Public drunkenness to be decriminalised in Victoria
On Melbourne Cup Day, the crime of public drunkenness will be abolished in Victoria. It will mark the end of a long journey for the family of a woman who's death prompted the landmark changes who today have welcomed news of another sobering up centre in the city, this one exclusively for First Nations people.
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00:00 April Day's mum, Tanya Day, is at the heart of the changes to Victoria's new public intoxication laws.
00:08 It's long overdue and it's life saving and it's life changing.
00:13 On Melbourne Cup Day, public drunkenness will be decriminalised.
00:17 It means police won't be able to arrest people for being intoxicated in public
00:22 and detain them in a police cell like Tanya Day was,
00:25 a policy her daughter says has been harmful to Indigenous Australians.
00:30 If the public drunkenness had been decriminalised 30 years ago
00:34 and sobering centres were in place, my mum would still be here today and many other Aboriginal people.
00:39 The Yorta Yorta woman's death in custody at Castlemain Police Station in 2017 aged 55
00:46 and the subsequent recommendations made at her coronial inquest sparked the change.
00:51 The laws will be replaced with a health-based response including sobering up centres.
00:57 The first announced a 20-bed facility in Collingwood and today news of another in St Kilda,
01:03 a six-bed culturally safe centre exclusively for First Nations people
01:08 at an existing site run by Ngagwali Wilumbung Aboriginal Corporation.
01:13 People shouldn't be scared about providing a safe space. If anything it should be welcomed.
01:18 The St Kilda facility, which the local council says it hasn't been consulted on,
01:23 will be open when the laws come into effect on Tuesday,
01:26 but the Collingwood centre is still three weeks away.
01:29 The government is just chaotic. They just have not planned for the sobering up centres.
01:34 We saw what's happened in Collingwood and they're all over the place.
01:38 This comes during the spring racing carnival when police take on one of the biggest weeks of the year for public intoxication.
01:46 They've also launched Operation Furlong this Melbourne Cup long weekend to crack down on drink driving.
01:52 For April though, it's clear the new laws mark the end of a long journey for her family and for her mum Tanya.
01:59 She would definitely be praising us very loudly and proudly so I know that we've done her proud.
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