Government house arrest for Victorian apartment block residents
Residents of Melbourne’s housing commission towers have been given five-day jail sentences following repeated Labor state government errors and missteps, writes Tim Blair.
Opinion
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“Is it me,” Sydney Morning Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons asked in May 2019, “or does it look like the political wind has suddenly shifted and is now filling Bill Shorten’s sails as never before?”
It was just Peter. Six days later Shorten got smashed in the federal election and resigned the Labor leadership.
Few indicators are more reliably inaccurate than a FitzSimons prediction. “Of course Craig Kelly will lose his seat,” FitzSimons also decided last year. Outcome: a 1.26 per cent swing to the member for Hughes, whose margin grew to 19,000 votes.
FitzSimons’s talent for error is not resticted by geographical boundaries. He was just as wrong when he forecast Elizabeth Warren’s nomination as a US presidential contender.
“My pound to your peanut,” FitzSimons declared, “says she will be the one standing for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2020.”
At which point Warren’s polling collapsed.
Maybe that call was driven more by costume-comrade loyalty than by logic; after all, Warren likes to pretend that she’s an authentic Native American while Peter likes to pretend he’s a pirate.
And a writer. And someone who knows things.
Which brings us to matters of the moment. A couple of months ago, FitzSimons was invited to name his outstanding performers during our coronavirus challenge.
His reply: “Dan Andrews has been the stand-out politician.”
Victorian Premier Andrews has been getting it wrong ever since, notably when he offered only the softest opposition to massive Black Lives Matter rallies in June.
Andrews’s failure to take a strong stand against the rallies sent an unmistakable message to the broader Victorian public: social distancing and cautious public behaviour are now optional.
Friends living in Melbourne suburbs that are now locked down following a fierce coronavirus resurgence report a changed street atmosphere in the wake of those mass protests.
Mask use was down. Street crowds were up. And why wouldn’t they be? Tens of thousands of people had just swarmed through city streets without a single one of them being fined (besides a few organisers). Everything was back to normal.
Then there was Andrews’s disastrous decision to use lightly-trained security guards instead of police to monitor hotels housing overseas arrivals under quarantine.
The antics of those security guards – including sex with quarantined returnees – contributed hugely to Victoria’s coronavirus surge.
So too did poor government communication with migrant groups. And now Andrews has put nine housing commission towers containing 3000 people under a lockdown level unknown outside of communist China.
“Let‘s just turn our minds back to January when we saw the Chinese apartments being welded up and we were looking on that with horror and we were amazed that such activity can take place,” the ABC’s Andrew Probyn said on yesterday’s The Insiders, a title that more accurately describes those 3000 tower residents.
“Well, it has been done in Victoria, in a democracy,” Probyn continued. “Just without the welding.”
Give Dan time. He could always convert some of China’s Belt and Road cash into oxy acetylene.
Victorian governments enjoy experimenting on the poor.
Those commission blocks were built in the 1960s by state Liberal governments that wanted to see what happened if they made people live in inner-Melbourne’s version of East Berlin.
The latest trial involves surrounding the towers with police for five days, plus placing police inside to restrict even door-to-door movement.
Those subject to this ordeal are understandably furious. “Dictator Dan we are not criminals!” one sign, posted in a window as though by a hostage, announced yesterday during day one of the lockdown.
“This is Classism Discrimination Martial law.”
That’s an accurate description.
As tower resident, warehouse worker and father of five Abdirahman Ibrahim told reporters: “This is not fair. There are a lot of postcodes in lockdown but they are allowed to leave the house for essentials.”
No such luck for the Tower 3000, who won’t emerge until late this week. Any who refuse to be tested might be locked inside for even longer.
“If someone knocks on your door to do a test the only answer you should give is yes,” Andrews said yesterday. “And if you see someone in your family group, in your friendship group, in your street, who is not taking this seriously, then call them out.”
Andrews is possibly unaware of the social dynamics involved in housing commission living. Calling out friends and neighbours to the authorities is not a healthy decision.
To smooth things over, Andrews yesterday revealed his government would give $1500 in hardship money to residents.
He’ll also provide tower children with “activity boxes” containing “books and puzzles” along with “herb and flower seeds – and a special egg carton to grow them in”.
It’s every child’s dream to have their own special egg carton.
In the same spirit of giving, I was planning to purchase stuffed COVID-19 cuddle toys online (from giantmicrobes.com) and send them to friends in lockdown, as a kind of dark-humour cheer-up.
Close friends were going to receive the full Modern Plague Pack, including COVID, Zika, Ebola and the flu.
You know, the Beatles of contagion.
But then I checked the packaging. The bastard things are made in China.
Maybe I’ll still send a COVID doll to Peter FitzSimons. He can ask it for some help with those predictions.