Expert report on public drunkenness recommends laws be abolished: Day family respond

The Andrews Government has today released the Expert Reference Group’s (ERG’s) report on public drunkenness reform, which recommends decriminalising public drunkenness and the implementation of a public health response.

In the week before the coronial inquest into Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day’s death in police custody, the Andrews Government committed to abolishing the offence of public drunkenness and replacing it with an Aboriginal-led, public health response. The ERG was established to advise them on this process.

The ERG’s report makes 86 recommendations, including that the Victorian Government act on its promise to repeal the offence of public drunkenness, that people should not be held in police cells just because they are drunk in public, and that the police’s role in responding to incidents of public drunkenness should be minimised.

In response to the release of the ERG report, the family of Tanya Day said:

“As our mum’s case shows, police cells are unsafe places and no person should ever be locked up just for being drunk in a public place. Public drunkenness is a public health issue that needs a public health response. We have ongoing concerns about any role that police might play in any response moving forward, given that whenever police have discretionary powers, this opens the way for discriminatory policing, too often experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”

“Overall, the release of the ERG report is a welcome step forward in progressing public drunkenness reform. But it is also tinged with grief and sadness. It took the death of our mother for the Andrews Government to commit to repealing laws that should have been abolished 30 years ago when it was recommended by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.”

“The Andrews Government must now back their words with action and work with Aboriginal communities and organisations to implement the public health response so that no other Aboriginal people die in custody. Ongoing, Aboriginal-led oversight of this process is integral to ensure that the public health response is a culturally safe one.”

Tanya Day was a proud Yorta Yorta woman and much-loved sister, mother, grandmother and advocate. In December 2017, Tanya fell asleep on a train from Echuca to Melbourne. Tanya was subsequently arrested for being drunk in a public place and locked up in a police cell where she fell and hit her head on the wall of the police cell causing a brain hemorrhage. It was over three hours from the time Tanya had the fatal fall to when police entered her cell and called the ambulance.

Monique Hurley, Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, who represented the family in the coronial inquest, said:

“The Andrews Government’s commitment to repeal public drunkenness laws is testament to the tireless advocacy of the Day family in seeking justice for their mum. The laws are discriminatory and the Andrews Government is doing the right thing removing them from the statute books. If somebody is too drunk, they should be taken home or somewhere safe, they should not be locked up behind bars. We look forward to the Andrews Government working with Aboriginal communities to action their promises and implement this long overdue reform.”

— Monique Hurley