Aboriginal organisations and legal experts are backing a government decision against giving police replacement powers when public drunkenness is decriminalised, drawing the ire of the police union.
Public drunkenness will be decriminalised in Victoria in November following a commitment from the Andrews government at the start of a 2019 coronial inquest into Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day's death.
Ms Day was arrested for being drunk in a public place in December 2017 and later died after she hit her head on a wall in a concrete cell at Castlemaine Police Station.
