Mentions of ‘gender’ scrubbed from Queensland Office for Women website amid alleged effort to ‘dewokify’

Fiona Simpson, the Queensland minister for women, says claims that she deems the word ‘gender’ to be ‘on the nose’ and ‘loaded’ are utterly false. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

References to “gender equality” have been removed from the Queensland Office for Women’s website amid claims by former staffers that the Liberal National party government wants to “dewokify” the public service.

Guardian Australia has seen an email from a manager, sent in January, tasking staff with scanning the website for the word “gender” so that it could be “reframed”.