AS a Melbourne University student, I was disappointed to read the article by Sarah Dean (The Border Mail, April 9) about the so-called “protest” against Sophie Mirabella’s appointment as a policy fellow.
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I was at the campus on the day of this so-called “protest” and there was hardly anything like the reported number of 50 people in attendance.
In fact it was probably more like about 20.
Such a small group cannot be considered any relevant representation of the views of a university cohort of 40,000.
In fact, the majority of the students who did attend were not from the Refugee Rights Group, but are well-known members of the radical Socialist Alternative, hiding under what they consider a more consumerable guise.
The so-called “protest” is simply a case of a very small minority of students purporting to represent all students, and this has happened before at the university, most notably with the passing of a motion by Student’s Council to celebrate the death of Margaret Thatcher.
The other Public Policy Fellow, Nick Reece, is a former staffer of Julia Gillard and I would suggest the majority of students at the university, regardless of their political persuasion or beliefs, respect Mrs Mirabella’s experience and look forward to the sharing of her insight into public policy.
— NICHOLAS WARLAND,
Melbourne
