Students have been hounding Liberal ministers wherever they go. We have been demanding that they be held responsible for their policies and that they not be able smoke their cigars, drink their French champagne or address their cronies in peace.

Our protests have gained widespread support. And the Liberals are running scared. On 20 May, Abbott cancelled an appearance at Deakin University out of fear of yet another confrontation with enraged students.

The bar was set on 5 May by students who protested against Education Minister Christopher Pyne on Q&A. The ABC program was forced off air until the students were evicted by security.

The protest exposed Pyne’s contempt for the views of students. But it also made nonsense of the idea that there can or should be polite discussion between Liberal Party ministers and the people that they are callously and consciously attacking.

The budget involves unlimited fee increases and a demolition job on student welfare, among other things. And students are only one group that will suffer.

The situation calls for an offensive of protest, disruption and anger – not politeness, patience or compliance.

Since Q&A, Pyne has been confronted at Monash and Adelaide Universities. At Monash, his car was chased down the road by students as he tried to scurry away unnoticed after finishing a speech at the Diamond Deposition Suite extolling the virtues of privatised education.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop – who gained her ticket into the upper ranks of Liberal swine as a defence lawyer for industrialists against asbestos victims – was confronted by angry students at Sydney University. Earlier the same day she had already been confronted by student protesters at UTS.

Smokin’ Joe Hockey was targeted by student activists in Brisbane at a “stakeholders’ convention” the day after the budget was announced.

And Liberal ex-frontbencher and notorious racist Sophie Mirabella – who has been made a fellow of Melbourne University – was raucously disrupted by left wing students as she attempted to give a lecture on politics and the media.

These protests have been variously met with hysterical rhetoric from Liberals and the hard right, hand-wringing and anxiety from the liberal press, and overwhelming support and enthusiasm from the real world. This support is reflected in online polls of thousands and floods of comments on online forums, talkback radio and social media.

While it’s true, as Pyne likes to point out, that many of these protests have been organised by Socialist Alternative and the far left, they are protests that connect with people’s anger and they are part of the wider campaign against the budget.

Ridah Hassan, Sydney University SRC education officer and one of the key activists involved in the campaign, said: “These protests have helped to puncture the political ‘debate’. They have brought attention to the people that the Liberals want to ignore and the reasons that we’re fighting. Sometimes you have to take direct action to get your message across.”

Of course we need more than just direct action. This budget will only be blocked with a mass campaign. The recent student marches and anti-budget marches have been an encouraging step in that direction.

But we also need more direct action. Specifically, we need more harassment of Liberal ministers. Pyne, Bishop, Hockey and Abbott think of themselves as untouchable. We need to further disabuse them of this fantasy.