Manning Bar staff have been accused of threatening police violence on queer students in the Queerspace as part of a broader dispute around the use of the space in recent weeks.
According to an Instagram post by the Queer Action Collective, the incident occurred on August 14 during the collective’s planned launch party for their autonomous edition of Honi Soit.
Members were inside the space when Manning staff announced that the building was closing early and asked them to leave. When the students refused to leave, Manning staff called campus security to remove them.
In a video posted of the interaction with security, students can be heard asking for the names and identification of the staff, which went ignored. Security can also be heard threatening to call the police to remove them.
This incident occurred only weeks after a plain-clothes officer threatened a student and library staff member with their holstered firearm in Fisher Library.
As students vacated the space, Manning staff were recorded saying “You guys are rude c*nts, honestly”, and members of the Collective allege the doors to the building were aggressively slammed, hitting a student as they left.
The USU, which operates the building, requires Manning House to close at 6pm rather than 8pm when Manning Bar is hosting an event, requiring students to vacate the queer, ethnocultural, women’s, and disability spaces located within the building.
On August 14, Manning was hosting its annual “Battle of the Bands” final – a ticketed event. The USU has claimed previously that due to liquor licensing laws, only ticket holders above the age of 18 can be in Manning House during an event.
Other USU venues, like Hermann’s Bar, can freely host events without vacating the entire Wentworth Building.
The Collective claims that the queer space has been free to use during events in the past.
A member of the Collective who was present when security was called said told Honi that “the USU has once again prioritised profit and convenience over the needs and safety of queer students…Management is making a deliberate choice to antagonize and harass Queerspace users when they evict us under the guise of running events.”
A second collective member told Honi that the USU is in talks to potentially move the queer space to the Wentworth building (which is currently slated for demolition) to avoid future incidents.
The Collective has started a petition to prevent any movement of the space and remove the swipecard access requirement after business hours. Moving the space goes directly against the demands of the Collective’s “Hands Off Our Queerspace” campaign. The campaign was started earlier this year and the petition has gained over 200 signatures.
At the launch of the campaign, the USU proposed a policy that would turn the Queerspace into a study-only space that was only accessible to students. This same proposal threatened to dismantle the queer space should users disobey the policy.
USU President Bryson Constable did not comment on potential plans to move the Queerspace to the Wentworth building, telling Honi that “the USU is engaging with users of the Queer Space to ensure its safe, building-complicit use, especially given the necessity of Manning to be cleared on certain nights to ensure the USU complies with licensing laws, regulations and conditions related to the Manning Building liquor licence.”
“The USU will not tolerate any abuse of its staff, who act to ensure the safety of the space, or any of its members. As always, the USU aims to provide a secure gathering space for queer individuals, and we will assess options to ensure disputes do not continue to arise.”
