Share and Follow
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the closure of his electorate office in Sydney’s inner-west after more than 30 years was prompted by pro-Palestinian protesters who’d been demonstrating outside for over a year.
Albanese, who is the local member for the seat of Grayndler, announced on Sunday that the lease had been discontinued and the office in Marrickville closed.
On Monday, Albanese said a new site is being searched for the relocation.
“It basically became untenable for people,” he said.
Albanese said the protests had affected people attending a neighbouring church and caused disruption to church services.
“It shares a car park with the church, and it became untenable for people to use their own car park at the church,” Albanese said.
“There were people being abused going to funerals. And it just does my head in that people think that a cause is advanced by that sort of behaviour.”
Protesters have ‘repeatedly blocked access’
Albanese had earlier said that over the past two years, “aggressive protesters have repeatedly blocked access to the electoral office for people seeking assistance”.
The Marrickville office has been used as a site for pro-Palestinian protests against the war in Gaza, with groups of people often seen outside holding signs calling on the government to act.
At one point, a makeshift sit-in outside the office became a round-the-clock exercise, with people camping out overnight.
The office has reportedly been spray-painted with the words “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” in what NSW Police said at the time was an “act of malicious damage”.
Office closure is ‘very sad’, Marles says
Speaking with ABC radio on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the office closure is “very sad”.
“I think the kind of protests that we’ve seen outside of the prime minister’s electoral office over the last couple of years have been a complete disgrace,” he said.
“It does nothing to advance the arguments associated with any of these issues. It really, I think, ends up being much more about the protesters than the cause that they pretend to espouse.”
The electoral office on Marrickville Road was first opened by former prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1993, as the office of Jeannette McHugh, who was the MP for Grayndler at the time.
Albanese has been the local member since 1996.
