TRANSCRIPT:
In 2017, Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day died at a regional Victorian police station.
She'd been arrested for being drunk in a public place - dying after hitting her head in a concrete cell at Castlemaine [[CASSELL-main]] Police Station.
Deputy state coroner Caitlin English found her death was preventable.
"There was a culture of complacency regarding intoxicated detainees and as a person deprived of her liberty I find that Ms Day was not treated with humanity. The clear medical evidence is that with a blood alcohol reading of at least 3.3 per cent, Ms Day should have been in hospital."
The Victorian government committed to decriminalising public drunken-ness after that inquest - but it was a bittersweet moment for the family.
Daughter Apryl Watson said the 1989 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody had recommended the same thing decades earlier.
"It's long overdue; it's lifesaving and it's life-changing... If the public drunkenness had been decriminalised 30 years ago and the sobering centres were in place, my mum would still be here today - and many other Aboriginal people."
The change in Victoria will apply from Melbourne Cup Day.
Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt.
"So you'll no longer be arrested simply for being drunk in public. But if there are other community safety issues at play then those are matters for Victoria Police to deal with."
The government is introducing a health-led approach instead which will offer outreach services and sobering rooms to intoxicated people.
The Minister says that means while there'll be a strong police presence at Flemington's Melbourne Cup Carnival, traditionally a boozy public holiday for thousands, officers will encourage drunk people to seek support instead of throwing them behind bars.
"The police will have an additional option to get in touch with the outreach service, and they will be able to assist with outreach. Or if that person is unable to be assisted to get home safely one of the sobering centres or places of safety might be an option for that individual. But these are things that are going to be dealt with on a case by case basis."
Community health service cohealth is among the agencies that will deliver these outreach services.
Deputy Chief Executive Chris Turner says the response will change lives by offering a lifeline, not a lockup.
"We have a dedicated team of health outreach workers which include registered enrolled nurses and alcohol and drug practitioners... If someone does escalate in their behaviour, we do have staff trained in de-escalation techniques. But if someone is to become violent and aggressive we would work with police in those scenarios."
But the decision to change the law has attracted some criticism because the rollout of health services has been delayed.
A Collingwood sobering up facility still hasn't been finished, and other permanent sobering up centres are yet to be established across the state.
Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt has called the reforms ill-considered, and woefully under prepared.
He has released a statement saying questions still remain about what services would be available elsewhere - and what happens if drunk people refuse to go.
The Victorian opposition also wants the government to pause the change, with opposition police spokesperson Brad Battin arguing in state Parliament that lives could be endangered in this kind of scenario.
"We don't want to see intoxicated people locked up. But we don't want to see intoxicated people put at risk."
But Ingrid Stitt says she still believes it's the right time to make the change.
"There's been close work between the health-led response teams that we are setting up and emergency services, and that will continue to be the case... We are of course keen to get the Collingwood service up and running, and that is only a few weeks away. And that will give us additional capacity... But I am very confident that we've got the model right because it's been based on the outcomes of the trial period and all of the data that's been available to us."
Queensland now remains the only state that has not moved to decriminalise public intoxication.
