The Queensland police service has sacked a formal advisory group of First Nations community leaders and elders, six weeks after they refused to sign a gag clause that they say could have silenced ongoing criticism.

Members of the QPS First Nations Advisory group have publicly and privately raised concerns that the police leadership had stalled on cultural reform promised in the aftermath of a 2022 inquiry.

The group led calls for the resignation of the police union president, Ian Leavers, over a widely criticised October opinion piece on the state’s proposed path to treaty that they condemned as “racialised and divisive”, containing “factually inaccurate” comments, including that a state treaty would result in the justice system favouring First Nations people”.

In 2022 members of the group accused Steve Gollschewski – now the Queensland police commissioner – of becoming angry and aggressive during a meeting with them, pointing his finger at a senior elder and saying “you people” don’t run the organisation.

“We are concerned that the QPS will now actively seek to recruit a token advisory group who will be bound by an approved narrative handed to them.

Similar suggestions that the group was not representative – made by senior police during the inquiry in 2022 – were rejected at the time by members as a smokescreen for attempts to silence them.

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