Hours after Melbourne woke to the news that his office had been vandalised in a political hate crime, a visibly shaken Josh Burns’ MP faced a press conference.
‘At 3:20 this morning, six people turned up to my office, they came with kerosene, they smashed in windows with a hammer, they spray painted on the outside of my office, they spray painted the inside of my office, they lit two fires, one on the left hand side of my office and one outside the door to the residential apartments upstairs.
‘It was a very reckless and dangerous vandalism of my office. It was clearly politically motivated by having the graffiti on the outside of the office. This was really ugly behaviour. And it was dangerous. You’ve put residents and lives and livelihoods at risk.
‘We’re in Australia, this is St Kilda, we’re in multicultural Melbourne, where such a beautiful part of our society to have people from all different melting pots coming together. And political debate in Australia has always been one where we come together, we can disagree, we can often tease each other about it. We do so respectfully. And this isn’t respectful right now.
‘This is a dangerous escalation of people trying to bring a conflict on the other side of the world to our streets, and it needs to end needs to stop, because it’s dangerous. And thankfully, no one was hurt last night. But next time, you know, I’m worried for my colleagues. I’m worried for my staff. I’m worried for people involved in political life in Australia.
‘This sort of vandalism, this sort of political aggression has no place in Australia.’
Damage to the NBN pit
Included in the damage was the NBN Pit located outside the office (side main pic left hand). This was damaged by fire aided by an accelerant. This connected the neighbouring business to the internet and caused significant disruption to the burger bar, Chinese and seafood restaurant.
