Police gender recruitment bungle snubs 2000 male applicant in favour of women

Around 2000 men who applied to become Queensland police officers were discriminated against while women “progressed” even after failing physical or psychological requirements, a scathing investigation has found.

Around 2000 men who applied to become Queensland police officers were discriminated against while women “progressed” even after failing physical or psychological requirements, a scathing Crime and Corruption Commission investigation has found.

The dodgy practises were revealed with the release of a CCC investigative report into former Commissioner Ian Stewart’s hastily-implemented 50:50 gender recruitment push.

Three employees involved have been suspended by the Queensland Police Service and a fourth has left, with the CCC declaring it plans to take action in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The CCC found around 200 men would now be serving police officers had they not been discriminated against by a recruitment process that wrongly favoured women who - in some cases - had not even met the normal minimum standards.

The recruitment push began in 2015 when Mr Stewart announced he wanted to achieve “not less than 50 per cent” female recruits going forward.

“I understand that the proportion of female recruitment comparative to males is only 30 per cent compared to 70 per cent respectively,” he wrote in an email to a senior executive.

“I regard this as unacceptably low and … I would ask you to immediately put in place strategies to select not less than 50 per cent of females per intake.

“This should be implemented until reversed by me.”

Former Police Commissioner Ian Stewart

One “witness” would later tell the CCC anyone with “grade four maths” could see that turning a small number of female applicants into a 50 per cent recruit quota would need to involve discrimination.

The CCC report said the announcement was made without any “prior study, no business case or legal advice sought”.

The “target”, which Mr Stewart insisted was only an “aspiration” and never a directive, proved hugely problematic.

In 2016, it was proposed that any woman who met the “minimum” standards on physical and cognitive tests would be “offered appointment” - even if she had a “heightened” psychological risk.

The report said recruitment staff began expressing concerns that they were “short of suitable female applicants”, with only 163 women in the recruitment pool to fill 160 positions.

“We are running short of women,” one staff member said in an email, followed by “we are sooooooo screwed”.

In April 2016, a senior staffer approved making offers to female applicants who were yet to pass all the physical testing and for whom reference checks had not been done.

“In May 2016, (a senior staffer) directly contacted and pressured the assessing occupational psychologists in relation to 20 female applicants for whom … suitability had not been determined.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Police Commissioner Ian Stewart with the Queensland Disaster Management Committee. Pic Darren England.

Later, five women were reassessed and “progressed”, having not met psychological criteria, including two who had been previously deemed “high risk”.

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

Men who missed out were emailed “misleading” information, including that their results “DO NOT meet the current QPS operational recruitment requirements”, the report found.

When questions were asked about whether women were having to meet the same standards as men, the CCC found the recruitment section provided “misleading” information.

“We have not and will not drop the standards for entry into the QPS,” a Deputy Commissioner, acting on information from the recruitment section, wrote on an internal police discussion forum.

The Deputy was responding to a post written by a police officer who had expressed concern about discriminatory practises.

The post was later removed from the forum.

Alan MacSporran QC, CCC Chairperson Alan MacSporran QC said the investigation was a “lesson in organisational culture and corruption risks”. Photographer: Liam Kidston

“Mistakes were made and the senior executives could have done more,” the CCC report said.

“That such conduct was able to occur over such an extended period of time … raises concerns over the standard of leadership and management at a number of levels within the QPS during that time.”

Commissioner Katarina Carroll said two QPS employees and a Public Safety Business Agency employee had been suspended.

“The conduct alleged in this report is completely disappointing and can I reassure the public that this alleged behaviour does not meet the standards or expectation of our Queensland Police officers and dedicated staff,” she said.

She said that while the CCC report identified the conduct had ceased in 2018, she had asked for a review of current recruitment practises.

“The public as well as our own police officers rightly expect no favours or preferential treatment for any applicant,” she said.

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers said there was no room for quotas in the police service, saying it was a “stain” on the QPS.

“We are sick and tired of these woke, pandering, pondering exercises in relation to quotas,” he said.

“I believe we need to look at those (200) people and reassess them and if they are still fit and proper people, they should be given the opportunity to join the Queensland Police Service, because they were denied by a corrupt system.”

Mr Leavers said those involved in the process should be “dealt with harshly”.