Sydney Mayor Clover Moore Speaks Out In Support For Pro-Palestine Bridge March

Lord mayor of Sydney Clover Moore has said a march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of Palestine should go ahead if it garnered enough community support.

Organisers of the regular Palestine marches in the city, Palestine Action Group, announced their intention to march across the bridge on Sunday to protest the mass starvation in Palestine. They have called on “everyone, every individual and every organisation, who cannot bear to do nothing in the face of this atrocity” to join them.

Yesterday Premier Chris Minns has said the government couldn’t support the march and warned of “chaos” were it to go ahead.

“The bridge is one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure in our city used every day by thousands of people,” he said. “Unplanned disruption risks not only significant inconvenience, but real public safety concerns.”

However, Moore is encouraging the state government to allow the rally to go ahead, and said the right to protest is paramount.

“The City has always stood with protesters using their voices to call for peace,” she said.

“It would be an incredibly powerful symbol for our most iconic landmark to be the site of a demonstration against starvation in Gaza and in favour of lasting peace.

“The government should work to find a suitable alternate location for this week’s protests, and if the community sentiment is significant enough to warrant the use of the bridge the government should work with organisers to plan for its use.”

Seven NSW Greens MPs have also come out in support of the march, yesterday writing to the Premier, Roads Minister, Minister for Police, and the Police Commissioner urging them to approve the action.

“This is a Premier who accepted an award from Israel’s President months into a genocide, and who lit up Sydney’s Opera House in support of Israel the moment their illegal war on Gaza began,” said Greens spokesperson for justice, Sue Higginson.

“Chris Minns can be remembered as a man who spoke out in the face of genocide, or he can be remembered as a man who blocked the people of NSW from protesting as children starved.”

Bridge can be “temporarily closed to help stop a genocide”, PAG argues

Spokesperson for PAG Josh Lees has called on NSW authorities to “stand on the right side of history”, and offered to hold the march a week later, giving the government more time to support the event.

“If they won’t commit to such support, then it unfortunately reveals that their professed concern for a lack of notice is not genuine, and we are prepared to defend out right to protest in court if necessary,” he said.

The group highlighted the Harbour Bridge’s closure to shoot a scene for a Ryan Gosling film in 2023, as well as the reconciliation march in 2000 and the World Pride march.

“It can be temporarily closed to help stop a genocide,” they said.

Moore’s support comes as more Australian politicians are speaking out about Palestine, more than 600 days into what human rights groups around the world have labelled a genocide.

On ABC’s Insiders on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Israel was “clearly” breaching international law by blocking aid into Gaza.

“Israel as a democratic state has a responsibility to ensure that innocent lives are not lost, and what we have seen is too many Israeli and Palestinians lives lost, and every life matters,” he said.

On Sunday, the World Health Organisation said they had recorded 74 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza throughout 2025, with 63 of those occurring in July. 24 of the deaths were of children under five.

Nearly one in five children under five in Gaza City is now acutely malnourished, and over 5,000 children had been treated for malnutrition in July in Gaza, some in its most life-threatening form.

Hunger is so severe that many people are risking their lives in attempts to get any source of food. Since 27 May, more than 1060 people have been killed and 7200 injured while trying to access food.

“The crisis remains entirely preventable,” the WHO said. “Deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid has cost many lives.”