 What happened here yesterday, late yesterday afternoon I suppose is just a minor spark that really set off probably quite a few tensions that had been existing and bubbling around for a while. It was just some seemingly innocuous action and I don't think we really know what really kicked it off but it looked terrible, it was a bit of hair-raising there for a while but I mean we were able to sort of settle the tensions, separate the parties and we worked on it from there. How did you feel, you were there trying to find yourself pushing people back and trying to come to tensions, how did you feel? I hadn't really had the opportunity to reflect on how I felt, I was just an instinct, just what needed to be done. We're a blue shirt just like my officers do too, so there's an expectation and I just stepped up to that. It was just something that needed to be done, it's not just that situation at the moment but it's trying to maintain a level of quiet and peace within this area, within this community, it's been significantly disrupted by the events over the weekend and we need to sort of stretch our mind further and these people who live here need to have some level of reassurance and peace as well. Was it taunting from both sides last night or one was sort of antagonising the other? It really kicked off with one person just antagonising and another and I said tensions were just that roar and that fired up at the time that it just took one minor incident and set it off and set out about a chain of events. Obviously some was to blame, we're not on the position to sort of say who but there'll be a lot of finger pointing but we need to build on from there, we need to work from there just to try and get a level of calm in this neighbourhood and really settle the situation down and stop a reoccurrence, that's my job. What did you do to try and get the hang done? Well there's a case of just talking to both parties about listening to one side, attaining a version, talking to the other side and just trying to mediate and try and settle the tensions that we're going at the moment but for some reason only now under those people involved they decided to not pay any attention to that or not listen. As I said you're dealing with heightened emotions, you're dealing with a significant amount of tension within the area so I don't think there was much of a place there for reasoning or logical argument. How would you describe your office's actions? Basically they were coming up against some big guys, how would you describe their actions? Just quite admirable under the circumstances they said the last thing we wanted for those two groups to get together and it would have escalated a lot from there and who knows what the consequences would have been but it was my intention and our intention just to maintain a level of peace to keep those people apart because no good would have come from that. It would have been terrible, there would have been injuries and we would have lost from that point on so it was my intention to stop that and put some oil on the water so to speak. When this all happened it didn't happen very quickly as you said, it escalated. There were a number of police officers here but you obviously sent in reinforcements after that is there any reinforcements bringing in extra formalities earlier or is this something that made that a surprise? It was a surprise yesterday, we never envisaged that that would have happened but at the height of it yesterday we had about 40 police present who were able to maintain a staff number of 18 overnight just as a present, actors are deterrent and at the moment we've got about 15 police on the ground and instead we have got a significant number of resources available today on the ground and they will be here at a moment's notice but I am anticipating that we'll be no further trouble today no further flare up today or in the future we're working together with the department of communities working together with the council to try and get this matter resolved and get the community back to a safe and comfortable way of living. Did leaders shake hands last night or not? Did anyone shake hands last night? There were a number of representatives that met we were able to facilitate a meeting between various representatives there was some level of compromise there was some level of peace being able to border it was just a matter of keeping keeping the hotheads away from each other they're the ones that won't listen to reason won't listen to logic and they're the ones that have really kicked all this off so if we keep the hotheads away from each other and keep the logical and rational thinkers in there good will be achieved out of it. Tam Parker, it's not a good look for Logan is it? This is a shame for a look and it's brought our city into disrepute and I do want to applaud Superintendent Noel Powers and the police officers for putting their bodies on the line they did an awesome job and they've been pleading for calm, cool, level-headedness and they've done a great job working with the elders and these two families and to bring calm today. Are you meeting with the families today? What I'm doing is coordinating a ministerial safety summit I've been in contact with different ministers today and I want to coordinate that down in Logan where we can have the relevant ministers from the Minister of Police, the Department of Housing communities, multiculturalism and employment come in together to look at existing issues and the short-term issues and long-term issues that may need to be addressed in this area. That's what we want. We want to have a summit to find out if that's the situation and I also then want to have a meeting with different community representatives to see what the undertones are. What am I hearing? There's tension between these two families and there's tension at all different times in all cities between different. We're a very multicultural city and we get on very harmoniously most of the time. This is something that's brought our city into disrepute and 1% of our community are doing the wrong thing. 99% are good, decent families living in Logan, loving life in Logan raising wonderful young achievers and we're very proud of our community and I absolutely deplore when this sort of situation brings our great city into disrepute. I think when you're in leadership you have to be responsible in your comments and I don't think that was conducive to the situation. The police have been putting their bodies on the line they don't need any politician making inflammatory comments at this time. I'm sure the police don't appreciate it when they're dealing with such a difficult situation. Look, I think that's got merit. I think what will happen after we've had the Ministerial Safety Forum where we'll then have a community forum and we'll get that sort of feedback. Council will take feedback from the community will take feedback from the ministerial forum and we'll put together a plan that council can implement with the state and federal government in a two-year period. We don't want to say repeat of this again. Our city does not need to be brought into disrepute and that there are underlying tones we need to know about them and work proactively. One thing we've done we've learnt in the past, Logan recovers from these sort of situations and we go on from strength to strength our community rallies to give us defined solutions and that's what we're about coming together, finding solutions with all different levels of the government working with the council, the police force and the community as a whole to find solutions, long-term solutions for this situation. I would probably refer that one to the superintendent players who's been dealing with them. It's a complex sort of situation it's a complex problem we've got a number of different cultures here that do interact with each other on a daily basis the level of respect amongst each of these communities that's something that I can't answer specifically because there are elected representatives of each community we meet with them on a needs basis we meet with them to be able to sort of address their concerns address their issues, address any problems they may be experiencing so in terms of respect amongst elders and their community I think that's really a difficult one to sort of address. What are your charges or will there be any charges from last night? What are you doing today and the next few days as far as police presence is concerned? Charges last night? There have been none late probably a situation as you saw it was an extremely volatile situation and if we attempted any sort of enforcement action it would have just escalated that and quite confident we may have lost control of what was happening I don't anticipate any charges being laid today. In terms of police presence we're here to maintain a presence as a deterrent as a source of advice not good will but just as a source of reassurance to the community that we are aware of what's going on we're in control of what's going on we're working to eliminate anything any further potential any further trouble that may happen the unfortunate side effect of that is a disruption to the mums and dads of this community in their daily life but we're working towards minimising that disruption and not letting people get on with their lives You said this was sparked by a dispute between two families what's the base between the two families? It's any number of instances it relates initially to the damage of a car then it just escalates from that point on and I'll be quite frank in this the influence and the involvement of people external to this city external to this area contributes significantly to what goes on all the good work we do the involvement of someone else who's external and doesn't know the local issues comes in they bring their two cents worth in and it just deteriorates and detracts and destroys all that work we've done So can you give us an example of that what do you mean with people or friends coming in from other areas of Brisbane? It could be family, it could be friends it could be representatives they're all well intentioned and well meaning but unfortunately this is a local issue we're dealing with the local people the local community elders we're dealing with the local we can look after it from this point I'd hope it would charging would but we operate under police officers maintain a fair level of discretion in their day-to-day dealings with anyone they come across and discretion obviously in this instance was perhaps the better option to take there certainly was damage to the gentleman's fence but we'll work with that afterwards to ensure that that gets repaired anyway When were all that car first damaged? What was the first car damaged with that damage? I don't believe it was on Saturday night Saturday night was probably what kicked it all off my understanding is that families that come together over that they resolve the issue but as I said it's just escalated from there with hotheads, rumours in your window and the whole world's gone from there And you'll keep the street locked off today most of the day or? Not blocked off, it's still accessible but obviously we need to maintain a presence and unfortunately that's one of the strategies we have to use The use of force option of that name of the presence obviously had some deterrent effect communication was obviously it would have been tragic if we had to resort to any of either AC spray or TASI usage or even worse I think that the situation is that unfolded it was there and it sort of looked terrible but we were able to manage it at that level and any use of force options would have dictated situation then would have dictated what use of force options were used When did the two families come together and sorted it out? When did they sit down and have a chat probably after the initial incident It's escalated from there the involvement of other people social media Are there any meeting plans between elders today? We're planning a meeting with the indigenous community I've been speaking with the elders already We're planning a meeting with the Tongan community probably about midday or 1pm just to try and resolve the situation I said just try and throw a significant amount of oil on the water and just calm it down We haven't really worked out the final details of that yet So that's just a meeting between police and their Tongan role We've been liaising with one group It's only right and appropriate that we deal with the other group and address the issues and try and mediate some sort of peaceful outcome I'd like to be able to open the street up now I'd like to be able to get my people out of here and get this community back to normal back to the way it should be but the circumstances that as they unfold today will dictate when we can and when it's appropriate and when we feel safe it's and we can do it we will open the streets