Queensland police service apologises for ‘sickening’ racist comments in leaked audio recordings

The Queensland police officer in charge of the state’s watch houses has publicly apologised for the “sickening and disturbing” remarks by officers in leaked audio recordings published by Guardian Australia.

The recordings, published Sunday, include officers at the Brisbane city watch house joking about beating and burying black people, complaining “you’ve got to be embarrassed about being white” and raising fears that Australia “will be fucking taken over”.

On Monday deputy police commissioner Mark Wheeler said the “beliefs and remarks have no place in society, let alone a professional workplace where vulnerable people are held in custody”.

“I’ve spoken to the police commis

sioner this morning, she’s absolutely appalled of course,” Wheeler said in Townsville.

The state inquiry into police responses to domestic and family violence has heard significant evidence about racism, sexism and misogyny within the Queensland police service (QPS) and handed its final report to the state government on Monday. The inquiry was looking at the extent of “cultural issues” in the QPS.

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Police have previously characterised most instances of problematic behaviour as the actions of a minority, and denied the existence of widespread cultural issues.

Wheeler said the recording was concerning, but that “by and large our police do such a wonderful job day in day out [but] unfortunately you don’t always hear about the good stories”.

Speaking prior to reading the inquiry’s report on Monday, Queensland’s attorney general, Shannon Fentiman, told Guardian Australia there was “absolutely” a clear cultural issue within the QPS.

Fentiman said she did not want to pre-empt the inquiry’s findings, but said the recordings were evidence of cultural issues that must be addressed. She said doing so was a “top priority” of government.

“There is a huge, huge amount of work ahead of us following the commission of inquiry. It is why we established the commission of inquiry,” Fentiman said.

“But I do want Queenslanders to have confidence that justice Deborah Richards and the team have really considered in a lot of detail the issues and will make strong recommendations for reform. That’s why good governments have commissions of inquiry.”

Fentiman’s comments are the strongest public acknowledgment of cultural issues to date.

The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, told reporters on Monday the comments in the recordings were “horrific”.

The Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, in a letter to Fentiman about the recordings, raised concerns that recent “incidents of anti-Islam hate crime and white supremacists threats” at the Kuraby mosque, south of Brisbane, had been “downplayed” by the Queensland police service.

“Combined with these revelations [from the recordings], we submit there is sufficient evidence of systemic problems,” the letter said.

“It appears the internal controls are broken if a whistleblower has to go to this extent to get proper action.”

The network called for a separate inquiry into racism in the QPS, including appropriate protections for witnesses who come forward and measures to increase the diversity of the QPS, especially at leadership level.

“Persons from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds need to be elevated to leadership positions within the police.

“The police must publicly report on the proportion of diversity within its service … on an annual basis.”