Callout to all Students in the Ōtepoti/Dunedin Area

Callout for students in Dunedin to attend the upcoming anti-TPPA protest.

This is a callout to all students studying in the greater Ōtepoti/Dunedin area to join the anti-TPPA march this Saturday. The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement has been criticised for a lack of transparency, strong copyright law clauses, and risk of increases to the price of medicine.

While these all effect students and the working young, the direct effect on student life has not been well addressed. As with medicines, the cost of textbooks and necessary course equipment will likely rise with the extension of strict copyright laws. Should the government seek to drop subsidies for private education providers, they could be faced with lawsuits settled in international courts. Instituting fee caps or setting affordable fees at tertiary institutions could become much harder. And the government may also find it far more difficult to reform or close for-profit education institutions which don’t meet national or international standards. All these effects and more would have a terrible cost to already strained students, many of whom are only just managing to keep afloat with astronomical debts piling up.

We therefore call on students throughout Ōtepoti/Dunedin to join our student brigade to oppose these unacceptable effects on our education, and to stand with people throughout the city who will be negatively affected by the TPPA.

The march will start from the Dental School at 1pm on Saturday the 15th August.

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