Police had to rescue Tertiary Education Minister Max
Bradford from Canterbury University after he was hounded by
a group of angry, chanting students.
The protesters and the politicians came into contact several
times in some ugly scenes as chanting students, sometimes with
linked arms, confronted and surrounded the parliamentarians.
The protest comes a week after students occupied the
university's registry building to oppose Canterbury tertiary fees
rising 30 per cent next year. Student protests around the
country are giving the Government a pre-election headache.
Third-year political science student Gavin Barron, 20, made a
complaint to the police yesterday, alleging Mr Bradford
grabbed him by the throat and pushed him backwards.
Mr Barron told The Press he had been shouting "Lies, lies lies
-- the Government tells us lies" in Mr Bradford's face when he
was allegedly grabbed. He admitted he "acted up a bit" as he
fell after the alleged assault.
"I accept Mr Bradford might have felt threatened, but we are a
non-violent protest group and he should have known that," he
said.
Mr Bradford said he had been jostled by an "Alliance
rent-a-crowd".
At one point a student, who had been shouting slogans in his
face, had stood on his foot and he had "brushed the student
aside and kept walking", he said.
The politicians began their day at the university defending their
record on education at a rowdy student meeting. They argued
that student loans allowed governments to charge lower taxes
and blamed university mismanagement for the rising fees. Mr
Bradford was often shouted down in some irate exchanges.
His implication that an older student making comments at the
meeting had spent all his life at university led to the student,
Ross Anderson, 47, approaching Mr Bradford. The Minister
appeared to push out towards Mr Anderson in a move which
further excited the crowd. Mr Anderson said afterwards he
had been pushed and "clobbered by the mike" but said he
understood Mr Bradford's reaction and would not complain.
The MPs left the meeting to again be confronted by the
students, who surrounded Mr Bradford's car. Mr Bradford
said later that at least one started to let down the car's tyres.
Police plucked Mr Bradford and fellow National MPs Gerry
Brownlee and David Carter from the campus yesterday after
the group had failed to shake off the pursuing protest group.
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