A report by the Victorian Ombudsman has found hard restrictions that were imposed on Melbourne’s public housing residents in June 2020 breached residents’ “rights to humane treatment when deprived of liberty.” The report (pdf) published on Aug. 4 also detailed additional cases where Victorian authorities breached the Victorian Human Rights Charter when implementing the Public Health Directions issued by Victoria’s Chief Health Officer. While the Ombudsman, Deborah Glass, found that detaining residents in the towers in June 2020 was a reasonable measure to contain the outbreak of the CCP virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, it was found that the immediacy of the hard lockdown was not based on “direct” health advice. “In that case, the balancing act failed,” the report said, adding that residents’ right to humane treatment when deprived of liberty was “unreasonably limited.” This comes as residents on one floor in the 20-storey Flemington public housing were …