How very entertaining

I suggest the Abbott government just leave the building quietly now.   Just paste up some notices on the office doors "Sorry, it all became too difficult.  We are going outside and we may be some time."

The source of my amusement?    The sight of Joe Hockey, university student, talking about the fight for free university education in 1987.  According to the report, it was actually a protest about a $250 fee.

Yes, the Treasurer in a government deregulating university fees entirely, a policy introduced in haste with no substantial discussion prior to the election, leading to the not unreasonable speculation that this will mean some courses costing upwards of $100,000. 

Simply delicious material for Labor to work with.

What's more, it seems to me that the Frances Abbott undeclared "scholarship" scandal is biting a bit more than I expected, given that a fair bit of the media (including the ABC) has not wanted to touch it for fear of being seen to be inviting a Frances pile on.

No, I'm not talking about highly taxed economist Sinclair Davidson's "A new low" post in which he gets upset about some pretty low level looking protesting and sticker vandalism of the Whitehouse Institute of Design (motto - "Don't phone us for a scholarship - we'll phone you!")   (Oh, and I like the drama queenery in comments "this is not an Australia I recognise;"  "Just like Alabama in the sixties"  Update:  some are now suggesting rubber bullets and letting everyone carry revolvers for self protection for such rioters.   Having now seen video of what the students did, it looks like about 30 doing a rather mild moving protest.  Annoying if you're delayed in your car for 5 minutes, but people like Bolt and Davidson are having a lend of themselves about the seriousness of it all.) 

No, it's more the fact that there a substantial number of comments following Neil Mitchell's story on the 3AW website dispute his take that this is a matter of disgracefully attacking Abbott's family.   For example:

Its fair game. This was a merit-less award no question. That Abbotts office are even taking that position shows how dishonest they are.
a. You could not apply for the scholarship.
b. Its not a published scholarship.
c. It would have remained secret except someone leaked it.
This was a gift to a prime minister through his child, to get the girl into his school to make it more prestigious so they could charge the other pooor students more.
Plain and simple.
And then same PM guts education funding and tells people get ready to pay more.
The protest is completely valid.

And, in a remarkable turn up for the books, someone even in the Catallaxy thread (just one - mind you) gets it about 95% right.   I'm worried that hell is freezing over:

So yes the Socialist Alliance are twits and it’s a disgrace that the police are required for protection. But I for one am not going to pretend it’s a desirable state of affairs that a politician elected on an integrity platform hasn’t disclosed that his daughter was given a secret scholarship and potentially acted as a lobbyist.