The Queensland government's acting Police, Fire and Emergency services minister Andrew Powell has declined to say whether an investigation into sexual harassment and workplace bullying in the state's fire service should now be extended to the State Library of Queensland.
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On Tuesday morning Fairfax Media revealed the SLQ investigated a former senior staff member in 2012 after a private investigator found 2784 close-up photographs of women's breasts and cleavage on their government-supplied iPhone and iPAD.
Staff accuse the SLQ of failing to acknowledge the close-up photographs, of stalling sexual harassment claims and of repeatedly appealing workers' compensation claims.
The staff member at the centre of the allegations was not stood down during the internal inquiry. They resigned eight months after the allegations were confirmed by the Crime and Misconduct Commission.
Last week the state government released a six-month review into sexual harassment and bullying in the fire service.
An independent review of the handling of a complaint made by three female firefighters who were the subject of sexual harassment and misconduct involving "offensive material" and "derogatory and abusive commentary" painted a frightening picture of the accepted culture within the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service.
That saw the long-serving Queensland fire commissioner Lee Johnson, who was appointed to the role in 2001 and has been part of the service since 1975, "fast-tracked" for retirement.
Mr Powell acknowledged similarities between the fire service and SLQ cases.
"As police, fire and emergency services minister at the minute, I stood beside the Premier last week as we released the Allison Report," Mr Powell said.
"We are concerned at any reports that there is sexual harassment or sexual impropriety occurring within the public service.
"But in this case the state library has process in place and we understand they are putting them in place."
Mr Powell – who would not be aware of the specific issues involved in the SLQ allegations – declined to say whether it was time for a co-ordinated approach to sexual harassment issues across Queensland's public service.
"Well let's let the state library deal with this in the first instance," Mr Powell said.
"But as I said last week, the Premier made it very clear that kind of behaviour is unacceptable in the public service and will be considered such by the state government."
Up until Tuesday morning the existence of the former SLQ employees photographs had only been revealed to staff identified in the close-up photographs.
After the publication of the Fairfax Media report, an email was sent to all SLQ staff acknowledging that the photos had been taken.
In several affidavits seen by Fairfax Media, senior female SLQ staff said their complaints had not been taken seriously by a male SLQ director.
The way the issue was handled led to the resignation of prominent writer and feminist Dale Spender from the SLQ board in September 2013.
Dr Spender's resignation was not made public by the State Library of Queensland board, except in SLQ annual report notes.
