Former Qld police commissioner Ian Stewart hits back at CCC

Ian Stewart has hit back at criticism of a gender equity recruitment drive initiated while he was police commissioner, saying the basis of a CCC investigation has been challenged.

Former Police Commissioner Ian Stewart has hit back at a scathing report by the Crime and Corruption Commission that criticised a gender equity recruitment initiative as being “unlawful discrimination”.

Mr Stewart, who stepped down as Commissioner in 2019, has called for an “immediate inquiry” by the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee.

The CCC report, released this week, found a push to recruit at least 50 per cent female police officers between 2016 and 2018 discriminated against men and let some women through who ordinarily would not have met entry requirements.

Three people have been suspended and a fourth resigned after the CCC investigation found evidence of “misleading, deceptive and false reporting practises” that occurred when questions were asked about how quotas were being met.

Former police commissioner Ian Stewart says the CCC is mistaken in its report of sex discrimination. Picture: Liam Kidston

The CCC found that standards were dropped for women while men got through only if they “exceeded artificially high cut-off scores”.

The report said 2000 men were discriminated against by going through a recruitment process that wrongly favoured women candidates – and 200 men would have secured positions had the system been fair.

Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall said the Queensland Police Service had engaged in an equitable hiring process, not “discrimination under the law”.

He told The Australian that the Queensland Police Service’s failure to apply for an exemption to Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Act did not mean the initiative was unlawful.

“The suggestion by the chairman of the CCC that the failure to apply for an exemption amounted to unlawful discrimination would therefore appear to be incorrect,” he said.

In a statement released to The Courier-Mail, Mr Stewart said he was “disappointed that the fundamental premise of the (CCC investigation) … has been challenged as being erroneous by the independent QHR Commissioner”.

Current Police Commissioner Katerina Carroll. Picture: Lachie Millard

“I am hopeful that this revelation will result in an immediate inquiry by the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee into how the systems of our pre-eminent oversight agency may have made such a mistake,” he said.

“The damage to credibility of the entire Qld Police Service and to the reputations of some individuals has been significant, as a result of this report. I trust accountable individuals will address this issue as a matter of priority.

“I continue to strongly believe that the community supports and wants a more diverse and inclusive model of policing. Government policies and the law in Queensland properly considered, supports this vision.”

A CCC spokesperson said they accepted discrimination was lawful under certain circumstances but that their investigation – named Investigation Arista, had shown “nothing was ever the subject of analysis at the QPS as to whether that was their legal position or otherwise”.

The spokesperson said that despite the QPS being aware of legal advice obtained by Queensland Fire and Emergency Services on the same issue, “there was no evidence … that the QPS made any attempt to obtain any legal advice or otherwise to explore the lawfulness of their proposed course.

“That is the context in which the comments were made (by CCC chairperson Alan MacSporran).

“It is important to note, the recruitment practices of the QPS criticised by the CCC were not applied consistently in the same way to all recruits.

“Different approaches to different recruits at different stages of recruitment during the period in question demonstrates the QPS did not have an overarching consistent policy to achieve gender equity or to consciously meet the requirements of section 105 (of the Anti-Discrimination Act).”

Section 105 of the Act says someone can discriminate for the purposes of promoting equal opportunity.

“It is not the CCC’s role to determine if section 105 applied to the actions of the QPS referred to in the Arista report, or whether the QPS should have applied for an exemption … That was a matter for the QPS, and the evidence gathered during Investigation Arista indicated they never considered it.

“The CCC is entirely supportive of properly considered and evidence-based policies which have as their objective achieving gender equity in the workplace, and the Arista report should not be construed as any deterrent in striving to achieve this outcome.”