PRESS RELEASE: October 21, 2014 - FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION

"IT'S TIME" FOR FREE EDUCATION;

STUDENTS LOCK-DOWN LA TROBE UNIVERSITY
La Trobe university students have today honoured Gough Whitlam with a lockdown of
their vice-chancellor's office in opposition to the Abbott government's deregulation of
education.
A group of students have peacefully chained by locks around their necks and arms
and will remain in the building until removed by police, to demand that the La
Trobe university Vice Chancellor withdraw his support for the Abbott government's
deregulation and cuts to higher education.
The non-violent direct action takes place in congruence Monash students who
themselves last week locked on to their admin building, and with Sydney University
students who staged a sit-in at a campus library last night.
Student spokesperson Jake Wishart, who is one of the locked-on La Trobe students, said:
"On the day of Gough Whitlam's passing, we honor his legacy by demanding the
return of free university education in Australia."
Abbotts new laws will mean thousands of Australians are locked out of uni, or chained
in a lifetime of debt. They must be defeated.
We dont want to go down the America road where education is only for the rich all
Australians should have access to #FreeEducation.
"We love our university and are grateful for the opportunity of university education. We
are ordinary students, not part of any group, and we were inspired by the protests at
Monash and Sydney university to take a stand. We call on La Trobe's Vice-Chancellor
John Dewar and Universities Australia to withdraw their support for the deregulation
agenda of the Abbott Government and join the call for free education."
We call on students across the country to lock-on to their university campuss now.
Student Ahmed Yussuf, one of the locked-on, said, Im doing this so that my four sisters
in school can one day go to uni. I dont want my mum to have to go into debt and pay
hundreds of thousands to put them through university. My dads a refugee and were not
rich, but we still deserve an education, he said.

"More than forty countries across the world have free education, including Germany and
France. Free education is a human right, and the only means for ensuring equal access to
social opportunity."
"We urge students across Australia to take their own form of direct action now. If we
believe in quality education, it is up to us to fight for it," Wishart said.
#FREEEDUCATION
Contact: Jake Wishart: 0413 208 134, Poppy: 0430 834 350, Gabby: 0478 076 326
@jake_wishart on Twitter