Premier Chris Minns must call for calm and walk back from his threats to demolish homes in Lismore
Greens MP spokesperson for the Northern Rivers and Lismore local is demanding Premier Chris Minns to call for calm and walk back from his dangerous threat to demolish homes in North Lismore after vigilante acts of violence and harm on the homeless occupiers of houses in Pine Street in North Lismore over the weekend.
In the very early hours of Saturday morning it is alleged, vigilantes went to Pine Street then threatened, harassed, intimidated, abused and then violently damaged the property of resting and sleeping residents and occupiers. Armed with steel and sticks the vigilantes took to destroying vehicles, there is footage of them thrashing the windscreen of a vehicle belonging to a resident of North Lismore, who was sitting in his vehicle at the time. Then on Saturday night and Sunday morning vigilantes drove up and down Pine Street committing extremely dangerous “burnouts” with their vehicles, throwing fireworks and steel objects at people and homes and hurling abuse and injuring one woman.
Sue Higginson MP says “The Premier Chris Minns needs to take responsibility for this. He came to our community and used his platform to fuel division and now look what’s happened,”
“The Premier declared that he will knock down and demolish the beautiful old timber homes in North Lismore to get rid of those in our community who are temporarily occupying them. He chose to punch down on a small part of our flood affected community and the people of Pine Street and platform the intolerant views of the Federal National Party MP and a couple of Lismore Councillors who have been demonising the people of Pine Street, both residents and occupiers,”
“The Premier should know that making bully boy strong arm threats punching down on people where there is underlying division is a dog whistle to people who are fueled by hate and intolerance,”
“The Premier needs to take responsibility now. I was witness to the dangerous burn out event on Saturday night and it was terrifying, the hatred and reckless disregard for human life was on full display. Minns has clearly instilled a level of impunity we have not seen before. We can’t have this happening in our community. We are a strong, defiant and diverse community, but first and foremost we are a peaceful community who has been through one of the worst floods of our times, we are not recovered and we are constantly on edge about the next extreme disaster,”
“Chris Minns and all local representatives must now call for calm, stop hating on people, stop fueling division and walk back from the dangerous threat of the senseless destruction of these homes,”
“The Premier and his government need to be honest about our recovery from the catastrophic 2022 flood and that is not going well for many across the region, particularly in Lismore. The promise that flood affected homes would be bought back, relocated or lifted and made resilient is not going well. What we have is winners and losers, some people offered and received buybacks others not, some 600 homes emptied and boarded up, families still in temporary pod villages facing eviction and as at December 2024 only 16 grants to make those hundreds of homes that are eligible for lifting and resilient retrofitting approved,”
“The people living in the homes Minns threatened to destroy have made it clear that when there is a plan for the homes to be relocated, they would peacefully and willingly leave so that the relocation can occur. They have offered to facilitate inspections for potential buyers and have cared for and restored these properties that would otherwise have been left by the Government to fall apart,”
“The Pine St community are locals, families, students and others simply living and making use of unused homes in the middle of a housing crisis. They amongst people who are still living in Pine Street and surrounds who have done so for decades, and are not leaving their home,”
“In times of crisis leaders should not be swanning around disaster zones elevating some and punching down on others, it’s dangerous and now people are hurt, more property is damaged and real crime has been committed.”