University students across the country have protested against the federal budget’s cuts to higher education, following a call by the National Union of Students for a day of protest action.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Education Minister Christopher Pyne were forced to cancel a scheduled visit to Geelong’s Deakin University due to security concerns.
Their cancellation follows various demonstrations in the past week directed at Coalition politicians, with Julie Bishop and Sophie Mirabella being targeted while visiting Sydney University and Melbourne University respectively.
Jamila Rizvi wrote previously…
Ain’t nobody a fan of the budget.
If you’ve opened a newspaper, turned on a TV, been on social media or read a website this week, then you will know the Abbott Government’s first budget is about as popular as Vegemite 2.0.
The Coalition’s polling numbers are in free fall, opinion editors are falling over themselves to say Abbott and Hockey have played this wrong and we’ve seen practically universal negative coverage in the media.
Most of it has been civil, except for two university protests, which reportedly descended from peaceful dissent into mob-like intimidation.
The result being that these campaigners have achieved the exact opposite of what they intended – they’ve turned negative headlines about the budget into stories that frame dissenters as the bad guys.
Top Comments
Ha. Jamila: How far did our votes get us? Do you really believe that modern democratic processes serve to represent our interests? How do you suggest we appeal to the 'better natures' of our parliamentarians? What access do we really have to major media outlets and how do we control the angles they take on us? What effective change do you think can be achieved through social media? Raising awareness? Lol. Lol. Lol.
I'm not condoning the pushing and shoving (not going to go so far as to label them as Violent Student Protesters, as you have dramatically done without the benefit of having been there), but you've taken a mighty ignorant step into a privileged state of advocacy generalisation without, obviously, a clue how students actually feel. Might've been nice if you talked to, you know, an actual student before hashing out this piece on your daily commute.
This strikes me as the kind of journalism designed to neatly package up some hastily formulated assumptions with a convenient conclusion dictating what others should be doing, because 'I've been there, done that, and I know what's right'. Gah. This is everything that is wrong with opinion writing. Cite something. Do some research.
As you may be aware, politicians will do whatever they want until they sense that
people are not willing to take it anymore. Politely sitting in a corner and maybe holding a
piece of cardboard will change nothing. The media coverage is biased. Don’t get
me wrong, I am against violence, but what is described here is called protesting nothing else. The situation has to be seen as an action towards a person of public interest and not towards a common person (who should never be treated like that).I hope that this country will develop a healthy culture of demonstrating
before it loses its entire social system and pristine nature.