Brisbane mayor Adrian Schrinner hits out at Greens’ Jonathan Sriranganathan over squatting advice

Brisbane‘s lord mayor has hit out at a Greens councillor after he offered tips on ‘how to’ find an empty house to squat in.

Greens councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan took to Facebook on Wednesday to note how many homes in the Brisbane area were empty, listing 2021 Census data to back up his claims.  

‘It seems clear that a significant proportion of those dwellings are investment properties that have been left empty long-term,’ Cr Sriranganathan wrote.

‘It would be far better if these homes were occupied by people who need housing, rather than left empty.’ 

The post then went on to describe how someone could find empty houses in different parts of Brisbane and listed some areas with a total of how many empty houses there are.

‘If you’re looking for an empty home to squat, one useful tool can be to look at the Statistical Area 1 datasets,’ Cr Sriranganathan wrote. 

He even appealed for ‘anyone with time on their hands’ to help him sift through data to find the inner-city areas with highest percentage of vacant properties.

‘I’d be very interested to look into that,’ he wrote. 

Brisbane LNP Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner described the post as ‘sickening’ despite  Cr Sriranganathan writing at the very bottom that ‘he would never encourage anyone to break the law’ and he was only offering ‘hypothetical advice’.

‘It’s sickening to see the Greens Councillor for the Gabba misusing using his position to promote the idea of people illegally squatting in someone else’s home,’ Cr Schrinner wrote.

People commenting on Cr Sriranganathan’s post were divided on how earnest his post was.  

‘I don’t understand how you can promote squatting, this is someone’s asset and it may be empty for a reason, maybe it’s their only house but they are ill and in hospital or away on holiday,’ one commenter wrote.

‘I agree there is a housing shortage but to encourage people to squat in someone else’s property is irresponsible.’

Cr Sriranganathan replied that he wasn’t ‘promoting anything. This is all purely hypothetical’.

 However, his reply went on to give more ‘hypothetical advice’.

‘But generally, if someone is planning to squat a home, you would spend several weeks scouting it out before trying to enter it,’ wrote.

‘You might, for example, leave some tape around the edge of the front door and door frame, or a cinder block in the driveway that has to be moved in order to open the gate. 

‘That way, you can see whether anyone else has been coming and going from the property over the space of a couple weeks. 

‘You would also check through the windows to see how much furniture is in the house, take note of whether the water meter is ticking over etc.’

Cr Sriranganathan went on to argue that there were different ethical considerations to make when squatting in a home.

‘I don’t think it’s right to squat homes that are a person’s primary residence and are only empty for a few months,’ he wrote.

‘But I think those are quite different situations compared to an investment property that’s left empty long-term.’ 

The councillor had some supporters in the comments under his post.

‘I love how everyone is focused on the squatting part and not on the part where there are literally thousands of empty properties that could be shelter options for people,’ one Facebook user wrote.

Another contended the post was not to be taken literally.  

‘This is just a very ironic post – I don’t know how anyone can take what Jono has said seriously in regard squatting,’ the commenter wrote.

‘He is just trying to make a point and trying to get the “right” people to wake up to the point. The point is, this is something to look in to. 

‘Also we have to remember last census we were in Covid right? Could that have any impact?’

Cr Sriranganathan was previously known as Jonathan Sri.

In a lengthy Facebook post in early August he explained why he had changed his name from ‘Sri’, which his parents put on his birth certificate to the long form of father’s Tamil name.

Cr Sriranganathan said his parents had shortened the name to save him some hassle of writing it all out but also because of Australia’s ingrained racism. 

‘They (his parents) also did it because in countries like Australia, where racism is still widespread and systemic, having a “foreign sounding” surname can make life materially more difficult for a person, particularly if you also look very different to people with predominantly European ancestry,’ he wrote.

At the end of his post he pondered issues of identity.

‘I’m still trying to decide whether changing my surname fundamentally changes who I am in some way, or just changes how the world will see me (and whether those two are actually the same thing),’ he wrote.

In July Cr Sriranganathan was placed on a good behaviour bond by a magistrate after being found guilty of undertaking a prohibited activity in central Brisbane’s Queen St Mall.

On September 25, 2020, Cr Sriranganathan stood in the mall holding up a sign that said ‘Say no to the cashless welfare card’ for about 15 minutes.

Magistrate Suzette Coates found the councillor guilty of undertaking a prohibited activity by conducting an unauthorised public assembly with others.

However, she dismissed Brisbane City Council’s accusation that he also engaged in activity of an advertising nature, which is not allowed on the mall. 

Cr Sriranganathan was released on a $1000 six-month good behaviour bond and no conviction was recorded.