UQ graduates are angry at the shameful treatment of Pavlou

The University of Queensland’s academic staff and administrators should be ashamed and embarrassed to have allowed the trampling of Drew Pavlou’s right to free speech.

There is a growing wave of anger among graduates of UQ deeply disturbed about these events. These people, of all ages, form the backbone of Queensland’s professions, business community and public service.

To maintain community support, UQ must abandon this foolish and shameful campaign of persecution of one of its own students, cancel his suspension and reassert the institution’s belief in freedom of expression.

Kate Magdics, Bardon, Qld

As an alumnus of the University of Queensland’s law school during the tumultuous years of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen era, I witnessed first-hand the irrepressible free spirit of the student body in championing freedom of speech, largely supported by the university administration. The whole concept of freedom of intellectual thought is, after all, the cornerstone of why universities exist at all.

The action by James Cook University in dismissing academic Peter Ridd for exercising that freedom, and now by my alma mater in pursuing Drew Pavlou, bring shame upon our tertiary institutions.

In the case of UQ, freedom of speech has been sacrificed on the altar of maintaining commercial links with a Chinese state-owned entity. In the best interests of UQ, the vice-chancellor should go, before his term ends.

John Bishop, Maroochydore, Qld

Letter writers (1/6) are correct in their condemnation of UQ and its handling of Drew Pavlou. This disgraceful affair will cause UQ considerable damage to its reputation.

But there is an obvious aspect to this that people seem unwilling to address. Pavlou was subjected to elements of the Chinese community who physically interfered with his right of free speech. They appear to have been led by Chinese agents who were able to raise a mob of compliant Chinese students. It concerns me greatly that the Chinese students involved are trojan horses who will do the Chinese Communist Party’s bidding in undermining our democracy while posing a threat to other Chinese students and their families. Why is this being overlooked?

Roger Bridgland, West Hobart, Tas

Cairns needs tourists

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk tells Queenslanders they have permission to hitch up their campervans and travel anywhere in the state.

I’ve got some advice for her: leave the government jet at Brisbane Airport, hitch up your campervan and travel north to Cairns on the so-called Bruce Highway. You will be surprised to find that Cairns, a once thriving international tourist mecca, is utterly devastated. Even if the world went back to normal tomorrow, this city would take years to recover. But the world is not going back to normal tomorrow, and five million Queenslanders won’t even scratch the surface of bringing back to life the hundreds of businesses that are the life blood of this city. So Palaszczuk should open the interstate borders now.

John Dean, Earlville, Qld

Population bloat

Unfortunately, politicians and business owners are looking to use the Ponzi scheme of population growth to “save” the economy and improve our standard of living. Retraining the present population to fill vacancies would not be too hard or time consuming if the aim was for a sustainable economy and population size, rather than a rush towards population bloat and eventual economic collapse.

Australia sits at number three out of 185 countries on the Human Development Index this year. The HDI ranks life expectancy, per capita income and education. When is enough enough?

Lindsay Hackett, Macleay Island, Qld