Latest news with #publicdrunkenness
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Six hundred lives lost since Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
Sitting by the crackling fire in rural Victoria, on Yorta Yorta Country, Apryl Day recalls how her mother was a loved grandmother and a woman with style who had a big impact on her community. WARNING: This article contains the names and images of First Nations people who have died. "She's a grandmother, she enjoys getting dolled up and wearing fur coats and heels, she likes the colour pink, she likes to cook for her family, you know, she loves to spend time with her grannies," she said. It's been more than seven years since Tanya Day was picked up from a train — she was drunk and fell asleep, but instead of being taken home, she was taken to a police cell. The coroner would later find that, despite rules requiring her to be physically checked every 30 minutes, she was not. She fell and hit her head, causing a massive brain bleed that was not noticed for another 3 hours. She died in hospital of a fatal brain injury. The tragic reality is that her death may have been avoided if moves to decriminalise public drunkenness, suggested decades earlier in relation to one of her own family members, had been actioned. "If someone had made a different decision, if someone acted with care, treating mum with dignity, she would still be here today, and those are the things that our people are often not afforded," the Yorta Yorta, Wemba Wemba and Barapa Barapa woman said. Tanya Day's uncle Harrison was among the 99 deaths in custody investigated as part of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Described as a "gentleman" and a "great horseman", he was sober when he was put in custody, but held over prior fines for public drunkenness that he hadn't paid. He had an epileptic fit and died. The commissioner looking into his case was scathing: "Although his custody was lawful, it resulted not from any real criminality on his part, but from an absurd system for punishing public drunkenness … "The law, as administered by police and courts in Echuca at the time, served to harass drunks, particularly Aboriginals, to no useful purpose and at considerable public expense." Apryl wasn't born when this finding was made but said the similarities were too "heartbreaking", given the royal commission was supposed to be a "turning point" to protect Blak lives. "Just knowing of his story and the links, the close links between him and mum is really heartbreaking to know that if the government had acted … that she would still be here today, is really difficult." It was this tragic reality that led to Victoria's public drunkenness laws being abolished in 2023. Despite the progress, Apryl is disappointed the Queensland government, which had been the last state to decriminalise public drunkenness last year, is looking at a proposal to reintroduce it. It's been over three decades since the royal commission report was handed down, and the number of First Nations people and children dying in custody has only increased. This is what we know about Aboriginal deaths in custody today and the solutions to address the crisis. A death in custody is when someone dies in jail, a youth detention centre or in police custody, which could include an attempted arrest, pursuit or raid. According to the Australian Institute of Criminology's live dashboard, 602 Indigenous people have died in custody since the royal commission concluded in 1991. This number could be even higher due to lags in real-time reporting, as states and territories all have different procedures before they notify AIC. Dunghutti man Paul Silva lost his uncle, David Dungay junior, who died at Sydney's Long Bay jail after being restrained in a prone position by corrections officers. A recording from CCTV captured his plea for help as he yelled "I can't breathe" 12 times. A coroner found the prone restraint was a contributing factor in his death from cardiac arrhythmia — but couldn't say to what extent — and that corrections officers ignored David's cries for help when they should have sought medical attention. But he declined to refer anyone for disciplinary proceedings or criminal investigation, finding their conduct was "limited by systemic inefficiencies in training". It left the Dungay family feeling no one had been held accountable for this death. Almost a decade on from that moment, his nephew said he felt "helpless" in fighting for justice but remained committed to the "voiceless". "It comes with a number of emotions: one being sadness, the other being anger at the system due to the fact that there's no accountability, and frustration that the ongoing deaths in custody are continuing." First Nations people make up nearly 20 per cent of the deaths in custody since 1991, despite making up less than 4 per cent of the Australian population. The last financial year recorded 34 deaths in custody, the highest record since the royal commission. Mr Silva believes "Aboriginal deaths are not just a tragic incident. You know they come out of a system rooted in racism, neglect and violence". Counting the number of Blak lives lost in prison or police custody was one of the commission's recommendations. "Until there's real justice and accountability, and community-led solutions, the system will continue to fail our people, and blood will forever remain on their hands," Paul Silva said. Apryl founded the Dhadjowa Foundation to help families like her own navigate the process after a death in custody, but said families needed much greater financial and emotional support than they currently received. "Going through the process of a coronial inquest and experience of death in custody really highlighted the gaps for Aboriginal families that are experiencing such trauma," she said. As a group of people dig up the soil to bury a 16-year-old boy, the wailing cries of the community rumble through the outback town of Roebourne, Western Australia. It's 1983, and they're burying John Peter Pat, who died after suffering several injuries during a fight with off-duty police in town. He was taken to the local police station, where the coroner found he was assaulted and placed in a cell in an "unconscious or semi-conscious state … and left there until he was found dead". Five police officers charged with manslaughter were later acquitted. The public outrage from his death and others in the early 1980s led to national media coverage and sparked the royal commission. The Hawke government announced the inquiry in 1987 because, as its final report said, "public explanations were too evasive to discount the possibility that foul play was a factor in many of them." It examined 99 cases of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who died in prison, police, and juvenile detention centres between 1980 and 1989. Their task: to understand how and why that person died. And if there was anything that should have been done in each case. It also looked into social, cultural and legal factors that could have had a bearing on their deaths. The royal commission made 339 recommendations to improve outcomes when Indigenous people interacted with the justice system. These included abolishing the offence of public drunkenness, ensuring Aboriginal Legal Services were notified immediately of any Aboriginal death in custody and requiring Police Services to apply the principle of arrest as the sanction of last resort. The commission found that First Nations people were dying at such a high rate because they were disproportionately represented in the system. "Aboriginal people die in custody at a rate relative to their proportion of the whole population, which is totally unacceptable and which would not be tolerated if it occurred in the non-Aboriginal community," the report said. "But this occurs not because Aboriginal people in custody are more likely to die than others in custody but because the Aboriginal population is grossly over-represented in custody." Looking at the 99 deaths, they found that "in every case their Aboriginality played a significant and, in most cases, dominant role in their being in custody and dying in custody". For the families left behind, they felt like the system was murdering their loved ones, and while the commission did not find that, it found "in many cases death was contributed to by system failures or absence of due care". Put simply, First Nations people continue to die in custody because they are over-represented in the prison system, and that over-representation has only worsened since 1991. Families and advocates have long said the answers to saving lives — and money — lie in the royal commission's recommendations, as well as coronial findings, with many disappointed that little has changed. Recently, NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage made more than 30 recommendations after finding the 2019 shooting death of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker was "avoidable" and the NT Police Force was "an organisation with hallmarks of institutional racism". The officer who shot Kumanjayi Walker, Zachary Rolfe, was acquitted of all charges related to the death in 2022 and has rejected the coroner's findings. Just as the coroner was due to hand down her findings, the Warlpiri community was thrust back into grief when another young man died after being detained in a supermarket. "It's a crisis, and Australians are turning their backs on us, and our kids have been taken and incarcerated and our whole families are breaking down because of it," Eddie Cubillo, the former NT anti-discrimination commissioner and now the director of the Mabo Centre, said. Apryl Day said the recommendation of arrest as a last resort had not been implemented when it came to Aboriginal people. "Arrest is still the first response, especially for our people: that's from being drunk, having a mental health episode, or just, like, existing in a public space," she said. "Where arrest is the default, there's always a risk of us not coming home, and that's a really sad reality for our families. "It does turn everyday moments into a life-or-death situation. And that's a really heavy burden to carry." To understand the current situation, we need to look back on history. The royal commission examined the impact of the Frontier Wars and government policies, such as the Protection Acts across states and territories, and the connections with the criminal justice system. As colonies were established, it was the role of the police to "implement the various legislation which governed the lives of many Aboriginal people". For years, that included relocating communities from their traditional lands so pastoralists could access waterholes for cattle, removing babies of "mixed descent", deciding whether Aboriginal people could access medical treatment, restricting access to food or "rations" and punishing people for what the government called a "criminal" offence. "Aboriginal people have a unique history of being ordered, controlled and monitored by the state. Examination of the lives of those who died documented through government files revealed a familiar pattern of state intervention into and control over their lives," the commission found. "Much of this intervention and control was exercised through the criminal justice system." Legislation plays a role in driving up incarceration rates today, including restrictive bail laws and moves to lower the age of criminal responsibility, particularly in jurisdictions taking a "tough-on-crime" approach. Australia's first formal truth-telling body, the Yoorrook Justice Commission, interrogated this in its report this year and found: "The over-representation of First Peoples' children in these systems is not about criminality, but systemic bias, including institutional racism and discriminatory policing." Commissioners heard evidence of the difference in policing between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, with First Nations Peoples less likely to get a caution from police and more likely to be arrested. In their final report, they stated the "harshest impacts fell on Aboriginal women, often incarcerated for repeat low-level, non-violent offences and once remanded, women risked losing homes, jobs, children and even their lives", as was the case for Aunty Veronica Nelson. Dr Eddie Cubillo said the answers lay in the recommendations "piling up" from coronial inquiries, Senate inquiries and royal commissions, including the NT's Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children, which he worked on. "There's a road map there that no one really has tried to implement," he said, adding that governments were more conscious of winning elections on a tough-on-crime platform. "As an Indigenous person, I have been pulled over and harassed, and anything can happen in those stages, and if you've got children, you just really worry what could happen," the Larrakia, Wadjigan and Arrernte man said. Now he is calling on the federal attorney-general to "step up" and hold the states and territories accountable for their Closing the Gap targets, particularly the worsening targets around justice. The peak body for legal services, NATSILS, has also called for the end of the practice of police investigating deaths in custody and misconduct complaints, and is calling for an independent body instead. Paul Silva and Apryl Day, who continue to advocate for families, agree. "I think most of the recommendations require systemic overhaul and that definitely threatens the power of the state, so they clearly just avoid it," Apryl said. "If we're going to talk about implementing recommendations, we need to do that immediately. We need to do that with proper investment. We need to do that with the proper community engagement and involvement." In the family's final submission to the coroner, her children chose to leave the last word to their mother, using her voice to send a clear message about her life and the systemic issues they blamed for her death. "I need you to see, and to acknowledge, that my death was caused by the same system that killed my uncle, Harrison Day, the same system that dispossessed and killed so many of my ancestors and so many other Aboriginal people; that fractured our communities and culture, and caused deep intergenerational trauma," it reads.
ABC News
5 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Townsville businesses speak on public drunkenness as Queensland government looks to re-criminalise it
The Queensland government has flagged re-criminalising public drunkenness in a bid to curb what it says is a surge in antisocial behaviour, less than a year after it was decriminalised. Queensland became the final state in Australia to decriminalise public drunkenness, more than 30 years after it was first recommended by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Premier David Crisafulli this week held a forum in the largest city in north Queensland — Townsville — a city he once described as crime ground-zero to listen to community concerns. A walk down Townsville's main street paints a nuanced picture, with views mixed among business operators and community leaders on how best to make the CBD safer and more attractive to visitors. It's a quiet weekday afternoon when foot traffic should be busy. Shop owner Lucy Downes said she now worked seven days a week because it was harder to find staff wanting to work in the CBD. "It is not a family-friendly environment when you have people brawling and yelling," Ms Downes said. "Especially when there's substance abuse involved. That can be intimidating and scary for staff to witness." Ms Downes backed the state government's move to possibly re-criminalise public drunkenness, but said harsh punishment was not the solution to substance abuse. "It is a very complicated problem … it's good to look towards the bigger picture," she said. When public drunkenness was decriminalised last year, it brought Queensland into line with every other state and territory. The legislative change allowed for an intoxicated person to be taken to a place of safety. But, walking into a meeting with community and business leaders, Mr Crisafulli said it was a retrograde step. "We certainly won't be ruling [re-criminalising] out." Queensland Police statistics show that while the total number of crimes in Townsville has risen steadily over the past 10 years, good order offences, including public nuisance offences, have dropped. Business owners stressed the CBD was still a good place to visit and that police had been working hard recently to keep order. Pauline Jackson said she felt safe at the newsagency she had run on Townsville's Flinders Street for 18 years. Ms Jackson said criminalising public drunkenness would discourage people from poor behaviour. She said more consistent policing was needed. "As soon as you drop it off, antisocial behaviour comes back," she said. "It does keep people away." Marg Cox is often greeted by the smell of urine on her morning walk to her job as the operator of a sandwich shop on Flinders Street. Ms Cox said practical solutions were the best approach. "They need more public toilets in the city; the closest toilet is over the bridge, not in the area," Ms Cox said. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service principal legal officer Greg Shadbolt warned any move to bring back public intoxication laws would target the state's most marginalised people. The service said 2020–2021 statistics demonstrated Queensland Police were 11 times more likely to pursue public order offences against Indigenous people compared to the rest of the population. "If the park is your home and you're not doing anything wrong, other than just drinking, you could potentially be arrested," he said. "If anyone does make a nuisance of themselves in the public arena, police can still arrest them for a whole plethora of charges." Birrigubba elder and academic Gracelyn Smallwood said outlawing public drunkenness would be a backward step, risking more Aboriginal deaths in custody. "I think it's absolutely ridiculous," Professor Smallwood said. Professor Smallwood said alcohol abuse should never be dealt with by locking people up. "All the organisations, Indigenous and non-Indigenous that are receiving money for drunkenness and homelessness should all be collaborating," she said. Additional consultation sessions are being planned for Townsville, Maryborough, Cairns and Mackay.
ABC News
24-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Queensland public drunkenness law reversal will bring racial profiling, elders warn
A proposal to make public drunkenness illegal in Queensland would lead to police racially profiling Indigenous people, elders warn. It comes after Queensland Police Minister Dan Purdie flagged the state government was considering making public drunkenness illegal again, less than a year after decriminalising it. Mr Purdie said the former Labor government's decision to remove public drunkenness as an offence made it hard for police to do their jobs properly. "The Crisafulli government is listening to communities who are alarmed that Labor's watering down of the laws has led to more anti-social behaviour and crime on our streets," Mr Purdie said. "Our government is working with the Queensland Police Service to ensure they have the laws and resources they need to keep people safe." At a snap community meeting in Musgrave Park, Brisbane, elders warned the reversal would create "open season" for police to target Aboriginal communities. Brisbane Murri Action Group organiser Adrian Burragubba said such laws had historically given police the discretion to arrest people they deemed were behaving drunkenly. He claimed these discretionary powers had disproportionately been used on homeless and Aboriginal communities. Mr Burragubba said these laws had previously not been applied equally in party destinations such as Fortitude Valley and Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. "These laws will criminalise our people again and our human rights will be denied, as the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody found over 30 years ago." In 1991, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommended decriminalising public drunkenness, but Queensland was the last state to do so in late 2024. Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said this reversal would take civil rights back 34 years. Mr Cope said Queensland police could already detain drunk people if they were violent, threatening, or a risk to their safety or the safety of someone else. "Alcoholism and alcohol abuse should be dealt with via health and social support systems, rather than in the criminal justice system," Mr Cope said. Marjorie Nuggins told the meeting she feared the proposed laws would be used to target homeless people in public spaces. Ms Nuggins said this would address the symptoms, but not the cause of alcoholism in Aboriginal communities. "I believe the Indigenous custodial people of this land need to make a stand now," she said. "There're so many injustices going on around this place. "It needs to stop and we need to come together in unity and love."
SBS Australia
24-06-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
Outrage as Queensland considers recriminalising public drunkenness, sparking fears for First Nations people
Indigenous leaders and community advocates have condemned a proposal by the Queensland Government to reintroduce laws making public drunkenness a criminal offence, warning the move would disproportionately harm First Nations people and roll back decades of progress. Just last year, Queensland became the final Australian state to decriminalise public intoxication , more than 30 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommended the practice be abolished nationwide. Now, the state's Liberal National Party government – citing public concerns around safety and crime – says it is considering re-criminalisation, sparking alarm across First Nations communities. More than 50 people gathered at a community forum in Brisbane on Friday last week, seeking clarity and information about the proposed changes. Organised by Brisbane Murri Action Group (BMAG), the event aimed to equip the community with facts, facilitate discussion, and amplify voices being sidelined from the political debate. Many at the forum expressed frustration and fear that the government's shift in stance ignores the evidence and the historical injustices faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the justice system. BMAG spokesperson Adrian Burragubba said the move would be a step backwards. 'The reintroduction of public drunkenness laws will stereotype and target First Nation people," he said. "This is another notch in the belt of the Crisafulli Government after they rolled back the Truth and Treaty Commission and suspended the Human Rights Act to incarcerate our youth. 'These laws will criminalise our people again and our human rights will be denied. "As the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody said 30 years ago, public drunkenness laws are an actual threat to our lives." First Nations advocates say the proposed reforms would be a regressive step, which risks repeating the very mistakes that the Royal Commission sought to address. The 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made 339 recommendations — one of the most urgent being the removal of criminal penalties for public intoxication. Its findings highlighted how over-policing of Aboriginal people for minor offences frequently led to unnecessary and avoidable deaths in custody. Queensland's 2023 reforms were widely welcomed by health professionals, legal experts and Indigenous organisations, who had long argued that decriminalisation would help reduce incarceration rates and improve safety outcomes for vulnerable people. But Premier David Crisafulli's government has now indicated it may reverse course. In a statement provided to NITV, a spokesperson said: 'Our government is working with the Queensland Police Service to ensure they have the laws and resources they need to keep people safe.' While the government hasn't confirmed a timeline for potential legislation, its stance has alarmed many – particularly in light of a national reckoning around systemic racism, policing, and the ongoing failures to meet Closing the Gap justice targets. Those in attendance at the Brisbane forum stressed the importance of meaningful consultation and self-determination in any reform process, which they say is currently lacking. Speakers urged the government to consider community-led alternatives such as sobering-up shelters, expanded health outreach, and Aboriginal-controlled services that prioritise care over punishment. Mr Burragubba called on Premier David Crisafulli to meet with Elders and First Nations leaders. 'Intoxication alone should not be a crime, and we should not lose our rights for other people because of their fears," he said. "Their problem is we are seen as a burden and inconvenience on the public – but go to any major entertainment centre on a Friday evening and see the double standards in policing public drunkenness. "The government can't just stereotype and discriminate against certain groups, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people." Legal experts also warned that a return to criminalisation would likely result in a spike in Indigenous incarceration – a trend at odds with the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, which commits all governments to reducing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prison. Advocates are calling on the government to halt any proposed changes until comprehensive consultation with First Nations communities takes place. They say evidence must guide decision-making, not knee-jerk reactions to media narratives or political pressure. "We are most at risk from this policy," Mr Burragubba said. "We are way over-represented in the statistics, and we know where this leads. "We don't want that escalation and have our community being locked up for having a few drinks in public, with all the risk to our lives and the damage to our community that it entails.'
SBS Australia
16-06-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
Queensland considering making public drunkenness a crime
Less than a year after laws decriminalising public drunkenness came into effect, the Queensland Government is considering making it a crime again - despite an outcry from First Nations, legal and human rights advocates. In September last year Queensland became the last state to decriminalise being drunk in public , more than 30 years after the move was recommended by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. On Wednesday Liberal National Party Police Minister Dan Purdie, a former officer, said the Government was looking at introducing laws making public drunkenness and public urination offences again, saying their removal had "hamstrung police". But First Nations and human rights advocates say it's yet another move in the wrong direction for the Queensland Government, which has introduced a raft of 'tough on crime' measures since David Crisafulli's LNP swept to power in October last year. Greg Shadbolt, principal legal officer of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal service for Queensland, told NITV that there was "absolutely no basis in logic" to reintroduce laws criminalising public drunkenness. "If someone's intoxicated and does something untoward like turns up and kicks a rubbish bin, they can still be arrested, so it simply doesn't stand up to any form of scrutiny," he said. "There's no reason why being intoxicated without actually doing anything untoward of itself should be an offence." The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, said the proposal was a deeply irresponsible move and an attack on Aboriginal lives. Spokesperson Tabitha Lean, a Gunditjmara woman, said the National Network rejects the idea that the only way to respond to public drunkenness and public urination is through police and punishment. "Public health issues require public health responses, not criminal charges," she said. "This latest move shows once again that the lives and safety of Aboriginal people are expendable in the LNP's political playbook." Public drunkenness laws have long been used as a tool of racialised policing and criminalisation, disproportionately targeting Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people, Debbie Kilroy said, pointing out that was the reason the royal commission recommended scrapping them. NSW decriminalised public intoxication in 1979. 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. "This is not about safety, it's about punishment, surveillance, and scapegoating," Ms Kilroy said. "We cannot forget the death of Yorta Yorta woman Aunty Tanya Day, who died in custody in 2017 after being arrested under public drunkenness laws, while asleep on a train (in Victoria). "Her death was entirely preventable – she should have been cared for, not criminalised. "Her family, like many others, have been tireless in their fight to abolish public drunkenness laws and demand dignity and care instead of police violence." Victoria decriminalised public drunkenness in November 2023, thanks to advocacy by Tanya Day's family and other members of the Aboriginal community. Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall told Guardian Australia that a move to re-introduce the laws would "represent another blow in a continuing assault on the rights of First Nations people in Queensland'. 'Police do not lack the powers to respond in the interests of community safety," he said. "The solution to these behaviours is a much greater investment in health and prevention. 'To reintroduce a public drunkenness offence would signal that the Queensland government has no interest in Closing the Gap or reducing deaths in custody.' On Tuesday LNP Townsville MP Adam Baillie told Parliament that public intoxication wasn't a new problem. "Under Labor public drunkenness and public urination laws were revoked, paving the way for the antisocial behaviour that has been plaguing our great city for years," he said. "It is only getting worse." Ms Kilroy called on the Queensland Government to implement the royal commission recommendations, including keeping public drunkenness decriminalised. "This is not just a policy decision, it is part of a broader 'law and order' blitz by the LNP, who continue to rely on carceral responses and fearmongering in the absence of any meaningful vision for the state," she said. "Rather than investing in housing, health care, or community-led responses to harm, the LNP are doubling down on the same racist, harmful strategies that have already cost too many lives."
