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Key points
- Hobsons Bay Council in Melbourne’s inner west issued notices to vacate to around 100 people living in housing blocks in an industrial estate
- Residents maintain they should be allowed to continue living at the former migrant hostel site but the council says they must leave due to safety concerns
- About 150 people including Techno Park residents and their supporters planned to rally outside the council chambers during the monthly meeting on Tuesday
- Two hours before the meeting started the council announced the meeting would be online only preventing the public from attending due to security concerns
- Councils have increased security measures in recent months after a spate of disruptions by fringe conspiracy groups but some councillors and advocates say they risk stifling civic engagement
A council in Melbourne’s inner west has taken its monthly public meeting online at the last minute, becoming the third council to do so over security concerns, after residents facing eviction planned a peaceful protest outside the chambers.
The Hobsons Bay City Council move comes after it voted against increasing transparency for ratepayers by allowing residents to ask live and unscripted questions in council meetings, rather than written questions that must be submitted in advance.
Up to 100 people who live in housing blocks in an industrial zone in Williamstown have been pushing back against council orders to vacate, first revealed by The Age last month, and their plight has now reached Premier Daniel Andrews’ office.
The Techno Park Drive estate had housed refugees and migrants since World War II, before it was sold into the private market in the late 1980s and rezoned as an industrial area, meaning people could no longer legally live there.
But despite this, the units have been continuously bought and sold since 1988 as homes, and landlords have offered them as rentals.
The residents maintain the council turned a blind eye to its residential use over the years and have criticised the crackdown as inhumane during a housing crisis.
The council maintains the estate is unsafe for residential use due to its proximity to a dormant Mobil fuel storage site.
The Age recently revealed an escalation in security measures taken by local councils after a wave of meetings and events had been disrupted, mainly by groups pushing fringe and conspiracy beliefs.
Hobsons Bay is now the third Victorian council to either close its public gallery, or take meetings online, preventing the physical attendance of community members, after the Yarra Ranges Council in Melbourne’s outer east and City of Latrobe in Gippsland.
Lara Week, a Techno Park Drive resident who organised the rally of about 150 people, said Tuesday night’s protest group was made up of residents, families with children, friends and public figures, including former Altona council chief executive John Shaw, Maribyrnong councillor Jorge Joquera and Merri-bek councillor Sue Bolton.
Video footage of the event shows the group making speeches and singing a tenant union song, You Can’t Just Take Our Homes Away.
“Someone printed out lyrics, so everyone could sing it together. Lots of kids were there. It was a very warm and sweet community event,” she said.
The group walked from Logan Reserve in Altona to the council chambers on Civic Parade escorted by police, and was met with floodlights and traffic barriers outside the chambers.
The council said it had decided to take the meeting online two hours before it began “in the interests of the safety and wellbeing of the community, councillors, and council staff”.
Hobsons Bay Mayor Antionette Briffa said: “Council is keen to have all our meetings conducted in person, so this was a difficult but necessary decision.”
“However, there are several factors that led us to believe that going ahead with an in-person meeting at the Civic Centre risked exposing the community, councillors and council staff to an unpredictable, stressful and potentially volatile environment.”
The council did not respond to further questions about whether the move was related to the Techno Park residents’ rally.
Week said the barriers, floodlights and moving the meeting online were bewildering if done in response to the protest.
“It just made me think, ‘Wow these guys who are here to represent us and care for the community – they really don’t know who their community is’,” she said.
Techno Park Drive residents and their supporters in the courtyard of one of the housing blocks.Credit: Wayne Taylor
“You don’t know who we are if you think that people in your community who care about keeping people in their homes are somehow people that you can’t face.”
An online war of words between the council and the residents preceded the meeting change, with Briffa releasing a lengthy statement about the saga on Monday, saying that rezoning “in this case would be complex, lengthy and extremely difficult, and very unlikely to be approved”.
The residents published a six-page response the next day claiming that the mayor and the council had been “misleading” several times.
Meanwhile, the local MP, Melissa Horne, who is also the minister for local government, has raised the issue with the premier’s office, according to correspondence seen by The Age.
In the emails between residents and Horne, the minister said she had flagged the matter with Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny, who residents are hoping will intervene to rezone the area to mixed-use, allowing them to stay.
The emails also show Horne has floated the idea of setting up a “cross-government taskforce” with the premier’s office to deal with the situation, as well as requesting advice from the minister of consumer affairs’ office “regarding an investigation into real estate agent practices that may have sold or leased properties erroneously”.
On Tuesday night, Hobsons Bay councillor Daria Kellander was unsuccessful in convincing her colleagues to support her motion for officers to compile a report on how the council could accommodate questions from residents in person – including those from the Techno Park community.
“Not one councillor seconded my motion, so it lapsed. This is disappointing, but I’m not surprised,” she wrote on her personal Facebook page.
“Sorry guys, you can continue to come to our meetings (if you get a ticket), but please ensure you submit your questions in writing 30 hrs in advance, and don’t speak.”
A petition submitted last month to the council to find an alternative to allow residents to stay has amassed 12,000 signatures on change.org. The council will report back on the petition at a future meeting.
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