More signs of protest at Whitehouse Institute over Frances Abbott’s scholarship

THE ructions over the scholarship awarded to Tony Abbott’s daughter show no signs of settling down — and they’re getting funnier.

THE ructions over the scholarship awarded to Tony Abbott’s daughter Frances at the Whitehouse Institute show no signs of settling down — and they’re getting funnier.

The latest sign of protest was this simple A4 sheet of paper taped up around the college’s Melbourne campus:

The posters were spotted around 3pm on Wednesday when 100 protestors were staging a demonstration outside the Bourke St campus.

They stayed up for about 20 minutes while the protestors were out the front but were taken down after about 20 minutes by a college employee.

The pointed sign follows an incident on Tuesday evening when unknown people vandalised the college’s Surry Hills headquarters plastering the front windows with bright red stickers that said “BULLS**T”

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Whitehouse chief executive officer Ian Tudor told news.com.au yesterday that the protest targeting its campus was misdirected.

“We support the right of people to protest peacefully against government policies they are opposed to but there is simply no justification for singling out and disrupting our students and staff or vandalising our campus,” Mr Tudor said.

The institute also refuted reports that the only other student to have been awarded the Chairman’s Scholarship was the daughter of the college’s founder and owner, Leanne Whitehouse.

“The Chairman’s Scholarship (formerly the Managing Director’s Scholarship) has been awarded from time to time, at my discretion,” Leanne Whitehouse said.

“My daughter, Billie, studied at Whitehouse. She was not awarded a scholarship but studied here free of charge. Many private tertiary providers have similar arrangements for their children and the children of their senior staff and teachers. The school is wholly owned by myself and it is not unusual nor surprising that, when my daughter showed a strong interest in a career in design, she pursued this interest at Whitehouse.”

Originally published as More signs of protest at Whitehouse Institute over Frances Abbott’s scholarship