University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Leads Australia on Student and Staff Repression

MEDIA RELEASE

3 June 2025

The NTEU University of Melbourne branch is outraged by University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Emma Johnston’s decision to expel and suspend students for exercising their right to protest. Professor Johnston’s new tenure as VC is now distinguished by her decision to oversee the largest and most severe disciplining of students in Australia in response to peaceful protest against the ongoing genocide in Palestine.  

The move comes after Professor Johnston’s earlier decisions to ban indoor and ‘disruptive’ protests and to increase surveillance via electronic and wi-fi monitoring. The decision to suspend and expel students represents an unacceptable intensification of authoritarianism on campus. 

The NTEU is witnessing suppression of academic and political freedom, including through the adoption of the controversial Universities Australia definition of antisemitism, disciplinary investigations into dissenting staff and students, and crackdowns on protest. 

The NTEU branch rejects the University of Melbourne’s claims that these student protests are not peaceful. In the face of growing international condemnation of Israel’s actions, we should be proud of these students who have risked their own interests in order to stand up for Palestinian freedom.

Quotes attributable to Dr Liz Strakosch, NTEU UniMelb, Vice President (Academic) 

“We reject the use of the language of staff safety and antiracism to justify the punishment of students who are speaking up against Israel’s mass killing and starvation in Gaza. Leadership in student and staff repression is not the leadership we are looking for in the current moment.”

“University of Melbourne staff are united with students in the belief that protest has an essential role within public universities in advancing knowledge. Professor Johnston conflates staff and student comfort and their safety in this decision, which deeply compromises the public mission of universities. Staff and students are intimidated, and increasingly unable to exercise their academic and political freedom.”