Leaked audio reveals cultural problems in Queensland police force, human rights commissioner says

Greens councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan says there is a need for ‘a widespread inquiry into abuse and exploitation of people held at any of the watch houses across Queensland’. Photograph: timstarkey/Getty Images

Queensland’s human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall, says “clear” and “pervasive” cultural problems are plaguing the state’s police force after leaked audio revealed violent and racist conversations by Queensland police staff.

Police service officers at the Brisbane city police watch house can be heard using racist slurs and offensive language while working in the holding cells, referring to Nigerians as “jigaboos”, and raising fears that Australia “will be fucking taken over” in a series of leaked tapes published by the Guardian Australia on Sunday.