your buck for student services”.

Donoghue struggles to pick a favourite campus, as studying taxation had him at Pipitea most of the time during his undergraduate study, but he says the food options at Kelburn gives it the edge. You’ll find him most days enjoying a cheese scone at The Lab.