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Why Melbourne public housing residents are taking their fight over the planned demolition of dozens of towers to Australia’s highest court.
Lyrae Fiddes, whose home is one of 44 public housing towers the Victorian Government plans to progressively demolish and redevelop by 2051. Supplied. Why Melbourne public housing residents are taking their fight over the planned demolition of dozens of towers to Australia’s highest court.
Why Melbourne public housing residents are taking their fight over the planned demolition of dozens of towers to Australia’s highest court. A legal battle over Victoria’s plan to demolish 44 public housing towers is heading to the High Court. Residents argue they were never consulted before the decision was made, while the redevelopment has also attracted attention from the United Nations, and a firm response from the state government. Why the fight is now heading to the High Court.
How the dispute reached the United Nations. In a public housing tower for elderly residents in Melbourne's Albert Park, support often comes from just down the hall.
"We check in on each other, so if I haven't seen Maureen for a few days, I'll be, you know, how's Maureen? Has anybody seen her? We just check in on each other and support each other.
" This is Lyrae ], whose home is one of 44 public housing towers the Victorian Government plans to progressively demolish and redevelop by 2051. "It was awful. January 29th this year, I was walking past the front door on my way out for a walk down the beach, and one of the other residents said to me, "Quick, you better come in here. There's something going on.
" And I walked into the community room downstairs to see the room full of politicians and people that I later found out were Homes Victoria and only twelve residents, because none of us knew that we were about to be told that our homes were going to be demolished. It was awful.
" The Government says the towers have reached the end of their useful life, and replacing them will deliver more modern and accessible social housing. But almost three years after the then Andrews government made the announcement, and two unsuccessful Supreme Court appeals last year, residents are now taking the dispute to Australia's highest court.
"The question that our clients want answered is, should they have been able to be consulted with prior to a decision being made to destroy their homes and their communities, of sometimes more than three decades. We are arguing that they ought to have been consulted with, and at the very least, there should have been meetings occurring with them to ask them about the impact that this would have on them.
"REPORTER: Why weren't the residents consulted before this decision was made? REPORTER: Just before the decision was made, why weren't the residents consulted before?
"The Government has made a decision to build new modern comfortable housing for social housing tenants in Victoria. That decision has been made.
""The broader question of whether these towers that are home to whole communities of people should be demolished, they were never asked about this, and they haven't been since. That's not a question that's on the table.
" Romy Rendigs is a Monash law student who, working alongside lawyers and other students, has helped take residents' concerns beyond Australia's courts to the United Nations. "Our main role was a research role, so we were tasked with framing the human rights issues on an international stage, with the crisis, housing crisis going on in Melbourne at the moment, and the demolition of the 44 housing towers. So it was analysing it under the international human rights framework.
"Urging the Victorian government to suspend further relocations and demolitions while a human-rights assessment is carried out. "No, we will not, and I have a lot of respect for the United Nations.... but I respectfully disagree. I note that the Special Rapporteur's official title is the Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing. Had he actually visited the tower sites, and I certainly invite him to do so, he wouldn't have seen adequate housing.
He would have seen inadequate housing.
"The government says it's still pushing ahead with the project, with demolitions already underway. But as the case heads to the High Court, the dispute over how this decision was made is far from over. Sign up now for daily news from Australia and around the world. You can also subscribe to Insight's weekly newsletter for in-depth features and first-person stories.
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