BY MARCUS PABIAN
MELBOURNE — Part of the May 22 national day of protest called by the National Union of Students (NUS) against the Howard government's education "reforms", announced in its May 13 budget, 330 students marched in protest from Melbourne University, RMIT and the Victorian College of Arts to the State Library, where they joined with a rally of high school students outraged by the federal government's plans to further privatise tertiary education.
In Brisbane, reports Terrica Strudwick, 300 students converged on the St Lucia campus of the University of Queensland on May 21 to express their anger at federal education minister Brendan Nelson, who was officially opening a new multi-million dollar CSIRO building. The next day, 150 students attended an anti-government speak-out at the Queensland University of Technology.
Federico Fuentes in Perth reports that 140 students attended a May 20 student general meeting at the University of Western Australia at which a motion was adopted condemning the Howard government's war budget and calling for protest actions all around Australia on June 4. The motion also called on the UWA Student Guild to initiate a city-wide protest action on June 4.
On May 22, a protest action at UWA attracted around 40 students, who marched to the vice-chancellor's office. Later that afternoon, around 50 people rallied in the city, including a small contingent from the Community and Public Sector Union.
Students from the University of Sydney were invited to attend a "funeral for public education" on May 22 as part of the national day of action, reports Simon Butler. Anna York, the president of the NSW branch of NUS, urged students to continue the campaign to defeat the government's push to make tertiary education even less affordable for all but the richest students.
Of the 300 students who attended the mock funeral, 150 later joined a street march around the circumference of the campus.
Nick Fredman reports that 100 students attended a mock funeral for public education at the Lismore campus of Southern Cross University on May 22. Student Representative Council chairperson and NUS northern NSW organiser Eric Bateman argued that a "mass campaign on the streets can encourage the opposition parties in the Senate to reject the attacks on education".
From Green Left Weekly, May 28, 2003.
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