Labor and the LNP have helped to pad the police union’s platform. Who benefits?

Announcing a major overhaul of Queensland’s police discipline system in 2019, Minister Mark Ryan was clear about the driving force behind it: long-term union boss Ian Leavers.

Despite being billed and widely accepted as a necessary step forward in handling police complaints, in line with the legacy of the Fitzgerald inquiry, some, including civil libertarians, had questions about the changes.

The system replaced a more punitive one. And, yet, it came to be labelled “broken” and was a major focus of last year’s inquiry into police responses to domestic violence. Leavers, for his part, described it as “maladministered”.

Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers, vice-president Shane Prior, and opposition police spokesperson Dale Last at the union’s annual conference in May, pictured in the winter 2023 edition of the Queensland Police Union Journal.

It’s a series of events reflective of a broader pattern: a Palaszczuk Labor government keen to lean on and amplify the platform of Leavers, a union figure with a willingness to shape the law-and-order debate in Queensland, only to have it turned against them.

Who that serves is an open question after last week. Going into an election year, both Labor and the LNP opposition will choose their running mates carefully, even while stoking the political fires of concern over rates of crime.

Leavers’ implied power is in speaking for some 12,500 members, or 99 per cent of those eligible for membership. But criticism of the “outward racist ideology” he expressed in an article for The Courier-Mail made clear he doesn’t represent all views in the force.

A significant group of First Nations figures, community service organisations, Labor and legal figures were scathing of the wrecking ball Leavers sought to push further through the state’s previously bipartisan treaty pathway.

Both the Queensland Police Service and state’s peak union body also sought to distance themselves from the inflammatory comments.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk did too. But, unlike cabinet colleague Mark Bailey, she made a point of seeing eye to eye with Leavers on other things such as police resourcing – an issue on which Labor is keen to be seen alongside him at press conferences or in press releases. (Nine times this year, my inbox shows).

The LNP, which had first swing of the treaty wrecking ball, was almost silent except to use it to launch a political attack and later label the debate as the same “division” they opened the floodgates for - while trying to claim otherwise.

Earlier in the year, Palaszczuk’s government caved in to calls long ventilated by the union and LNP opposition to make breach of bail an offence, despite warnings it would ultimately make the community less safe.

The union, through its figurehead at least, has also called for more radical measures such as docking the welfare payments of young offenders’ caregivers, or sentencing the most serious as adults. These defy evidence and expert advice.

A ban on the police use of chokeholds, to bring Queensland into line with other states and territories, was successfully opposed by the union.

Leavers also initially opposed the commission of inquiry into police responses to domestic violence, labelling the retired judge behind the report that recommended it “woke” and “pandering”.

He is also pushing back against a new civilian-led police oversight body that inquiry then called for.

With less than a year until the next state election, the efforts of the union and its leader – the views of which often veer even further right than the state LNP – are about to enter even sharper focus.

The police union is one of several not formally affiliated with Labor (including the media section of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance – the journalists union of which, for full disclosure, I’m a member). Nor is it formally aligned with the LNP.

This position and its almost direct line to community fears about crime – regardless of the broader statistics – enables it to play the major political parties off each other like few other unions can, ostensibly for the benefit of members. In the United States, this influence has faced increasing scrutiny.

In its most recent official publication, the union put both major parties on notice about their chance to present policies to members at its annual conference next May.

The note came as a preamble to what was labelled the “Opposition Report”, in which leader David Crisafulli and police spokesperson Dale Last “gave a presentation to the delegates regarding their perception of how the QPS and government are performing” at this year’s event.

Ryan, in a statement, says he was invited to attend a conference dinner function where he made some “brief, informal, off-the-cuff remarks”. These were also briefly written up in the union journal.

The union declined to give a response to multiple questions about this and other matters in the past days.

Leavers has held his role advocating for members on industrial and social issues since 2009. He is also president of the national collection of similar various state and territory groups: the Police Federation of Australia.

A profile on that website lauds him for bringing a new “proactive” era to his state duties, which he’s said to have redefined along with “the role and involvement of police in public debate, discussion and discourse”.

There is no questioning this. Whether it’s a good outcome is another thing.

Sean Parnell sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week. Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor.