Footbridge near Archer Park should be demolished, Chris Minns says

“It’s just a place … not liable for the vile actions of others,” Gutnick said.

“I think it would be nice to have a mural on there,” she said, suggesting a recreation of a chalk rendering of a menorah that had been drawn on the bridge in the days following the antisemitic attack.

“But it should still hold the purpose that it has, of assisting pedestrians’ access to the beach,” which Gutnick thinks of as “Dad’s beach”.

Gutnick said her friends believe her father’s actions saved their lives by distracting the gunmen as they huddled on the ground, hiding their babies underneath their bodies.

“I think it’s important for us to honour the lives that we lost that day, rather than demolish and destroy,” she said.

Michele Goldman, one of the newly appointed co-ordinators-general to support the Bondi community and chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, agreed with the premier’s position.

Goldman stood alongside Multicultural NSW chief executive Joseph La Posta as the premier announced the pair had jointly been appointed co-ordinators-general to oversee the recovery from the nation’s worst terrorist attack. Asked for her views, Goldman said she was yet to hold extensive discussions with the community, but she personally believed the bridge should be removed.

“I would probably share the premier’s view. As someone who’s been a local for many years, I feel like our sense of safety has been invaded,” she said.

“For such a beautiful place which represents so many wonderful values to the Australian community … in the long term, we need to ensure that Bondi is restored to what represents this great country.”

Goldman acknowledged concerns about the structural integrity of the footbridge may mean the decision has already been determined.

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A structural engineering report to be considered at Thursday’s council meeting concluded the two pedestrian bridges, including one crossing Park Drive at Bondi Park, were deemed to have “reached the end of their useful lives and require replacement within several years”.

Minns was also asked about a draft the federal government bill, under which quoting religious text could be used as a defence to new hate speech laws. He said reading from scriptures should not be a justifiable excuse to vilify, harass or encourage violence.

“Hate speech that’s being used to attack other Australians; it can’t be justified.”

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