Police stripped of power to arrest public drunks for good starting Melbourne Cup Day

Despite heavy backlash, Daniel Andrews has refused to budge on stripping officers of the power to arrest public drunks on one of the booziest days of the year: Melbourne Cup Day.

The Victorian government will officially abolish the charge of public drunkenness on Melbourne Cup Day. Photo: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

A move to abolish public drunkenness laws across Victoria on Melbourne Cup day has been slammed by police who warn it could threaten community safety.

Police will be stripped of the power to ­arrest drunks in public from November 7 – as Victorians gather for one of the booziest days of the year.

Police association boss Wayne Gatt said the Melbourne Cup was “traditionally an extremely busy day for our members”, while some within the force labelled the timing “insane”.

A new system led by health professionals will be put to the test and see intoxicated Victorians taken home or to “sobering-up” centres under new rules.

The new rules will come into effect on one of the booziest days of the year: Melbourne Cup Day. Picture: Jason Edwards

Despite backlash, Daniel Andrews is refusing to change the date that the offence of public drunkenness will be abolished.

The Premier shut down serious concerns raised by Victoria’s police union on Thursday, stating: “It doesn’t put pressure on police at all.”

“Police are many things. They’re not health workers, they’re not ambos, they’re not nurses,” he said.

Mr Andrews has refused to bring forward the date in a bid to avoid teething problems on Melbourne Cup day, or postpone it until after the Spring Racing carnival.

“We won’t be changing the date,” he said.

“We will instead be working to make sure that there is an alternative service model in place.

“There’s got to be an operative date.

“Locking people up, whatever day it is, because they’re drunk is not the answer. And it’s not a sign of success.

The Premier has refused to change the date, despite concerns from police. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Valeriu Campan

“People can have different views, that’s fine. These matters have been settled and now we’re focused on actually delivering this important reform.”

Mr Andrews said the reforms were critically important in the wake of the deaths of Indigenous women Veronica Nelson and Tanya Day.

Ms Day, who was arrested for being drunk in 2017, died in police custody.

“We got it wrong and we need to do better on issues like Veronica Nelson’s tragic death,” the Premier said.

Mr Andrews said Victoria’s parliament had agreed for the law to be implemented on November 7.

“We have made this reform and the parliament has changed the law of our state and we think that is a step forward,” he said.

“Will it be easy? No, of course, it’s a big shift but I think we’re all equal to that.

“When you think about what happened to Veronica Nelson and many other cases, this is a reform that is long overdue. We’ll make it well.”

Mr Andrews refused to say whether police would have the powers to take drunk people to sobering up centres.

Andrews said the move was a step forward but refused to give further details about the plan.

He said more announcements about how the new laws would work would be unveiled later this year.

“I’m confident between Victoria Police, our health services and other announcements that we’ll make between now and the end of the year, we will have a much better system in place,” he said.

“This notion that it’s some free for all is simply wrong. It’s a health led result and that’s a better thing to do.”

There are still provisions in the Act for police to take action against people who are deemed to be a risk to themselves or the broader public.

It comes as the Herald Sun can reveal Victoria Police has sought independent legal advice over the pending changes.

The decision to scrap the laws – which have been removed from every state other than Victoria and Queensland – was recommended by a panel set up by the government after the death of Ms Day in police custody in 2017.

And tender documents released this week for prospective service providers of a new health service to deal with public drunkenness 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.

Wayne Gatt has raised concerns about police acting as “secondary responders”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Sgt Gatt said he remained concerned police would continue to be expected to provide significant support when primary health workers were not available. If forced to act as “secondary responders”, he said police could be diverted from critical frontline duties.

Referencing the move to institute the new regime on Melbourne Cup day, he said: “What we don’t want on the first day this legislation is introduced is for our members to be fielding hundreds of extra calls and then have to find the resources to act as ‘secondary responders’ in lieu of there being no adequate first responders.

“It’s on the government to explain how this is going to work – and time is ticking.”

Sgt Gatt said it remained unclear how the government planned to roll out the much-anticipated reform without continued reliance on police.

The Melbourne Cup is one of the busiest days for authorities. Picture: Jason Edwards

“It couldn’t possibly. The scope of the tender clearly does not cover the whole of the state and the financial cost will be enormous,” he said.

“All this at a time when the government is purportedly struggling to balance its budget.”

Tender documents reveal the service provider will be responsible for responding to public drunkenness reports and providing immediate support, transport, monitoring and short-term care, follow-up and referrals.

As part of KPIs set for the new provider, it will only have to answer 80 per cent of calls within 15 minutes.

In 10 areas, extra outreach and “place of safety services” will be set up for Aboriginal people, while another service for the wider population will run across Melbourne.

Shadow attorney-general Michael O’Brien said: “Effectively Daniel Andrews wants police to do their job with one hand tied behind their backs.”