About 400 University of Otago students marched from Campus to the Octagon this morning, to protest against the government’s moves in the Budget along with the ‘‘neoliberal’’ management of universities in general.
Student activist Oscar Bartle, standing by a waving Labour flag in the Octagon, told the audience that successive governments, including previous Labour governments, had failed to look after university students financially or ethically.
‘‘Labour has refused to do the bare minimum, and even commit to restoring fees free.
‘‘For those who don't remember, one of Labour's flagship campaign promises before their last stint in government was actually three years fees free.
Mr Bartle said with this in mind, students should not only be angry at past governments, but organise movements large enough to make politicians and the government pay attention.
‘‘The truth is, one protest isn't going to make the change, but a movement can.’’
He said there was precedent for a massive student movement in Dunedin — during the 1990s, students occupied the Clocktower in protest of hiked university fees, and one of those protesters was current vice-chancellor Grant Robertson.
Mr Bartle accused present-day Mr Robertson of neoliberal tactics by seeking $16 million in permanent savings and by repeatedly hiking student fees.
Otago University politics lecturer Prof Brian Roper said he remembered the student protests of the 1990s, and something similar could happen again.
The size of today’s protest was similar to the early protests in the 1990s, which gathered momentum and eventually numbered in the thousands.
‘‘You've got to make a big change to see a big increase in participation.
‘‘That's why, for all sorts of reasons, the introduction of fees free tertiary education with universal student living allowances makes perfect sense.’’
Prof Roper said he sympathised with the plight of cash-strapped and overworked university students.
‘‘I've been university teaching for a long time and I've seen the negative impacts of inadequate student support and the fact that you're all accumulating these massive debts at the beginning of your adult lives on your mental health and your physical wellbeing.
‘‘It's quite frankly a war on youth and it's absolutely despicable.’’
Free tertiary education funded by progressive taxation was not a ‘‘radical’’ idea, but one that many countries implement, and one that New Zealand used to implement until the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s and 1990s.
‘‘The country could afford it for 52 years when the economy was smaller and per capita GDP is much lower than it is now.’’
Prof Roper urged people at the protest to mobilise and bring along their friends to future events.
‘‘I want you to make it clear to this government that this is not the end of this campaign and movement. It is the beginning, and I was here back in the 90s and we started out with a protest this big.’’
The protest also featured students waving a variety of placards and wearing costumes, including Otago University Students’ Association president Daniel Leamy, who was dressed as the ‘‘debt monster’’ in protest of the high amounts of debt graduate students face before they even join the workforce.
