Students pepper-sprayed by police at Christopher Pyne protest in Sydney CBD

Updated

A group of university students protesting at a speech by Education Minister Christopher Pyne have been pepper-sprayed by police in Sydney.

Some demonstrators were pepper-sprayed when about 40 of them tried to enter the Sydney Masonic Centre on Friday morning.

Police sprayed a number of the protesters who managed to get into the foyer of the building and were then escorted out.

Mr Pyne was inside the centre delivering the inaugural Hedley Beare Memorial Lecture to educator groups on the future of teacher education in Australia.

The address was the Government's response to the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group report which was released earlier on Friday.

The group of protesters outside the building were demonstrating against university deregulation.

ABC footage of the incident showed protesters surging into the building chanting "no cuts, no fees, no corporate universities".

As they were removed from the building, they continued to chant: "This is not a police state, we have the right to demonstrate."

Ridah Hassan from the National Union of Students (NUS) said the behaviour by police was disgraceful and the students should be able to protest.

"We were pushed by police and I was pepper-sprayed right in the face, my face is on fire," Ms Hassan said.

Supporters poured milk over the faces of some of those injured by the pepper spray.

"Why can't Chris Pyne face up to the fact that students are against his higher education reforms?" Ms Hassan asked.

"We are determined to fight them and we are going to come out on March 25 to protest in our numbers to make sure they're defeated for good.

"This is an absolute disgrace by the NSW police."

A male protester said the incident escalated quickly.

"I was maced in the face for demonstrating peacefully," he said.

"It was confusing, but next minute, the police just maced us in the face, it was horrible and it still burns."

Police launch investigation into incident

NSW Police have launched an investigation into the protest, which they said posed a safety risk to both police and protesters.

In a statement, police alleged protesters blocked the building's driveway and attempted to push through a single door entrance to the building.

No-one has been arrested or charged and four people including the building manager were treated at the scene by ambulance staff.

Police have appealed to the public for information about the incident.

NUS protest organiser Sarah Garnham said students would meet to consider a response to the incident, which could include legal action.

"Even if we do pursue legal action it's not going to cow us and we're going to continue to take to the streets and confront Christopher Pyne when he shows to public lectures as is our democratic right to do so," she said.

"We don't want the message of the protest to be lost because of what the police did today. The policies of deregulating uni fees will see fees soar to as much as $100,000 per degree.

"It's very much about implementing a carbon copy of the US education model in Australia and students everywhere are really angry about it."

Topics: federal---state-issues, education, university-and-further-education, police, sydney-2000

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