Victorian Health Officials admit to huge flaws in revised public drunk laws
Concerns are mounting over how to manage public drunks when police are stripped of their powers on Cup Day, as officials concede the new system will be far from perfect.
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Senior bureaucrats have warned they will be learning on the job as Victoria introduces a new health response when public drunkenness is abolished.
In stunning admissions, senior Department of Health officials have conceded the new system to deal with public drunkenness will be far from perfect when it is introduced on Melbourne Cup Day.
“We will be learning as we’re going,” Department of Health deputy secretary Katherine Whetton said this week.
The department’s executive director of strategy and policy, Eleanor Williams, said: “some people describe it as building the bike as we’re riding it.”
The admissions have prompted calls for the government to delay abolishing public drunkenness.
It comes just weeks after the Herald Sun revealed police concerns over the decision to strip them of their powers to arrest public drunks on the booziest day of the year.
Public drunkenness will be abolished from November 7, with police stripped of their powers to arrest public drunks.
Instead a new system led by health professionals will see intoxicated Victorians taken home or to “sobering-up” centres under new rules.
Ms Whetton, in evidence before the Yoorrook Justice Commission, conceded there would be a lag in the new health response becoming effective.
But she said all services would be in place on time.
“We stand ready as soon as we’ve got those providers on board to really do what it takes to have it in place by November,” she said.
“We’re working incredibly hard to have the very best possible service response in place and working on whatever is needed.”
However the trial phase of the program has been plagued by significant delays, with all test sites still not fully operational.
Trials are being conducted in the City of Yarra, Dandenong, Castlemaine and Shepparton.
Three of the trial sites have only become fully operational in recent weeks, while Dandenong is still not running a comprehensive trial.
“We’re pulling out all stops for (the system) to be ready for November,” Ms Whetton said.
“We’re right in the middle of commissioning services.
“We know its not an option not to have that response in place by the seventh of November this year.”
The decision to scrap public drunkenness was recommended by a panel set up by the government after the death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day in police custody in 2017.
The offence has been removed from every state other than Victoria and Queensland.
A tender process is currently underway to find service providers who have been told to expect at least 500 cases a month.
The figure is almost double the number of people arrested for drunk and disorderly across Victoria last year.
Department of Justice and Community Safety Secretary Kate Houghton on Tuesday said it was highly unlikely the start date for the changes would be pushed back.
Despite this, she said preparation and readiness for November was “challenged”.
“I see that largely from my perspective around workforce and trying to get the workforce in train and the operating model operating in time,” she said.
Ms Houghton said there would be another report evaluating the success of trial sites by August or September.
Counsel assisting the commission, Tony McAvoy SC, said this was “awfully close” to the November start date.
Ms Houghton agreed that it was “going to be tight” despite the urgency of the law change.
Commissioner Maggie Walter said there would be serious problems if the system wasn’t properly ready in time.
“If the health response is not in place then it may be blamed somehow that it wasn’t the right thing to do and we should go back or give police more powers,” she said.
“There’s a big risk in this. I feel that even though it’s the government doing this, it will be Aboriginal people or Aboriginal Community Controlled organisations who will cop the blame.”
Police have already raised concerns about the introduction of the new program on the booziest day of the year.
Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said the government would continue to rely on police to respond to public drunkenness after November 7.
“They won’t have any powers to do anything, but, as we’ve long stated, in the absence of any workable alternative, they will be called,” he said.
“What happens from there is anyone’s guess.”
Shadow Attorney-General, Michael O’Brien, accused the government of being “completely unprepared for this major change to the law.”
“Daniel Andrews is taking away a police response, before he has a suitable health response in place,” he said.
“By scheduling this change for the booziest day of the year, the Andrews Government is simply putting at risk public safety at the worst possible time.
“Given these warnings by his own bureaucrats, the Andrews Government needs to seriously consider delaying the introduction of these new laws.”
The state government was contacted for comment.
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Originally published as Victorian Health Officials admit to huge flaws in revised public drunk laws
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