Martin Place tent city: State government to introduce new laws to evict people from Crown land

THE state government will have the power to evict people from Crown lands if there is a public safety issue under new laws, paving the way for Premier Gladys Berejiklian to move on the Martin Place tent city dwellers.

• Premier Gladys Berejiklian to step in and act on tent city
• Martin Place tent city will go, Lord Mayor Clover Moore says

NEW laws will be introduced to give the state government the power to evict people from Crown lands if there is a public safety issue, paving the way for Premier Gladys Berejiklian to move on the Martin Place tent city.

Ms Berejiklian later confirmed The Daily Telegraph’s report, saying the new laws would be introduced into the Parliament today, with the expectation they pass by Thursday and given the final tick of approval on Friday.

Ms Berejiklian said the laws would target “unauthorised activity and anything that compromises public safety”.

She also said the state was applying for a development application to allow a Wayside Chapel site to become a 24/7 homelessness safe space.

Tents in place at Martin Place today, housing dozens of homeless people. Picture: John Grainger

Earlier today, Ms Berejiklian declared her government will step in and act on the Martin Place tent city debacle after Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s attempts to bargain with the so-called ‘tent city mayor’, Lanz Priestly, failed and the homeless people did not move on today.

“Last night, I heard the mayor say that the tent city would be gone overnight,” Ms Berejiklian said today.

“This morning, that hasn’t happened.”

Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the government will step in to deal with the issue. Picture: John Grainger

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore released a statement following Ms Berejiklian’s announcement earlier today.

“I’ve been deeply concerned by the threat of heavy-handed action by the state government and the risk of a repeat of the scenes in Melbourne where police dragged vulnerable homeless people off the streets,” Ms Moore said.

“I’ve spent the past four days in meetings with Police and the Minister and people from the tent camp in Martin Place and on the phone with the Premier and my staff have held high level talks with the department and police to thrash out a way forward.

“The law hasn’t changed in the past week — the City still has no power to move people on and we still strongly believe that without long term, supported and affordable housing, we’re going to see more homeless camps across the CBD.”

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore is concerned about the state government stepping in. Picture: AAP Image/Brendan Esposito

So-called ‘tent city mayor Lanz Priestly’ refused to move on despite making a deal with Clover Moore. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian

Ms Moore said the “agreement ... was struck in good faith to avoid the scenes we saw in Melbourne, and it’s going to take good faith from all parties for it to deliver as a result”.

“As part of this agreement, Mr Priestly, agreed people at the camp would accept offers of housing from the state government, and would voluntarily move on from the site,” Ms Moore said today.

Mr Priestly today said he was yet to determine whether the group would comply should the proposed laws be passed and police be sent in.

“I’ve not decided what our reaction to that will be. I have to consult with the guys that are here,” Mr Priestly said.

Lanz Priestly said he has not yet decided how to proceed following the government announcement. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian

He said his primary concern remained the safety of those in the tents, the broader public and the police.

“We’re facilitating public safety, remembering that homeless people are members of the public too,” he said.

Mr Priestly also took aim at what he described as Ms Berejiklian’s “punitive legislation”.

“If the Premier wants to pass legislation to solve homelessness, the legislation that she needs to pass is legislation in relation to releasing more affordable houses, retaining more of the public housing stock she’s selling off in places where people need to live,” he said.

“All the punitive legislation in the world that she might want to pass will not solve the fact that people are sleeping on the streets and people will be unsafe in the paradigm that she’s proposing to go forward with.”

Professor Kerryn Phelps.

Sydney Deputy Lord Mayor Kerryn Phelps slammed Ms Moore’s sudden announcement of a supposed deal with Mr Priestley on Monday evening, saying she rushed council to consider a significant sum of funding for the running of a safe space.

“One of the concerns that I had was that we had no prior knowledge or briefing of the plan that was put to us at the council meeting last night,” she said.

Prof Phelps fell out with Ms Moore earlier this year and quit her political team.

She said the failed deal effectively put the city “back to square one” in terms of the tent city issue and pointed to the thousands of people waiting for social housing across Sydney — many for 10 years or more — saying a message was being sent that the “way to get priority housing is to set up a tent in Martin Place”.

“And the situation for many of these people is quite desperate,” she said.

Prof Phelps said every level of government was responsible for doing everything in its power to find ways to reduce homelessness.

She wants the government to set up a high-level taskforce to tackle homelessness.

And while she said the idea of a safe space was “conceptually” a good idea, she was concerned about the potential for vulnerable women — particularly those fleeing domestic violence — being placed with other people who possibly posed a danger to them.