Submission to the Ombudsman's Investigation into the 33 Alfred St Lockdown

Expand the investigation

The Save Public Housing Collective (SPHC) proposes that the Investigation be extended to review the circumstances of the entire hard lockdown response at nine (9) towers in Flemington and North Melbourne.

In line with expressed community criticism, the SPHC agree that the state government response at 33 Alfred St, North Melbourne – which the Ombudsman is attending to – is not isolated from the coordinated response at these nine towers.

What should be investigated?

SPHC welcomes the Ombudsman's investigation, noting the serious concerns residents and community members have articulated about the lockdowns in various media outlets. We support an investigation that commits to addressing:

• The discriminatory nature of the lockdown, by class, gender, race or ethnicity

• Whether the stated 'overwhelming' police presence was a proportional and justified necessity

• If the communication of procedure with residents, and community-based organisations, was in keeping with due process

• If there was sufficient access to culturally appropriate nourishment, medical assistance and recreation

• Importantly, whether Victoria's Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) was adhered to by all government actors

We propose the investigation also include:

1. Identifying the government official or agency which initiated the intervention

2. The agencies and individuals, including Ministers and Ministerial staff, involved in all aspects of decision making about the intervention; how the intervention was to be organised; and why it took the form it did, with police arriving first

3. The description of the police's involvement as "community policing" and the justifications for it being called this

4. The use of the description "detention" for the extended lockdown at 33 Alfred St, and why it was chosen over "quarantine"

5. The failure of DHHS to set up adequate supports until days after the police arrived, for residents and for those locked out of their homes because they were at work or elsewhere

6. Job and income losses as a result of the lockdowns and "detentions", and the compensation to be paid to affected residents

7. The lack of maintenance for lifts and its contribution to making the towers unsafe and contributing to the COVID-19 outbreak

8. Overcrowding in apartments in the towers, and the state government's failure to enact plans to build more public housing to end this shameful failure to provide adequate, safe housing for all residents

9. The extent to which items 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 above constitute human rights violations, directly expressed or implied by the Victorian Charter of Human Rights

10. DHHS's plans put in place since the lockdowns, whether they are adequate, and whether they include:

    • Ongoing advice of COVID-19's presence in all towers

    • Infection control measures

    • Preventive cleaning of common areas, mailboxes, rubbish disposal, lifts and laundries

A note on housing rights

The Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 doesn't explicitly mention housing rights. However, section 5 states that a right or freedom arising under any other law, including international law, "must not be taken to be abrogated or limited only because the right or freedom is not included in this Charter."

This indicates a legal and moral duty to comply with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the binding conventions Australia has signed, all of which explicitly reference housing rights:

• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965)

• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979)

• Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984)

• Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)

• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)

Signed on behalf of the Save Public Housing Collective: David Kelly, Kerrie Byrne, Luciano Furfaro, Warwick Neilley