A “riot” threat forced Prime Minister Tony Abbott to cancel a Geelong visit this week, a minister has revealed.
Christopher Pyne said police had provided advice that students planned to riot when he and Mr Abbott attended the official opening of a research centre at Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds campus on Wednesday.
Mr Pyne said the cancelled visit followed student violence against Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and former Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella at separate events in the previous week.
“The advice form the Australian Federal Police was that the students are planning a riot at Deakin University,” he told ABC radio.
“We didn’t want to put innocent bystanders at risk because university students want the Australian taxpayer to pick up the full cost of their education.”
Mr Pyne said the police advice did not use the word ‘riot’ but he considered it an accurate description following the violence against the two Liberal women.
Mr Pyne, Education Minister, suggested police might have found evidence supporting the riot advice on social media.
Students had used “inflammatory language” against Mr Abbott, himself and others on Twitter and Facebook, Mr Pyne said.
He also implicated far-left political group Socialist Alternative in the visit cancellation.
“Peaceful protests are entirely part of our democracy but the studnts so far and the Socialist Alternative have proven themselves incapable of doing that.”
Labor’s shadow environment and climate change minister, Mark Butler, accused Mr Pyne of a “slur” against students for suggesting they planned to riot but said protests “must be kept peaceful”.
Mr Abbott had also been scheduled to attend an expansion opening at Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre and a Liberal fundraising lunch at Lord of the Isles Tavern.
The cancelled visit followed a police investigation last year into a Geelong Facebook hate page calling for the assassination of Mr Abbott.
The page, Tony Abbott Should be Assassinated, was administered from a page at Geelong’s Trades Hall and used a Socialist Alliance email address.
