CANBERRA: Students from around the nation are gathering in Canberra today to protest the lack of problems being generated by the Labor government.
With Australian troops withdrawn from Iraq, Voluntary Student Unionism repealed, and a federal apology to the stolen generation, students are finding fewer and fewer policies to protest by the day.
While students are pleased that the government has moved to remove same-sex couple discrimination from Commonwealth laws and introduce an Emissions Trading Scheme, it has left many student unions wondering what to do with their new found time.
President of the National Union of Students, David Barrow, said “They’re even looking at the rate of Youth Allowance in their tax review. What the hell are we supposed to do? Attend classes? Next they’ll be expecting us to show up sober.”
“We’re here today to demand a return to the Howard era that gave us so much good protest material,” said Barrow.
The lack of protest-worthy policy areas has led to campaigns such as the ill-fated ‘Fight for Your Right to Access Facebook from the Library’ campaign, and the lesser known ‘Students Demand Working Whiteboard Markers’ campaign.
“While I wouldn’t say these campaigns have failed, they do lack a certain pizzazz,” conceded Barrow.
Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull has called on the government to tackle the students’ demands in a bipartisan manner, namely by adopting several of the Liberal Party’s policies.
“If the government were to lock up some refugee children and build a few nuclear power plants, this would almost certainly placate the protesters,” he said.
“That the Government is not doing this shows that it is out of touch with the wants of ordinary Australians.”
The Prime Minister responded by immediately organising a summit for next week to discuss the possibility of ordering an inquiry into the issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment