Another student strike has been planned for September 17, following thousands of high-school and university students taking part in a nationwide walkout earlier this month. Like the previous demonstration, the upcoming strike seeks to fight back against the rising popularity of Senator Pauline Hanson.
In Brisbane, demonstrators are set to march from King George Square at 1PM.
On August 13, the National Union of Students’ “Say No to Hanson” protest, led students in eight cities across the country in marches against her racist far-right policies. Students from Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Melbourne, Wollongong, and Newcastle walked out of school to march, completely undeterred by calls to skip the anti-Hanson rally.
Hanson’s One Nation primary vote has skyrocketed in the last 12 months, briefly overtaking both major parties. Now sitting at an average of 26%, the party has seen recent decline in polling, attributed to Hanson’s comments surrounding a monocultural Australia and unpaid parental leave.
Senator Hanson blamed the schooling system for encouraging and misleading students.
“Schools should teach young Australians how to think, not what to think,’’ she said on X (formerly Twitter).
“If you want to protest something, protest why your parents’ wages are going backwards and the cost of everything is going up.”
“The Labor Greens government is selling out your future, and you’ll inherit a weaker, poorer, and less safe country,” she continued.
Education Minister Jason Clare said that students should not be leaving school to protest.
“I want kids at school learning, and I think I’ve been pretty consistent in that, in whatever protests have happened over the years,” he said.
“You know, we’re a democracy, if people want to protest on the weekend, then fill your boots, but I want you at school when school is on, learning.”
Following the success of their August 13 day of action, the National Union of Students have issued a broad callout to mobilize more students across additional regional hubs and cities.
Student activist networks have maintained that their core mission statement is to “build the anti-Hanson movement to a scale that can contest the far-right’s dominance.”
