More than 30 community leaders – including a prominent former judge, lawyers, Indigenous elders, academics and others – have called on the president of the Queensland police union, Ian Leavers, to resign over an opinion piece they say expressed “outward racist ideology”.
A statement by the Queensland police service’s First Nations Advisory Group, co-signed by supporters, said they were “appalled” at Leavers’ “factually inaccurate” comments in the Courier Mail, including that a state treaty would result in the justice system favouring First Nations people.
The statement says Leavers’ comments have brought into question whether he is “a fit and proper person” to lead the union, which represents most of the state’s 17,000 police employees, and that his inaccurate comments have undermined the relationships between police and Indigenous communities.
Signatories to the advisory group’s statement calling for Leavers to resign include the former court of appeal president Margaret McMurdo, who heads the state’s Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce, and the heads of more than a dozen social services organisations.
“Today we … stand united in our dismissal of the outwardly racist ideology expressed by Ian Leavers,” the statement said.
“We stand with the thousands of Queensland police employees and members of the public who are appalled by the comments of the president of the police union.
“[Leavers’] statements are nothing short of reinforcing negative racial stereotypes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. These statements politicise the truth and treaty process as a means for spring boarding a personal campaign that is negligent and outwardly harmful to the wellbeing and interests of our First Nations peoples and communities, and to the reconciliation efforts of our nation.
“[Leavers’] factually inaccurate, inflammatory and fear mongering comments do not reflect who we are, and who we aspire to be as people in this state of Queensland.
“These racialised and divisive comments should be condemned in the strongest terms.”
The statement said Leavers’ comments were “gravely irresponsible” and pushed personal ideas that criminologists and researchers had said were not based in evidence.
Ross Homel, an emeritus professor at Griffith university and a signatory to the statement, told the ABC on Wednesday that Indigenous people were overrepresented in the criminal justice system.
“And he’s implying, I think, in this op-ed, that you can’t have a treaty with people like that, because they’re, you know, they’re all criminals,” Homel said.
“If that’s the implication, then I think that is blatantly racist and just unacceptable.”
The joint statement said Leavers “through his comments undermined the incredibly complex and challenging role of police to develop trusting and culturally safe relationships with communities and has harmed communities and the community confidence in the Queensland Police Service”.
“The Queensland Path to Treaty … is structured to bring Queensland on a shared journey of truth telling, understanding and healing.
“This a joint effort to shape a future we will all be proud of. Given the challenges we all face as communities in Queensland, what we need are leaders who are prepared to find solutions, to promote co-operation and truth telling and to devote their energy to building communities and not causing further harm.”
Leavers has been contacted for comment.
In his opinion piece, 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.
He cited 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.
While Yoorrook’s latest report did recommend a presumption in favour of bail for most offences, the recommendation applied to all offenders, regardless of if they are Indigenous.
It also recommended bail decision-makers explain what information they have considered to understand how a person’s Aboriginality is relevant, citing punitive changes to the state’s bail laws in 2013 and 2018, which led to a dramatic rise in the number of First Peoples on remand.
Leavers also 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.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Leavers stood by his article and said that the treaty process would “waste $400m” when the money could be spent “in communities to improve lives now”.
“That’s where I’m coming from,” he said.
McMurdo’s support for the statement is significant; she has the ear of the state government as the chair of its Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce, which set in motion last year’s commission of inquiry into the QPS. Leavers initially opposed the inquiry, calling a report by the taskforce “another woke, out of touch report by a retired judge that overreaches where it pertains to police”, before later saying the tragic case of Hannah Clarke had changed his mind.
