There Will Be A Whole Lot Of Protests Today
Emergency budget rallies have been planned around the country for the student-led National Day of Action. Here are some places you might like to stand.
That poor Joe Hockey just can’t catch a break, huh? Just days after his budget was eviscerated on Q and A, students around the country are pulling together a series of last-minute “emergency budget rallies” that will kick off early this afternoon, to protest the Government’s agenda for higher education.
The student-led National Day of Action follows a month of anti-anti-student student protests, which kicked off most notably with the Q and A hijack a few weeks back that led Christopher Pyne to pull out all of his worst facial expressions on live TV.
But it was the budget announcement that really kicked those pinkos into gear. On Friday, student protestors mobbed Julie Bishop at Sydney University (“I always thought the students were revolting at my old university,” Abbott quipped), on Sunday 10 000 Australians hit the streets for the March in May, and on Monday they disrupted Sophie Mirabella’s lecture at Melbourne University until she was escorted out. Also on Monday, a group of Christian leaders sat down in the offices of Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne and prayed softly at them in anger, and yesterday’s open letter on the future of arts funding continues to gather hundreds of signatures from writers and editors around the country.
Organised by the National Union of Students, today’s ‘Emergency National Rallies’ have already caused Abbott and Pyne to cancel their trip to Deakin University following security threats, with action planned all across the country. In the interest of presenting all the information at hand, here are some places you might like to stay away from if you hate yelling:
Melbourne: State Library of Victoria, from 2pm — details here
Sydney: UTS Tower Building, from 2.30pm — details here
Brisbane: Queens Park, cnr. Elizabeth and George Streets, from 2-4pm — details here
Perth: Murray St Mall, from 2.30pm — details here
Hobart: Lazenbys UTAS, University of Tasmania Hobart campus, from 1pm — details here
Canberra: Union Court, Australian National University, from 3pm — details here
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In related news, Fairfax is reporting this morning that university vice-chancellers around the country are calling for delays on the proposed deregulation of tertiary education, which they fear could cause students to select a course they cannot afford to pay for. Meanwhile, Clive Palmer has renewed his threats to block the legislation.