Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Recently I was invited to the Queensland Police Union employees' conference by the president of the union, Ian Levers. As you would know, Mr Deputy President, I am the deputy chair of the Joint Committee on the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and also a member of the Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, and I was previously an employee of the Queensland Police Union in the capacity of an industrial officer. You would also know that I am the son of the father of a police officer who retired as a 3IC with the Queensland police force.

Police put their own lives on the line every day, and I for one, as a Queensland senator, hope that the Queensland government has done everything in its capacity to protect the honest hardworking men and women of the Queensland police force in regard to workplace health and safety leading up to the G20 meeting. That was the nature of the part of a conference I was privileged to attend, where I heard representatives from the Toronto Police Association raise training issues that confronted them back in 2012. Police were in effect receiving training online. I do not necessarily agree with the effectiveness of that type of delivery. The police confronted legislative issues concerning arrests and jurisdictions. They confronted logistics problems with radios with different broadbands. They also identified concerns over social media used by protestors that police did not have the resources to deal with.

Overall, what confronted me most about what the Toronto Police Association said—and certainly those police who had to deal with this issue—was the cultural shock for police who saw police cars being set on fire in their own capital city by these protestors. Some 97 officers were injured in the G20 protests in Toronto, and that led to 1,118 persons being arrested. On 26 June the riots and vandalism reached a hiatus when protestors dispersed to damage buildings and vehicles. The intent, naturally—and as interpreted by some media—was to distract the police from the security zone so that other protestors could break in. But police maintained their blockades, as they would. We know that that is their role and their duty. Vandals smashed the windows of various office buildings and stalls using hammers, flagpoles, umbrellas, chunks of pavement and mailboxes. Conflicts also erupted between purported anarchists and journalists who were recording property destruction. After a few hours, many Black Bloc demonstrators changed into civilian clothes and dissolved into the larger crowd as security forces began to increase in presence. Police later maintained that some protest organisers were complicit in providing cover for the vandals. As I indicated, 1,118 people were arrested in relation to the G20 summit protests—the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. While nearly 800 of them were released without charge, the remaining 231 remained with charges before the courts, and 58 had their charges withdrawn or stayed.

As a former industrial officer of the Queensland Police Union, I can reflect on the concerns that police would have. I would argue that I have police running through the veins of my body, having some background and history, with my father having been a police officer and having worked for that police union. I can reflect on one dispute that I lodged before the industrial commission while an industrial officer in which police raised concerns about being identified by having a name badge. Incidental to that were concerns about the way the badge was attached to their uniform with a pin. Some officers were injured as a result of some protests back in the mid-1990s when I was serving with the union as an industrial officer. So, they were legitimate concerns that police officers held then, and I believe that police officers hold legitimate concerns now leading up to the G20 meeting. I only make the point that I hope the Queensland government has done its homework, has considered the health and safety of those honest men and women who serve our state very well and make sure that they are protected from those sorts of incidents.