NUSA is affiliated to the National Union of Students of Australia. Despite the Howard Government's Voluntary Student Unionism legislation, which was in place from 2006 to 2011 and prohibited the charging of student union fees, causing massive cuts to both staffing and service levels at NUSA, it continued to provide independent representation through its own sources of income and university funding. NUSA's partner student organisation at UON responsible for commercial services and entertainment events, the University of Newcastle Union Ltd, was wound up following a loss of revenue. This resulted in the university taking responsibility for most commercial leases and a range of campus life activities on the Newcastle campuses in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Newcastle University Postgraduate Students' Association (NUPSA) was a name given to the Postgraduate Students Collective of the NUSA Council in the early 1990s. The elected Postgraduate Students Convenor on the NUSA Council was referred to as the president of the postgraduate students' association. During a time of a growing postgraduate student population at the University, from 1995 moves were initiated by the university to split NUPSA from NUSA as an independent organisation, citing the increasing diversity of postgraduate students' needs. A motion at a Special General Meeting on 29 May 1997 for constitutional changes to establish NUPSA as an independent entity, despite receiving some significant support, was ultimately defeated resulting in the Postgraduate Students Collective remaining part of NUSA's structure. However, at a meeting of the University Council on 27 June 1997, the University resolved to override the decision and establish NUPSA as a separate entity from NUSA, effective from 1 July 1997. At the time, the move by the University was met with mixed views (both favorable and unfavorable) among the student body and concern from NUSA. While NUPSA began the process of operating separately to NUSA from the late 1990s to provide independent representation and support services for postgraduate students, the two bodies maintained a close collaborative relationship. NUPSA was registered as an incorporated association in NSW on 3 February 2014. Interest in forming a local student union for the Central Coast began from 1989 at the time the University's Ourimbah Campus was beginning to develop and expand. A local Central Coast student body was soon formed and their aim was to become a financially independent recognised student body by the University. Following lobbying by the group, by 1993 the University Council voted to recognise the student body and provide funding from the General Service Fees of Central Coast students. From this, the Central Coast Campus Union (CCCU) was to be based on a guild structure providing both student representation and operating commercial services in contrast the split structure of multiple student organisations on the Newcastle campus.