Warning: this article contains the name of an Aboriginal person who has died.
Tanya Day, a Yorta Yorta mother and grandmother, was arrested for being drunk in public on a train in December 2017.
Seventeen days later she was dead, after sustaining a serious head injury when she fell while being held in a police cell.
More than 30 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommended decriminalising public drunkenness, on September 2 Queensland will become the final jurisdiction to implement the measure.
Karly Warner, chair of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS), told NITV that public intoxication laws have had a devastating impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations, including ATSILS in Queensland, have been advocating tirelessly for the abolition of these draconian laws since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommended this over 30 years ago,” she said.
“Decriminalisation has also been recommended in coronial inquests into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody.
“We hope to see this long overdue reform followed by more action from Queensland and other governments to close the gap in arrests and incarceration.”
NSW decriminalised public intoxication in 1979.
In October 2022, almost two years ago, also recommended the change.
A state parliamentary report looking at decriminalising offences affecting vulnerable people found a strong correlation between intoxication and higher risk a person will die in custody.
The Community Support and Services Committee recommended decriminalising public intoxication, begging and public urination, subject to appropriate community-based health and social welfare responses being in place.
The report found that First Nations people are still over-represented among those charged with these offences in Queensland, with Indigenous people being charged with these offences at almost 19 times the rate of the non-Indigenous population.
Sisters Inside chief executive Debbie Kilroy is worried that Queensland police will continue to target First Nations people. Source: NITV / NITV
Debbie Kilroy, chief executive of Sisters Inside, a not-for-profit that advocates for women and girls in prison, said while the legislative changes were well overdue, she still had concerns that Queensland police would target Indigenous people.
“Particularly Aboriginal women that are homeless on the streets, because they’re not provided with safe affordable housing, is that police will charge them with more serious offences,” she said.
“The police tell people to move on now … that fundamental issue is racialised gendered violence in policing and the targeting of Aboriginal people.
“They don’t target white drunk, privileged people that are hanging out in flash pubs or at the races; what we see is clearly racial targeting of Aboriginal people.”
On Friday, the Queensland government announced more reforms which they say will help to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system.
Attorney-General Yvette D’ath said the Better Justice Together: aims to improve the way the criminal justice system works for, and with, First Nations peoples.
Ms D’Ath said the strategy had been developed in partnership with Indigenous people and Queensland First Nations justice officer Stephen Tillett would oversee its implementation.
“Too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are in contact with our justice system and are disproportionately represented in our prison population,” she said.
Mr Tillett said the Better Justice Together Strategy 2024-2031 provides a pathway to shift the way the justice system works with First Nations people in Queensland.
“I want to thank everyone who shared their experiences, stories, ideas and insights in our community consultations,” he said.
“Your voices shaped the strategy and are at the heart of this approach.
“Creating this strategy is just the beginning and we look forward to working together with all Queenslanders, organisations, and government agencies to create meaningful change.”
