This week’s report into Queensland Police Service responses to domestic and family violence could barely have been more damning of QPS leadership.
“Despite the initial protestations of the Commissioner of Police and the President of the Police Union of Employees, the Commission (headed by judge Deborah Richards) has found clear evidence of a culture where attitudes of misogyny, sexism and racism are allowed to be expressed, and at times acted upon, largely unchecked,” the report says.
“It is a failure of the leadership of the organisation that this situation has been allowed to continue over many years unchecked.”
Despite this, premier Annastacia Palaszczuk continues to back police commissioner Katarina Carroll.
“To bring about the reforms and cultural change needs a strong woman, and that strong woman is Katarina Carroll,” Palaszczuk told media.
“This is going to be confronting and it’s going to take every ounce of her strength to bring about this reform and I’m confident she is the right person to do it.”
The reality is Palaszczuk had little choice but to continue supporting Carrol, for both political and pragmatic reasons.
Making Queensland’s first-ever female police commissioner a scapegoat for the cultural problems uncovered by judge Richards would have been politically disastrous for a government long-committed to boosting the number of women in senior executive positions.
More pragmatically, who would replace her?
The Richards report makes it clear that many of the cultural problems within the QPS are long-standing and endemic, which suggests finding an untainted reformer from within the current ranks would be difficult.
The process of making an external appointment would presumably be time-consuming and slow down the reform timetable proposed by judge Richards and largely accepted by the Queensland government.
The report contains 78 recommendations, most of them with attached deadlines ranging from three to 18 months.
In addition, Carroll, who has been in the job for less than three years, says she and her team had already been working on cultural transformation.
“We have been looking at these issues over the last few years and we knew there were issues and we have not swept this under the carpet,” she told Seven’s Sunrise program on Tuesday.
“You will see a lot happen, a lot of transform and reform in the next few months and years.”
Talking to journalists early in the week, Palaszczuk said the problems of misogyny, racism and sexism identified in the report hadn’t just happened overnight.
“This has been happening for quite some time,” she said.
“I can’t think of a more appropriate person to lead the reform than a strong woman.”
Palaszczuk will have to hope her faith in commissioner Carrol is well-founded.
If Carroll can stick to Judge Richards’ proposed reform timetable, she’ll barely have a year-and-a-half to get things fixed.
The next Queensland election is scheduled for 26 October 2024, less than two years away.
And that means reform of the QPS — or lack of it — will more than likely be a hot election topic.
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More work to be done to deal with domestic and family violence in Queensland
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