The family of Tanya Day welcome ‘a great first step’ and push for a ‘health and wellbeing based approach’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Victorian government has announced a plan to abolish the crime of public drunkenness four days ahead of an inquest into the death in custody of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day, who was arrested on the summary charge.

In its place will be a “health-based approach” that will “promote therapeutic and culturally safe pathways to assist alcohol-affected people in public places”, a government statement said.

The state attorney general, Jill Hennessy, made the announcement on Thursday night and said she would write to the Victorian coroner, Caitlin English, who is overseeing the three-week inquest into Day’s death, to advise her that the government had committed in principle to abolishing the crime.

English warned the government in December that she intended to recommend the law be abolished, and Day’s family has been advocating for the change since her death in December 2017.

Death in custody prompts push to change Victoria's public drunkenness laws Read more

“Public drunkenness requires a public health response, not a criminal justice one, and now is the right time to take this important reform forward,” Hennessy said.

“The Andrews Labor government acknowledges the disproportionate impact the current laws have had on Aboriginal people and pay tribute to the community members who have advocated for this change.”

Day was arrested and charged with being drunk in public on 5 December 2017, after a V/Line officer called police when she fell asleep on a train from Echuca to Melbourne. She was taken to Castlemaine police station and placed in the cells to “sober up”, but hit her head and sustained a brain haemorrhage that led to her death in hospital on 22 December.

The inquest begins on Monday.

In a statement, Day’s family said that while they welcomed the news, it ought not have cost their mother’s life.

“In the end it took the death of our mother for the government to repeal laws that should have been abolished 30 years ago after the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody,” they said.

“The government’s commitment is a great first step, but they need to back their words with action and repeal the law quickly so that no other Aboriginal person dies in custody.”

Day’s daughter, Belinda Stevens, told Guardian Australia in an extended interview that she did not want to see the law repealed only to be replaced by another provision. She cited open container laws and aggressive protective custody provisions in other jurisdictions which mean that Aboriginal people were still effectively being arrested for public drunkenness.

A relevant case was the death of Day’s uncle, Harrison Day, who had a seizure in the cells of the Echuca police station in 1982 after being arrested for an unpaid fine for being drunk and disorderly.

Stevens urged the government to take a “health and wellbeing based approach”.

‘Police shouldn’t be investigating police’: family anger over death in custody inquest Read more

The health minister, Jenny Mikakos, said the new model would be about “support, not punishment”, and the Aboriginal affairs minister, Gavin Jennings, praised Day’s family.

“The courage and determination they have shown to prevent other families from experiencing their pain has been remarkable and truly inspiring,” he said.

An expert panel of the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation chief executive, Helen Kennedy, the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive, Nerita Waight, and the former Brotherhood of St Laurence executive director Tony Nicholson has been convened to consult with the Aboriginal community and other affected groups and draft an appropriate model.

The Human Rights Law Centre, which is representing the family at Monday’s inquest, said it was “terrific news”.

“If somebody is too drunk, they should be taken home, or to somewhere safe,” the centre’s legal director, Ruth Barson, said.

“We’re now looking to the coronial inquest for answers on how an Aboriginal woman went from safely sleeping on a train to dying in police custody, and who should be held responsible for this tragic death.”