I don’t want to give students air time: PM
Tony Abbott has justified his decision to cancel a university visit by saying he does not want to give angry students the chance to riot on national television.
The prime minister has been labelled a coward for cancelling a visit to Geelong’s Deakin University amid nationwide protests against the deregulation of student fees.
Abbott and Education Minister Christopher Pyne were due to visit a research facility at the uni on Wednesday, but called it off after federal police raised concerns about their personal safety.
But it was not their welfare that forced the cancellation, rather concerns about the inconvenience it would cause police and others.
It was also about not giving the protesters what they wanted, “which is a riot on national television”, Abbott told Fairfax Radio.
Abbott said his visit would have required up to 50 police, who may have been useful elsewhere, being taken off the street.
He played down the protests pointing to his days as a student activist at Sydney University when protests and counter-protests were regarded as sport.
“I think they were looking forward to a big rumble today,” he said.
Thousands of students are expected to take part in the protests against plans to allow universities to charge higher tuition fees.
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The National Union of Students claims says the changes, which take effect from 2016, will burden students with debt for 30-40 years.
“I think the prime minister and his ministers are being a bit cowardly and trying to portray students as though they’re violent rabble-rousers who are out to cause trouble,” union president Deanna Taylor said.
That wasn’t the case at all, she said.
Abbott’s cancelled visit followed scuffles last week at Sydney and Melbourne universities, where protesters heckled Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and former federal Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella.
Federal Labor says the deregulation plan will deny poor kids a tertiary education and lead to a two-tiered American-style university system.
