Less than half First Nations staff feel culturally safe at Queensland’s Indigenous affairs department

The number of First Nations staff who feel culturally safe working in Queensland’s Indigenous affairs department has plummeted by 25 percentage points in the space of a year, according to a leaked survey. Tabled in parliament on Thursday, the leaked survey of department staff shows just 42% of Aboriginal public servants responded to the question “as an Aboriginal person, I feel culturally safe at work” positively. According to the document, 26% were not sure, and 32% responded with “no”. It was one of two leaked documents tabled the state’s Labor opposition on Thursday, as it argued that there was a pattern of secrecy from the Liberal National party government. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email The survey of staff at the department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships was conducted between August and September this year, and revealed the proportion of those feeling culturally safe at work had dropped by 25 percentage points on the last year. The result was also 16 percentage points below the average result across the state government. The shadow minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships, Leeanne Enoch, said the numbers evidenced “a deliberate, systematic approach to minimising and diminishing First Nations voices right across the board”. “If you are the department responsible for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships, and … people in that department do not feel culturally safe, [then] there is something very, very wrong,” she said. Asked in question time about the survey findings, the minister, Fiona Simpson, said the government had adopted “practical approaches” in the portfolio, aiming to “restore services on the frontline”, as opposed to a “symbolic” approach under Labor. The leaked survey follows the accusation from prominent Indigenous barrister Joshua Creamer that the government was seeking to remove First Nations voices from the public service, which has been described as “project invisibility”. That includes the defunding a number of Aboriginal programs and strategies such as Murri Watch, a since-abandoned decision to contest all new native title claims, a refusal to name the state’s newest theatre after Indigenous poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal, and eliminating the state’s truth-telling and healing inquiry, its first act in government. Labor says ‘Queenslanders deserve some answers’ Labor has also accused the state government of gagging not-for-profits, by requiring residential care providers to sign a “confidentiality agreement” to bid for new contracts. According to a document tabled in parliament on Thursday, a provider is required to destroy any confidential information provided to it as part of a bidding process upon request. Confidential information is defined as “all information relating to the past, present or future operations or affairs of the discloser or any related body corporate of the discloser”. The shadow child safety minister, Shannon Fentiman, said it also prohibits residential care providers from taking legal action against the department. “We know that this government is very afraid of people taking action against them and speaking out against them,” she said. “And I think Queenslanders deserve some answers, as do residential care providers, about why they are being prohibited from taking [legal] action”. The child safety minister, Amanda Stoker, told parliament that the government had “done more to bring into the sunshine the reality of the difficult lives these young people have faced” than Labor had in its near decade in government. It came after the Guardian reported earlier this week that the government had slashed $3m from one of its primary critics on youth justice issues, the Youth Advocacy Centre. Parliament has spent this week debating a bill cracking down on youth crime – named “breach bail, go to jail” – under the government’s “adult time adult crime” policy. The legislation – which could see children receive a mandatory one-year sentence for breaching bail – is expected to pass on Thursday evening with Labor’s support.