Senate almost supports student occupiers
On August 27, Greens Senator Bob Brown moved a motion in support of the RMIT student occupation in the Senate.
The motion called for "support as part of the continuing campaign to prevent the imposition of up-front fees on domestic undergraduate students on Australian Universities". A secondary motion deplored federal cuts to Abstudy funding.
Democrat Senator Natasha Stott Despoja moved an amendment that removed the reference to "support", and replaced it with "note". This amendment was defeated, but on the vote for the substantive motion the ALP, Democrats and the Greens voted in favour and the Coalition against. Independent senators Mal Colston and Brian Harradine abstained, leaving the vote hung.
Occupation spokesperson Jackie Lynch said, "It's not surprising that the ALP voted for this motion. They want students to forget what their party did to us. But we know the ALP are scum — they introduced HECS and international student fees and stuffed around Austudy".