 Today we are launching the Queensland Police Service Road Safety Campaign for Christmas New Year period and also unveiling four high performance vehicles which are behind me. These are the first four of its type in Australia. High performance and the Commissioner can give more details on those in a moment. Last year 32 Queensland has lost their lives on Queensland roads during the Christmas holiday period. 32 too many. We know on average five to six people will lose their lives every week over this Christmas holiday period. That's far too many and it doesn't need to happen. We know that if people follow four basic rules, don't speed, don't drink and drive, wear your seat belt and don't drive tired, we will dramatically reduce the road toll. It's not rocket science, it's simple rules, simple messages and if we could just get Queenslanders every time they get behind the wheel to obey those basic rules we'll save more and more lives this Christmas. There will be lots of people out on the road over the holiday period, lots of children all the more reason to be extra cautious when people get behind the wheel and again it's simple rules which can save many lives. I'd like to ask the Commissioner to say a few words and we're happy to answer questions. Thanks Minister and can I thank you at the outset for your continued support for us for this. Last year was a record low year in Queensland. 249 people were killed on Queensland roads and the rate was the lowest ever and the number was the lowest ever since statistics started to be kept in 1952. Sadly this year we're already at 247 and we're 18 more than we were last year so inevitably and unavoidably this year we'll see a significant increase in the road toll. What's particularly disturbing is that in the last 35 days there's been 36 deaths on Queensland roads which has been an increase over what it's been so far this year. It's been out at about 21 deaths for every 28 days each month so we're really concerned about that. The Minister's message is right, the fatal four is still the fatal four. It's speeding, drink driving, fatigue and not wearing seat belts and as well what we ask as well is that just people over this time where the roads are busier that they just be patient and courteous as well the time you will save in your journey by speeding and driving recklessly or dangerously and overtaking unnecessarily is so minimal that it's clearly not worth the risk. So we thank you for your support for this. Last year was a record year this year won't be which is really regrettable. What we need to do now is minimise the road toll as much as possible in December and January. We have asked all our commanders statewide, our police managers statewide to get every possible officer, every possible vehicle on the roads in December and January so that we can finish this year in the best possible way and minimise the carnage on the roads and that we can start 2012 in January in the best possible way as well. So our plea today is to every one of the three million motorists in Queensland to do those four things. Don't speed, don't drink and drive, wear your seat belt, don't drive while you're fatigued and as well beyond that, beyond that, please be patient, patient and courteous with other road users. Thanks very much, we're happy to take questions. Oh sorry, can I just add to that as the Minister mentioned. These four vehicles you see behind you, these four Holden special vehicles and we're not in the business of course of promoting any motor vehicle company but we are grateful to GMH and the Holden special vehicle team to put these together. These four vehicles have specially been designed and engineered as a police highway patrol vehicle. There's only four in Australia. We're going to replace them at around 35,000 kilometres which is less than the normal time. We'll have another four. As you can see obviously they stand out, they're a bright yellow colour and we're hopeful that the fatal four, the four vehicles, this predominant colour will help again in helping get the message out to the community through the media and we thank you for that and afterwards, as we did last year, we're going to do a photo shoot by arrangement of these four vehicles on the road but we do thank the Holden special vehicles team of GMH and there is someone here from GMH if you want to talk to that person later in terms of the detailed specifications of the vehicles but as I said, we can't engage in the commercial enterprise, we don't sponsor or advertise companies but these are unique, they're special, there's only four in all of Australia. Where will they be deployed? Throughout the state. In the south-east corner mainly but throughout the state over time. They're being replaced by about 35,000. Is that mean you're going to get another four? Yes, yes. We want to turn them over as quickly as possible. Normally we replace vehicles at around 40,000 plus but just because of the impact we think these will have and hopefully the impression on the public mind, as you can see they really do stand out and we think that having them on the roads and highways particularly will be just a really good message. Is the same as the manufacturing of the Americans at the moment? No, I don't know. The gentleman from GMH could probably answer that. What I do know is that these are unique to Queensland and Australia. There are only four of these vehicles made to this specification. They're referred to as HSR which is Holden's special response for response for police response. So certainly now we have no problem if other states and other police jurisdictions want to engage and get these vehicles as well. That would be great. But these are the only four in Australia at the moment. Did the QPS have input into designing? We did. It was a joint exercise between the company and our people at the police garage. What's different about these to the others? I'll leave someone else to talk about that but my understanding is that essentially it relates to the handling and the engine performance. We've had lots of multiple fatalities in recent times. How will these four vehicles stop that type of large-scale accident? That's a really good point and regrettably that's happened this year compared to last year and we've had two in recent times. Three young people killed up at the Witsundays in the Prosper Pine area, two 17 and one 18 just at the start of Scurlies. And just more recently a woman and her two very, very young infant children killed in Central Queensland. And whilst every life is precious what we didn't have last year was that number of multiple deaths. Look, these will help I think right across the board. There's nothing specifically we can do. I mean you can have a car with three or five people in it that can be involved in a multiple fatality. The messages are the same. The messages are the same. One of the real tragedies about this is just about every one of these fatalities is avoidable. They needn't happen. They needn't happen. And it's just a question of following those basic concepts again. If I could have speed, drink driving, wearing seatbelts and not driving while you fatigued and being patient and courteous. Can you put more covert cars on? I mean these are stand out but you're probably doing pretty well with the ones that don't stand out in terms of catching people. We are and that's very much part of it. And as he said the three approaches to this are pretty consistent. It's enforcement and these are about enforcement and the unmarked ones are as well. It's about education, changing public behaviour and it's about engineering. And we've seen some great gains in engineering as well in recent years. Vehicles are clearly a lot safer than they were 20 or 30 years ago. And the engineering has satiated with a whole range of things I think in terms of the ability. And I'm a great supporter of speed cameras. I'm happy to discuss and debate that at any time. I truly believe that speed cameras have made a positive impact in reducing the road time. So will you have more covert cars on the road? Do you think this Christmas? We'll have as many covert vehicles out there as we can. We are going to get every possible vehicle, every possible officer onto the roads to try and minimise the deaths and injury in December and get 2012 off to the best possible start that we can. Does that include COV officers? It does. It includes traffic branch personnel throughout the state. It includes general duties, uniformed officers and it includes plain clothes personnel as well. Can I just make a comment about the speed camera program? Whether it be the fixed cameras, the mobile cameras or indeed the covert cameras, the figures are showing us that the rates of detection are coming down and that's a good thing. It's still far too high, but in all of those categories of speed camera enforcement, the rates of detection are lowering. The other issue about the tragedies which have been occurring over the last few weeks, in the last 35 days we've had 36 deaths. That's just over one a day. This is an awful tragedy, a trauma which should not be happening on our roads and again we just simply plead with people over the Christmas New Year period to take it easy on the roads, don't drink, don't drive at speed, wear your seatbelt and don't drive tired. Simple basic rules which can help reduce the road toll. Out of the last month you say that the rise in road deaths, is there any one of the fatal four that's been more common than others in those deaths? Commissioner might make a few comments as well, but there's clear evidence that speeding is a factor in the large majority of crashes. We know simply people are prepared to stick to the speed limit, make a conscious decision to actually stick to the speed limit, whether it be in their local suburban roads or out on the highway, we can reduce the road toll dramatically. And I actually personally believe that people making a conscious choice to stick to the speed limit also impacts on their desire as to abide by the other road rules as well. So they're simple rules, it's not rocket science, it's pretty basic, we can reduce the road toll by people just using their common sense. How far? Well these cars will predominantly be in the southeast corner but they can be deployed elsewhere. But again, whether it be these bright yellow vehicles, these high performance vehicles or the other high performance cars or visible cars that the police service use, police will be able to enforce all over Queensland during the Christmas New Year period. The basic philosophy for road rule enforcement now is anywhere, anytime, whether that be visible enforcement or covert enforcement with speed cameras. Commissioner, most of the multi-potality accidents have been outside of the southeast corner, would you consider moving these up more? Oh absolutely, I think this is part of the package, this concept of high visibility vehicles and we're grateful to the media for your support for this. As you know we've been doing this for a number of years now, we started with two blue, dark blue cars which were launched some years ago. Then we went to the red ones and since then we've gone to multi-coloured vehicles but never yellow, they're bright yellow like this and we've been limited in that and I mean the production and paint job that we've been able to use for this. Last year we had the four black ones and this year the bright yellow ones and I'm pleased that these vehicles were available in this colour because this is the standout colour in terms of visibility and for that matter, public safety as well. Can I just go back to that other question? That increase in fatalities, the fact that we've had 36 and 35 days, all of those matters are under investigation but I can say to you, almost without doubt that every one of those fatalities involve the fatal four and in particular they involve speed, they involve speed. The statistical review that came out the other day showed I think alcohol is still the main contributing factor in all of you. You're right, the speed, alcohol are untaking when it's clearly unsafe to do so. They're such basic things but they still are the major contributing factor. OK, if there's nothing else, thanks very much. What we'll do, I'll just get someone to please me.