Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #33Alfred
Most recents (14)
Here is a Drobox link to the audio of an interview I just did with the @VicOmbudsman Deborah Glass.
dropbox.com/s/ej57j5h55yw9…
dropbox.com/s/ej57j5h55yw9…
Main points not covered in her media release (already tweeted) include:
- her investigators have already been on site last weekend and were involved in the issue of the erection of the cage/fence by @VicGovDHHS "I think the lessons from that have already been learned."
- her investigators have already been on site last weekend and were involved in the issue of the erection of the cage/fence by @VicGovDHHS "I think the lessons from that have already been learned."
- "this will not be a normal Ombudsman's investigation" in that she will be seeking to share lessons learned ASAP, rather than through report to parliament, since it is likely this may happen again.
In other news, all those who were at the @youthconnect01 centre in North Melbourne before Wednesday this week (15 July) have been urged to get a COVID test and self isolate until results are known.
A volunteer in the effort to support the public housing residents at #33alfred has tested positive to COVID-19. The volunteer attended the @youthconnect01 centre 4-10 July. The AMSSA Centre was closed for a deep clean and all relief operations stopped until that was done.
DHHS and AMSSA are working to get the community relief operations back on track with safe operations. The centre remains closed until further notice.
Warm best wishes to everyone involved.
Warm best wishes to everyone involved.
Yesterday (see thread) I Tweeted a story about residents of the Flemington and North Melbourne public housing towers not being moved to alternative accommodation, which community leaders feared put others at risk. I had put questions to @VicGovDHHS
This is of particular concern, because if the schedule for #33Alfred street still holds, those residents will move to Stage 3 restrictions tomorrow, presumably with positive COVID cases still expected to observe quarantine.
I now have the response. I am afraid it won't answer everyone's questions. Read to end of thread for followup. But here is the DHHS statement in full:
COVID positive residents of the Flemington and North Melbourne public housing towers are not being given alternative accommodation, putting other tenants and the wider community at risk, according to community leaders.
Only 19 COVID positive cases and their close contacts from the towers subjected to hard lockdown have been moved to alternative accommodaton, according to figures given by @VicGovDHHS yesterday. (see my thread yesterday) This is despite a total of 243 COVID positive cases.
Mr Elhadi Abass, a tower resident and the manager of the Multicultural Sudanese Centre on the Flemington estate, said this morning that @VicGovDHHS was not doing enough to encourage COVID positive residents to move.
Meanwhile, I have been fact checking yesterday's @VicGovDHHS statement, because there were some - tensions - between what I was being told by residents and their advocates, and what was said in the statement. First, availability of medication...
the @VicGovDHHS statement said @cohealth_au was providing. Community advocates said while things were much improved, there were still problems. So who is right? Here is what seems to be going on, based on an interview this morning with a @cohealth_au spokesperson
.@cohealth_au is indeed providing, and has been since the early days of the lockdown, though as we all know in those first few days there were a lot of problems with getting things into the flats, but ...
I have returned from my morning exercise walk around the Flemington and North Melbourne estates. Here is what I saw. Very much reduced police presence on the Flemington estate. Saw just one police vehicle and no actualy police. Cleaners in hazmat were on the estate.
..residents ambling around Debney's Park, kicking balls etc. #33alfred also quiet. There seemed to be more @VicGovDHHS staff on "the doors" rather than police - though still plenty of police around as well. I asked one of the workers if this was a change of policy,
...and they referred me to @VicGovDHHS media, which means I may get an answer later. In the meantime, if any of the workers on site who follows me wants to speed things up, my DMs are open and I protect my sources.
A couple of reflections to kick off the day regarding language. The journalists following this thread may find this interesting. Others may tune out ...When @DanielAndrewsMP announced the hard lockdown of public housing, he described them as vulnerable communities.
Every journalist since then, including me, has used that word or similar words to describe them. And they aren't entirely wrong, of course. Awareness of the history of the Flemington estates in particular with police,...
...for example, is one of the reasons I started reporting this "beat" as we journalists say. And anyone locked up and forced to depend on bureaucracy for basic needs is vulnerable. But the residents themselves, such as Ahmed Dini, hate the term, and very rightly...
I can understand how the fence idea would occur. And how it might even have been seen as a way of giving more people more exercise and fresh air more often. Similar fences have been erected at hotels where returning overseas travellers are in quarantine. BUT
The residents of #33alfred are not in hotels, and are not returned travellers. They are in their homes. As well, the undesirability of having people in a caged area with police supervising were, apparently, clear to those discussing the idea, which is why it was rejected, so
Why did it go ahead? Where were the communications breakdowns? A week ago, @VicGovDHHS and other agencies were forced to respond to this cluster with very little notice
Having said all that, things were quiet at #33alfred this morning when I was there. The police presence is considerable, but not as heavy as it was at the Flemington Estate last week
The Buncle Street Community Centre is hosting the effort, and I saw and spoke to SES volunteers, police and there were @VicGovDHHS interpreters and other staff there. Quite an effort.
Boxes of food and supplies are being delivered including from the @youthconnect01 premises. I am told @youthconnect01 "signs off" on boxes of food so residents can be assured of quality, safety, cultural appropriateness.
Meanwhile I am told - and will check this with @VicGovDHHS - that there are still covid positive cases in the same apartments as people who have not tested positive. At the @DanielAndrewsMP media conference on Thursday,
Police Minister @LisanevilleMP said that Covid positive cases in the flats, and their close contacts, would be encourged to quarantine in alternative accommodation, which would be organised.
I am told by the community advocates that this has not yet been done - either at #33alfred or the Flemington estate.
Social media has also carried accounts of problems getting medication to the #33alfred residents. My understanding is that thanks to the direct work of community advocates, this has improved - but is still ad hoc and not sustainable as it is
Prescription meds and other needs are requested by residents talking to the communiut reps, then taken to Buncle Street, and then go to their recipients, with the community advocates supervising carefully to make sure the arrive
Usually this happens smoothly, but there can be delays of hours, due to the building having to be entirely locked down to allow for other deliveries - including food, laundry etc
A group of community advocates went to #33alfred, where they were quickly surrounded by police - they estimate about 50. They were arguing about the fence, saying they had been told it was not to be built. You can see video of these interactions on the @therapybytigist Twitter
Community legal representatives were called in an escalating situation with police. Residents inside the towers, witnessing all this, were increasingly distressed and agitated.
After some time, the advocates were told the fence would be demolished - that a contractor would be called and would be there within the hour. Representatives stayed on site until that had happened. The fence went down about 1am.
Yesterday morning, there was a meeting of those involved in the relief effort, including @VicGovDHHS and other agencies, and the community advocates. The issue of how to organise exercise for the #33alfred residents was raised.
The idea of a temporary fence, creating a yard around the entrance to the flats, was raised and rejected by all present. According to a second hand report, a @VicGovDHHS representative present said something to the effect of the residents were not animals, and should not be caged
I have not confirmed this quote first hand. But community advocates understood that the fence idea had been rejected, and would not happen.
This thread is some background to a report of events, which follows, yesterday and overnight at #33Alfred Street, the public housing tower still in hard lockdown. It is based on interviews with people who were there - community advocates now working with the relief effort.
I have approached @VicGovDHHS for comment on these events, and have yet to receive that. I will report it in full when and if it is received.
First, some background. Previous readers of my reporting know that I have discussed how @VicGovDHHS have not involved, and were at first resisting the involvement, of the community volunteer efforts in supporting the residents in lockdown. See theguardian.com/australia-news…
