It lit up parliament, the media and parts of the community, but Queensland’s police leadership team were far more subdued on union boss Ian Leavers’ inflammatory remarks about First Nations treaties and truth-telling until an open letter calling for his resignation emerged two days later.
In late October, Leavers tapped into the then-recent Voice to Parliament referendum rejection to rail against the state’s previously bipartisan treaty pathway with unfounded claims and misrepresented data.
Doubling down at a press conference in October, Leavers described criticism of his widely criticised opinion piece as “water off a duck’s back” because he was saying things people were “too frightened to”.Credit: Toby Crockford
A significant group of more than 30 figures labelled the views expressed by Leavers in the Courier-Mail opinion piece an “outward racist ideology” in an open letter on Friday, October 27.
Brisbane Times applied for internal correspondence among, to, or from members of the agency’s almost 30-strong executive leadership team about the comments, along with any talking points prepared for the commissioner or minister.
Documents released under right to information laws begin only in the afternoon the open letter was released.
These included an emailed “media coverage report on this issue” and draft talking points from the acting communications, culture and engagement division executive director to Superintendent Paul Hart – chief of staff in the Commissioner’s Office.
It was followed soon after by efforts to co-ordinate a media response to questions from Brisbane Times about the letter, and preparation of talking points for the acting commissioner headed to a sitting of community cabinet in Townsville on the Sunday.
The talking points strayed little from the responses given to media questions, distancing the agency and its commitment to “reframe the relationship” with First Nations communities from Leavers’ comments, “only if asked”.
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