Report demands Adelaide parklands rethink to keep Aboriginal visitors safe

A report aiming to improve safety for Aboriginal visitors has called for public drunkenness to be decriminalised and for sleeping out in the parklands to be allowed. Vote in our polls.

A report has called for new rules to allow camping in the parklands. Picture: David Cronin

The State Government should look at decriminalising public drunkenness and Adelaide City Council should change by-laws to allow sleeping out in the parklands, according to a new report.

They are part of a suite of measures detailed in a report to Adelaide City Council by the Australian Alliance for Social Enterprise and the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness aimed at improving safety for Aboriginal people from remote communities who come to the CBD to camp.

The report also recommends spending money on public toilets, access to electricity, grass watering and creating fire pits to reduce risk of out-of-control fires in the parklands.

It reports that the NSW Government has announced $16m in funding for “a health-based approach” to public intoxication that will expand the ability of organisations controlled by the Aboriginal community to provide a “culturally safe” response.

“The South Australian government should consider a similar response,” the report says.

Victoria has already committed to decriminalising public intoxication.

It also recommends a trial of allowing Aboriginal visitors to camp in the parklands, with an aim to changing by-laws in future to allow camping on a permanent basis.

“Changes could initially be trialled in relation to meeting the needs of remote visitors during key arts and cultural events and certainly only once the other recommendations about support co-ordination have been established,” it says.

The AAEH report also calls for a range of services in the parklands to be “urgently improved”, including toilets, running water, grass watering, access to electricity and fire pits.

Human Services Minister Michelle Lensink said the government had invested $3.5m in a Return to Country program and would soon release the state’s first stand-alone Aboriginal housing strategy.

“As the report acknowledges, we recently established a cross-government high-level task-force to address the needs of people visiting Adelaide from remote communities,” Ms Lensink said.

A State Government spokesman said the government was “considering the report’s recommendations”, including the proposal to decriminalise public drunkenness.

Adelaide City Council was contacted for comment but had not responded by publication.