Lot's Wife Edition 6 2015

22
STUDENT AFFAIRS
By Mali Rea
Protesters Confront Education Minister
Christopher Pyne at the Launch of His Book
‘A Letter To My Children’
Disclaimer: This article is the interpretation of the events that unfolded at
Christopher Pyne’s recent book launch by a witness present on the day.
In the midst of his attempts to push through some of the most
unpopular legislation of the current Liberal government, Christopher
Pyne thought it would be a good idea to write a book, launch it at a
bank, and make tickets for the free event on the internet.
Continuing the trend of confronting Liberal politicians
whenever possible, the National Union of Students (NUS)
organised a protest outside the event’s venue and many
activists also registered to get a ticket. In an unpredictable
turn of events, all the student activists who registered had
their tickets ‘refunded’ in the days leading up to the launch.
I presume, a Liberal staffer might have spent a few hours
googling us all.
It’s pretty obvious Pyne sees no difference between a
private company and a public institution, going by his
choice of location, NAB Bank. For him everything should be
in the free market. The book launch reaffirmed the fact that
they see no inherent value in education and are trying to rid
himself of the responsibility of funding higher education.
The protest began at the Bourke Street entrance of the
NAB building, where we created a line to stop Liberals from
attending the event. If they wouldn’t let us in, we weren’t
going to allow anyone else in either. After hearing from many
student activists and the National Tertiary Education Union
(NTEU) National President, we decided to go up to the more
prominent entrance near Southern Cross station. As we came
up the stairs, some protesters ran towards the revolving
doors attempting to get in to the event. In an act of collective
strength the protesters filled the segments of the revolving
door trying to get in. This is where the unnecessary police
aggression began.
Many of the students who attended the protest felt that
mainstream media treated them unfairly. Elyse Walton,
who appeared in many images accompanying news articles
claimed that "We were not ‘rabid’ or ‘aggressive ...it wasn’t
until the fleets of police arrived that the peaceful rally turned
violent." She also felt that the police acted in a very hostile
manner and said that they had sworn at the group.
I felt that the unnecessary amount of police and their
aggressive attitude made the situation quite confronting. It
concerns me that this was the first protest many students
would have attended and as a result, may be reluctant to
engage in student activism again. The police reaction made
you feel as if you were doing something wrong by trying to
stand up to a government trying to destroy the Australian
higher education system. I believe that police behaviour at
the protest showed that the police were there to intimidate
student protesters, instead of ‘keeping the peace’.
When the mainstream media heard that a window had
been broken, they immediately assumed it was protesters
who broke it. However, from my memory of the day, by that
point there were only police and a few protesters left in that
particular door, while the other was full of protesters and
police pushing both ways. One article suggested the police
broke the window to get through and remove protesters.
Having watched the situation unfold, this makes far more
sense to me.
There was only one arrest at the scene, a member of our
very own Monash Education Action Group. It seemed to me
like the police decided they should arrest someone as a
warning to the protesters or some sort of power play. As far
as I could tell, she was only chosen as she was one of the last
protesters left in the revolving door after the police attempted
to remove them. She was released later and charged with
resisting arrest, a dubious claim by my opinion.
This was not the only protest that interrupted Pyne’s visit
to Melbourne. On the Thursday he had a public appearance at
La Trobe University, where about 60 students staged a protest
outside under severe surveillance by security there. The
lecture theatre Pyne was speaking in was on the outside of
the building, which meant you could peek through the blinds
and hear him, so protesters made plenty of noise. As Pyne
left, protesters chased his car away. However, the first car
was a decoy! The protest at La Trobe was a great example of
how quickly students can come together when they hear their
number one enemy is on campus.
Our next opportunity to protest Pyne is the August 19.
The National Union of Students have organised a National
Day of Action protest against the deregulation of fees,
funding cuts and long waits for Newstart.
Join fellow Monash students for a BBQ on Menzies Lawn
at 12pm on the day before. We travel to the city via free
buses provided by the MSA.
Mali Rea is the Education (Public Affairs) Officer at the MSA.