Queensland’s minister for Indigenous partnerships has condemned the head of the state’s police union for peddling “false stereotypes” and “factually incorrect information” in an opinion piece about the state’s path to treaty.
Writing for the Courier-Mail on Wednesday, Queensland Police Union president, Ian Leavers, claimed, without evidence, that a state treaty would result in the justice system favouring First Nations people.
“All police I have spoken to are very worried that the inner-city latte sippers have grabbed control of the law and order agenda and now wish to further attack police and water down laws as they affect First Nations offenders through the Truth and Treaty Body,” he wrote.
Leavers seized on a recommendation from Victoria’s Yoorrook Justice Commission, the body charged with truth-telling in that state, that calls on the government to amend the law to “create a presumption in favour of bail for all offences with the exception of murder, terrorism and like offences”.
“They are effectively offering a free pass to every rapist, domestic violence abuser, habitual home invader and car thief who tells police they identify as Aboriginal,” Leavers wrote.
He falsely claimed that Brisbane’s name would be changed to Meanjin and that the treaty, “Queensland’s own version of the Voice 2.0”, has “a divisive agenda to further segregate our society”.
“The establishment of the rather euphemistically named Truth and Treaty Body will, as far as I can tell, remind us all on a daily basis how bad all Queenslanders should feel about the First Nations people of this state and that we are all probably racist,” he wrote.
Speaking in parliament, both the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and police minister, Mark Ryan, criticised Leavers’ comments, with the premier labelling them “divisive” and “very unhelpful”.
The minister for treaty, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships, Leeanne Enoch, said many police officers would be “appalled” by Leavers’ article.
“At a time when the Queensland Police Service is grappling with last year’s independent review that exposed serious evidence of racism, sexism and misogyny, the head of the Police Union should be focused on working with his members to fix these issues rather than positioning himself as the flag bearer for culture wars in Queensland,” Enoch, a Quandamooka woman from North Stradbroke Island, said.
“There are a lot of good people in the Police Service who would be appalled by the head of their union continuing to peddle false stereotypes using factually incorrect information which does not reflect the Queensland where we all live, work and raise our families.
“The last thing we need is divisive rhetoric that harks back to darker times in our state.”
The mayor of the Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire council, Wayne Butcher, said the comments were ignorant and ill-informed.
“It is absolutely ludicrous, ridiculous [to claim] the treaty would give an individual or group of bloody people, a particular race, a pathway to create more crimes, or break the rules,” he told Guardian Australia.
“These types of comments are … value adding to the cause of creating division.”
Change the Record director ‘appalled’
Maggie Munn, a Gunggari person and the national director at Change the Record, said they were “appalled and disgusted” by Leavers’ comments which “go to show the level of disdain … he has for First Nations communities”.
“I am deeply concerned that Queensland’s police force can be led by someone who can so easily equate First Nations communities and the fight for recognition and basic fundamental rights with talk of rape and murder,” they said.
“It comes as no surprise that members of Queensland’s police force have gotten away with entrenched and systemic racism against our people.
“I wish we lived in a world where this kind of fear-mongering never got the light of day.”
In July, the Queensland Police Service embarked upon a diversity and inclusion review with the state’s human rights commission after an inquiry last year found a “failure of leadership” had allowed a culture of sexism, racism, fear and silence to take hold unchecked.
Leavers’ comments came after the state’s opposition leader, David Crisafulli, last week withdrew the LNP’s support for a treaty, as it would create “further division”.
Palaszczuk said on Monday her government is committed to reconciliation but reiterated that any treaties would require “bipartisan support”.
Queensland passed The Path to Treaty Act 2023 in May, with LNP support, establishing a legal framework for a three-year “truth-telling and healing inquiry” and a new independent body of Indigenous Queenslanders called the First Nations Treaty Institute.
The state’s truth-telling inquiry has been given the power to force the state’s police commissioner to give evidence about the institution’s dark colonial history.
First Nations people were targeted in the frontier wars in Queensland, including by a “native police” body that operated from 1849 until the 1920s. The unit included forcefully recruited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men, who were ordered by white officers to kill and move many Indigenous people off the land to enable European colonisation.
Queensland human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall, said earlier this year it was “fundamentally important” for the Queensland police to appear at the inquiry.
“The ignorance within the broader Queensland community about what actually occurred in Queensland in the 1800s lies at the root of so many problems that we see played out day to day on the streets,” he said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for QPS said it was “committed to reconciliation” and “involved in path to treaty”.
“The QPS is working to build cultural capability and strengthen relationships with Queensland’s First Nations communities,” they said.
They noted the creation of a new executive director position to lead a standalone QPS First Nations Unit.
The LNP opposition did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia about whether they condemned Leavers’ comments.
A spokesperson for the LNP said in a statement: “The conversation that we’ve seen today is exactly what the opposition was concerned about and reinforces the view that the state will only be further divided by this debate.”
The Victorian government is yet to respond to Yoorrook’s interim report, but ruled out introducing a presumption in favour of bail for adults when it made changes to the state’s bail laws earlier this year. At the time, it delayed the introduction of a presumption of bail for children, with the attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, stating she did not want to start a debate “about a youth crime crisis that doesn’t exist”.
Symes on Wednesday said she had read Leavers’ article and described it as a “fear campaign, without any basis”.
“The result of the referendum has opened up people [to] feel as if they’ve got a free pass to make really misinformed comments,” she see it.
“What we have in Australia and what we recognise clearly here in Victoria, is that we have over-representation of Aboriginal people in the justice system, and that is an outcome that is unacceptable.
“To just draw this kind of black and white line that verges on racism is really unhelpful.”
Queensland police and the union have been contacted for comment.
