Human rights lawyers challenge City of Moreton Bay homeless evictions
On Thursday, lawyers representing Basic Rights Queensland and the Northwest Community Group applied for a Supreme Court judicial review on behalf of homeless people evicted from Eddie Hyland Park.
The judicial review would determine whether the council's actions were lawful.
In April the council bulldozed the homeless encampment with an excavator and garbage truck, as well as threatening fines of up to $8,065 if people stayed.
Basic Rights Queensland legal practice director Sam Tracy said they would argue that the City of Moreton Bay had violated their clients' human rights.
"We believe the obligations in regards to people's human rights have not been sufficiently taken into account," Mr Tracy said.
Mr Tracy said they were applying for a judicial review to test in court whether the seizures were legal.
The human rights lawyer said they would argue that the seizures were a breach of property rights and the prohibition against "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" treatment.
A council spokesperson said it had not violated human rights laws.
"Council has received appeals from individuals who were removed from Eddie Hyland Park," the spokesperson said.
"We respond to appeals in accordance with any requirements of the law.
"There is no breach of anyone's human rights in relation to this matter."
Homeless couple Debbie and John Bobeldyk have both lodged appeals with the City of Moreton Bay after being evicted from Eddie Hyland Park.
The couple said they were given one hour to collect some of their belongings before council officers loaded the rest into a garbage truck.
Mrs Bobeldyk said they had lost several tents, a fridge, a portable air conditioner, and their daughter's ashes in the process.
The 56-year-old said she felt as though she had also been stripped of her human dignity.
"They make you feel as though you're not worth the land you're standing on," Mrs Bobeldyk said.
"We're not homeless because we want to be."
Mrs Bobeldyk said the Department of Housing did not offer them accommodation because they were unable to find their ID documents after their camp was destroyed.
She said they had since applied for the documents but were yet to hear back from the department.
A housing department spokesperson said they were unable to comment on the Bobeldyks's case due to privacy reasons.
"The department and our specialist homelessness services work with individuals to establish their identity and obtain ID documents," the spokesperson said.
"Our Critical Response Team is working on the ground across the Moreton Bay region offering housing support to every person willing to engage."
Northwest Community Group president Paul Slater said he hoped that taking City of Moreton Bay to court would set a precedent for other councils.
"From the start we've said this is a violation of people's human rights," Mr Slater said.
"If it is found to be illegal we're hoping this will stop not just Moreton Bay but any other council, including Brisbane City Council and the Gold Coast council."
Mr Bobeldyk said they spent Anzac Day sheltering under a tarp because they did not have a tent to keep out of the rain.
The disability pensioner said they had since set up camp in a secluded plot of land and were lying low in the hopes of not being reported.
But he said their remote location meant less access to charity and support services.
"The rangers told us to stay sight unseen," Mr Bobeldyk said.
"If nobody complains they'll leave us alone. That's what it's come to."
The City of Moreton Bay said it would follow a complaints-based system, responding to resident reports of illegal homelessness.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
China's carbon emissions may have peaked thanks to renewables push
Climate experts say China's carbon emissions may have peaked, which could affect global climate targets, the fight against global warming — and the Australian coal industry. China is currently the world's biggest emitter, accounting for some 30 per cent of global carbon emissions, but a report by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) found that in the year to May 2025, China's CO2 emissions dropped 1.6 per cent. China policy expert at CREA Belinda Schäpe said the trend had also continued in the months since. Ms Schäpe told the ABC the finding was "really unique" because the only other times the country had recorded a year-on-year decline in CO2 emissions were during times of economic downturn, like the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's really quite a historic result," Ms Schäpe said. "It's due to a really rapid increase in renewables build-out in China that has translated into an increase in power generation coming from clean sources and driving down the coal share in the power mix, and with that, bringing down emissions." She said China led the world in green energy uptake. "In May [2025] alone, China built out 90 gigawatts of solar capacity, which is really huge. It translates to roughly 100 solar panels per second. "We are now at a point where solar and wind capacity is actually bigger than all thermal power capacity. So not only coal, but also including gas, oil and other fossil fuel sectors." Li Shuo, director of the China climate hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told the ABC he thought that despite previous emissions fluctuations, the country would continue to reduce its carbon output. "It certainly suggests that after three decades of very rapid economic growth, and also growth in China's emissions, the emission peak point for China has come very close, if it has not happened already," Mr Li said. "We have certainly entered into, if not yet an emission peak, a plateauing period for China's emissions. "We have entered a new phase of China's emissions, a phase that features a stabilisation of China's emissions and increasingly large-scale integration of China's renewable energy power, which, I hope, will actually make the country reduce its emissions from this point on." If the world is to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, the amount of emissions released into the atmosphere needs to come down, not stabilise, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Climate experts say a failure to limit global warming below that figure will result in catastrophic consequences for people and the planet. Despite the rapid installation of renewable energy plants across the country, China is still building new coal-fired power plants. Beijing approved on average two coal-powered projects a week in 2022 and 2023, after power shortages in 2021. Belinda Schäpe said a backlog of these projects was now coming online, but they were using less coal. "There's been a significant drop in coal imports … in June, there was a 25 per cent year-on-year drop in coal imports," she said. "In June, China's power demand growth was actually 70 per cent higher than last year this time around, but solar and wind power generation met 89 per cent of that power demand growth. "That's what we've been seeing over the last six months, really, where renewables, or solar and wind in particular, accounted for 24 per cent of total electricity generation. Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to continue phasing down the country's coal consumption in the next five years, between 2026 and 2030. Jorrit Gosens, a climate change and energy policy fellow at the Australian National University, said Australia needed to rethink the future of coal mines. "The writing is on the wall a little bit in the future economic potential of that industry," he said. China imports roughly 30 per cent of Australian thermal coal exports, making it Australia's largest market. Dr Gosens said China's increasing wind and solar power generation, combined with increasing domestic supplies of coal, created a "double whammy" for Australian coal exports. "It should be expected that those export volumes will continue to decrease over the next few years." Other Asian markets of Australian coal, such as South Korea and Japan, would follow suit as they decarbonised, he said. Dr Gosens pointed to the Mt Arthur coal mine in NSW, for which BHP could not find a buyer because of the shrinking demand of coal and its liabilities, like rehabilitation costs. He said local community leaders and the federal government needed to transition communities historically reliant on coal mines into other industries. "Currently, we're still seeing more resistance to change than embracing of that transition, which I think is a risky strategy given the demand for our product is not going to be determined by those local communities or by the federal government," he said. "Our best bet really is to make sure that there are viable alternatives for when it does get to that point." US President Donald Trump's policy agenda has seen green energy subsidies replaced with coal subsidies. Li Shou said it was clear that the two countries were now on different paths. He said some conservative forces within China may use the US's withdrawal from clean energy as motivation "for domestic inaction", but he was confident that it would not change the country's policy direction. "China has over the last decade or so become the superpower when it comes to wind technology — deploying and manufacturing wind, solar batteries and electric vehicles," he said. "This will not change because of what is happening or not happening in the US and if anything, Beijing will just continue with this green path because doing these things is ultimately in the country's long-term economic interest. "There has been a realisation on the Chinese side that they should continue and double down on their climate and environmental agenda, not because of the global situation and the US situation, but just for their own sake, to clean up the skies in major Chinese cities." China is set to announce its new climate reduction targets as part of the Paris agreement later this year. He said that would tell the world a lot about where the global appetite to reduce emissions was at. "Whether China chooses to coordinate with some of the other geopolitical powers will also tell us a lot about where the global climate agenda stands and to what extent countries, including China and Australia and the European Union, can still engage," Mr Li said.
ABC News
6 hours ago
- ABC News
Teenage boy in custody after alleged Darwin Show stabbing of another teenage boy
A teenager is in serious condition after he was stabbed at the Royal Darwin Show, with the alleged offender in custody, police say. The Northern Territory Police said the boy, aged 15, was assaulted with a knife by another 15-year-old boy at the showgrounds after an altercation. A spokesperson said the alleged offender fled the scene after the incident took place at around 8.20pm on Saturday. "Police and St John Ambulance attended, and the victim was conveyed to Royal Darwin Hospital in a serious condition," the spokesperson said. Police later posted a Facebook update at 10pm, saying the alleged offender was located. "The 15-year-old alleged offender has been arrested by police and is currently in custody," the statement said. Police are urging anyone with information to contact 131 444 and quote reference number P25199834.
SBS Australia
8 hours ago
- SBS Australia
Four Aussie residents, including two citizens, now facing Hong Kong arrest warrants, bounties
Four Australian residents are now facing overseas arrest warrants issued by Hong Kong's national security police, after a fresh announcement concerning support for a pro-democracy party in the state's parliament. Australian citizen Chongyi Feng and resident Wong Sau-Wo are accused of having launched a referendum or run as candidates in the unofficial "Hong Kong Parliament" group. They are among 19 activists who are are accused of organising or participating in the group that authorities in the Asian financial hub say aims at achieving self-determination and drafting a "Hong Kong constitution". Authorities say the group aims to subvert state power, under the law Beijing imposed in 2020 following months of pro-democracy protests in 2019. There is a bounty of at least HK$200,000 ($38,807) for each of the activists. Yam, who is a legal scholar, and Hui, a former Hong Kong Democracy party MP, were among eight overseas-based activists who authorities accused of national security offences, including foreign collusion and incitement to secession. At the time, the police also offered rewards of HK$1 million ($194,000) for information leading to each possible arrest. Foreign Minister Penny Wong has reacted to the announcement, saying "Australia strongly objects to Hong Kong authorities issuing arrest warrants for pro-democracy advocates in Australia." "Freedom of expression and assembly are essential to our democracy," she wrote on social media platform X on Saturday "We have consistently expressed our strong objections to China and Hong Kong on the broad and extraterritorial application of Hong Kong's national security legislation, and we will continue to do so." SBS News has reached out to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment. Hong Kong's national security law Feng has told SBS News that, while he feels safe being in Australia, the federal government must remain cautious in its interactions with China. "So we need to be fully aware of the nature of (China's) authoritarian regime when dealing with Xi Jinping or the People's Republic of China." He says many of his friends in Hong Kong have been jailed due to the state's national security law, which makes perceived political subversion a serious offence. Critics of the national security law say authorities are using it to stifle dissent. Chinese and Hong Kong officials have repeatedly said the law was vital to restore stability after the city was rocked for months by sometimes violent anti-government and anti-China protests in 2019. "I feel quite sad that the autonomy of Hong Kong, of basic human rights in Hong Kong, and democracy in Hong Kong have all been destroyed by the implementation of the national security law," Feng said. Police reiterated that national security offences were serious crimes with extraterritorial reach and urged the wanted individuals to return to Hong Kong and turn themselves in. "If offenders voluntarily give up continuing to violate the crime, turn themselves in, truthfully confess their crimes, or provide key information that helps solve other cases, they may be eligible for reduced punishment," they said in a statement. Police also warned that aiding, abetting, or funding others to participate in the "Hong Kong Parliament" could be a criminal offence. Additional reporting by Wing Kuang and the Reuters News Agency.
