These are difficult times we are living through. I wanted to speak briefly to some areas of development regarding student and staff safety within our community.
These are difficult times we are living through. I wanted to speak briefly to some areas of development regarding student and staff safety within our community.
National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence
On the 25th of August 2025, the Federal Government passed legislation to implement a mandatory National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence. This has long been anticipated by UMSU and represents progress towards ending gender-based violence in our community.
The National Code acts as an expansion of the University's jurisdiction regarding caring for their students. This issue represents an area where the objective of the University and UMSU are in alignment: the removal of gender-based violence from the University of Melbourne. UMSU has a vital role to play in the development and implementation of peer-led reforms that ensure our community is not only code-compliant, but actively leading the way to address gender-based violence in the tertiary education industry.
UMSU and the University of Melbourne provide support services for students who may have been affected by gender-based violence, including sexual harassment and sexual assault. Support services are listed below:
Cultural safety at the University of Melbourne
People across the country are engaging in peaceful protest against the death and starvation in Gaza. This Thursday, the 28th of August, at 12 pm there will be an UMSU Special General Meeting (SGM) at North Court, Parkville campus, following a petition served upon the General Secretary. This SGM will discuss matters relevant to Palestine. It allows us to demonstrate our solidarity with Palestine, but it also serves to bring our community together in peaceful assembly, a practice under attack by protest restriction.
Speaking more broadly, UMSU opposes all forms of discrimination, including but not limited to Islamophobia and antisemitism - it has no place in our community. We, as a union, will always support peaceful protest activity, even if it makes people uncomfortable. But, we will never support protest activity that makes people feel unsafe. It is a distinction that is fundamental to our paramount objective of ensuring that all of our members feel safe at the University of Melbourne and in the broader community.
University of Melbourne found to have breached Victorian privacy laws in tracking students involved in pro-Palestine protests
Many of you would have seen the recent news regarding the Victorian Information Commissioner’s report that found the University of Melbourne had breached two information privacy principles (IPPs) via ‘a combination of student Wi-Fi location data, student card photographs and CCTV footage to identify’ protestors. Following the report, the National Union of Students and I released a joint statement calling for an independent review of the sanctions imposed on students that used evidence in breach of privacy law.