 Well good afternoon everybody. We just wanted to take this opportunity to thank and welcome back the contingent of officers who went to New Zealand to assist with peacekeeping operations there. All of you would know Inspector Shane Williams who was the officer in charge of the deployment. He led a team of 10 officers, all of whom were ex-New Zealand police officers who volunteered for this mission and we want to thank them for doing so. When we called for volunteers we were significantly oversubscribed with officers who wanted to take part in this mission and that's a credit to all of those who asked to be part of it and particularly those who were selected and went over for the last 13 days. It broke new ground for us as a department. Never before in the history of the department have we deployed general duties officers outside of Australia to assist in other jurisdiction. So Shane and his team are a part of history for the department. Given that it was great to see the officers conduct themselves in such a professional manner and to be so well received by the community of Christchurch and I'm sure Shane and some of the other team members would be able to talk to that in a little more detail about the sort of things that they saw and the level of acceptance that they got from the community. But on behalf of Commissioner Atkinson my main job today was to thank you Shane and the team for volunteering what was a very very difficult assignment. I know that what you saw there was difficult for you on many levels for those of you the ex-New Zealand police officers to go back to your birth country and to see the devastation of Christchurch. I know had a significant effect on everybody. It's very difficult for all of us who are not there even with the great news coverage that was provided to get a real understanding of the level of devastation and perhaps you might be able to talk a little bit about that. But I know that it had a humbling impact on you. I know that while the team was there you experienced a number of significant aftershocks almost on a daily basis registering over five on Richter scale. Again for our group and for the residents particularly of Christchurch obviously a very concerning event whenever that happened. So that any further ado Shane could I hand it over to you just to talk about some of your experiences. Yeah thank you sir and thank you for the sentiments. What I'd like to say from the outset is send our prayers and thoughts and best wishes back to the people of Christchurch who we've just left as well as to those in Japan. For myself and the contingent it's been nothing short of a privilege to go over and to to try in some way provide some level of reassurance to them that life will go on for them and that in some way there is hope at the end of that tunnel. So to that end and to those people we wish them all the best. For the contingent probably something very different to what we're used to. Some of the duties that we did and some of the things we saw were I guess not the norm. Having come from the floods and the cyclones recently and seen the devastation in northern Queensland and then in our southern region to see a city the size of Christchurch largely decimated and lying in rubble. It's very hard ripped out of it. It impacts on all of us. It's quite eerie to go into their CBD and to see coffee cups still with coffee in them to see pizza uneaten still sitting on the tables yet not a soul in their CBD. There's only you and the wind and nothing else other than the damage and the thoughts of what has transpired in this in this town. For the people of Christchurch their lives will never be the same again. The very heart of their town the Cathedral the whole CBD has simply been not so much ruined and not that it won't be rebuilt but it's been devastated that it's had a personal and obviously profound effect on them. We being the Australian contingent asked them the other states that did attend we were so well received and so well looked after by the people of Christchurch that our thanks will always be with them quite humbling to go into a town and be driving down the street there's no lights there's no sewage there's no water and then someone will stop you on the street just to say thank you and offer you a coffee and food that they have scarce supply of and and that occurred right around the the country and every area we went into we were received exactly the same and quite poignant for us was we were at a memorial service that was held for everyone and a lady came up to us and sought out the police just to give us a hug and to say thank you and then we found out that that lady's daughter is still missing in amongst the ruins and and extremely saddened for her she has no closure at this stage and and hopefully in short time the the USAR teams will rectify that. The other thing I'd like to comment on is the New Zealand police and the New Zealand emergency services phenomenal they have not stopped between 80 and 100 New Zealand police homes in Christchurch are destroyed and those officers will never return to those homes yet they continue to work and have not stopped working since that ill-fated day and quite remarkably they are volunteering to continue to work we we were fortunate to give them a level of respite that meant that they could go to their families and do some work on their homes but they're there the next day the next shift and and to them we wish them all the best as well truly truly professional truly unbelievable the efforts they're going to to support their people over there and that goes to the USAR teams and to the DVI teams particularly the Queensland DVI teams that went before us. Thank you Shane I'm glad you mentioned family I see we have some family members with us it was remiss of me earlier not to personally thank the family members of all of the people who were deployed for making the sacrifice of allowing the contingent members to go it's a long time to be without your father's husbands around you we appreciate the sacrifice that the family members made I'm sure you're glad to have them back and it's a great reunion home coming for all of you and again can I just reiterate to this group of 11 you are part of a unique part of history for this department and well done congratulations for all that you did for the community of Christchurch thank you sir under the banner of reassurance patrols it was largely what we would term general duties patrol so just that normal everyday policing a large portion of it was hearts and minds it was about making sure that the community was reassured that not only the New Zealand police but that internationally and particularly from Australia we were there to support them some of the other work was patrols of the red zone which is the largely the CBD which is fenced off and cut off there's nobody in it just to to make sure that there was no unlawful access and no looting from there the other thing that was important to us was to be able to get out to the schools and to the hospitals and interact with the kids who had been affected by it and hear their stories and and try and share a little bit with them that was that was particularly gratifying and the other thing was on our days off was to go out and help New Zealand police you know clear up their homes clear up the debris move their furniture or whatever we could do well they continue to work tell us a little bit about some of the aftershocks that may have occurred while you were there and if it was scary please don't like to say scary it's look we were averaging six aftershocks a day and they were between magnitude two and the biggest of five point one and you look it's really it's a different feeling for us for the rest of the crew for me I'm the only Aussie so I'd never experienced it the New Zealanders had so it's a strange feeling and it's hard to describe to you if you haven't been through it but for the people of Christchurch every aftershock is a reminder or every aftershock adds to the stress of is there another big one coming so for us there was and and it sounds it's the wrong word to say it's a novelty but it is it's a strange sensation to just have a building sway that you're in the building starts to sway and twist everything starts to shake bitumen and concrete flow as if it's a wave and then it all settles and everyone takes a deep breath and moves on it's it's quite a strange sensation Oh it's it's it's hard to describe it it's just it's been nothing short of a true privilege to be part of this contingent and to work with these gentlemen to deliver that response is nothing short of a privilege and we've probably left thinking we would have liked to have done more but as far as what our goal was I think we achieved that and I think together with the other Australian law enforcement agencies you know we we did provide a level of reassurance particular to the people of Christchurch and that Canterbury area I think obviously from a departmental point of view this was the the mirror reverse of what happened during safeguard when we got 200 interstate police to come up and help our community with general duties and air deluding patrols we were able to make a small repayment on that gesture by sending our team back to Christchurch to do very much the same sort of work so we know from our experience how much we valued having those interstate officers come in to support us and so we know from our own experience how much you would have been valued accepted and welcomed by the Christchurch community oh sorry we're just bringing the contingent forward so that you can see the members that they went over and delivered the services come up there's two members who can't be here for personal reason then we'd like to acknowledge St. Constable Ducey and sorry and St. Constable Moran Falls they've had some family issues to attend to one in New Zealand and the other here and obviously we wish them well as they can do it as well. Just very briefly boys as I mentioned on our days off we helped a number of people including police officers but our number of us went to one particular school our lady of victory school it's a Catholic school there and we I tell you I've never felt more like a beetle than my life. We turned up we were swamped. It was crazy we turned up this is just a small amount of what they gave us they were just so overwhelmed for the place to go there it was overwhelming for us to be appreciated like we were it was just so significant I just can't describe how much how appreciated we were. We went there we gave a little talk took some photos and then I believe they've sent it on the Facebook website and they've put us in the newsletters and it's the Beatles.