CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
92-year-old Flemington resident Gloria Bianchi-Murphy is now in day 4 of police-enforced lockdown of her houso flats in Melbourne’s coronavirus hot spots.
With a small box of expired groceries delivered to her room by police officers who cannot understand 99 out of the 100 languages spoken by residents in her apartment block, the Victorian government is now saying these strict measures will be in place for another 10 days.
Gloria says she hasn’t really felt the full wrath of an authoritarian Australian government since she was 14 years old and her family got interned at the Tatura POW camp during WWII.
During World War II, Australia interned thousands of their own residents of Italian, Japanese and German descent in an effort to appease public opinion towards migrant communities – over 20% of the Italian-Australian population was detained during the early 40s.
However, as the years passed and the anti-Italian sentiment subsided and her family were able to get on with their lives as model migrants, Gloria even went as far as marrying a returned serviceman and raising a family of good Catholics.
It’s for this reason the now widowed wife of a Burma Railroad veteran is wondering why One Nation leader Pauline Hanson was given the opportunity to appear on national breakfast television this morning to describe her as a drug addict and an alcoholic migrant who has never contributed to society.
“Not everyone in public housing are drug addicts and steal things” she says.
“My building is just families justa trying to get by”
“Now because of Pauline my family not just worried that I will die with no bread or milk in my flat.”
“Now they worry that I’m withdrawing froma the shard” she says.
As Gloria points out, it’s not the fact that Pauline has gone on national television to vilify her and the other thousands of vulnerable working class residents currently locked down in Melbourne’s public housing while the luxury high-rise apartments across the street remain free to come and go when they like… It’s the fact that someone snitched on her.
“Howa she know I like the glass barbie” says nonna.
“I try to keep my ice aproblem a secret from my family.”
“Who tell her? Thata lady next door always complain about me playing the doof doof music and inviting friends over for-a bender”
