Queensland follows other states in decriminalising public intoxication
More than 30 years after it was recommended in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Queensland will be the final state or territory to decriminalise public drunkenness in Australia.
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00:00It has been more than 30 years since it was a recommendation back in the Royal Commission
00:06to Aboriginal deaths in custody.
00:08And that recommendation back then was to specifically decriminalise public drunkenness and to place
00:14a statutory duty on police to use alternatives to taking people into custody, like to take
00:18them home or to a medical facility.
00:21And yeah, from the 2nd of September, Queensland will become the final state or territory to
00:26decriminalise public drunkenness.
00:28And they told me in a statement that the government's legislative reforms explicitly
00:31acknowledges that public drunkenness is a health issue.
00:34And they also said that this will allow for police to take intoxicated people to a place
00:39of safety, like their home, medical facility or a rehabilitation facility, which comes
00:44in line exactly what the recommendation said more than 30 years ago.
00:47How has this been received in the community?
00:49Yeah, well, it's been it's been positive.
00:51Greg Shadbolt, who is the principal legal officer at the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres
00:55Strait Islander Legal Service, said it finally allows for a health and welfare response,
01:01which is what the sector has been calling for, for more than 30 years.
01:04And others like Deborah Currie, who is a staunch advocate for women incarcerated, particularly
01:09Aboriginal women incarcerated.
01:11She welcomes the changes.
01:12Any reforming law is a positive thing, but she is concerned that this may see Aboriginal
01:16women particularly be charged with more harsher crimes.
01:21Why is this significant for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?
01:24Well, Greg Shadbolt told me that he hopes that this will see a reduction in Aboriginal
01:29people being incarcerated, being arrested, going through the judicial system, and then
01:35therefore less Aboriginal people dying in custody.
01:38A study back, a report rather, back in 2022 actually tabled some research and some evidence
01:43that showed a strong correlation between intoxication, therefore going into prison, and then higher
01:49chances of dying in custody.
01:51Brooke, I know you've done a lot of major reporting on the fact that First Nations women
01:54in particular are overrepresented in the justice system.
01:58Why is the problem getting worse?
02:00Well, firstly, yeah, Aboriginal women are overrepresented in the justice system.
02:04So Aboriginal men, First Nations people, have been for a very long time now.
02:09And First Nations women are actually the fastest growing group of people incarcerated in Australia,
02:14particularly in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.
02:18So across Australia, about four out of 10 women behind bars are Indigenous women, despite
02:24making up only two and a half percent of the adult female population.
02:27And in Queensland, rather, more than half of the people, women being held there are
02:32actually on remand, meaning they are yet to be sentenced or they're awaiting trial.
02:37And Thelma Schwartz, who is a lawyer in Queensland, believes that this comes down to policy change.
02:41And I spoke to her earlier last month, and this is what she had to say about that.
02:47If a woman is denied bail, she will be remanded into custody.
02:50So that means she goes into prison.
02:53But if she's pleading not guilty, she could be on remand for up to 12 months.
02:59Yeah.
03:00So as Thelma just said, women can be held there for 12 months waiting to have their
03:05case heard in court.
03:06And she also believes that this increase of women, particularly Aboriginal women, going
03:10into custody comes down to poverty, homelessness and an increasing dependency on drug and alcohol
03:16addiction, which are all driving factors.