The Victorian government has proposed a settlement in a class action with residents of public housing towers in Melbourne who were forced into a sudden COVID-19 lockdown.
The residents will be eligible for $5 million in compensation over the measures that were implemented to stop an outbreak of COVID-19 in nine public housing towers during Victoria’s second wave in July 2020.
The plaintiffs said the 3000 people living in the towers were wrongly detained for up to 14 days and threatened with physical harm if they tried to leave. The state of Victoria denied those claims.
The notice of the proposed settlement was posted to the Victoria’s Department of Health website last week. The settlement still needs to be approved by the Supreme Court.
The state of Victoria has not offered an apology to residents.
Lead plaintiffs in the class action Idris Hassan and Hawa Warsame launched the case against the state of Victoria in March 2021
One of the residents, Barry Berih, told the ABC the residents had not yet decided if they would accept the settlement, and emphasised they were seeking an apology from the government.
“To me, it’s not really that important in terms of the money situation. The main important part is the apology and the community itself,” he said.
At the time of the sudden lockdown, the public housing towers were surrounded by armed police to ensure residents could not leave.
Back in 2020, a report found the Victorian government had breached the human rights of people living in the towers, when it locked them down suddenly and without adequate warning during the outbreak of COVID-19.
“The rushed lockdown was not compatible with the residents’ human rights, including their right to humane treatment when deprived of liberty,” the Victorian Ombudsman said at the time.