Statement of Concern - Qld Rail policing on Invasion Day

On 26 January 2023, Action Ready fielded a team of legal observers to monitor policing at major transport hubs as thousands of people arrived to attend the Invasion Day march at Queens Gardens, and as people departed from Musgrave Park. Another group of about 120 people also marched to the Gabba stadium.

At Central Station from 8:30am to 9:30am before the rally and marches, we observed two Queensland Rail Authorised (QR) Officers patrolling the turnstiles and stopping those who weren’t able to proceed due to not having a ticket or a tapped on Go Card. When we asked the Officers why they were present on this day in particular, they cited crowd control and public safety.

Their attention appeared to be focussed on people likely attending the rally - those people wearing shirts with political slogans or who were more visibly Aboriginal. At one point, our legal observer witnessed officers waving through a caucasian-appearing family who didn’t have Go Cards. The officers were not observed to be checking for tickets in that instance.

Of particular concern were failures to exercise reasonable discretion and avoid unnecessary punishment. For instance, when one person explained to the Officers why they had been unable to tap on their Go Card, and asked the Officers to facilitate payment of their fare at that time to avoid paying a fine, the Officers refused, suggesting that if they let the individual proceed to the ticket machines, that individual would not pay. They also asked the person to prove they had money, gesturing at the individual’s pockets, which we perceive to be an overreach and an act likely to cause humiliation. We are not aware of any provisions under the Transport Operations (Passenger Transport) Act 1994 or the corresponding Regulations that authorises an Officer to demand that a passenger prove sufficient funds to pay for a fare in retrospect. We also note that by this point, the concerned individual had already explained to the Officers a number of times that they had already transferred funds electronically, but they had not yet arrived at the time of “tapping on”. There was no suggestion that the individual intended to pay by cash.

Video screenshot: QLD Rail Authorised Officer interrogating passenger on Invasion Day 2024

After we were successful in recording the first incident with consent from the relevant person, one of the Officers tried to block us from approaching or seeing the next few people the second Officer was confronting. Elsewhere, during the related rally at the Gabba stadium, legal observers also witnessed Queensland Police Services officers similarly attempting to obstruct observers from filming an interaction between a protestor and an officer. The deliberate blocking of legal observers is plainly an attempt to minimise accountability mechanisms and should not be done as a matter of practice.

In a similar bid to limit accountability measures, the QR Officers also told us we were not allowed to film and called police to attend. Neither police nor the QR Officers’ management subsequently directed us to stop filming.

About an hour into the commencement of the rally at Queens Gardens, the same QR Officers moved from Central to South Bank train station, the closest station to the designated end of the march. This suggested their intention was to continue policing people leaving the rally.

Two legal observers were stationed at South Bank station as the march ended. They observed 12 Queensland Police Services officers standing on the platform (an unusually high number) as well as two of the QR Officers who had been at Central Station earlier in the day. This was likely to have an intimidatory effect on people trying to leave the rally.

QLD Rail Authorised Officer and QPS officers on South Bank station platform at 12:51pm on 26 Jan 2024.

We consider that it is inappropriate for Queensland Rail to station Authorised Officers at locations designed to target people attending the Invasion Day march and would encourage Queensland Rail to reconsider their practices in this regard.

It is important to acknowledge that discretion around policing of public transport fares is exercised in relation to all kinds of major events. Each year, free public transport is available for people attending Riverfire, and for people attending major sports events - as it was for people attending the cricket at the Gabba stadium that same day. As legal observers witnessed, discretion is also exercised on a case by case basis at the turnstiles.

Fare evasion has been described as a crime of necessity. Its policing impacts the most disadvantaged people in our communities. For those who are houseless, mentally ill, young, on low incomes or recently released from prison, the impact of fines for offences like fare evasion compound existing disadvantage and are experienced disproportionately. On any given day, this should be of concern, and especially when it results in the targeting of people seeking to exercise their right to peaceful assembly and political expression, and especially in the context of a day like Invasion Day.