Mass walkout at graduation ceremony after speaker’s anti-gay comments

Hundreds of students, as well as some lecturers, walked out of a graduation ceremony in Australia as a former trade union leader took aim at gay marriage and abortion rights during his keynote speech.

Joseph de Bruyn, the former national president of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, gave a speech at Australian Catholic University’s (ACU) graduation ceremony in Melbourne on Monday (21 October), where he said abortion was the “single biggest killer of human beings” and same-sex marriage went against “every society on Earth”.

De Bruyn, who was there to receive an honorary doctorate, told education and arts, law and commerce graduates that marriage was a union between a man and a woman and was “instituted by God at the origin of humanity in the Garden of Eden, as the book of Genesis in the Bible tells us”, adding: “My experience is that many Catholics cave in to peer pressure. They think their professional lives will be harmed if they promote the teachings of the Church.”

He also said that for “several decades [he had] been involved in opposing abortion, the deliberate killing of unborn human beings”, going on to claim: “Over 80,000 unborn children are killed by abortion in Australia each year. Worldwide, the estimated number is 42 million per annum.

Students, staff and guests walkout during Australian Catholic University graduation speech pic.twitter.com/UZrWIWdlmr

— Clown Down Under 🤡 (@clowndownunder) October 21, 2024

“Abortion is the single biggest killer of human beings in the world, greater than the human toll of World War II. It is a tragedy that must be ended.”

However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), ischaemic heart disease is the world’s biggest killer, causing 13 per cent of all deaths each year.

Footage from the event showed people queueing up to leave the Melbourne Convention Centre.

Speaking to ABC Radio Melbourne, student Charlie Panteli described the speech as taking a “hard-right turn”, adding: “He started talking about how abortion was wrong and he had a list of things he wanted to talk about and it was shocking. I was one of the first to get up and I was quite far down the front and started to signal I was going.”

The speech was “selfish” and the former union leader “did not reference us at all”, Panteli said, estimating that there were about 95 per cent of people left in the auditorium when he walked out.

“I think the people sticking around were filming it because they were all so shocked that they thought the news should get out. There was a sense of solidarity. We all got up and we all left, like we’re not going to be a part of this.”

In response to the controversy, an ACU spokesperson said de Bruyn’s honorary degree was “in recognition of his dedication to the rights of workers, educational advancement and improving social welfare” and his remarks were “delivered in a personal capacity”.

They added: “While his views may not be shared by many of our staff and students, as a university we encourage the respectful exchange of ideas that represent the wide spectrum of our diverse community. Graduation is a special day and it’s important that graduates and their families have a positive experience.

“The university understands that many of our staff, graduates and their families disagreed with the content of Mr de Bruyn’s speech and we regret that this occurred.”

De Bruyn later told 9News he was disappointed by the walkout but has no regrets about the content of his speech. “I don’t believe anyone should have been offended by my comments and I’m certainly not apologising,” he said. “I thought very carefully beforehand what I was going to say.”

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