Commission Housing in Flemington, South Kensington, and North Melbourne have been getting more attention than usual recently, and not for the best reasons. You're probably reading this because of what is happening right now to 3000 residents. I’m not going to patronise you over and over again with facts, figures. In not going to bring up graphs and box plots that only show numbers, not the people. I am only going to focus on the truth and I am going to tell a story. In times like these, lies are in no way going to solve the systemic issues embedded deep into our society. These past few events in the last week or so, have truly divided our already cracking nation. If you get anything out of reading this opinion piece, one of many you should read is that these are real people in very real situations right now. This isn’t a Netflix Original about a dystopian future set in the suburban Los Angeles paradise, this is happening on our doorsteps, at this very moment m.
The recent lockdown measures in public housing towers of Flemington, Kensington and North Melbourne enforced by the Victorian Government, has caused a deplorable and unforgivable mess. The Government has traumatized some of the most vulnerable members of the community and has re-opened deep cuts dividing our communities. Class, made recognisable through concentrations of public housing, is a fundamental fault line that runs through society. I want us to remember that the people in those public housing towers are not the problem. Overcrowded, insecure housing, unequal access to health care, are the real problems. They don't just eventuate in small pockets of Melbourne, they lie in every crevice and fold of society.
Let’s take a hard look at the lack of social housing and why we need a universal safety net that takes people out of poverty rather than the apparent “threat” these residents have on society. As a proud activist and human rights lawyer, David Mejia-Canales described, ‘I didn't realise that I was poor, hard to engage, and vulnerable’ until a Victorian Government official told me that me and my public housing community were these things… Were there problems in the community? Yes, but these weren't because we were "poor, hard to engage and vulnerable", it was because we were over-targeted, under-serviced, and under resourced by people who wanted to see us as silent recipients of white charity and not people who had our own dreams, hopes, aspirations, strengths, and contributions.” The overcrowding in the State Housing Towers highlights the urgent need for Federal funds for social housing that was excluded in the recent housing construction grants. However, rather than giving sufficient support to these residents, the government decided to lock them up, isolate them further from society and ostracize them from discussion that directly affects them. “We are not failed experiments in white middle class areas; we are strong, proud, dreamers.”
Admittedly, some (not "all” or a “majority” as mainstream media has proclaimed), have not been following direct advice from Health Officials and Politicians regarding Social Distancing and Coronavirus prevention laws. Though, It should go without saying, public housing residents are not a homogenous entity. A select few fleeting the rules does not entitle the Victorian Government to enforce a “hard lockdown effective immediately.” It does not entitle Victorian Police to swarm the estates, blocking driveways and doorways, barring 3000 people from leaving their homes for resources. It took over 2 weeks of localised community/family to family transmission “hotspots” to be locked down, yet it only took less than 24 hours for Premier Andrews to completely shut down the Public Housing Towers with residents in very different circumstances than the circumstances targeted in the “Postcode Lockdowns”. Why was it easier to isolate the 3000 residents of the public housing towers that made up only 23 of the 108 Covid-19 cases, (5th July 2020 figures), than the areas and postcodes with the highest Covid-19 cases since March? If it was really that difficult, why didn't the Victorian Government make the respondent decision to lock down ALL of Victoria? Already disadvantaged and disenfranchised, Public housing residents are not the plaything of any level of Government, and should not be treated with the utter disrespect they are facing at this very moment. The public housing residents should not be the test subjects to proposed methods of statewide closures- these people have lives, these people have families, yet the government is treating them as not only the main culprits in this “Second Covid-19 Wave” but as lab rats.
‘The fact is, a lot of them are drug addicts…. they are alcoholics…. Learn to speak English’ These are the words coming directly out of the mouth of divisive, disgusting and ignorant “One Nation” Leader, Pauline Hanson, describing not just the apparent personale of all public housing residents in the 9 Commission housing towers, but all that live in Public Housing around Australia. That message was broadcasted all around Australia in an uncensored interview conducted by the breakfast television show, “The Today Show” (Channel 9). Families trapped in their tiny apartment, sitting at home watching brekkie news now believe this is what Australia thinks of them- that they are alcoholics and drug addicts. That they deserve nothing because of the prejudiced and uneducated beliefs?
So where do we draw the line? There are many more like Pauline Hanson who believe the exact same things, yet we still broadcast their views. There are actual living people, citizens of our country, indefinitely trapped in these flats, having this continuous “hit from all angles” approach by everyday Aussies on twitter, mainstream-media being problematic for ratings, and blind politicians everyday. Why is it that the truth of what is really occurring around this saga only truthfully being told by the residents living in these Commission Housing Towers on Social Media. Why aren't their voices being heard by mainstream media, where most Australians get their news and information from? Rather, mainstream media have decided to take the right-leading, populist view with the continuous use of “Vertical Cruise Ships' as their own “clickbait” on News Headlines. This is completely insensitive to the residents in these commission blocks and denigrates their situation to “being like” rather than “is”. These are extremely different circumstances that these residents are in right now. How can you compare the rich, lavishness of a cruise ship, to the small box these residents are trapped in for an unannounced period of time. The complacency of the rich and powerful has led to this unjust situation, affecting a community that asks for nothing more than help. So, I pose the question to News Organisations everywhere in Australia; why continuously vilify these people? Is the use of a simile, analogy or colloquialism more important to you than the actual effect you are having on the residents? Or are you going to continuously tell one side of the story, again and, again and, again!
It is common knowledge that you can’t lock down the poorest and most vulnerable people in public housing, while wealthy Toorak residents go out to champagne lunches, and petty Instagram Influencers in Brunswick go out for “Insta-Story worthy” brunch. What is unfolding in Melbourne right now is horrific. A punitive Covid-19 response that singles out and targets the most marginalised is no response at all. Rather a direct disregard for the over 3000 residents. Selective COVID-19 policing and policy is the real problem, and the easily influenced, right leading, capitalist infested mainstream media facilitates the prejudice, bias, poisonous opinions of the most closed minded, privileged in our society. Public housing tenants should not be subjected to this and as a community, we need to stand up for the most underprivileged, unprotected people of our community!
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