Publicly released last week, A Call for Change is a report into the Queensland Police Service response to family and domestic violence carried out by an independent commission led by Queensland Judge Deborah Richards, which has caused quite a stir.

The report not only reveals that “misogyny, sexism and racism” are rife within the QPS, which is leading to issues with domestic incident policing, but in doing so, it further found that senior management foster a culture of fear and silence, which ultimately punishes those who speak out.

Despite the commission’s focus on independent oversight to clean up the QPS via the 78 recommendations it has made, premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has turned to Queensland deputy police commissioner Steve Gollschewski to act as the special coordinator for police reform.

And this has prompted former Queensland police sergeant Rick Flori to speak out about Gollschewski’s appointment, as the well-known QPS whistleblower warns that the deputy police commissioner is the embodiment of the culture that he’s been tasked with dismantling.

Shooting the messenger

Flori understands all too well the culture of silence operating within the QPS, which sees those who expose corrupt practices “shunned and punished”, as the report puts it. Indeed, it was Gollschewski who served Flori with a disciplinary notice after he reported sexual misconduct.

In 2010, the former Queensland police officer reported a number of incidents amounting to sexual misconduct to the...

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