On 29 April 2024, students at the Australian National University established the ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment. This followed the example of university encampments overseas, and at other universities in Australia.
The ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment is a legitimate form of peaceful protest, following in the fine tradition of student activism on university campuses. Other examples of student activism include, but are not limited to, the Freedom Rides from the University of Sydney to regional and remote Aboriginal communities in the 1960s, anti-Vietnam War activism in the 1960s and 1970s, protests against apartheid in South Africa, and protests against the Iraq War.
The encampment is also a form of protest we are familiar with in Canberra, as the Aboriginal Tent Embassy – set up for very different reasons and in a different context – has been a symbol of protest for more than 50 years.
It is important to note that the ANU has a policy on Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech. This policy is largely based on the Model Code proposed by the Independent Review of Freedom of Speech in Australian Higher Education Providers (the French Review) in 2019. The model code and ANU policy includes reference to the duty to foster the wellbeing of students. Both the model code and policy clearly state that that duty does not extend to protecting any person from feeling offended or shocked or insulted by the lawful speech of another. It also emphasises the duty to ensure that no member of staff and no student is subject to threatening or intimidating behaviour by another person or persons on account of anything they have said or proposed to say in exercising their freedom of speech.
ANU invited Encampment ‘leaders’ to meet with University leadership in May 2024. The Encampment has a flat democratic structure and no ‘leaders’, so nobody attended. ANU then singled out 7 students, directing them to separate meetings with the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) in Chancelry under threat of disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct on the basis that they were refusing a reasonable direction if they did not attend. Ultimately, the students were allowed to meet with ANU as a group. The group was directed to collect belongings and vacate the Encampment by the following Friday, and threatened with disciplinary action if they did not comply. When asked why they were singled out, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) disclosed that ANU Security had been surveilling the Encampment and compiling lists of student activists. The students were then invited to divulge further names of students in the Encampment, presumably so they could suffer the same treatment. The students refused to divulge names.
The situation escalated markedly on Reconciliation Day on 27 May. At 8am on a public holiday, security and police attempted to dismantle the Encampment. There was a strong community response, and ultimately police delayed a direction to vacate the Encampment by 24 hours. That evening, students voluntarily moved the Encampment so as to avoid a physical confrontation with police.
This episode illustrates the need to defend the right to peacefully protest on university campuses, and to protect freedom of speech and academic freedom.
ACT Labor condemns the threatening and intimidatory use of disciplinary action, and the threat of violent arrest and imprisonment, to infringe upon the rights of students to peacefully protest on university campuses.