Pro-Palestine Protesters Interrupt Minns in Tweed Heads Community Meeting
A community meeting in Tweed Heads with Premier Chris Minns was interrupted by protesters opposing the government’s suppression of pro-Palestine action across the state.
Five pro-Palestine protesters were escorted out of the venue by police after voicing their concerns of government complicity from the audience.
“Every 45 minutes, a child dies in Gaza. How many more children need to die before our government takes action?” one protester asked Minns.
In a video posted to Northern Rivers Friends of Palestine’s Instagram, one protester said it was their duty as a citizen of the federal and state governments to take action and refuse complicity.
“It’s up to us to apply pressure continuously until Israel is sanctioned, aid is let in, and Palestine is free,” said another.
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The action comes as NSW Police reject an application by the Palestine Action Group to march, citing to public safety concerns. They confirmed a summons would be filed in the Supreme Court to legally prohibit the protest.
Recent polling shows Minns’ personal approval rating has fallen by five points, despite a rise in primary votes for Labor and the Greens.
Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said communities had were feeling let down by the government across a range of different issues.
“Our wonderful Northern Rivers community cares deeply about the environment, about social justice, and about protecting each other,” she said. “Chris Minns is a Labor Premier who is logging the heart out of the Great Koala National Park, shutting down peaceful protests against the genocide in Gaza, and failing to deliver for key workers.
“Chris Minns and the Labor Government rode into power promising to deliver the Great Koala National Park and do better for key workers and people feel betrayed.”
Minns is also under increasing pressure to grant nurses and midwives a 15 per cent pay rise, with their wages having been suppressed by Liberal National Governments since 2011.
Higginson said the Premier had “a lot of nerve” to attend a meeting so close to the Queensland border while refusing to increase nurse wages.
“For nearly 2 years now, the Labor Party has been gaslighting nurses and midwives by saying a pay rise is impossible. Now, Chris Minns is turning up 30 seconds drive from a State where graduate nurses are paid 18% more”.
In November, the NSW government announced a historic pay rise of up to 39 per cent for the NSW Police, making them the highest paid police force in the country.
Protesters promise to march on Harbour Bridge this Sunday
Minns is facing backlash from within his own caucus, with upper house Labor MP Stephen Lawrence telling ABC Radio Sydney the premier’s comments against the March for Humanity amounted to political interference.
“I back our police and I think they should be left to do their important operational work without this high-level political interference,” Lawrence said.
“I think it’s difficult to construe such adamant and categorical statements for a person of particular high political authority at such a time in any other way than a form of interference, not least because it can taint how these things are perceived in the community.”
The premier said that while he recognised many in the community were “very concerned” about the crisis in Palestine, closing the bridge was logistically too difficult.
“I’m not suggesting that the motives of the protesters are wrong or misplaced. I completely accept that many people living in New South Wales would want to protest this situation,” Minns said.
“My point, and it’s an important one, is to close down the harbour bridge, which has happened maybe two or three times in a decade, is a logistical and communications Everest. It’s incredibly difficult to do.”
The Harbour Bridge was previously closed to shoot a scene for a Ryan Gosling film in 2023, and other notable closures include the reconciliation march in 2000 and the World Pride march.
Protest organisers expect to be in court tomorrow to fight for the right to protest, but have said they plan to march regardless of government approval.
“It’s not all up to Chris Minns, it’s not all up to the police,” said spokesperson Josh Lees on Wednesday.
“We are going to fight for our democratic right for tens and tens of thousands of Sydneysiders, to be able to walk on our bridge in order to oppose a genocide.
“Our plan is to win the case and march over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.”
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