Ex-NSW Premier Mike Baird reveals secret struggle with PTSD after Lindt Cafe siege

Former NSW premier Mike Baird has made a shock admission about his struggles with mental health on the eve of the ten year anniversary of the Lindt Cafe siege.

Former NSW Premier Mike Baird revealed his battle with PTSD following the Lindt Cafe siege. Picture: Nine / 60 Minutes

Former NSW Premier Mike Baird has revealed he suffered from post-traumatic stress following the Sydney Lindt Cafe siege, as survivors mourn ahead of the ten year anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack.

Ten customers and eight employees were taken hostage by lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, at the Martin Place cafe on December 15, 2014, sparking a 16-hour stand-off with specialist NSW Police units.

Hostage Tori Johnson was killed by Monis, while another hostage, Katrina Dawson, was killed by a police bullet ricochet after officers stormed the cafe after a gunshot was heard inside. Monis was also killed.

Almost ten years on, Mr Baird – who as premier helped co-ordinate the emergency response – revealed he had battled with symptoms of post-traumatic stress following the attack, one of the nation’s worst.

Former NSW Premier Mike Baird revealed his battle with PTSD following the Lindt Cafe siege. Picture: Nine / 60 Minutes

“Everyone just wanted them out. And you know, for it not to happen, there’s a deep grief in that. And I think the impact is felt by everyone,” Mr Baird said in an interview with Nine’s 60 Minutes on Sunday.

Mr Baird said it was “impossible not to feel guilt” about the deaths of the two hostages, but admitted his own struggles with mental health were a very small part of the impact the attack had on the country.

“In my mind there’s a sense of, ‘I shouldn’t be impacted that way’,” he said.

“I was just there as an observer and trying to co-ordinate a response.”

Speaking to Nine, Mr Baird said it was his mother, a psychologist, who noticed her son’s symptoms of PTSD. Two years later, after leaving politics, he finally sought counselling to address the trauma.

Mr Baird sought help after leaving politics two years later. Picture: Nine / 60 Minutes

Following the Christchurch massacre in 2019, Mr Baird said he wrote to then-New Zealand Prime Jacinda Ardern to share his experience and to encourage her to seek help if she needed it.

For survivors of the attack, the ordeal is one that they will never forget.

“For me personally it does not go away, but it is the thing that pushes me to continue to find the good or to find a good out of that awful situation,” former hostage Louisa Hope told 60 Minutes.

Ms Hope helped found The Louisa Hope Fund for nurses which continues to raise money for healthcare workers, including those who treated the gunshot wounds she sustained during the siege.

“As we think about what can happen as a result of something so bad, so awful for all of us, some good can come,” she said.