A homeless man who had been sleeping on the steps of government offices in Launceston has had his possessions thrown away at the request of the state government.
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A "cleansing crew" from the City of Launceston council was asked to remove the items from the steps of the Public Buildings on St John Street on Monday, where the offices of Cabinet ministers Peter Gutwein, Sarah Courtney and Michael Ferguson are located.
The homeless man was not present at the time.
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The Examiner understands a security report was made to the building manager on Monday, stating that items appeared to have been abandoned at the front of the building over the weekend.
Later that day, the building manager called the police to report the finding, after no-one had collected the items.
The police then advised the building manager to call the council. That was when the cleansing crew came to remove the items.
Staff checked again on Monday evening to see if anyone had returned to the area for the items but no-one was present.
According to the council, the items removed were a rubbish bag, a piece of blanket or cloth and a torn piece of cardboard.
In a statement, City of Launceston general manager Michael Stretton said the council had followed up with the relevant service providers on both Tuesday and Wednesday and have confirmed that the homeless man has been "provided with the necessary care and any items he may require".
Emails from Mr Stretton to councillors, obtained by The Examiner, confirm that the government asked the council to dispose of the materials.
"It was our cleansing crew that collected the possessions from the building yesterday," Mr Stretton wrote in an email sent at 4.04pm on Tuesday. "It was initiated by a complaint from the State Government."
In an earlier email, sent at 2.51pm, Mr Stretton had said the council had not been involved in disposing of the items, rather that the government had engaged contractors instead.
"When dealing with such matters it is the Council's practice to visit the individual and provide information and advice and if they are not present to leave a business card with the possessions with a written note for follow up," Mr Stretton wrote in the first email.
"A follow-up visit is usually made at a later point in the day."
But Mr Stretton apologised to councillors in his later email for initially misinforming them.
"The approach I relayed earlier is how we typically manage these types of issues as they arise, however, in this instance the complaint was given the wrong customer enquiry code and has been handled in a completely inappropriate manner," he wrote.
The move has sparked outrage from Deputy Labor leader Michelle O'Byrne, who posted a video to her Facebook page on Tuesday evening detailing the incident and condemning the actions of the government.
Ms O'Byrne said there had been reports the person could have a disability.
"The government may be trying to cover its actions now because it's embarrassed but there are reports that this person was sleeping there as late as Sunday night," she said.
However, a government spokesperson said Ms O'Byrne had misrepresented the facts.
"Ms O'Byrne didn't even bother to check the facts and is cynically trying to make political mileage out of circumstances she knows nothing about," the spokesperson said.