Queensland’s police union boss admits there’s some “abhorrent” misogynistic and sexist behaviour within the force, but it only exists “in small pockets”.
An inquiry into police responses to domestic violence has heard evidence this week that female police officers have been sexually assaulted, harassed, threatened and bullied.
It also heard that police officers have voiced misogynistic and racist views, and there’s a pervasive fear within the force about speaking out.
Queensland Police Union of Employees president Ian Leavers says “there is some abhorrent behavior” but it only happens in “small pockets”.
He says most police officers call out bad behaviour by their colleagues.
“What I do say is 98 per cent of the people that I represent are doing the right thing, each and every day,” Mr Leavers told the inquiry on Friday.
“I do think it needs to be called out, it needs to be addressed, but we need to dive deeper as to why it is occurring, and what can be done as we move into the future.”
Mr Leavers also revealed that a female officer who was “very close” to him had been subjected to abusive behaviour by a colleague.
His voice wavered as he spoke about finding out what the male perpetrator said and did.
“At that time I wanted to throttle that person,” Mr Leavers said.
“I’m a law-abiding person, I haven’t done that, but it deeply affected me and others, so I’m acutely aware of what takes place.
“But I can say the majority of police are doing the right thing, but those people, that behavior, is not acceptable.”
Counsel assisting Ruth O’Gorman asked him about his comments about former Court of Appeal president Margaret McMurdo’s landmark domestic violence report, which called for the inquiry.
In December, Mr Leavers called it as “another woke, out-of-touch report” in a radio interview.
He defended his comments as being made in frustration at another potential inquiry when numerous past probes hadn’t led to changes to the system that helped police reduce domestic violence rates.
Judge Deborah Richards asked Mr Leavers if he accepted such language potentially “reinforces views within the police service that are unhelpful”.
“I can accept some of that, but I ask you to accept my frustration because I want to fix the broken system,” he said.
“And my intention was never to denigrate women or any other person, that is not … I want to fix a broken system which I hope does get fixed.”
The inquiry continues.
© AAP 2022
