 Thank you for coming this afternoon. As you may be aware, Council is currently sitting. The Mayor originally was proposing to be involved, but due to quite significant commitments, you'd be aware a number of key issues before Council today. He's agreed that this media conference can proceed without him, and of course he will make his own statements in relation to a number of the initiatives that are being announced. At the outset, I just firstly want to recognise the significant partnership that's been developed here over the Gold Coast City Council, and I particularly pay tribute to Mayor Ron Clark for his proactive approaches and initiatives which have been developed in consultation with the Queensland Police Service. I also want to start today by recognising that there is a significant level of community concern here on the Gold Coast, particularly about some of the more serious and violent incidents which have occurred. And I want to assure the people of the Gold Coast community that I as Police Minister, as a Government, and indeed a Queensland Police Service, take these matters very seriously, and I am confident and comfortable with the advice that I'm receiving that the Queensland Police Service is devoting considerable time, effort and resources to address the concerns of the local community, and in particular targeting the offenders in some of these very serious matters. And at that point, I just note that of the three recent deaths which have occurred, and particularly noting the tragic death of Detective Senior Constable Damien Leading, that the Queensland Police Service has very quickly brought alleged offenders before the justice system and charges have been laid. And I just note that in saying that, I want to also recognise and commend local uniform police officers, local detectives and indeed the additional task force resolve detectives who have in a very determined and focused way been targeting criminal activity on the coast and getting results, and the service can provide more detail of that. There is an additional issue which I need to put to bed. There have been some assertions through some sections of the media that there has been a budget cut to the Gold Coast Police District. I want to quell that once and for all. The budget for the police districts here on the coast in the southeast region have increased. In fact, in answer to a question on notice which is now on the public record, and we can provide that to you, the detail of how the budget for this region, which includes the three districts, has in fact increased from around $123 million in 2008-09 to around $141 million in 2010-11 for the umpteenth time, the budget for policing here on the Gold Coast has increased and that needs to be put on the public record. Again, if I can reiterate my earlier praise for the work of the officers here. Officers here on the Gold Coast suffered a terrible tragedy with the loss of one of their colleagues. No one should question their resolve. No one should question their determination to bring the offenders obviously of that particular crime but all these serious crimes to justice. And I can't but repeat my praise, my confidence in the leadership team here through Assistant Commissioner Paul Wilson and his senior officers and all of the uniformed and detectives here on the coast for the work that they're doing. It's also important to note that there have been significant increases to police resources here on the Gold Coast, particularly over the last couple of years. And I point to the establishment of a new police division at Rabina in 2009. The establishment of the new police district at Coomera. In the last allocation of 203 police officers across the state, which was earlier this year, the Commissioner allocated 45 officers or almost a quarter of the entire state allocation to the south-east region, which includes the Gold Coast, Coomera and Logan districts. 22 of those directly into the Gold Coast, 14 directly into the Coomera district. And of course amongst those increases in detective numbers. In addition to that, the Commissioner and his senior executive created an established task force resolve which will have 18 ultimately permanent additional positions, detective positions here on the Gold Coast. The Commissioner announced that initiative. Those detectives have been sourced principally from state crime operations command and three from the region. But he's given that commitment that they will become permanent positions over time and will be additional detective positions. Again, I want to thank Mayor Ron Clark and the Gold Coast City Council, who I've received advice have now approved funding for one of the initiatives here today. Gold Coast City Council have been very proactive in working with the Queensland Police Service in recognising community concern and taking proactive steps in partnership to put in place initiatives to address those concerns. And I'll outline some of those details now. And the initiative which I'm outlining are principally the initiative regarding the helicopter and the extra police which I'll announce for the Blitz over and above existing resources. So in summary, and I'll allow Assistant Commissioner Wilson and Deputy Commissioner Stewart to provide more detail, there's a package of five initiatives which we're announcing today. Firstly, a partnership with the Gold Coast City Council to trial an Iron the Sky helicopter for a period of six months. That helicopter will be funded through a half-million-dollar commitment from the Gold Coast City Council, a very significant and generous commitment and we do thank them sincerely for that. And Police Service, of course, will provide the resources in terms of staffing and whatever equipment is required for that six-month trial. It will be a limited, obviously, trial of a helicopter resource for the Queensland Police Service. At the end of that trial, the Queensland Police Service in conjunction with the Gold Coast City Council will conduct an evaluation and obviously from that point additional decisions will need to be made pending the outcome of that trial. So that's the first initiative. The second significant initiative which has been announced today is a blitz of criminal and social, anti-social activity here on the Gold Coast and that will be spearheaded by a 50-person, 50-police officer task force under the codename of Operation Seymour which will commence as early as this Saturday. And it will be focused on criminal and anti-social activity across both the Gold Coast and Kuma districts. I want to stress that the resources which will be brought in, those 50 officers will be over and above the existing resourcing here on the Coast which includes, it's in addition to the drink safe precinct activities and in addition to the task force resolve activities. So the first two initiatives are the helicopter trial, the blitz for an initial period of one month or for a period of one month on criminal and anti-social activity. The three other parts of the package include a reference by the Attorney General to the Sentencing Advisory Council on sentencing which the courts are imposing on armed robbery offences. Again, this is an issue which the community has expressed some concern and questions about. We want to be sure as a government that the courts are applying appropriate sentences for these offences which meet both community and government expectations. The other initiative will be a program of security audits and means by which the Queensland Police Service and indeed this will be in partnership with the Gold Coast City Council can work with local small and medium sized business to enhance their security arrangements. This can be achieved through a number of means. We're looking at increasing the availability of security workshops for local businesses. We're going to be developing a web based information source and package for those small business owners who simply work seven days a week and might have the time to go to a seminar and in addition to that looking at other ways in which support can be provided at the Colface to those small businesses. In terms of information about how they can make businesses more secure for themselves and their employees. The final initiative just relates to the neighbourhood watch scheme. Already Queensland Police here on the Gold Coast and indeed in other parts of the state target neighbourhood watch groups with information. We're looking at initiatives where we can significantly enhance and in a more timely fashion information about local crime issues etc. So that's a brief summary that I might initially ask Deputy Commissioner Ian Stewart to say a few words and then Assistant Commissioner Paul Wilson. Thank you. Thank you Minister. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and thank you for being here today. I'm just going to comment on Operation Seymour. As you all know there have been a series of quite violent and isolated incidents here on the coast over the last few months as the Minister quite rightly said. That's put a dent in the confidence of the community here on the Gold Coast and the safety of their community. By doing what we normally do in these sorts of situations that is bringing in extra police from other areas just as we do at Indi, just as we do for schoolies, as we do for many other events and incidents around the state. We hope that we can show the community here on the Gold Coast and in Kuma that we are taking their concerns very seriously and we will deal with them through a very targeted and intelligence led active and aggressive patrolling operation that will occur over the next month starting this coming Saturday. We hope that that will also have the effect of saying to people here on the coast who don't want to obey the rules this isn't the place for you. Go somewhere else. Thank you. Thank you Minister. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. As a regional police commander I'm certainly looking forward to the initiative of the helicopter for the eye in the sky. Certainly appreciate the initiative of the Gold Coast City Council in relation to that. My staff will staff that helicopter and it will be available at peak times and it will be intelligently driven and will be available for crime but both for public order issues and also very importantly for traffic issues which are a concern to us on the M1. Further that I'm looking forward to the new initiatives that we're going to roll out in relation to crime prevention with the Gold Coast City Council and getting more people to come forward from the small and larger business that unfortunately are targeted of our armed robberies and our soft targets in recent times to hardening of their premises in relation to crime. We are this week on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week having large seminars at the South Port and the Carumban RSLs in relation to armed robbery so we do invite any person that is available to come along to those and there are large numbers of people that have currently taken up the initiatives in relation to those two initiatives. Can you tell us what's going on? I was going to ask this is to Commissioner with regards to the eye in the sky will that be a helicopter that can be used for say police pursuits? Certainly it will be one of the issues that we would use it for as you know we have a restrictive policy and we encourage our police not to become involved in pursuits but for our life threatening and serious incidences there are a certain category that we do allow pursuits in which is a very strict control by our communications centres these days and for a really serious major crime that would be a tremendous valuable resource as it has been used by your media helicopters recently in other matters that have assisted it and I look forward to the availability of that to assist us. The obvious question is if it's council funded what happens if the pursuit crosses into the Brisbane area? The pursuit would still. It would still be available for us from my knowledge of it because it would be of such a serious matter that we would allow that to continue but I'm only talking about a very very small percentage of major crime pursuits because most of our pursuits these days we do have a policy now that we would restrict them unless it is for a very very serious crime. Can it be used in the wider area but not just the Gold Coast? Well at this point in time it's been funded by the Gold Coast City Council which is a large geographical area and it's the area of concern whether our spikes are and the surge of the extra police being brought in and that covers the entire Gold Coast Police District and the major populated area of the Coombra District so basically it's a geographical area from the New South Wales Queensland border almost to Beanley and back to the hinterland ranges behind the Gold Coast so it is a big area and there is a lot of activity. Last weekend in the Gold Coast District alone we arrested 150 people on 160 charges and you have been briefed this morning on all the different operations that did occur in the Gold Coast District. We had two major sporting events we had our drink safe precinct and there was a lot of activity of a lot of people coming to the Gold Coast so it will be a very much an added advantage to us during those busy periods especially to look at the large movement of people. We do have in excess of 70-80,000 tourists travel to the Gold Coast each day so it will be a great advantage to us. You said that it's available in peak time does that mean that you're referring to the time of day that it will be available? It will be available in peak but a bit also intelligently driven and of course as our intelligence shows that in peak times, busy times Friday, Friday evening Saturday evening when we refer to that word peak in traffic and other issues in society it tends to be at the same time as our calls for service. We had well in excess of 600 calls for service on Saturday alone in the south east police region so those when I refer to the word peak it means those peak times in the day when policing responses at its foremost. Something big happens that will be called in? That's correct, it will be available to be called in and of course as you know the helicopter services exist on the coast that do respond to emergencies for search and rescue and other medical evacuations and I would imagine that it will respond as we do have access to the state government shopper from Archerfield as well so it will be available for us to be used on those. The protocols have to be worked out and it has to be a process that will be done in accordance with the tendering process through the Gold Coast City Council but I'm looking forward to working with the mayor's staff in setting up the protocols and having my staff use this wonderful facility. Minister isn't it embarrassing that the councils had to step up to the plate and fund this as opposed to the government when there's been long standing calls for police helicopter? Not at all, I just want to again commend and thank the Gold Coast City Council for its significant commitment. The advice that I've received is that a helicopter, a police helicopter is not the highest priority and I've acknowledged and said that on numerous occasions over the last couple of years however I've also acknowledged that a police helicopter in my view ultimately will be a permanent part of the Queensland Police Service. The issue is the timing of that and choosing to make that expenditure in preference to others as with everything there's a choice and at this point the major priority capacity is to expand the fixed wing capacity of the service however we have a situation here where Mayor Ron Clark in particular has been vigorously pursuing this issue to the point where you've seen now he's prepared to put money on the table. That being the case I think we would have been criticised very heavily by the community we did not take up this opportunity at least to conduct a trial when that funding has been made available through the council so we have cooperated through the police service with the Mayor this will give us a very good opportunity to see the operational impacts in the Queensland context and obviously at the end of that trial the community expectation will be what are the results of the evaluation and what decisions from there the government might make and of course that will be a matter for decision at that time. Do you see that the government would continue to fund it as an ongoing initiative? The commitment of this stage is to engage positively and proactively in this trial and to conduct a thorough evaluation. Any decisions about future funding cannot be made and will not be made until that evaluation takes place. Can I just add in terms of the availability of helicopters for the Queensland Police Service Queensland Police Service already has access to emergency management Queensland helicopters the government owns five helicopters through emergency management Queensland the Police Service also has access to the community provided helicopter service which obviously extends through organisations such as CareFlight over the last couple of years I'm happy to be corrected but the service would use 200 plus hours 240 hours of those services which have been regularly provided for a number of years principally in search and rescue type operations. Any idea when we'll see this get off the ground when will the trial begin? Again that well obviously we're keen to commence this as quickly as possible but council will need to go through their procurement processes so it will be dictated obviously by councils need to go through appropriate procurement to get a suitable supply for the six month trial. Do you think it will be up as a police helicopter with all the delivery? That level of detail will need to be determined in terms of what obviously the private sector operators can provide so that's a matter which needs to be resolved I can't give any direct answer on that. Do you know of that incorrect camera? No I can't answer that certainly these are issues which currently are available through emergency management Queensland helicopters so in terms of search rescue operations emergency management Queensland and indeed a number of the community providers already have that infrared technology and indeed all the search capacity at night time as well. So again the actual configuration of the particular helicopter that will be used is a matter for the procurement process and also of course we need to make sure that the workplace health and safety needs of the officers who are flying this helicopter are appropriately addressed and that will obviously take place through negotiations with the unions as well. So apart from the staff, what else is the QBS going to put forward to help with this helicopter? Well it might be useful for the Deputy Commissioner to provide a bit more detail on those operational matters. No thank you the specifications for the particular type of aircraft have not been yet determined between us and the Council that the announcement has only been just made but we are grateful to the Council for this. What our contribution will be communications equipment, observation equipment and the officers that are trained in that type of work. Mr, do you know when operations will start? Well yes, the advice and the Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner can detail that but they are expected from this weekend. Where will those officers come from? Certainly at this stage we are going to ask four of the regions of one of the commands to provide staff for this. The final numbers, obviously with five different areas coming into it, there's about ten officers per area. Metro North, Metro South North Coast Region and Southern Region and these are traditionally the areas that we've called on when we've operated during Scurley's Week and at Christmas time or New Years down here we've always asked them to contribute and it's only a small proportion of each of those. Obviously there will be other logistics for instance vehicles and other equipment that will have to come with those officers but that will be done using the same model as we previously have. Now we base down here for the full month. Our intention is to, in the main most of them will actually billeted down here we will arrange just as we've done in the past we will arrange for them to live down here but there may be some who live at Logan for instance who work in Metro South and Metro North that are able to drive and we'll arrange that through the necessary overtime arrangements for travel. Just back to the helicopter is there a belief that this might be up and running in weeks? Look, this is going to have to depend on only on the procurement process obviously some discussions between Council on us on the final specifications and that will include things like whether or not it has night vision, Fleur type usage and then it's only a matter of how long it will take to sort of put it through their particular process. So sooner the better for us but obviously we understand the time constraints on Council. Minister is this a special budget allocation that's made this possible and can you tell us how much it's going to cost the whole initiative? There's no special budget allocation I mean the issue with... Well the Queensland Police Service will obviously need to allocate a special funding stream for this so that's a matter that they will determine internally. You can't tell us roughly there are some rough figures but to my particular commission... No I'm sorry are we talking about Seymour or are we talking about the helicopter? The helicopter will be start by officers from the southeastern region, Paul's people we have a number of trained staff in our water police who are search and rescue experts we just have to check to make sure that there are some observation trained so that will be done through normal staffing arrangements and potentially a bit of overtime to backfill while they're up in the air. Operation Seymour, yes there will be a cost to that we believe it will be less than around that $200 to $250,000 mark to pay for accommodation overtime that sort of thing. That won't be borne by the region that will be borne by the central budget of the organisation. Given what's happened on the Gold Coast what we've seen down here do you think it's obviously a worthwhile investment? Look I do but again and I'd bring you back to the issue this is really about a confidence booster for the community down here the reality is and it's no use me standing here and talking statistics because at the end of the day we know that crime is generally coming down. For instance the armed robberies today are way less than they were even 10 years ago and we know that the rates are way down people here have a perception of fear and we want to deal with that. So by providing this blitz type operation we hope that that will give people the understanding and confidence that we are able to deal with both the perception and the reality. Do you think it could be seen as just a band aid solution? Not at all as I just said the reality is that crime rates are coming down and we know that overall there has been a spike and we have to deal with that and this is the way that we would normally do it just like when you have masses of people here for schoolies we always bolster the numbers that's exactly what we're going to do in this case. Are you saying that the perception out there about crime being up or being particularly bad is a misconception at the moment? No I'm not saying it's a misconception because perception is reality to many people there are people out there who are quite scared about the particularly when we've had a number of violent instances down here and whilst these have been isolated, unorganised events the reality is that even though we've caught the perpetrators and put them before the courts that creates a climate of fear and what we want to do and what we need to do as an organisation is to deal with that. Thanks folks unless there's any other questions. Minister? No, thanks guys. Thank you.