There are many things that could be done to address the housing crisis. Scrapping negative gearing is one. Legislating rent caps and preventing banks raising mortgage rates are two others. Building public housing is a fourth. But Labor is not interested in any of these measures—for them, the profits of business and investors’ returns come before people without homes. 
But abysmal results in opinion polls have forced the Albanese government at least to appear as if it’s doing something about housing. Cue the newly introduced cap on Australia’s international student intake. From next year, Australia’s total international student intake will be capped at 145,000, which Education Minister Jason Clare says will result in universities having 15 percent fewer enrolments than before the pandemic, and vocational providers 20 percent fewer. 
In doing this, Labor is building on the argument pushed by opposition leader Peter Dutton last year that international students are to blame for housing shortages. Despite not dog whistling quite as transparently as Dutton, Labor’s policy nevertheless rests on the idea that housing is unaffordable because there are too many people. 
A media release from Clare’s office stated, “From 2026, the Albanese Government will encourage universities to create new supplies of student housing to benefit both domestic and international students as part of their future growth”. The implication is clear: international students are taking homes they are not entitled to and are driving up prices. Ian Verrender, chief business correspondent for the ABC, was explicit about this in an interview on 28 August, saying, “It’s just basic arithmetic that if you’re gonna add 470,000 people ... into the economy and you’re not gonna build enough houses to put a roof over their heads, then something is going to give. You’re going to see the prices rise, and the price, in this case, is rent”.
So let’s apply some more “basic arithmetic” to the housing problem. A recent report by Prosper Australia found that more than 100,000 homes in Melbourne were left empty or underused in 2023, including 16 percent of all investment properties. These empty homes, and the rise in prices due to the deliberate restriction of supply, are the result of choices by investors and developers, aided and incentivised by government policy. So the problem is not as simple as an excess of people or shortage of homes, but that the homes that exist are treated as assets, rather than shelter. 
Albanese promised to lead an “unashamedly pro-business” government, and he’s delivered. In “basic arithmetic”, that means Australia’s richest 200 people now own $625 billion in personal wealth, while tens of thousands are without homes. To address that, we need policies that prioritise people’s needs over the profits of the rich. 
Labor could, for example, abolish all tax concessions for property investors. Negative gearing is one such concession: it allows investors to reduce their tax if they “lose” money on an empty property. It rewards them for keeping homes empty instead of renting them out. This restricts supply while enriching investors, which pushes up rents. It’s more “basic arithmetic”. 
According to the parliamentary budget office, negative gearing will cost the government $157 billion over the next decade, when combined with the discount on tax paid when selling investments. Despite widespread calls from the Greens and housing advocates, Labor is refusing to scrap these concessions, which would hurt the profits of housing conglomerates, developers and the wealthy. 
Then there are rent caps, which the Greens have proposed repeatedly in parliament. We’re told it’s “basic arithmetic” that if you have more people but no corresponding increase in the number of houses then rents go up. But rising rents are not a force of nature beyond human control, like gravity. They’re the result of landlords choosing to charge tenants more. The government could simply pass legislation to limit or prevent rent increases. Or create new taxes for landlords who raise rents, and use the money raised to build public housing.
The same goes for mortgages. The Reserve Bank of Australia and the government have justified interest rate rises as necessary to curb inflation. The effect is to make the cost-of-living crisis even worse for working-class households, by adding rising mortgage costs onto rising prices. Including mortgage increases, the cost of living climbed by 6.2 percent in the year to June 2024, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, well above nominal wage rises. Labor could legislate a freeze on mortgages to give some relief to working-class households, but have refused to countenance that sort of imposition on the big banks. Last year the Commonwealth Bank reported a cash profit increase of 6 percent to a record $10.2 billion.
Broadening out from housing, there are plenty of other things Labor could do to address the cost-of-living crisis. They could target the supermarket giants, whose price-gouging on essential goods has been widely attacked. For the second half of last year, Coles posted a profit of more than $600 million, and Woolworths $900 million. Both were increases of more than 10 percent. Labor could freeze the prices of essential goods, giving direct cost-of-living relief. It could also raise welfare payments above the poverty line, as happened during the pandemic. It could provide child and aged care rather than giving money to for-profit providers. All this could easily be funded by putting steep taxes on corporations and the wealthy, starting with scrapping negative gearing. It’s just basic arithmetic.

Xavier Dupé

International student caps: how not to fix the housing crisis

The National Union of Students organised nationwide anti-war rallies on 9 August, demanding that the Albanese government break the AUKUS alliance and fund housing and welfare instead. 
A recent survey by campaign group Everybody’s Home found that 80 percent of renters are in housing stress. Meanwhile, Commonwealth Bank recently posted a record $10.2 billion profit. Yet the Labor government has rejected calls to freeze rents, raise welfare payments above the poverty line or build adequate public housing. Instead, it’s spending $368 billion on nuclear-powered submarines. Our own universities are developing nuclear programs and weapons partnerships with major arms manufacturers.
In response, students marched on their campuses to take a stand against this warmongering. In Perth, 80 protested a recruitment centre for the Australian Defence Force. Western Australia will host nuclear submarines under the AUKUS deal, and UWA is hosting an “AUKUS masterclass” this month. 
At the University of Adelaide, 50 rallied outside the defence building to protest the university’s extensive ties to the war industry. AUKUS submarines will be constructed in South Australia, and its universities are set to play a key role in developing the technology to facilitate them, including nuclear. 
At the Melbourne rally, Dave Sweeney from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons spoke about the ongoing danger posed by the weapons-grade uranium Australia will acquire under this deal. The protest coincided with the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, in which tens of thousands of civilians were massacred by a nuclear bomb. 
Sanne de Swart from Friends of the Earth said the submarines put a target on whichever Australian port hosts them, with disastrous consequences if they explode. She also criticised the Albanese government’s decision to accept a nuclear waste dump as part of the AUKUS deal, pointing out that this will likely be on Aboriginal land. The protests came as the Barngarla people of Kimba defeated an attempt to dump nuclear waste on their land. 
Students also protested in Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Sydney and Wollongong.

Students march against war

University students are getting screwed. Rents are out of control, welfare payments are too low and HECS debt is piling up. Yet, instead of capping rents and raising the rate of JobSeeker, the federal government remains committed to spending $368 billion on nuclear-powered submarines as part of the AUKUS military alliance. 
In response, the National Union of Students is holding a nationwide protest on 9 August to demand “Welfare not Warfare”.
The AUKUS alliance is a product of, and is contributing to, escalating tensions between China and the United States. The submarines are designed for long-range use away from Australia—in other words, for aggression. One defence analyst, quoted in the Guardian in July, argued that Australia risks being drawn into a war that “could end in nuclear catastrophe”.
Doomsday concerns aside, it is obscene to spend billions of dollars on military hardware during a cost-of-living crisis. We pay hundreds of dollars a week to live in mouldy houses or tiny shoeboxes run by private student housing providers. Anglicare’s annual rental affordability snapshot, released in April, found just four rental listings across the country that were affordable for someone on JobSeeker, and zero for those on Youth Allowance—not even a room in a share house! 
And rents and food prices continue to climb far above increases in wages and allowances. 
The $368 billion the Albanese government will spend on submarines would be enough to raise Centrelink payments to at least $88 per day, build more than 1 million public housing units or make education free for all university students. 
The submarines are powered by weapons-grade uranium, producing nuclear waste that will likely be dumped on Aboriginal land. In the past, students and trade unions have fought hard to keep Australia nuclear free.
Students have a special responsibility to oppose AUKUS because our universities are complicit in the alliance. While touring the United States earlier this year, Universities Australia chief Catriona Jackson said: “Universities have a major role to play in developing the capability needed to deliver the [AUKUS] project, including through the provision of skilled workers and world-class research and development”. 
The federal government has committed $128.5 million to AUKUS-related courses, and Navy Vice Admiral Mark Hammond has called for Australia to build a dedicated institution to train nuclear technology specialists. 
Last year, ANU Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt made the rather macabre comment that “starting today we need to set a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl on a path to be captain of Australia’s first nuclear-powered submarine”. Flinders University has already formed an agreement with US and UK universities to support the construction of nuclear submarines in South Australia.
This is nothing new; universities have long had ties with the military-industrial complex. Last year, RMIT signed a deal with Elbit Systems, which provides around 85 percent of the drones Israel uses for the surveillance of and attacks against Palestinians. The University of Sydney has not only renewed its partnership with Thales, one of the world’s biggest weapons manufacturers, but the university’s chancellor is chair of Thales Australia.
Our politicians and vice-chancellors are choosing to prioritise war over welfare. Are we going to accept that social services will be neglected while military spending grows? Are we going to accept that corporations like Elbit and Thales will dictate the direction of our education? Or are we going to stand up and demand welfare not warfare?

Students demand welfare not warfare

Hundreds of students gathered in Brisbane this week for the National Union of Students Education Conference to discuss war, inequality, oppression and the Albanese Labor government’s performance.
Students and young workers are facing an acute cost-of-living crisis. Yet the federal government is spending half a trillion dollars on nuclear-powered submarines and next to nothing on housing or to increase welfare. The key debate of the conference was about how students should respond: should we accept that war spending is more important than the wellbeing of ordinary people?
Student Unity, the right-wing Labor faction, defended the AUKUS military alliance and the government’s policy. But attendees from National Labor Students (the left-wing Labor faction) and Socialist Alternative argued that students and workers should not pay for the costs of war. Indeed, no one should; AUKUS is an aggressive move that encourages retaliation from China and takes us one step closer to war. 
Instead of spending billions on warfare, the money should be used to build more public housing, raise the rate of welfare payments and provide free education. The conference passed a motion calling for an end to the US alliance and a university boycott of the military. 
On a panel discussion about the housing crisis, featuring Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather, University of Sydney Education Officer Yasmine Johnson slammed Labor for demolishing public housing and rejecting the Greens’ call for a rent freeze. She pointed out that the government spends $80 billion on tax concessions for investors while failing to expand public housing. Cherish Kuehlmann, education officer at UNSW, spoke about the Get A Room campaign, which has been mobilising students to protest against those profiting from the housing crisis.
The conference also debated how to fight oppression and the far right. Socialists criticised Labor for implementing racist policies, particularly relating to immigration and refugees, and making concessions to the far right. In a plenary on the Voice to Parliament, socialists attacked both the racist No campaign led by federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton, and the shocking incarceration rates of Indigenous children in states governed by Labor.
NUS LGBTI Officer Grace Hill drew important lessons from the successful campaign against transphobe Kelly-Jay Keen’s Australian speaking tour earlier this year. NUS called a series of protests against Keen, which in Melbourne exposed her connection to fascists. Standing up to the far right, rather than ignoring it, meant that Keen and her supporters were humiliated, and prompted Victorian unions to call one of the biggest trans rights rallies in Australian history.
During the conference, students rallied in Brisbane’s CBD to demand Albanese break the AUKUS alliance and invest in cost-of-living relief rather than the military. NUS has now called a National Day of Action for 9 August, when students will rally across the country under the banner “Welfare not Warfare”.

National Union of Students calls for welfare, not warfare

Student HECS debts are set to increase by 7.1 percent after the Labor government rejected calls to freeze annual increases in the debts. The average debt will increase by $1,758.72. It’s a rude awakening for many current and former students. 
HECS was introduced by the Hawke Labor government after it abolished free education. Under the scheme, students borrow money from the government to pay for their degree. The debt is indexed to inflation, increasing each June. Students and graduates start paying when their income reaches a threshold, which is currently about $47,000 per year. 
This is supposedly because the beneficiaries of education are students, who can access higher paying jobs as a result of their degree. The argument is that students should pay for this “privilege”, rather than being subsidised by “the vast majority of taxpayers [who] do not have the huge benefit of a university degree”, in the words of Bruce Chapman, the architect of the scheme.
The picture this paints—of an educated wealthy elite living large off the taxes of ordinary mums and dads—doesn’t fit reality. A recent report notes that the people who collectively pay the most in HECS are not high-flying lawyers, but nurses and teachers. So HECS is not about people on six-figure salaries paying their due to society; it’s a tax on the working class.
The other problem with Chapman’s argument is that the earnings benefit to individuals is dwarfed by the benefit to businesses, which make higher profits because their workers are more productive. 
Modelling by Deloitte found that this increased productivity amounted to an extra $140 billion in GDP in 2014. The estimated higher earnings for students were a fraction of that, at $24 billion. The capitalist class wants workers to be educated, but doesn’t want to pay for it. So, increasingly, that cost has been pushed onto students, who are expected to pay for the “privilege” of getting a qualification your boss wants you to have. 
Students shouldn’t accept this. We should demand fully funded, free education. The bare minimum would be to freeze indexation, so that HECS debts don’t get nominally bigger over time, and increase the repayment threshold so those on low incomes get some cost-of-living relief. That was proposed in a bill moved by Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, which was rejected by a Labor-chaired review committee.
<a href="https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2023/04/greens-bill-to-freeze-student-loan-indexation-blocked-by-labor-and-coalition/">Tony Sheldon</a>, ALP senator and chair of the Education and Employment Legislation Committee reviewing the bill, made clear that Labor intends to claw back every cent from students. “The committee is particularly concerned about the uncosted financial implications of the bill which ... could be in the order of $2 billion, and $9 billion for ongoing revenue effects”, he said. 
This is a slap in the face from Labor. The government is giving the richest Australians $243 billion through the so-called Stage 3 tax cuts, but won’t pay a measly $2 billion to reduce the pressure from student debt. It’s giving handouts to the rich, but taking all it can get from workers, who are enduring real wage cuts. 
Given all that, it’s important that students have been protesting around the country against the increase to HECS and the broader cost-of-living crisis, in rallies organised by the National Union of Students. Students will be hitting the streets again on 19 May to protest Labor’s budget for the rich, calling for a freeze on HECS and rent and substantial increases to JobSeeker. Immediate demands like this are important. 
But the alarming rise in HECS is the logical result of a funding model that privatises the cost of education. The Australia Institute estimated it would cost $3.1 billion per year to make undergraduate education free for all citizens and permanent residents. Assuming an equal amount for undergrad international students and for postgraduates, that’s $12.3 billion per year. 
We could easily fund free education instead of nuclear submarines that increase the threat of world war. But given the Labor government is hell-bent on making us pay, we’re going to have to fight for it.

Abolish HECS: make education free again

Labor’s Universities Accord promises “a visionary plan for Australia’s universities” when it releases its final report in December. But don’t hold your breath for it to deliver anything much for students and university staff.
The accord, commissioned by Education Minister Jason Clare, is a comprehensive review of higher education that brings together government, universities and big business. The review, which is currently taking submissions, will also consult with the National Union of Students. 
“For the first time”, claims last year’s NUS President Georgie Beatty, “students have the opportunity to not only respond to change in the tertiary sector, but to help drive it”.
Unfortunately, Beatty has been drinking the Kool-Aid. There are many problems in universities, including course cuts in the humanities and social sciences, wage theft and extreme levels of staff casualisation, the exploitation of international students and a general deterioration of the student experience. 
But the purpose of the accord isn’t to improve student or staff conditions. It’s about reshaping higher education in the interests of big business. 
The review is being conducted by a panel of six bosses and politicians led by former Adelaide University Vice-Chancellor Mary O’Kane. The team includes Shemara Wikramanayake, CEO of Macquarie Group, a global financial services company that posted profits of $4.7 billion last year. Meanwhile, big business associations such as the Business Council of Australia sit on the Ministerial Reference Group advising the panel. 
It’s no surprise that capitalists are prominent figures in the review. Its terms of reference, released last year, focus on business interests. Clare’s stated top priority is making sure universities meet “Australia’s knowledge and skills needs, now and in the future”. The accord also aims to “boost collaboration between universities and industry to drive greater commercial returns”. 
So it’s not about educating generations of critical thinkers well versed in history. It’s all about creating the sort of workforce that bosses can best exploit to create wealth. The “collaboration” is not between educators and students for the betterment of society, but between capitalist institutions to direct research into economically profitable areas. In Australia, that increasingly means destructive industries such as military research.
Clare wants “to build a broad consensus” by involving universities in this review—in contrast to the Liberals, who, when in government federally, excluded universities from the JobKeeper scheme and cut government funding through the Job-Ready Graduates package. 
Under the Job-Ready Graduates funding model, students have been forced to contribute more towards their degrees than the government. The model also tried to increase the number of students in courses that would address labour shortages, such as nursing. It did this by making priority courses cheaper, while more than doubling the fees for humanities degrees. 
According to Andrew Norton, a higher education policy researcher at the Australian National University, the scheme not only failed to increase the number of “job-ready” graduates, but also burdened students with increased debt. 
Reviewing the Job-Ready Graduates scheme is one objective of the accord. This does not mean, however, that the review has students in mind—let alone that we will somehow be in a position to “drive” change, as Georgie Beatty argues.
University bosses are conducting the review. They have interests that are at odds with staff and students. Take Barney Glover, vice-chancellor of Western Sydney University. Last year he made $905,000 while his staff were forced to take a real pay cut. He’s a panellist for the review.
Or consider that university managements stole an estimated $83 million in wages nationally over the last three years, according to the National Tertiary Education Union, while many vice-chancellors make salaries over a million dollars. 
Staff working environments are students’ learning environments. When staff suffer, we suffer. So the vice-chancellors cannot be trusted to do what’s best for students. 
Even if the government increases total university funding, it won’t guarantee lower fees or a better education. In 2021, universities made a record $53 billion in profits—but that didn’t stop them cutting courses and hundreds of jobs.
Yet the dominant position in the National Union of Students, according to its submission to the review, is support for the accord’s panellists, provided that they “embed the voice of students in all the decisions they make”. Both of the ALP-aligned student factions have proposed joining the accord on similar grounds. 
NUS’s submission does contain supportable demands such as free education and raising welfare payments to at least $88 per day. But participation in the accord won’t bring them any closer. 
There are two opposing sets of interests in the higher education sector. On one side are the capitalists and vice-chancellors, whose goal is to increase revenues and profits. On the other side are students and staff, whose demands for lower fees and higher wages are directly at odds with the wants of the university managers. No amount of consensus-building can reconcile these interests—for one to gain, the other has to lose.
In the Universities Accord, the capitalists and vice-chancellors have the main advantage: the government wants to please them more than anyone. Student representatives, meanwhile, have no bargaining power in those discussion; they’ll most likely be ignored. Worse, if the particular students attending happen to agree with the vice-chancellors, they will provide “consultative” cover for the increasing corporatisation of higher education.
Further, the Labor government itself cannot be trusted. Labor abolished free education in the 1980s and introduced the HECS system, which is saddling graduates with mountains of debt as fees increase. And Labor is refusing to increase JobSeeker or Youth Allowance above the poverty line.
The National Union of Students joining the accord will only create the illusion that Labor is on our side. If students are to have a voice, it will come only through rebuilding the student movement as a collective voice heard through mass protest.
That’s why I’m not wasting time writing a submission to the accord, or trying to join the Ministerial Reference Group. Instead, I’m organising student protests against fossil fuel corporations, profiteering landlords and the Labor government that helps them screw over students and the oppressed. 
The rest of NUS should do likewise—stand up for students, rather than cosy up to the vice-chancellors, the capitalists and the government.

Students should boycott the Universities Accord

Hundreds of students protested across the country on Friday 17 March to demand an end to fossil fuels and taxes on the rich and big corporations to fund a shift to renewables and decarbonisation of the economy. The protests, organised by the National Union of Students, criticised the Labor government for approving major new coal and gas projects when the world needs to rapidly reduce emissions.
Speakers at the protest also condemned state repression of climate protestors and the ongoing theft of Indigenous land by mining corporations such as Santos and Rio Tinto. Students were supported by activists from Extinction Rebellion, Blockade Australia and others.
Three hundred rallied in Melbourne, where Indigenous socialist Oskar Martin slammed Labor’s decision to approve the Santos Narrabri gas project against the wishes of the local Gomeroi people. Greens leader Adam Bandt pointed out Labor’s hypocrisy in claiming to act on climate while opening up new coal and gas, saying “you can’t put out the bushfire while pouring petrol on it”.
Ella Gutteridge, environment officer at University of Queensland Union, addressed a crowd of 100 in Brisbane. She said Labor is putting the profits of capitalists above the good of the planet and ordinary people. She was joined by Indigenous activist Sam Watson, who condemned the state Labor government for approving fossil fuel projects and for racist policing laws.
Students also protested in Adelaide, Canberra, Perth and Wollongong, calling on their universities to cut ties with fossil fuel companies such as Woodside Petroleum at University of Western Australia.
It’s important that students took this stand. Right now Labor is attempting to greenwash Australia’s fossil fuel economy by pushing through its <a href="https://redflag.org.au/article/labor-safeguards-fossil-fuels">climate safeguard mechanism</a>. This bill is supposedly meant to force corporations to reduce emissions. However, it allows them to reduce their “net emissions” by purchasing carbon credits, so they meet the mechanism’s requirements even if their actual emissions rise.
The overall effect of the bill is to give Labor a pro-climate gloss while they continue to approve new fossil fuel projects.
By protesting, students have helped expose the contradiction between Labor’s pro-climate rhetoric and their pro-fossil fuel actions. They’ve also shown that we can demand better than what the Labor Party offers. These rallies are an important step in rebuilding the sort of movement we need to defeat the fossil fuel capitalists and their friends in parliament.
Xavier Dupé is the education officer at the National Union of Students

Students protest for climate action

We are in the grip of a climate crisis. Last year brought record-breaking heatwaves across Europe, drought in China that almost dried up the Yangtze River and floods in Pakistan that killed 1,200 people. It’s never been clearer that we need to shut down the entire fossil fuel industry. That’s why we’re organising a National Day of Action for the climate.
On 17 March, students around Australia will rally to demand a ban on new fossil fuel projects, the repeal of anti-protest laws and taxes on the rich to fund a transition to renewables. The rally has been called by the National Union of Students, the main political body representing university students in Australia. 
There’s no shortage of reasons to fight. In the past few years, towns have been incinerated by wildfires and annihilated by floods. One in three <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/04/climate-breakdown-supercharging-extreme-weather">heatwave deaths</a> is attributable to the impact of climate change. Millions of people could become climate refugees as their homelands become uninhabitable. Entire islands are threatened by rising sea levels.
Governments insist that we don’t need to fight because they’re making progress. They point to the growth in renewable energy investment as proof of a “green transition”, or to the emissions reduction targets they have set. But the reality is that fossil fuel investment and carbon emissions continue to grow, and the climate targets aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. 
In Australia, the federal Labor government was elected promising climate action. You’d expect that, at a minimum, it would put a ban on all new fossil fuel projects. That would be inadequate because we need to shut them down, but it would be a start. Instead, there are more than 100 new projects in the pipeline. No number of “targets” or statements of concern can change this basic fact: Labor is making things worse. 
At the same time, Labor is anxious to give the appearance of climate action. Last year, it legislated an emissions reduction target of 43 percent—a target that is unenforceable because all the legislation requires is that the government produce an annual report. 
This year, Labor announced changes to Australia’s <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/coal-truck-sized-loopholes-loom-as-labor-floats-safeguard-mechanism-reforms/">climate safeguards mechanism</a>. At first, these look more substantial: they require big polluters to cut net emissions by 5 percent each year until 2030. However, companies can reduce their own “net emissions” by buying carbon credits—so they can meet the requirements even if their actual carbon output goes up. Minister for Climate Change and Energy <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/jan/10/australia-news-live-earthquake-darwin-voice-kimberley-floods-broome-derby?page=with:block-63bced218f085d562aa42fec">Chris Bowen</a> claims that the changes are “pro-climate, pro-industry, pro competitiveness”. But they do little to stop polluting corporations. Labor’s priority is Australian capitalism, not the planet we depend on. 
There should be a backlash against Labor’s climate vandalism. Instead, it’s getting a free pass, thanks in large part to support from the liberal media. The Greens have at least criticised Labor, but their opposition is limited. 
As Katharine Murphy and Adam Morton, writing in the Guardian, noted on 15 February: “Instead of seeking to limit the number of carbon credits businesses can use ... the Greens party room resolved on Tuesday to narrow the focus to securing a ban on new coal and gas”.
The Greens stress that they “want to work with the government”, rather than fight it. 
If we’re to have any hope of saving the planet, we need to build public opposition to the Labor government. And that means we need to protest, not be lulled into complacency by the hope the politicians will sort it out. 
The student strikes in 2019 shifted the global debate on climate. They gave millions around the world a taste of our collective power. The fact there haven’t been protests like that in years is a big reason that Labor feels confident to wreck the planet. 
We can’t wish a mass movement into existence. The activist networks and culture that used to exist have atrophied because they’ve stopped organising protests. The leaders of groups such as School Strike 4 Climate and the National Union of Students have put all their hopes in the Labor Party rather than mobilising their supporters. The same is true of climate NGOs such as Australian Conservation Foundation. 
But what we can do is fight, even when our numbers are smaller, to be a voice of opposition. We can break through the false sense that “the adults are sorting it out” and sound the alarm. 
This is always how mass movements are built. The mass rallies for marriage equality in 2017 didn’t come from nowhere. They started as protests of dozens or hundreds of socialists and their supporters more than a decade earlier. The Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, the biggest uprising in US history, started years before with organising in Black communities against police murder. That’s why we need to get everyone we can onto the streets to protest.
Students can play a critical role in this. Students in Iran last year led a nationwide uprising against the dictatorship for the rights of women and minorities. In Australia in the 1960s, students were a key part of the movement against the Vietnam War, setting up radical radio stations, hiding draft dodgers in their union buildings and marching in their thousands alongside workers. Left-wing students challenged the conservative ideology of the Cold War by getting involved in the struggle for Aboriginal rights. Radical minorities of students have long been key to challenging the status quo and raising the banner of social and economic change. 
That’s what we need right now. Anyone angry about the destruction of the planet needs to join the National Day of Action on 17 March. But don’t only come along—get involved with Socialist Alternative and build the rally by postering, leafleting and announcing it in your classes. We need more activists if we’re to have any hope in the future. And not just activists—we need socialists, people who aren’t afraid to be controversial, to disrupt business as usual, to fight for a better world even if it seems far off. 
The alternative is to be “realistic”—to accept that corporations have to be appeased, that Labor is the best we can hope for. If you find you can’t accept that, join us on 17 March.
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The National Day of Action will take place on 17 March (3 March in Sydney). Follow the Facebook event for the details in your city.
National: <a href="https://fb.me/e/2s35gusfu">fb.me/e/2s35gusfu</a>
Adelaide: 6pm, Parliament House<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffb.me%2Fe%2F3iBklkSiX&amp;h=AT3HfGvdBl67HZmYWDcsrZnVDynmVurHoVMEdVp7LfTDt33b5LLXHAR2FJCmXEapdcxELVkfzpJ0cf9k2fmsPCH9rRflGS-eemAy3Bj8u9--1IJ0JNuWlaQR9YP_VU9nTRY7&amp;__tn__=-UK-R&amp;c%5B0%5D=AT0QWGpu3qagK7tLlnQWKFvhT2Q-2up9aqibkppJJs3LUIg90mleTL4BLxoNbQ7T1VymxgfEtHA4bUTPYPTOsXnOAYBk6s5cPjf2f6ZtUqZDhQy9oVenVtp-wwsvk8Dz5XQkD0pwrJNTZeDlUIMp_dqGdjCVnOCGOF_njLLLXCy5iPMqPccxC7--Qem5H7blxYYsSM7uxKJ4"> fb.me/e/3iBklkSiX</a>
Brisbane: 6pm, King George Square<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffb.me%2Fe%2F3TRLFbMho&amp;h=AT0DMg8s1ImDorAT_CPHfZJgMMMXDnKEI8BXujdoX1QC-YSubH0XF7G-NwYaaRabky1Iprk9edPlLuJEPpEWORVo4ZodcRlXWczIhoEDtn-7-QrdRLP0oeNindppI46vqh0l&amp;__tn__=-UK-R&amp;c%5B0%5D=AT0QWGpu3qagK7tLlnQWKFvhT2Q-2up9aqibkppJJs3LUIg90mleTL4BLxoNbQ7T1VymxgfEtHA4bUTPYPTOsXnOAYBk6s5cPjf2f6ZtUqZDhQy9oVenVtp-wwsvk8Dz5XQkD0pwrJNTZeDlUIMp_dqGdjCVnOCGOF_njLLLXCy5iPMqPccxC7--Qem5H7blxYYsSM7uxKJ4"> fb.me/e/3TRLFbMho</a>
Canberra: 1pm, Kambri at ANU<a href="https://fb.me/e/3aTqtmxX4"> fb.me/e/3aTqtmxX4</a>
Melbourne: 2pm, State Library of Victoria<a href="https://fb.me/e/3heprR8hL"> fb.me/e/3heprR8hL</a>
Perth:<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffb.me%2Fe%2F2Ax3CVP5l&amp;h=AT3ebr_1jK3nF7RXGvYw-jIf66XMq62bHHLhtc0gURiLZqpHqgr4DDc46aJN6Kh0mT3DOu_pBgP_uhWpbIP4kw8fcSsYYTjOLZm7lb63kbDG3SuuEjb7ukEjEwtHGICkDeuI&amp;__tn__=-UK-R&amp;c%5B0%5D=AT0QWGpu3qagK7tLlnQWKFvhT2Q-2up9aqibkppJJs3LUIg90mleTL4BLxoNbQ7T1VymxgfEtHA4bUTPYPTOsXnOAYBk6s5cPjf2f6ZtUqZDhQy9oVenVtp-wwsvk8Dz5XQkD0pwrJNTZeDlUIMp_dqGdjCVnOCGOF_njLLLXCy5iPMqPccxC7--Qem5H7blxYYsSM7uxKJ4"> fb.me/e/2Ax3CVP5l</a>
Sydney (3 March): 11am, University of Sydney<a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffb.me%2Fe%2F3ekIc6lDE&amp;h=AT2MYCO3kkk26Hi2bo6pIytZL13f_YRRnNcS3K216PK1jZrgzx0iY3nnZd_qY9VgrDV1xYMnncxSun93FE_nc01NlOcG0gepFrKnLJsgtkKZCHQOlN5J-4WsZcm7R61N7mbX&amp;__tn__=-UK-R&amp;c%5B0%5D=AT0QWGpu3qagK7tLlnQWKFvhT2Q-2up9aqibkppJJs3LUIg90mleTL4BLxoNbQ7T1VymxgfEtHA4bUTPYPTOsXnOAYBk6s5cPjf2f6ZtUqZDhQy9oVenVtp-wwsvk8Dz5XQkD0pwrJNTZeDlUIMp_dqGdjCVnOCGOF_njLLLXCy5iPMqPccxC7--Qem5H7blxYYsSM7uxKJ4"> fb.me/e/3ekIc6lDE</a>
Wollongong: 12:30pm, University of Wollongong <a href="https://fb.me/e/2b0ljG7Gm">fb.me/e/2b0ljG7Gm</a>

Fight for the planet: join the national student protest

Socialist activists have won leading positions in the National Union of Students for the first time in three years. At its national conference (NatCon), held this month, the union committed to protest against the federal Labor government over issues such as the destruction of the environment, rising cost of living and attacks on the rights of oppressed people. Socialist Alternative members were elected to the positions of education officer and LGBTI+ officer.
The National Union of Students is the peak political student body in Australia. Every year, NUS holds a conference attended by elected delegates from across the country. At NatCon, hundreds of students debate what the union should do the following year, what positions it should take on political issues, and elect its office bearers, who carry out the union’s work between conferences.
This year NatCon was dominated by Student Unity (the Labor right faction), National Labor Students (NLS, the Labor left) and Socialist Alternative. The Grassroots Independents, formerly a large faction, splintered, with some joining NLS and the rest abstaining from most debates.
Student Unity is the largest faction. They bill themselves as the defenders of everything ALP—and it shows. This year they moved motions defending nuclear power, chanted “dig it up, ship it out” when someone argued against fossil fuels and defended the right-wing SDA union.
Despite being called Labor’s “left”, NLS have failed to respond to the recent historic attacks on higher education. In 2020, the Morrison Liberal government passed the Job-Ready Graduates package, which pushed a majority of the cost of university education onto students for the first time since fees were reintroduced. Vice-chancellors used the excuse of the pandemic to sack hundreds of staff, impose wage freezes and cut courses. 
An NLS member was NUS president during this time, but made no attempt to organise opposition to the attacks. This year, NLS refused to organise protests against the right-wing conduct of both major parties, including the expansion of the fossil fuel industry, tax cuts for the rich and the deportation of refugees. Instead, their members campaigned for Anthony Albanese, who, in his first 24 hours of government, turned back a boat of Tamil refugees fleeing genocide. 
At NatCon, rather than move motions calling for student protests, NLS argued that we should look to the Labor government to improve students’ conditions and removed criticism of the Labor Party from nearly every motion put forward.
Their main argument was that the best thing for students would be for NUS to join the upcoming Australian Universities Accord, in which Labor plans to bring together vice-chancellors and governments to reshape higher education. While the accord gives the appearance of listening to students, student representatives involved in the discussions would be utterly powerless. Worse, their very attendance will further the plans of university managements to maximise profits at the expense of staff and students. 
Students have power only when we mobilise collectively, disrupting business as usual. In 2014, NUS led such a campaign, in which NLS participated, defeating the Abbott Liberal government’s austerity budget. This year, however, they moved a motion in a bureaucratic attempt to prevent the incoming socialist education officer from protesting the accord.
Socialist Alternative came to the conference arguing that if NUS was to be relevant, it had to fight against attacks on students (such as skyrocketing HECS debt, low welfare payments and cuts to education funding) and broader issues such as climate change, stopping the far right, supporting Palestine and defending women’s and LGBTI+ rights. 
In particular, we argued that the Labor government and the university vice-chancellors are not our allies—they work hand-in-hand to put university profits before all else. A mass student movement is not going to re-emerge overnight, especially after years of inactivity from NUS. But organising protests, even if small, is the only way to rebuild activist networks of students and start to push back the attacks on our rights
Following a debate on the climate crisis, NUS voted to organise a National Day of Action on 17 March (3 March in Sydney). Socialist and Labor students met with others from their campuses to plan how to promote it among students. This is an important first step in trying to rebuild a fighting student movement. Climate change is a key issue of concern for university students, so if NUS can lead a campaign on that issue, it will put students in a better position to fight against education cuts, high rents and so on.
NUS also committed to supporting the struggle to free Palestine and opposing the far right. There was sharp debate on the religious discrimination bill that is being reviewed by the Albanese government. In line with their overall approach to the conference, NLS attempted to take out all criticism of the Labor Party and did not commit to opposing the bill. 
Socialists argued that we can’t afford to wait until the bill is tabled. In the United States, pro-choice advocates didn’t mobilise until after Roe vs. Wade had already been overturned, rather than campaigning while it was under attack. After heated debate, NUS voted to oppose the bill. This is a positive step, but there’s little indication that the other factions want to campaign on the issue. So it will fall to Socialist Alternative to do the leg work.
With Labor in government, there’s a danger that the left becomes complacent. We can’t afford to sit around and hope that Labor will be better. The government is holding down welfare, expanding fossil fuel industries and deporting refugees. We need to fight them.
Xavier Dupé is the National Union of Students education officer.

Socialists elected to National Union of Students positions

Craig Kelly—leader of the right-wing United Australia Party (UAP) and a prominent figure in the so-called “freedom movement” against COVID-19 related public health measures—<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-26/coronacheck-melbourne-covid-protest-crowd-size/100650146">recently claimed</a> the movement’s protest in Melbourne on 20 November was “possibly the largest ever political rally in Australia”. The UAP’s billionaire founder Clive Palmer put the attendance at <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/10k-20k-half-a-million-when-it-comes-to-crowds-size-is-everything-20211125-p59c3j.html">500,000</a>.
Leaders of protests movements, whether left or right-wing, have an obvious interest in inflating the numbers at their events. But in this case, it seems, the inflation was greater than usual. Most estimates of the attendance at the 20 November rally in Melbourne—by media outlets as well as Victoria Police—range from 10,000 to 20,000. Even assuming that this could significantly underestimate the real total, it’s unlikely the turnout was over 50,000.
The Melbourne rally on 20 November was the biggest of all the freedom movement protests that have occurred in Australia to date. So while it’s alarming that a motley crew of right-wing politicians like Kelly, far-right and neo-Nazi individuals and organisations, and anti-vaxxers have over the past few months consistently mobilised large numbers on the streets, these are far from the biggest rallies in Australia’s history.
Even if only the past few decades are considered, many left-wing protests were significantly bigger. Here are five of the clearest examples.
The 2019 climate strikes
In 2019 millions of high school students and other climate activists all around the world followed Greta Thunberg’s call to strike for immediate action on the climate crisis and an end to the fossil fuel industry. The high-point of this movement to date occurred in September 2019, when an estimated <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-20/school-strike-for-climate-draws-thousands-to-australian-rallies/11531612">300,000 people marched in cities and towns across Australia</a>, with 100,000 gathering in Melbourne alone.
<div class="column_width_image article_inline_image"><img alt="Climate strike in Sydney in 2019" src="https://cms.redflag.org.au/sites/default/files/inline-images/climate%20strike1.jpg" /></div>
The 2005 union rallies against WorkChoices
In November 2005, an estimated <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/protesters-turn-out-for-ir-rally-20051115-ge18qv.html">175,000 people marched in Melbourne</a> against the Howard government’s union-busting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorkChoices#:~:text=WorkChoices%20was%20ostensibly%20designed%20to,changes%20in%20legislation%2C%20thereby%20promoting">WorkChoices legislation</a>, which would have undermined collective bargaining and allowed bosses to put workers on conditions below previously established legal minimums. 
<div class="column_width_image article_inline_image"><img alt="Arial view of the crowd at a rally against WorkChoices in November 2005" src="https://cms.redflag.org.au/sites/default/files/inline-images/The-Age-Newspaper-WorkChoices-15-November-2005-FXJ156431.jpg" /></div>
The 2003 protests against the Invasion of Iraq
On 15-16 February 2003, international demonstrations against the US push for war with Iraq brought out an estimated <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2765215.stm">six to ten million people</a>—among the biggest global protests in history. In Sydney, the crowd was <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/with-one-voice-the-world-says-no-20030217-gdv8oh.html">over 200,000</a>, while 150,000 marched in Melbourne.
<div class="column_width_image article_inline_image"><img alt="Front page of the Age reporting on Melbourne's big anti-war protest of 15 February 2003" src="https://cms.redflag.org.au/sites/default/files/inline-images/iraq%20war%20protest%20melbourne.jpg" /></div>
The 2000 reconciliation marches
In May 2000, an estimated 250,000 <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/walk-for-reconciliation">marched for reconciliation</a> across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney. The <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/content/anniversary-reconciliation-marches-melbourne-and-perth">Melbourne and Perth rallies</a> were also estimated at between 200,000 and 300,000. More recently, the 26 January Invasion Day protests have also likely been larger than the right’s “freedom” protests—with tens of thousands of people marching in Melbourne and elsewhere every year.
<div class="column_width_image article_inline_image"><img alt="'March for reconciliation' across Sydney Harbour Bridge" src="https://cms.redflag.org.au/sites/default/files/inline-images/reconciliation1.jpg" /></div>
The 1992 rallies against Jeff Kennett
Given the dominant political currents within the freedom movement, it’s likely many participants would have celebrated the savage neoliberal attacks launched by Victorian Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett following his election in 1992. But in November that year, <a href="https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/protest/workers-rights/">100,000 Victorians</a> rallied against Kennett’s attacks on the working class, which included anti-union laws, cuts to penalty rates, and privatisation of public services. 
<div class="column_width_image article_inline_image"><img alt="Union rally against Jeff Kennett in November 1992" src="https://cms.redflag.org.au/sites/default/files/inline-images/Kennett.jpg" /></div>
It’s unsurprising, on one level, that the current “freedom” rallies would be significantly smaller than these left-wing protests. In contrast to public sentiment around the demand, for example, for action on climate change (a big majority of Australians <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/climatepoll-2021">want much more serious action</a> than the government has been prepared to take), the views expressed by those in the freedom movement represent a very small fringe of Australian society.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the measures implemented by Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews to limit the burden of death and disease inflicted on society, while clearly not perfect, have been supported by a big majority of the public. This includes even the most contentious measures, such as workplace vaccine mandates, which <a href="http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8868-victorian-state-voting-approvals-vaccine-november-2021-202111240941">a recent Roy Morgan poll</a> found are supported by 76 percent of people.
This however, understates the danger that these right-wing mobilisations represent. While they may be small relative to big left-wing protests of recent decades, their enduring nature, and the platform they’ve provided for the far-right and neo-Nazis to spread their influence and recruit, is cause for serious concern. The aim of movement figureheads like Clive Palmer is, more or less explicitly, to import a Trumpian brand of mass right-wing politics to Australia. This, and the growth of the violent far-right groups that swim in those waters, must be strongly opposed by the left.
That’s why groups like the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/campaignarf">Campaign Against Racism and Fascism</a> in Melbourne, and other activists around the country (including <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CARFBrisbane">Brisbane</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/carfsyd">Sydney</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/carfcbr">Canberra</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/adelaidecarf">Adelaide</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UNITEDABR">Perth</a>), have begun to mobilise in opposition to right. If only a fraction of the people who joined rallies like the 2019 climate strike also joined these counter-protests supporting vaccination and other public health measures to protect workers from death and illness from COVID-19, and opposing the far right and the “profits over life” agenda of Clive Palmer and other freedom movement leaders, we could start to push them back.

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Socialists elected to National Union of Students positions

Five left-wing protests that were bigger than the right-wing ‘freedom’ rallies

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