Public Drunkenness Decriminalised After Indigenous Death, Police Warn Results ‘Won’t Be Pretty’

Australians protesting against government-mandated health restrictions, increasing powers, and the Pandemic Bill in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov. 6, 2021. Supplied

Ambulance and health workers will shoulder the burden of dealing with rowdy drunks as the Victorian Labor government looks set to sideline police officers from handling intoxicated individuals.

The move from the Andrews government comes in response to the death of Indigenous woman Tanya Day in the state of Victoria in Australia.

The Yorta Yorta woman was removed from a train heading to Melbourne on Dec. 5, 2017, she was deemed “unruly” by the ticket inspector and was later removed and arrested by police for public drunkenness.

Day was taken to Castlemaine Police Station where she was supposed to be physically checked every 30 minutes, but this did not occur, according to the Human Rights Law Centre.

At 5:00 p.m., Day was seen on CCTV footage falling and hitting her head on the wall of her cell. She was later pronounced dead.

Family Fights to Decriminalise Public Drunkenness

“Our mother would still be here with us today if Victoria police had treated her condition seriously and cared for her with a public health response, but they chose to criminalise her at her most vulnerable time,” Day’s family said in response to the Victorian government’s decision to decriminalise public drunkenness and not give law enforcement any new powers.

They said public drunkenness was “outdated and discriminatory” citing the Royal Commission inquiry into Aboriginal deaths in custody that recommended it be decriminalised.

A homeless person sits on the pavement in Melbourne's CBD in Victoria, Australia on June 4, 2021. William West/AFP via Getty Images

“We welcome the Andrews government’s decision to hear our family’s concerns and not to add or replace already excessive police powers and laws. This is the first time across the nation that a jurisdiction has made a commitment to true decriminalisation.”

Under the new laws set to come in in November 2023, the government will instead task ambulance and health workers with bringing intoxicated individuals to locations such as homes, their friends or families, or centres for sobering up—with the person’s permission, according to the Herald Sun newspaper.

Further, extra outreach and “places of safety services” will be set up for Aboriginal communities across Melbourne.

Police Forced to Sit Back and Wait, Says Union

The proposal has drawn a stinging response from the Police Association of Victoria warning that while some intoxicated individuals were easy to deal with, there was always a segment of society that pose a risk to the public.

“Of itself, the reform doesn’t compromise community safety. It simply means there is no prospect of any penalty being handed to a person after the event,” said Wayne Gatt, secretary of the police union.

“From here on, if a person is found drunk in public and causing a nuisance, or compromising the safety of those around them, police can’t deal with them. Our members have been stripped of the power to remove these people from the situation they are in, and the potential danger that emanates,” he added.

Gatt warned that if health workers—without adequate equipment to protect themselves—were forced to deal with violent drunks then the result “won’t be pretty.”

Victoria Ambulances are seen at the St. Vincent Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 11, 2022. Diego Fedele/Getty Images

He further warned that police could only sit back and deal with an unruly individual once they had committed a crime.

“That is, when it’s too late. Let’s think about that,” Gatt said.

“If your son, daughter, mother, father or friend is injured or assaulted by a drunk person and ends up injured or worse, you’ll rightly want to know what the authorities did to prevent it. The answer will be that my members did nothing. Not because they didn’t want to, but because the government forbade them.”

Government’s Stance Unlikely to Shift

Victoria’s Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes stood by her government’s stance saying there would be no additional powers given to police, but noted a trial was still underway.

“We have learnt from other jurisdictions that have brought in backup coercive powers that it undermines the whole purpose of decriminalisation,” she said in a statement obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“Police will still have the option of stepping in when someone is disturbing the peace, causing a scene, concerns about violent behaviour and the like,” she said.

“These laws are about decriminalising public intoxication, they are not about diluting any further police powers.”