The Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation has welcomed the state government's decision to not replace public drunkenness laws with new police powers, and expressed disappointment at the reactions of the state's Police Association and Ambulance Union to the move.
VACCHO noted that the abolition of Public Drunkenness laws was a key recommendation of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody because of its dangerous and discriminatory impact.
The peak Aboriginal health body said the state's repeal of these laws brings Victoria into step with Western Australia, Tasmania, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
In 2019 the government vowed to repeal the laws after the death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day, who suffered a head injury in a police cell after being arrested under the laws. She had not committed any offence.
VACCHO noted that the delay in abolishing the laws, due to be axed in November, meant they continued to create an unsafe environment for all Victorians - particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, "who have been disproportionately impacted by the application of these draconian laws".
Victoria's Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill told 3AW that while the union supports the reform, he's concerned there may be "unintended consequences that come from it".
"A police cell is not the right place for someone who is heavily intoxicated, we know that, but the back of an ambulance or an emergency department bed probably isn't the right place either," he said.
At a media conference on Tuesday Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said the union supported the decriminalisation of public drunkenness, but not without replacement powers for police.
He said that without the drunkenness laws police could only intervene when an offence has been committed.
"What police will have to do, in cases where no offence has been committed, will be to sit back, watch and wait for an offence to be committed… We think that's going to put the community at significant risk," he said.
VACCHO chief executive Jill Gallagher said she was disappointed by public commentary made this week in relation to the reforms.
"Living and breathing in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community we regularly see first-hand the detrimental and dangerous impacts public drunkenness laws have on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people," she said.
"Community agencies are currently working in partnership with government to develop a culturally safe model of care to ensure the health and wellbeing needs of people who find themselves impacted by the effects of alcohol whilst in a public place.
"The repeal of these laws is vital for the betterment of the health and safety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victoria, and indeed all Victorians."
Ms Gallagher noted that Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people in Victoria face inordinately higher rates of incarceration for public drunkenness than non-Aboriginal Victorians face, despite it constituting the same behaviour, and face far harsher treatment in custody.
"Alcohol misuse is a public health issue, not a crime, and therefore should be treated as such," she said.
The Yoorrook Justice Commission also backed the Victorian government's decision, noting that the issue of the public drunkenness laws driving over-incarceration of Aboriginal people was consistently raised by witnesses throughout the commission's December hearings into the criminal justice system.
