"Learn to speak English!" Pauline Hanson's extraordinary rant about Melbourne housing residents
Senator Pauline Hanson has shared her two cents on the lockdown of nine public housing buildings in Melbourne.
About 3,000 residents of nine housing towers in Flemington, North Melbourne and Kensington were placed under immediate lockdown without warning on Saturday.
Premier Daniel Andrews said tenants would be unable to leave their homes at all for at least five days due to a coronavirus outbreak at the estates.
On Sunday, it was announced that 27 cases had been identified in the apartment buildings, including 14 in Flemington and 13 in North Melbourne.
“The close confines and the shared community spaces within these large apartment blocks mean this virus can spread like wildfire,” Andrews said.
“[Our] priority was to make the hard decisions to fight this virus and keep the community safe, and now we’re supporting those Victorians who’ve made this possible.”
The state government said all tenants will be provided two weeks of rent relief, and financially affected households will receive a $750 hardship payment.
Residents of the buildings have reported concerns about the lack of preparation ahead of the lockdown.
Farah Warsame, chair of the Somali Community Incorporated Farah Warsame told Domain on Sunday the community members “had no time to go and get food”.
Some said they were being treated like prisoners.
“It’s absurd because as I’m staring out of my window right now, I’m staring at people calmly walking their dog, while I’m imprisoned in a building staring at a series of police trucks,” North Melbourne resident Mohamed told The Feed.
“Where are the social workers? Where are the health workers? Did they think the best measure is to basically bring hundreds of police that are unable to understand the complexities and the nuance of the communities and people that they interact with.”
Speaking on Today show this morning, One Nation leader Hanson accused the residents of flouting social distancing rules.
“So the fact is you’ve got to look at why they are in that situation. Why is it they are in that situation? Why has the Government gone to this high-rise building and shut it down? Possibly because a lot of these people weren’t doing the right thing,” Hanson told host Ally Langdon.
“If they are from war torn countries, which some of these people are, they know what it is like to be in tough conditions.”
When asked whether she had a heart, Hanson claimed she did. But she added: “We don’t want the Victorians up here in Queensland.
“Until they clean this up, what do you think is going to happen to those people that can’t go back to their jobs, who have actually been isolated themselves … we have got a lot of Victoria that is being isolated because these people, who cannot speak English, don’t know what the hell to do.”
Resident Girmay Mengesha described Hanson’s comments as “disrespectful”. He told Today he went 24 hours without food and was unable to leave his home for any reason.
“The way that [the Victorian Government] did it is unbelievable, unwise and unacceptable,” Mengesha said.
“Do it with dignity. Do it in a humane way.”