Allan Government’s drunk tank mess an ominous sign of things to come for Victoria

With major changes to bail laws and the age of criminal responsibility on the horizon, the public drunk tank mess does little to instill hope in the new state government.

Being drunk in public will no longer be a crime from next Tuesday, Melbourne Cup Day, with police stripped of their powers to arrest intoxicated people. Picture: supplied

There are ominous signs in the mess that is the government’s public drunkenness reform.

With other major justice changes on the horizon, including changes to bail laws and the age of criminal responsibility, the public drunk mess bodes poorly.

Being drunk in public will no longer be a crime from next Tuesday, Melbourne Cup Day, with police stripped of their powers to arrest public drunks.

Instead, a new system led by health professionals will be introduced in which intoxicated people will be taken home or to drunk tanks to sober up.

Problem is, the dedicated 20-bed facility being built to house the drunks isn’t ready. It could be physically ready in the next week, but will be sometime before it’s fit for purpose.

Compliance checks will need to be sorted, and furniture and soft fittings installed. It will then undergo inspections to make sure it suits the model of care being proposed, and staff will have orientation sessions.

In the meantime, a makeshift
six-bed site used for a trial period will continue to operate as metropolitan Melbourne’s single drunk tank.

An independent assessment of the trial still hasn’t been completed.

It was due in August.

The Allan Government’s sobering-up centre won’t be ready when public drunk laws are abolished in November. Picture: supplied

Nevertheless, the government will push on, and remove the existing police response before having a suitable health response in its place.

Legislation passed last year that requires the decriminalisation of public drunkenness from next week.

It could of course seek to amend or repeal that legislation when parliament sits this week in the interests of community safety.

Such a course would attract the support of the opposition, who support the legislative changes, but for months have lobbied to delay the implementation.

The warning signs were there as early as May when senior Department of Health officials conceded that progress on the legislative change had been delayed.

“We will be learning as we’re going,” department deputy secretary Katherine Whetton said at the time.

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.”

This week the police union and ambulance union have raised serious concerns about the looming changes.

Police and paramedics will be inordinately affected by the changes: if anyone should be listened to, it should be them. Yet the government is pushing on, confident the change won’t be a disaster. They say the change is about getting people help out on the road, then getting them home safely.

The drunk tank is merely a measure of last resort.

Politically, the government has its hands tied. If it moves to delay the reforms, it will draw the ire of local Indigenous and legal groups who have long advocated for change.

It will also be the second delay to the rollout of the program after it was pushed out from November last year.

At the time Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said: “This work is too important to not get right. We must make sure there’s time to test and develop the new model so it’s effective, safe and culturally appropriate.”

Public intoxication laws will be abolished on Melbourne Cup Day. Picture: Supplied

It’s been almost three years to the day since the government first announced these reforms.

In April, Victoria became the first state to commit to raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12, by the end of next year. It is a complex change that will require an almost total overhaul of how youth justice is managed in the state.

And if it goes to plan, it will be implemented in far less time than the government has had to get public drunkenness sorted.

Balancing the interests of community safety with the interests of young offenders will be key to striking the right chord with any legislative change.

Raising the age can’t be done responsibly without wholesale reform of the criminal justice system.

Wraparound supports need to be in place to address bad behaviour before it occurs, but also to address otherwise criminal behaviour as it arises.

The government has committed to this. It is significantly more complex than public drunkenness laws, which are relatively uncontroversial and have been tested for decades in other states.

In raising the age Victoria is going it alone, so will chart a course for the rest of the country.

There can be no room for error or pushing ahead despite systems and programs being both in place, and comprehensively tested.

The same goes with the mooted relaxing of Victoria’s bail laws.

Because cracks in the justice system can lead to deadly consequences. The rape and murder of Jill Meagher exposed flaws in the parole system. As did the tragic murder of schoolgirl Masa Vukotic.

The 2017 Bourke St tragedy exposed issues with our bail system.

Jacinta Allan has inherited a reformist government that since 2014 has boasted its progressive agenda. Continuing that work while protecting community safety will be a balancing act for the Premier.