 be available and other senior officers will be available at all times in relation to this later tonight if need be and certainly again tomorrow morning. I think everyone knows the Police Minister and Minister Dempsey, he will make some opening comments then I will give you the latest advice that we have, seek your assistance in appealing for public information and we'll open it up for questions, Minister. Look thank you, obviously a major incident has happened at the Rabina shopping centre, approximately 150 this afternoon. I've directed the Commissioner to throw all resources at this incident and other incidents that have happened over the last week. The Commissioner is happy with the resources that he has received but also all Queenslanders have had enough of this type of incident particularly occurring in open spaces and public areas and the message is simply clear, this form of illegal activity will not be contained. If you commit these type of activities the full force of the law and the resources here in Queensland will be thrown at you and the community expectations are that you will receive the most harshest penalties. As we speak now, the laws are being formulated and will be presented within the next couple of days in relation to having some of the toughest illegal firearm laws that are across all the states. So for the particular instance in relation to what has occurred today, I'll just pass it on to the Commissioner but the people of Queensland need to be reassured that Queensland is a safe place, illegal activity will be not condoned and that the police service has the resources and will be using the full force of those resources against people who commit these type of illegal activities. Thanks Commissioner. As you're aware at approximately 150pm today at Rabina Shopping Centre an adult middle aged male and female were both shot by a person who in the early stages and this is yet to be confirmed but the initial description is an adult male solidly built Pacific Island or Maori in appearance with a prominent tattoo on his neck. Now we'll confirm that description further later, that's the information we have at the moment. Part of this investigation of course involves the interview of witnesses in closed circuit television. We believe that the male person who was shot has outlaw motorcycle gang connection. It would seem as though and this is yet to be confirmed that the woman who was shot is not connected with the male initially and understandably we thought that that was likely or possible. The latest information and I'm sure you appreciate this only happened a few hours ago is that we believe that it is very likely that the woman has no connection with the male. If that is the case then clearly she was completely and absolutely an innocent bystander and that is the absolute worst case scenario that this sort of violence and this escalation spills into a public domain and innocent people are injured. Obviously our investigations are still continuing as we speak and as I said we will provide you with all the information we have available as we are able to give it to you. In particular what we are seeking is the public support and assistance. One of the difficulties with people who engage in this activity and we've seen an escalation and a series of events of events in both Brisbane and the Gold Coast in less than a week literally in the space of five days. One of the difficulties with this is these people do not cooperate with the police. They don't even talk to us. They tell us nothing and most of them, if not all of them, have lawyers on standby who come to their assistance immediately. But there are people out there in the community who will know something about this. People who may be relatives, may be friends, may be associates on the fringe and we urge and ask anyone who has any information about this matter this afternoon or any of the events of the previous week to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 triple three triple zero and pass that information on to us. This sort of behaviour is completely and totally intolerable and unacceptable in our society and you have my assurance that the police department will do everything we can to find and prosecute the people responsible and we will do everything we can to prevent this sort of thing happening again in the future. Tonight and tomorrow I'll be meeting with senior officers. I have already since this happened and having discussions obviously with them about what we will do. We have extra police on tonight in Brisbane and we are well aware of the event that's occurring at the RNA tonight. We already had a police presence plan for that event. We have significantly ramped that up until it is concluded and we will as I said do everything we can to prevent this sort of thing happening and we will do all we can to find the people responsible. Now I'm prepared obviously to take any questions you have. Any idea what treated this? That's obviously a key part of the investigation, the motive. At this stage we don't know but it would seem as though it's quite likely that it is part of the ongoing escalation of this feuding between people in rival outlaw motorcycle gangs. So you're understanding that she was just in the way? Initially and I think you would accept quite understandably. We didn't know but we thought that the woman and the man who was shot may have been together. I understand they were in fairly close proximity of each other. The very latest information just before we came in here to do this press conference is that that may not be the case and that the woman is more likely to be a completely innocent bystander. So obviously a very alarming escalation to see is shooting inside a crowd of chopping thin prisoners? Absolutely and for me it's the worst case scenario for the community. Obviously any form of violence between outlaw motorcycle gangs is concerning. Often they keep that violence to themselves. What we've seen in the space of a week here is an escalation of that violence just a couple of days ago in broad daylight at Morningside and at South Brisbane. There was violence with the number of people with baseball bats and then balaclavas going into premises and creating a violent situation there. But until today that violence has been confined to the various outlaw motorcycle groups fighting with each other. Today we've seen a further escalation to that into what I believe is the worst possible scenario and that is in a public place with the use of a firearm and potentially an innocent member of the public being shot and other members of the public being terrorized and potentially put at risk. So there is hardly a worst-case scenario that you can imagine than what we've seen this afternoon. Everything we can. I'm sorry could you repeat that question? This guy? Well we don't know who that is yet and obviously the identity of the person responsible for this is a key aspect of this. Is the key aspect of this matter at this point in time? Well clearly he was able to affect his escape. We don't believe at this point in time that he's still at the shopping centre and perhaps he had planned that out. These are things we don't know at this point in time. When you say he had that. I said that the victim the male victim did. That we know. Well I'm not able or in a position to go beyond that at this stage that's all part of the investigation. I'll be at fourth right and share with you as much information as I'm able to but please accept that this only happened a few hours ago and there will be some aspects of the investigation that is necessary for us not to go public with until it's appropriate. It's a very good question. It is a critical part of the investigation. At this point we're not sure either way. Minister can you explain the new gun laws? Look those gun laws will be coming out in the short term rather than the long term and we'll be announcing those laws within a matter of days. We'll be looking at ranges of extending the the the mandatory times as well as the lengthening of sentencing but those announcements will be out within the next few days. It certainly is because it doesn't matter what you wear it's what you do in those colours and in relation to illegal group fire so in relation to illegal gangs and organisations in Queensland and their illegal activity that is not condoned. It is illegal and we will ensure that we have the full amount of the penalties that back up the police force here in the state that meets community expectations into this type of vial act that occurs in a public place. Look what I think the Minister and the Premier are base-set is that they'll consider anything that works. I think inherently there is a difficulty with creating legislation that penalises you because of the clothing you wear. I think it would be just too complex for words and I think it'd be unworkable but what the Minister and the Premier are base-set as far as I understand it is there's evidence-based legislation that is able to work and is effective then they consider it so I'm fine where we are with that at the moment. We've had outlaw motorcycle gangs in Queensland and Australia for many years and regrettably we've seen this sort of thing before. Mil Perra more recently in the Sydney Airport and we had it in Macai some years ago here in Queensland and it remains as it was then completely intolerable and acceptable and again what we've seen today is the very worst example of that. So would you say as far as Baki? I think it is. I think it is and I think it is for this reason that if as we believe now that the woman who was shot is an innocent bystander completely innocent victim, I'm not aware in the past in Queensland where that's ever happened. Look the whole of the community would like to see tougher illegal firearm laws in relation to the people who are being apprehended by the police even over the last couple of years. The police are catching these offenders but the community expectations in the courts are not reflective and the government will be giving the courts the tougher sentences that reflect community expectation and also back up the police service in relation to having the full confidence of the people of Queensland. Now even with this incident that's occurred today, the people of Queensland need to know that the commissioner has been given that the full resources, a major incident room is in place and the police service will continue to bring down the full force in relation to illegal gangs and illegal act groups that operate here in this state. We're discussing these matters with the attorney general and the laws that we will be announcing in the coming days will reflect those community expectations in relation to stronger penalties. I would understand their concern. I'm not going to shy away from that. This again is the worst case scenario. I mean our responsibility as your police department, the police department for the people of Queensland is to provide for their safety and security. We take that responsibility very seriously. I believe that the Gold Coast is a safe place. I believe that Queensland is a safe place. I just can't guarantee that things like this will never happen. What we need to do now is find the person or people responsible for this, this offence today and we need to do all we can to prevent a recurrence of that. Can I just restate what I said before. One of our great challenges with this is that these people have a code and that code is that you don't talk to the police, you don't complain, you deal with this amongst yourselves and that is a very difficult situation for us and my appeal is that there must be people on the fringe of these gangs, these people who are relatives, friends or associates who know something about this. We ask those people to bring crime stoppers, they can do that with complete anonymity, 1800 triple three triple zero and pass on any information you have even if it's only a suspicion of the information because we must as a community work together to stop this happening. Yes I am, very much so and I'm very concerned about what we've seen in the space of less than a week and we've seen shots fired into a tattoo parlor on the Gold Coast. We've seen what we possibly believe is a car set fire to here in Brisbane. We've seen incidents on Thursday of two premises attacked by men in balaclavas with baseball bats. We've seen what we suspect was an attempt to fire shots late at night into a clubhouse of the gypsy jokers at Evernon Hills and now we have this today and it's unacceptable to everyone and we will simply, I mean we simply cannot allow this sort of thing to go unchallenged and continue and we won't, we won't. Have we underestimated fighting because so much of it has been between themselves away from the public? I think that what has happened over time in some cases is that perhaps as a community, as a society and I don't think this has happened in your police department is that some people, some people have been lulled into a false sense and one of the reasons is these are not, these are smart people. These are highly organised smart people and I've said this before and it's a fact. They market themselves very cleverly and carefully and they market themselves as a group of mature age, middle age men who just have a love for motorbikes and just happen to wear a particular outfit and are no harm to anyone and that's not safe. They are violent, criminal enterprises, they retain the best lawyers who give them advice on police tactics and the law. They are highly intelligent, sophisticated criminal enterprises and they belie the appearance that they try to market themselves as and we are aware of that and that occurs throughout Australia. So all of the police agencies throughout Australia cooperate and work together in terms of dealing with this menace and today in my view what we have probably seen because what I've said is that the person who was shot has outlaw motorcycle gang connections. We don't know who shot him, we don't know who shot him and that's still part of the investigation but what we have seen I believe today is the very worst situation, a public place, a shopping centre, the use of firearms and it would seem as though an innocent person shot. We have kept people on overtime tonight, we will keep people on overtime throughout the night, we have a team of detectives who are on the Gold Coast at the moment, we have established a major incident room at Burley Heads at the CIB office there and what's called the Southern Investigation Group office, we have extra police on at this event tonight at the RNA in the valley and we will continue to do that. Cost is not an option here, cost is not an option, we will do everything that is possible to us to both prevent further examples of this happening and I wish I could say to you and give you a guarantee that that will never happen again, what happened today, I wish I could do that but you know that I can't, you know that I can't do that. All I can say to you is we will do everything we can to prevent it happening again and we will do everything that is possible to us to put the people responsible for this and prosecute them and put them before the courts. Commissioner, an innocent person or innocent people could have been killed? Yes, yes. The nature of that activity by its very nature is confidential and it's not possible for me to discuss that and what we and I don't either want to get into the detail of the you know just how many outdoor motorcycle gangs are involved here, obviously there's at least two, could well be more. We don't have the women's. We think at this stage and again this is early because gunshot wounds are a terrible thing but our initial information is that neither the woman or the man has sustained life threatening injuries but again that's at this point in time which is only hours after they've been, both are in hospital at the moment being treated as we speak. All I'm prepared to say at this stage is that the male person who was shot has outdoor motorcycle gang connections. I hope not. I can't eliminate that risk but I hope not. You've got extra place on that? Yes, we do. Why does the police believe so much of this activity has been centred on the Gold Coast? What is it about the Gold Coast that's attracted to these outdoor gangs? Outlaw motorcycle gang activity is occurring throughout Australia. It's occurring at the moment in South Australia. It's occurring in Sydney. It's occurring elsewhere. The Gold Coast is simply, the Gold Coast is one of the largest cities in Australia. I think it's the sixth largest city in Australia so it's inevitable and that there will be outdoor motorcycle gangs who are there. There are outdoor motorcycle gangs in places like Townsville so that happens throughout Australia. Minister, so the tougher laws are in relation to illegal firearms only where there won't be a further strengthening of laws in relation to fight the activity? We'll be looking at all laws to ensure that these illegal groups are not feeling comfortable in their beds and in their homes. That the people, the law-abiding people of Queensland are safe and they are confident within the police service and confident within the communities they live and whatever it takes to be able to have the proper reflections of the penalties within the courts that reflect what the people of Queensland want will be ensuring that we'll be looking at everything. That would be my preference. Again, that's part of the marketing. The poker runs which encourage people to join in with them. That's part of the marketing and it's very clever and it's something obviously, yes, I would like to see people say, we're not going to be associated with you in any way at all because you represent a threat to our society and you are unacceptable. That's what I'd like people to be saying and enacting and recognising these groups and these people for what they are. Criminals who pose a threat to us. The message is clear. We don't want you in our community if you're committing these illegal type of crimes and the police service will have the resources and then the government will have the legislation in place for you either stop, change your behaviour or go to jail. Simple as that. I'm sure that happens. In terms of the people involved, I think it's a fair comment to say, not fair in the sense there's anything fair about these people, but it's an accurate comment to say that up until today they've kept the violence between themselves and up until today they haven't given us any assistance or information, which is their normal pattern of behaviour and it may well be that there are people at times who are on the fringe, who are fearful of retribution and violent trauma, who are not members of outlaw motorcycle gangs but who are fearful. I think your comment is entirely accurate in that regard and it's these people that I'm appealing to, these people on the fringe who may have knowledge or information that can assistance with this, particularly with this matter today, as to who this person might be and where he is and that's why I'm appealing to anyone who has any information to ring crime sloppers, 1-800-333-000 and pass that information on. The question is, is it still the case that these instruments, for instance at the Gold Coast, are isolated to South East Point and there still are no links to the bike-related violence incident? Look, as this has escalated, obviously we have become increasingly concerned and I can't say to you today, tonight, that what happened today has no interstate nexus or connection in any way whatsoever. At this point in time there's no direct, clear, linked evidence of that but you couldn't reel it out. How quickly did police respond to the remaining incident today? Look, I understand they were there within a very short space of time. Can I come back to you with that information once we have it? Look, I do but again, and there are parts of the investigation that I just don't think are appropriate to go into at this stage. What we are told though is, and again when we have this, this is very serious injuries, gunshot wounds and anything can happen in terms of a person's medical condition that can deteriorate rapidly and unexpectedly and quickly. But at this stage we believe and we're hopeful that the gunshot wounds are not life-threatening. Were any weapons recovered at the shopping town? Not that I'm aware of. Was there a lodge at it? My understanding is that the police response was the best that we could muster, you know, as quickly as possible and I have no doubt that that was the case. Shopping news? That I don't know. Can I come back to you on that information? Was the whole scene affected? And again I'm not sure of that but certainly we obviously wanted to contain the scene in terms of interviewing every possible witness and my understanding is that we're in fact grateful to the public for their understanding and support in that regard. I understand it was in the vicinity of a Sony store. The evidence and information at the moment is that there was one male offender. That doesn't mean though that there's only one person involved and obviously that's an important aspect of the inquiry but at this stage all we know is that there was one male offender. Could well have had assistance either in the car park or subsequently. Yes, a number of detectives from the Hydra Task Force have gone down to work with Gold Coast detectives in setting up the investigation team which will be based in a major incident room that will operate out of the Burleigh Heads CIB office which is known on the Gold Coast. The detectives on the Gold Coast are breaking into two groups, the Northern Investigative Group and the Southern Investigative Group. The Southern Group is based at Burleigh and that's where this major incident room and this team will work from. No, no they shouldn't, no. And they shouldn't for this reason because we are not as a community going to be dictated to by these people and we should get about our business and conduct ourselves as we would normally. We cannot allow these people to control our lives and I know that's a big thing for me to say because I'm safely here in police headquarters at the moment but we cannot allow these people to change our way of life and take over. Look, thank you for your time. This is so important that I think that the community are aware of this and again provide any information they can to us. We undertake obviously to keep you advised and I or other senior officers will be available for as long as is necessary until we resolve this. Thank you again. That's it, thanks.