In February 2024, the Queensland Police Service (QPS) formally dismissed the First Nations Advisory Group (FNAG) because they refused to sign a gag order. In a public statement FNAG said it … “would prevent us from speaking publicly about the work of the [group]” — unless approved by the QPS.
“This clause and others within the contract were both contrary to the approved Terms of Reference and the whole of government procedures for advisory boards ‘Remuneration procedures for Queensland bodies’”, the statement read.
“We are obliged to act with open transparency about the workings of the First Nations Advisory Group (FNAG) and we are obliged to advocate in the interests of justice for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.”
“The actions of the QPS have left us with little faith in the newly established First Nations division to be effective, or the senior leadership of the QPS to work in partnership with … our First Nations communities.”
The First Nations Advisory Group (FNAG) was established in November 2022 by the Labor government to work with QPS to improve “decision-making, systems, processes and policing practices” that affect the state’s Indigenous population.
Since then, there have been numerous conflicts between the FNAG and the Qld Police Service. The details can be found in various news articles, but basically come down to the indigenous peoples complaining they are headbutting a racists wall, and the Qld police complaining about having to do something ‘unrealistic’.
November 2023 saw indigenous police officers quit the Police Union on mass, due to comments made by the state’s Police Union president Ian Leavers.
It is worth noting that the FNAG suggest the QPS will now form a new indigenous advisory group who maybe much more ‘compliant’. It is also worth noting the Queensland Labor Party is backing away from getting involved in this dispute. It is also worth noting these events come on following the National referendum for a Federal Government “Voice to Parliament” in October 2023, in which Australians voted No.
The commentary for this No Vote go from plain old racism; its just a symbolic gesture; to a concern the Labor Party would stack the Voice to Parliament, or just ignore it – but making the “Voice to Parliament” part of the Constitution means it’d be impossible to remove or reform in the future it if it became dysfunctional.
So is this advisory group to the Qld police a genuine effort at reform? Well its been a genuine effort for reform on the part of our indigenous people. And the Labor government are now promoting their new progressive youth crime agenda before the coming election. This is despite Qld Labor passing legislation undoing existing human rights laws so they can lock up aboriginal children with adults in remand centres.
So what’s going on? The State has always been about protecting private property. It has always been the vehicle of violence to occupy land for colonial expansion of The Empire. The British have gone, but the mechanisms and institutions they created remain. There is a lot of coal in the ground, there is a lot of cattle, and sheep, and cotton, and wheat to grow and sell. The police exist to enforce property laws, and the will of The State. They have their routines and culture. This is in direct conflict with principles of indigenous sovereignty, direct democracy, and shared wealth.
The Labor Party exists to manage the State for the primary benefit of the bosses, the Capitalists. Parliamentary Democracy is a euphemism for Capitalist Democracy, in which the structure and mechanism of the State primarily exist to protect private ownership of wealth in a region. You’ve heard the term “manage the economy”. They are trying to balance the needs of various businesses from shopkeepers to multinational coal mines, with genuine democratic demands of the working class. They need to make propaganda, they need to throw out crumbs, they need to “manage situations” to maintain the Status Quo.
The Labor Party is a conservative party, that uses progressive marketing messages to win elections. This is why they set-up and promote these indigenous advisory groups, and this is why they make sure they don’t have any actual teeth. They can be trotted out when it looks good, they can be shuffled into the shadows when it doesn’t look good.
In a two party system, the Labor Party play the role of “The Good Cop”, while the National Liberal Party play the role of “The Bad Cop”. This is while they go to lunch together, and “borrow” policy ideas when not in front of the camera. And so the system roles on. Crime and homelessness is a feature, not a bug.
“There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.(IWW Preamble)”.