NSW Premier Chris Minns has admitted he was wrong to follow police advice that allowed a pro-Palestinian protest to march from Sydney Town Hall to the Opera House.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Minns said he was still a \u201cbaby Premier\u201d when the decision was made in the days after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said police had advised him that allowing protesters to move through the city would help defuse tensions and prevent a confrontation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But\u00a0in News24 host Sharri Markson\u2019s new book \u2018Bondi Terror\u2019,\u00a0Mr\u00a0Minns\u00a0says the strategy failed and instead allowed the protest to develop into an angry crowd chanting hateful slogans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bulls**t. It doesn\u2019t work,\u201d he said of the police’s strategy in the book.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned a\u00a0bitter\u00a0lesson that night and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0really guided the government\u2019s policy ever since.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He recalled being told by police that allowing demonstrators to move further through the city was part of the standard approach to managing protests, and he shared his regret at letting himself be led by that advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a new Premier, a baby Premier, and we saw the march move from the Town Hall down to the Opera House,\u201d Mr Minns said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe constant advice I got from police at the time was, \u2018That\u2019s\u00a0the way we do it, we marshal protests. We just let them go a few more streets, let them get it out of their system, and then they dissipate and\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0not a\u00a0conflict\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe phraseology they often use is: \u2018We\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0make\u00a0a bad situation\u00a0worse\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Minns said he understood the reasoning behind the approach but no longer believed it worked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0not disputing the motive for that theory,\u00a0I think it\u00a0comes from not a bad place.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0just wrong,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said protesters did not simply release their anger before returning home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, he argued the march became more hostile as it moved through the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe group that marches from the Town Hall to the Opera House, it\u00a0then turns into an angry mob where they chant hateful slogans,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd does anyone really believe they then go home and say, \u2018We\u2019ve\u00a0got that out of our system. Now we can go back to being good Australians, and I love my Jewish brothers and sisters\u2019?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His comments come as the government\u2019s handling of protests after October 7\u00a0remains\u00a0under scrutiny.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of the Hamas attack, Mr Minns said intelligence and law enforcement agencies supported an approach that allowed some pro-Palestinian demonstrations to proceed as an outlet for anger over the war in Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Minns said he had viewed the strategy as effectively \u201cletting a\u00a0bit\u00a0of steam out of the kettle\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He now believes the approach risked\u00a0normalising\u00a0antisemitism,\u00a0racism\u00a0and increasingly hostile rhetoric.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen this over and over again, that with a certain group in our community, if you give them an inch, they will take a mile, and it becomes a green light for worse and worse and worse\u00a0behaviour,\u201d\u00a0the NSW Premier said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Minns later introduced tougher restrictions on protests following the Bondi terror attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The laws were\u00a0ultimately ruled\u00a0invalid by the NSW Court of Appeal after the court found they breached the Constitution.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the ruling,\u00a0Mr\u00a0Minns said he had no regrets about introducing the measures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy view is\u00a0that\u00a0got us through the summer. I wish they were still in place, and\u00a0I think the decision\u00a0was wrong, but\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0glad we did it,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also said the laws prevented protests from being held at locations that could have caused further distress for the Jewish community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you would have had protests down on Bondi Beach, right in the middle of the Jewish community, if we hadn\u2019t had them in place.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bondi Terror, by Sharri Markson and Alex Ryvchin, tells the story of the deadliest terror attack in Australian history – in gripping, minute-by-minute detail.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s scheduled for release in paperback on September 15, and is currently available for purchase through major booksellers including Amazon Australia<\/a> and Booktopia<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NSW Premier Chris Minns has admitted he was wrong to follow police advice that allowed a pro-Palestinian 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