Second Class Citizens !

 Efforts to contain the coronavirus differed in various parts of Australia and this depended on how active the pandemic was in each community.   Now the Victorian Ombudsman has singled out the treatment the Victoirian Premier imposed on nine public housing towers in Melbourne as a violation of the human rights of about three thousand people.

It was indeed a draconian edict.  At a 4 pm press conference on July 4, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that residents of these towers would be immediatrely barred from leaving their homes.  Security people were quickly put in place to ensure that the edict was enforced and this lockdown lasted for  five days at eight of the nine towers.

For unknown reasons, that ninth tower was treated differently.  At 33 Alfred street the embargo lasted nine days and prompted an investigation by the Ombudsman on why those residents were subjected to what amounted to detention.   It was suggested that this was because of the high infection rate prevailing.

All this happened when Melbourne was experiencing the " second wave " of the pandemic and stage three of the general lockdown was imposed later that week.  The densely populated towers were derscribed as " high risk " by the Australian Chief Medical officer, who went on to suggest they were like " vertical cruise ships " !

What seems to have been ignored was that these towers are " public housing " and contain people whose circumstances prevent them from buying their own homes or gaining easy access to the private rental market.   As a consequence, they are usually working in the lower paid echelon of industry or are on welfare benefits of some sort.

This sudden and immediate lockdown, imposed with the presence of large numbers of Victorian police, left many with little food in their refrigerators and desperately short of the medication needed to treat various ailments.  They were given no warning of the coming lockdown and many only became aware of the restrictions when a large body of uniformed police arrived at the towers that very afternoon.

The Ombudsman found that waiting another day before imposing the lockdown would have enabled residents to prepare for isolation and bring in supplies and would have mitigated the human rights aspect of the lockdown.

The deputy chief medical officer at that time testified that she was " quite terrified " that within a week she would see many cases, but that waiting a day would not have made a " hugely significant difference ".  Just exactly who decided to impose that loss of liberty on the towers remain unclear.

Perhaps a lesson well learned.   This was a decision made on health advice, despite it seemingly being made by government ministers.  In similar circumstances, future decisions may be made differently.