Greens Deputy Leader and Higher Education Spokesperson has responded to new campus protest rules imposed by Sydney University which include bans on camping, three days’ notice for any demonstration and requirements to obtain approval to use megaphones or even to attach banners to university buildings.
Breaches of the rules allow the Sydney University to dissolve protests, remove property, and direct students and staff to leave parts of campus.
Senator Mehreen Faruqi:
“Students and staff should not need permission to exercise their fundamental right to protest on their own campus.
“What we are seeing here is a despicable attempt by neoliberal, corporate university management to stifle student activism and shut down political expression.
“Staunch campus activism has changed the world. Universities campuses should always be political spaces where students and staff are encouraged to speak out on issues of social, racial and environmental justice.
“Sydney University students campaign for Indigenous rights, an end to South African apartheid and the Vietnam War. They were on the right side of history then, and they are on the right side of history now with their protests for a free Palestine.
“Sydney University is trying to smother activism and these rules are a shameful attempt to quash further protests against the genocide in Palestine.
“Sydney University must dump these shameful anti-protest rules, which disturbingly seem to have been introduced without consultation or notice.”