Minns accused of ‘fuelling vigilantes’ after Lismore squatters allegedly targeted

Premier Chris Minns has been accused of “fuelling vigilantism” after residents of a Lismore street he labelled “squatters” and promised to evict were allegedly harassed in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Police are investigating after reports a group of people allegedly “performed burnouts, harassed residents and damaged vehicles on the street” on Pine Street in Lismore.

People squatting in homes on Pine St, Lismore, were allegedly harassed by people doing burnouts and throwing fireworks on Saturday night.

Footage of the incidents seen by the Sydney Morning Herald show men smashing the windscreen of a ute, doing burnouts and throwing fireworks from cars, as well as hurling insults. In a statement, a spokesperson for the NSW Police said there had been “reports of malicious damage”.

The footage appears to show men hurling obscenities and objects, including fireworks, from passing vehicles, while a separate video shows men smashing the windscreen of a vehicle apparently belonging to one of the residents. In another, smoke fills the street while a driver repeatedly revs a vehicle.

The disturbing scenes, which allegedly occurred in a series of incidents over the weekend, came after Minns’s intervention in an ongoing dispute over the occupation of six homes which were purchased by the NSW Reconstruction Authority following the 2022 floods which devastated Lismore.

The homes had been empty after they were purchased under the government’s $900 million buyback scheme, which saw the authority purchase them to be on-sold and relocated.

They were occupied illegally by a group of about 40 squatters, who have been living in the properties since last year.

Minns gave what had been a local dispute a statewide audience last week when he used an interview on the Sydney radio station 2GB to declare he would order the Reconstruction Authority to demolish the homes.

“We need to demolish those houses [and] get those squatters out of Lismore,” he said.

His comments have sparked a backlash after the alleged actions over the weekend. NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson, a Lismore local, witnessed some of the incidents, and said people on the street were “now terrified”.

She accused the premier of “fuelling vigilantism”, saying she feared “someone is going to get hurt”.

“In no uncertain terms, this is happening as a direct response to Premier Minns,” she said.

People squatting in flood-prone homes in Lismore were allegedly harassed on Saturday night

“It is absolutely on the premier. You can’t come into a local community, literally recovering from one of the worst climate-fuelled disasters, where there are genuine issues of homelessness, mental health, trauma, all playing out right in front of us, then Chris Minns walks in, jumps all over these people and says we’re going to demolish the houses.”

A spokesman for Minns declined to comment.

Minns’s comments came after Cyclone Alfred threatened to inundate parts of Lismore last week, and he said his intervention was prompted by the danger to State Emergency Services personnel of those people living in the homes.

But he also attacked the squatters as “overseas visitors, tourists [and] backpackers,” and claimed that they had “demanded a whole bunch of conditions” during a meeting with NSW government officials, including that they “jump the queue” for social housing.

Greens MP Sue HigginsonCredit: Dion Georgopoulos

“They want to be first off the rank, we’re not allowing that,” he said.

But the squatters have pushed back on those claims. Last week the Herald spoke to residents who said they had only intended to live in the properties until they had been purchased and relocated. Many were also from the northern rivers’ community, homeless, or, like 17-year-old Tyson and his mother, escaping domestic violence.

Their use of the homes has proven divisive in Lismore. The Reconstruction Authority has taken legal action to force them out of the condemned properties, while others, such as local mayor Steve Krieg, have called for their removal.

While Krieg said he was not aware of the incidents when contacted by the Herald, he said they would not change his view: “My view is exactly the same, I fully support the premier,” he said.

“I don’t condone any sort of vigilante behaviour, but sadly regional NSW has had a crime issue for many years that hasn’t been dealt with. If people want to link the two, that’s up to them.”

Pine Street, in Lismore, where a group of squatters have allegedly been the focus of harassment after Premier Chris Minns criticised them last week.Credit: Louise Kennerley

But others, such as Vicki Findlay, who owned one of the houses on Pine Street before selling it to the Reconstruction Authority, see Minns’s intervention as a “sideshow” to distract from “the failure to deliver on the recovery”.

“It’s incredibly sad and dangerous what’s happening, I feel heart sick about the whole business,” she said.

“As a community member, I believe people are just trying to find shelter. There are hundreds of empty houses all over Lismore. The government has failed to deliver on our recovery and Minns is talking about five or six houses in Pine Street.”

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