Discontent grows over Minns’ handling of pro-Palestine protests

First, for his kindness in an election campaign, he shared a prestigious award with his alleged nemesis Dominic Perrottet. He then challenged former NSW Liberal leaders to cut the ribbon on the Coalition’s brainchild, the metro.

Now Chris Minns is heaping praise on Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane at every opportunity for her handling of the Bondi massacre. The NSW premier is every bit the Mr Nice Guy.

But with just over a year until the next state election, Labour’s rank-and-file members are wondering who he wants to keep behind. Those who believe in the party are not convinced that these people are them.

The handling of last Monday’s CBD protest, organized by serial activist Josh Lees against a visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, revealed simmering discontent among sections of the Labor Party as well as some unions angered by what they see as the prime minister’s brutal erosion of civil liberties.

Four so-called rogue Labor supporters attended the anti-Herzog protest; This resulted in 10 people being charged after chaotic scenes broke out and Minns tried to portray the MPs as outliers who were not in the tent. But these MPs, two from the Left and two from Minns’ Right, are not alone.

On Friday, the South Coast Labor Council summoned six local MPs, including Health Minister Ryan Park and Planning Minister Paul Scully, to a “please explain” meeting. Only Shellharbour MP Anna Watson showed up.

The meeting came after the southern NSW branch of the Australian Maritime Union wrote to the council demanding an explanation from local MPs and condemning “in the strongest possible terms” the prime minister’s defense of police actions.

“The sight of large-bodied NSW Police officers pepper-spraying women and elderly people and aggressively beating them without posing a credible threat to them was absolutely reprehensible, particularly galling and unacceptable in Australian society,” MUA branch secretary Scott Carter wrote.

“Minns is no Gough Whitlam,” says South Coast Labor Council secretary Arthur Rorris, who says “attacking union veterans and grannies” at rallies will not motivate Labor loyalists to hit the stands at election time.

“Wollongong can be a tough place for Labor politicians at the best of times, and workers and their unions have a strange expectation that our Labor leaders have been sent there to help us, not to crush us.”

The Prime Minister famously expressed his disdain for Lees and the protest efforts of the Palestine Action Group. Last year Minns publicly insisted there would be no marches across the Harbor Bridge before NSW Police appealed in court.

Minns insisted he would not allow protesters to block the city’s “central artery,” citing security concerns. Scores of MPs, including senior ministers Jihad Dib and Penny Sharpe, defied their bosses and marched with up to 300,000 people, making clear internal disagreements over the handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

In late December, Minns attributed the protests to rising anti-Semitic hatred in the community as justification for the crackdown following the Bondi massacre. Hateful words lead to actions, he said, and vowed to outlaw the phrase “globalize the intifada”.

In the months since, some protesters, including former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, have continued to use the phrase.

Minns’ recent crackdown on the ability to protest included passing a law restricting marches after a terrorist incident and declaring Herzog’s visit a major event, triggering police to use extra powers against protesters.

The morning after the chaotic scenes at City Hall, as images of police punching and attacking protesters spread like wildfire on social media, the prime minister did not waver from his staunch defense of police officers.

Minns emphasized that the clips do not show the full context and that officers faced exceptional circumstances as they tried to prevent unruly protesters from clashing with mourners at the event near Herzog’s. The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission is currently investigating the actions of the police.

But the biggest political headache for the prime minister came not from these incidents, but from viral footage showing a group of Muslim worshipers being moved aggressively by officers as they prayed with their heads bowed.

Muslim community leaders asked the prime minister to apologize for the pain and distress caused to the society by the disruption of such a sacred act. Minns wouldn’t do that. Even after this byline revealed that a senior official had allowed worshipers to continue evening prayers, Minns refused to apologize.

Following the Town Hall rally on February 9, Dib, a close friend of the prime minister, posted on social media that these scenes should not have happened and assured Minns and the Muslim community he had met with Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon to make their concerns known.

More than a week later, Dib joined Minns at a press conference in which he defended the prime minister full-throated, denying any conflict and instead blaming protest organizers for failing to follow police advice to hold a protest in Hyde Park.

“There are no problems between us, and I think we’re going to start these conversations with ‘What can we do to make things better now and in the future?'” Dib said. “It is really important that we are comfortable enough to realize it with the pure intention of saying,” he said.

A senior Labor source, who asked to remain anonymous to speak publicly, said Minns trusted Dib to defuse tensions within his community.

“The ‘one-sidedness’ and disrespect shown to the Muslim community has really gotten out of control and Minns’ use of Jihad Dib as a human shield this week has been demoralizing,” the source said. “Cabinet ministers on both the Right and the Left appear to lack the capacity to challenge the prime minister or put forward new policies, leading to each position being determined by what the 2GB shock jocks have to say about it.”

Senior Labor figures who understand the Minns government’s operations complain that all control and command center has moved out of the prime minister’s office. There, Minns make all decisions without objection, by necessity By his trusted lieutenant James Cullen, a long-time Labor Party worker.

In the competitive world of politics, where ministers want to keep their places in the cabinet or MPs desperately hope for promotion, it seems no one wants to rock the boat. Some MPs from the Left group who marched on the Harbor Bridge last year were aligned with the prime minister after the City Hall events.

Former transport minister Jo Haylen, who was suspended from cabinet following the travel rights scandal, insisted she would continue to fight for the right to protest in a letter to an electorate. He later told this imprint that he was disappointed with protest organizers who did not comply with police suggestions to move the rally to Hyde Park.

Dissatisfaction with Minns’ protest agenda and workers’ compensation reforms will be addressed at the mid-year NSW Labor Party conference, the last before next year’s election. The party leadership will want calm and to ensure no dirty laundry is aired, but delegates are likely to have other ideas.

But while the number of dissidents is growing, there are still many in Labor ranks who share the prime minister’s anger at the protests. Health Services Union NSW secretary Gerard Hayes said his members had always done their best to not disturb public peace when taking to the streets to demand pay rises.

“They know that traffic congestion has real-world consequences and can prevent patients from reaching the hospital in a timely manner,” Hayes said. “Some of the protests we have seen recently do not share this awareness. The Prime Minister has struck the right balance on this issue.”

Yet a growing body of left-leaning Labor Party branches are rebelling; at least 10 passed resolutions supporting protesters after the City Hall rally; many called for an independent investigation and the repeal of protest laws.

It is stated that the Australian Services Union is among those expected to raise the issue at the upcoming state conference.

“Kicking, punching people and attacks on people praying peacefully show that the laws in place undermine social cohesion and do nothing to build unity between Sydney’s diverse communities,” said Angus McFarland, secretary of the Australian Services Union NSW/ACT branch.

“We need laws that will strengthen and develop our democracy, not weaken it.”

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