Student protests are, unfortunately, ‘un-Australian’

Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne described student protests to higher education cuts as 'un-Australian'. Political ethicist Dr Piero Moraro says protest is just not part of the Australian culture yet and that's not necessarily something to be proud of.

Last week Mr Pyne described students' angry protest at the Federal Budget as 'incomprehensible, anti-democratic and un-Australian'.

The protests were probably incomprehensible only to Mr Pyne himself. Making higher education twice or thrice more expensive is very unlikely to be received with cheers and applause.

Protest and democracy

Nor are those protests 'anti-democratic' – accountability is a distinguishing feature of democracy, it gives the power to the people but this cannot be the mere once-in-five-years power to cast a ballot.

Is it wrong to vote?

Soon again every Australian will have to step into a voting booth for the federal elections. Dr Piero Moraro from the CSU School of Humanities and Social Sciences raises the ethical question if voting could be legally right and morally wrong at the same time.