How Victoria plans to decriminalise public drunkenness

Thirty-two and a half years after a Royal Commission recommended it, Victoria will finally decriminalise public drunkenness from early November.

Public drunkenness will finally be decriminalised in Victoria in early November, to be replaced with a “health-based service response”.

Tender documents released last week reveal how this health-based response will work in practice.

There will be three services operating by November: a dedicated Aboriginal Service response operating in metro Melbourne and across 10 regional locations, a general service response in metro Melbourne and centralised services to coordinate these functions. 

After going to the market for the general service response earlier this year, the state government has now issued a tender for a company to provide the centralised services, which will consist of phone triage and dispatch function to respond to intoxicated people in public.

This service will provide immediate, short-term support for people to recover from being intoxicated, including in-place support and assistance, transport, monitoring, short-term care and follow-up and referrals.

Operators of this call centre will determine the most appropriate service response for the intoxicated individual based on the information provided to them, and will then dispatch the appropriate service response.

This will be a 24-7 service with at least two people rostered on at all times. 

Notifications of someone being intoxicated in public will mostly come from first responders and other service providers. The phone line will be open to the public, but the Victorian government does not plan to actively promote the line to the general public.

The state government has estimated that the phone line will receive more than 6000 calls per year.

The Victorian government is also looking for a provider of outreach services in metro Melbourne to respond to intoxicated people in public. This will include assertive outreach, on-demand outreach, transport and the operation of a sobering centre, slated currently to be in Collingwood.

Individuals are expected to stay at this sobering centre for up to 12 hours, and there is not expected to be security at this site.

There is still the potential for police to be involved with individuals who are drunk in public, with the state government saying that “details of circumstances requiring an escalation to Victoria Police” being “subject to further consultation”.

During a mobilisation period before the 7 November date, the provider will be paid a maximum of $1.7 million, with maximum funding of $18 million available over the 32 month contract.

More than 30 years ago the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody found that public drunkenness laws were disproportionately impacting First Nations Australians, and called for them to be repealed. But the Victorian government did not move to follow this recommendation until the inquest into the death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day in 2017.