Victoria to finally treat public intoxication as a health issue
NEWS | Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Rights
Thanks to the tireless advocacy of the Day family, public intoxication has been decriminalised in Victoria. People who are identified as intoxicated in public will be supported to go to a safe place, like a sobering up centre, instead of being locked in a police cell under criminal or civil police powers.
Victoria is set to become the first state to stop treating public intoxication with a legal response and finally treat it as the public health issue it has always been.
Being intoxicated in public will be decriminalised on 7 November 2023, when historic laws repealing the offence come into effect.
This long overdue reform in Victoria is testament to the tireless and ongoing advocacy of the Day family in seeking justice for their mother, proud Yorta Yorta woman Aunty Tanya Day.
From next week, people in Victoria who are identified as intoxicated in public will be supported to go to a safe place, like a sobering up centre, instead of being locked in a police cell under criminal or civil police powers.
The decriminalisation of public intoxication follows years of advocacy by Aboriginal communities. The reform was first recommended over 30 years ago when the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody found that Aboriginal people were disproportionally targeted by police, locked up and put at risk of dying in custody.
In August 2019, at the outset of the coronial inquest into the death in custody of Aunty Tanya Day, the Victorian Government committed to decriminalising public intoxication.
Aunty Tanya Day was arrested in 2017 for being drunk in a public place after she fell asleep on a train. While locked in a concrete cell at the Castlemaine police station, Aunty Tanya died after she hit her head and police failed to check on her.
“Our mother would still be here today if the Government repealed the laws criminalising public drunkenness as first recommended over 30 years ago in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. We are glad the government is finally listening and is implementing these changes.
“As our mother's case and all the other similar cases show, police cells are dangerous places for intoxicated people. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people this is especially so, where systemic racism and bias held by individuals means that our people are more likely to die when detained in police cells.”
- The Day family
If somebody is too intoxicated, they should be taken home or somewhere safe - they should not be locked up behind bars. This landmark reform needs to be rolled out nationwide, with civil ‘protective custody’ laws in every other state and territory that has decriminalised public intoxication still allowing for police to detain intoxicated people in police cells, placing them at risk of dying in custody.