Queensland's Supreme Court has ruled that the City of Moreton Bay unlawfully breached the human rights of homeless people when it cleared a tent city in Kallangur in April. Justice Paul Smith found the evictions were 'degrading', 'inhumane', and conducted on a 'wholly unfair' timeframe.
The court heard that residents were given just hours to leave the park off Goodfellows Road, where some had lived for years. Property was seized without consent, including the ashes of a deceased daughter and sentimental items belonging to a deceased mother. Justice Smith said the loss of ashes was 'inhumane' and that being left to sit under a tarp in the rain was 'degrading'.
The council had changed its local laws in February to ban homelessness and began evictions in April with police, rangers, a bulldozer and an excavator. The court found the council violated rights to protection from cruel treatment, property, privacy, and family protection, and arbitrarily interfered with the right to a home, as tents constituted a home.
Justice Smith said the council should have helped residents organise accommodation before eviction. The judgment does not prevent the council from enforcing its ban on homelessness but limits how it can do so. Basic Rights Queensland, which led the lawsuit, called it a 'historic victory for the basic rights of Queenslanders'.
Council CEO Scott Waters said the judgment does not change the local laws, stating that public spaces are not fit for habitation and the Human Rights Act is not a licence to do what is unlawful.
