At the park, a number of speakers addressed the crowd, University of Western Australia guild president Megan Lee calling the cuts as ‘undemocratic’. An event speaker CFMEU union president Vinnie Molina stating that “together we must change the rules, we must change the system of oppression that we have today and as a community working together were going to build a better society for everyone.”
According to Minister Birmingham the Turnball government’s reforms keep the system fair and send the message “graduates should expect to repay their loans." The campaign ended an hour and a half after it started, with the crowd chanting that “[they] will be back.” UWA guild president Megan Lee called for action in her speech earlier at the park, stating “after [today] we need to go back to our campuses, get organised, get angry, and get other students on board with us too.”
UNIVERSITY CUTS SEE STUDENTS TAKING TO THE STREETS
According to the crowd the announcement was just a further blow to an already broken system, with many members of the Make Education Free Again present.
Make Education Free Again is a campaign initiated by the National Union of Students, used to organise public demonstrations to push for completely free university.
The Commonwealth Grants Scheme freeze was announced in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook December 2017.
Alongside capping funding for higher education the government also plans to lower the threshold on HELP loan repayments by $10,000 to $45,000.
In a media release issued on December 18, 2017, Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham accused the Labor Party’s previous education funding policies of contributing to the budget deficit.
“Australia’s universities and Parliamentarians have preferred to turn a blind eye to the challenges confronting both the federal budget and higher education,” he said.
The MYEFO cuts to higher education are attributed the Liberal Party’s plan to bring the government back to budget surplus, however it’s Make Education Free Again’s position that budget cutbacks could be reprioritised, evident in their slogan “books not bombs”.
By Alexandria Reuben
An estimated 40 students gathered to oppose the recent 2.2 billion university funding freeze in Solidarity Park on Monday, March 26.
The group formed in the park at 2pm then marched the approximate kilometre to the Minister for Jobs and Innovation Michaelia Cash’s office.
Many of the protestors present were passionate advocates for change, Curtin University student Scott Harney claiming, “we are going to be protesting until we make education free again.”
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