Former top Queensland cop Ian Stewart defiant on quotas

Former Queensland police commissioner Ian Stewart says policing must become ‘more diverse and inclusive’ after his push for women to make up half of all new recruits came under fire.

Former Queensland Police commissioner Ian Stewart.

Former Queensland police commissioner Ian Stewart says policing must become “more diverse and inclusive” after his push for women to make up half of all new recruits came under fire from the state’s corruption watchdog.

Mr Stewart is not backing down from his 50-50 gender ­equity target, which the Crime and Corruption Commission this week found had led to unlawful discrimination, with an estimated 200 “more meritorious” men missing out on being recruited.

He said a policing agency “should reflect the community it serves”, and that the women who were ultimately sworn-in had passed a rigorous six-month training program and were now serving their community to the highest standards.

“I continue to strongly believe that the community supports and wants a more diverse and inclusive model of policing,” Mr Stewart said in a statement provided to The Australian.

The Australian Federal Police is also standing by its own sworn-female workforce target of 30 per cent by 2028, announced last week. An AFP spokeswoman said it was an “aspirational target, not a quota”, as the agency tries to increase the number of sworn ­female officers from the current level of 22 per cent.

“Our aim is to ensure the AFP is more representative of the Australian community, however this will not occur at the expense of not adhering to our recruitment processes and standards,” the spokeswoman said. “We believe our 30 per cent target by 2028 is realistic and achievable.”

The CCC’s Investigation ­Arista report revealed that to meet its gender target the Queensland Police Service selected women who had previously failed psychological and physical assessments and standards.

A female inspector and two ­civilians have been suspended and a third civilian has left the police service over the implementation of the target, requested by Mr Stewart in a letter dated ­November 23, 2015. “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,” the letter states.

A lawyer for Mr Stewart last month sent the CCC a 10-page ­response to a draft of the report, refuting some of the findings and saying it contained “assumptions and innuendo” and failed to ­address 50-50 targets in other ­policing agencies.

The target was made in the context of a state government gender-equity push and amid reported incidents of workplace bullying, sexual harassment and negative female bias in the workplace, Mr Stewart’s response states. The target was implemented with the full support of the executive leadership team, comprising three deputy commissioners, 13 assistant commissioners, a senior legal division member, chief superintendents and representatives of women in policing, the letter adds.

It was reasonable for Mr Stewart to expect “necessary legal and other inquiries would have been undertaken” after he requested the target. Mr Stewart told the CCC he understood there would be discrimination against men to increase diversity and was comfortable with that as long as minimum standards were met.

CCC chairman Alan MacSporran this week said Queensland police had failed to apply for an exemption to engage in positive discrimination “so it was ­unlawful conduct”.

Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll scrapped the gender target when she was appointed in 2019.