The Victorian Labor Party has refused to apologise for violating human rights of tower residents

The state government is so arrogant it flat-out refused to apologise to public housing block residents for violating their human rights.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Gary Ramage

The Daniel Andrews government is a law unto itself. Unencumbered by any real threat from a viable opposition, state Labor is cavalier about selectively applying the law, or breaking it, without fear of serious electoral consequences.

Such is the arrogance of this government it is flat-out refusing to apologise to about 3000 residents in public housing blocks even after Victoria’s integrity watchdog found the manner in which they were treated violated human rights laws.

Ombudsman Deborah Glass found the timing of a draconian lockdown was not based on health advice and was entirely incompatible with the rights of residents in nine public housing towers in North Melbourne and Flemington.

Glass called on the government to apologise for the “harm and distress caused by the immediacy of their lockdown”. Health officials expected the lockdown, which the investigation found to be warranted, to start the following day, however Andrews announced an immediate lockdown at his press conference leaving some residents without food and essential medicines.

The lockdown was one of the harshest in the world. Picture: Daniel Pockett

Remember this lockdown was very different to the one experienced by the rest of Melbourne. It was akin to what you’d expect from the Chinese government and, with the exception of Wuhan residents being welded into their homes, represented the harshest lockdown imposed anywhere in the world. Some were left without even the most basic essentials until food and medical deliveries — which many residents say were inadequate — were organised.

But far from showing contrition, Housing Minister Richard Wynne had the gall to say: “We make no apology for saving people‘s lives, absolutely no apology for saving people’s lives.”

It’s a bit rich for the government that oversaw the greatest public policy disaster in Victorian history
to brag about saving lives.

Let’s not forget that the rest of the country has a coronavirus death rate of four per million of population while Victoria’s figure sits at 130 per million of population.

While every other state and territory managed to get hotel quarantine and contact tracing right, Victoria failed abysmally with the resultant lockdown seeing widespread economic devastation to add to the loss of lives.

Why Wynne fronted the media is anybody’s guess given he had no say in the decision and was not even a member of the crisis cabinet.

The Ombudsman’s damning report was released a day after we found out about another selective application of the law in Victoria.

Cleaners gather outside the tower for a deep clean. Picture: Sarah Matray

On Wednesday Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton admitted to a parliamentary inquiry Melbourne’s Black Lives Matter protest should not have been allowed, but the march was “reluctantly” approved because police feared protesters would riot.

“We eventually made a decision to reluctantly allow the Black Lives Matters event to go ahead because of the emotion that was in the community and because of what we had seen in communities across the world,” Patton said.

What a wonderful message to send to the community; if you are likely to become violent and wreck the joint you’ll be afforded special treatment, even during a pandemic, but if you’re a mother organising a lockdown protest then expect to be put in handcuffs in front of your kids and taken to the police station.

More than 10,000 people marched in Melbourne on June 6 thanks in part to the Andrews government and Victoria Police declaring before the event that participants would not be fined.

At the time, Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius went to great lengths to express solidarity with the protesters who were marching in the name of an organisation who want to defund the police.

“We absolutely understand the sentiment and the anger that lies behind that and we are very keen to support the community in giving a voice to their concerns,” Cornelius said. “We do respect the right everyone has to protest peacefully and lawfully.”

But Cornelius was not so understanding of anti-lockdown protesters, including people who had lost their livelihoods, referring to them as “batshit crazy” and conflating conspiracy theorists with those with legitimate concerns about draconian measures such as mandatory curfews.

Police command has become politicised to the point it undermines the public’s trust and risks further demoralising rank and file members. A month after the government and police gave tacit approval for the BLM march the Victorian government was imposing the toughest lockdown seen anywhere outside of China on thousands of public housing tenants, unlawfully according to the Ombudsman.

The 3000 who were locked up may seek compensation from the government. You can add that bill to the legal costs and payouts that will come from the Lawyer X fiasco.

IN SHORT

No wonder Victoria’s debt is set to soar past $155 billion with money being thrown around willy nilly, including up to 1500 standby workers being paid thousands of dollars for work never carried out because of the suspension of Victoria’s hotel quarantine program which only resumed last week.

RITA PANAHI IS A HERALD SUN COLUMNIST

@RitaPanahi