At 6.58 council issued the following notice to people occupying City Square:
“I am an authorised officer of the Melbourne City Council.
I direct all persons in the City Square who are, in my opinion, failing to comply with the Council Activities Local Law 2009 by:
- Camping in the City Square; and
- Hanging or placing objects and things on or over the city square.
both without a permit, to
- leave the city square; and
-remove all items, goods and equipment including tents and associated infrastructure which the person owns or is responsible for.
by 9am on Friday 21 October 2011.
If you do not comply with this direction in the time provided we will be referring the matter to the Victoria Police and you may be subject to further enforcement proceedings and/or trespass.”
We remain committed to peacefully occupying public space and intend to remain.
Please join us if you believe that public use of public space for peaceful protest is worth supporting.
As one who had friends in the City Square at the time the Victoria Police inflicted their unique interpretation of “law” on 21 Oct, there’s a number of questions I have about the conduct of the eviction operation and its aftermath.
The statement issued at 6:58 (was that AM, an unreasonable time?) doesn’t mention the name of the “authorised” officer, but were each of the people targeted given an opportunity to request to see his or her identify card? Did the officer ask for name and address of each individual that they thought were in breach of MCC’s Activities Local Law 2009? The statement itself fails to list the specific sections that in their opinion were being breached, which seems to me to be a breach of Local Government Act 1989 s224(6A). I’ve searched the PDF and can’t find a prohibition on “Hanging or placing objects and things on or over the city square”. It clearly doesn’t apply to people who weren’t camping and hadn’t hung anything on or over the city square. [The statement also uses conjunctive "and" rather than disjunctive "or", so was poorly drafted.] That means all the people who arrived that morning, quite possibly after 6:58. On the face of it, a bunch of people were forcibly evicted, with aggravated violence, by the police acting without authority.
Cr Doyle takes credit for sending in the police, but if authority has been delegated by Council to council officers (and the statement suggests it had), then he, and all councillors, must not direct, or seek to direct, a member of Council staff in the exercise of a delegated power. Has he breached LGA 76E(2)?
I have never seen riot police used before to enforce Local Law. My council, Glen Eira, routinely breaches its own Local Law, as do developers. The correct procedure appears to be laid down in Summary Offences Act 1966, and doesn’t involve police and/or violence. What authorises the police to use physical violence to eject people, whether subject to the Council Notice to Comply or not? Since within days the SES set up tents in the square, the issue appears to be the possible loss of revenue, rather than camping and tents per se.
At the end of the eviction a lot of gear was confiscated and dumped in a tip. I’ve been told that no written notice was issued to the owners setting out the fees and charges payable, and that much of the gear, especially items with saleable value, was dumped in a tip. This would be a breach of the Activities Local Law 14.24. At least we now know how seriously the police take breaches of Local Law.
In subsequent days, protesters were harrassed by the Police and council officers, culminating in an eviction at 1am, an unreasonable time. This appears to be a breach of LGA s224(7). I’d love to know if I’m wrong and that Police really can be sent in at 1am to wake up councillors and developers whenever they have breached Local Law or Local Government Act.