 Operation Unification has commenced across all the other states and territories and working in together to get on top of illegal firearms throughout the whole of Australia and send a clear message that the possession of illegal firearms and the activities that are involved in relation to illegal firearms are not contained. Here in Queensland we've already introduced the toughest firearm penalties in the whole of Australia with mandatory sentences from one year up right up to five years for trafficking. We have also implemented through Trevor here from Crime Stoppers as well for the next two months Operation 321 which instigates people to simply ring Crime Stoppers 1-800-333-000, ring up, give their information and hang up. It's quite simple but that little message may save their family member or a loved one from obviously the devastation and the effect of an illegal firearm. Obviously this is targeting the illegal firearms and you can see from having the success of the amnesty in which 19,000 firearms were handed in. It was great cooperation between the Queensland Police Service as well as the firearm dealers throughout the whole of of the state and it's going to continue in not just in Queensland but in partnership with the other states for many years to come because I know the acting commissioner is obviously going to work hard with his counterparts to ensure that these criminals with the changes of unexplained wealth provisions as well as getting tough on firearms sends a clear message if you have an illegal firearm in Queensland you will do time. The community's had enough and we're certainly given the police the legislative enforcement to meet those community expectations. Thanks minister. Look obviously ladies and gentlemen the fact that the police commissioners nationally have endorsed this campaign which is one of the very few national campaigns that are run each year signifies to the community the significance of the issue of illegal firearms in the community. Obviously for Queensland as it is throughout Australia it's not only a community safety issue but an officer safety issue and for both of those reasons we want to ensure that the minimum number of illegal firearms remain out in the community and unaccounted for that's why we're strongly urging members of the community to contact crime stoppers if they have any information about people who are possessing or trafficking illegal firearms. Any information that we get we will act on every single piece of information we get will we investigate it fully and we look forward to getting the sort of results that the minister has talked about from the amnesty period of recovering even more stolen firearms and getting them off the streets. Thanks minister. Yeah and just to add to that we've had record numbers of the community ringing in in the last couple of weeks over 74 people that's nearly three times the amount of people have rang crime stoppers to give information in relation to illegal firearms and it certainly is a great success and we're certainly going to continue this momentum and and make sure that we meet community expectations but send a clear message to criminal elements that you cannot bring your firearms onto the streets of Queensland. So Trevor if you'd like to make comments from the crime stoppers. Thank you minister and as the minister and acting commissioner have said crime stoppers is partnering with them in the three to one campaign to have the community report any information as the acting commissioner said every little piece of information helps when it comes to crime stoppers and importantly we are a community organisation so where the public face working with our fellow community members to capture information and pass it on to the police to date 74 pieces of information after 22 days of the campaign as the minister said that's tripled our daily average that's 53 telephone calls and 21 internet reports so if you as media wish to or anyone of the public wants to follow the campaign visit our prime stoppers website which is qld.crimestoppers.com.au and you can actually see every morning we update those stats for you so that you can see the latest results but the community is obviously participating they're concerned about gun crime and illegal firearms in our community and wish to share information anonymously with crime stoppers through the 1800 triple three triple zero number or the campaign website is easy as three two one dot com dot au. There we go. Questions? Yes. Look it just goes to show the amount of illegal firearms that have been handed in through the amnesty and every member knows that obviously the community that there would be other firearms out there but the message is now people have a distinct choice they can do the right thing and hand those firearms in or they'll be doing jail time and I understand that we had a surge within the last couple of days and when I've spoke to a number of those people to ask them why they handed their firearms in is the simple thing is is previously from other amnesties they knew at the end of the day they would have gotten a penalty of anything from 250 to 350 dollars for possession of a conceivable firearm whereas now they'll be getting mandatory jail sentences and they certainly makes is a greater motivation for people doing the wrong thing by the community to come forward and I thank them for that and now the people who will have no doubt there'll be a certain number that have some form of illegal firearms out there that they know that the law will be there watching you anywhere in any time and if you have caught you will be doing time look it was a broad spectrum right across and you know we had ones from the you know the rocket launch in here down the southeast to the flame throwers and so forth and and the tommy guns right across all areas it was it was it was a broad spectrum and what it goes to show is is that it was a great support from the community to be able to to come forward and present those firearms and also it's a good partnership between the qps and firearms dealers because we've set the bar high the first time in Queensland's history we have a weapons advisory committee and that comes together every couple of months to see how we can get rid of ways red tape and bureaucracy but but maintain a high standard in relation to accountability in the processing there was certainly a broad spectrum right from across from the city to the bush and from the cape down to the tweed and it was great to be able to see that that type of response and and and that clear message coming through once you've provided your information that's the important part about crime stoppers is anonymous so once you've hung up that phone you have a great sense of relief you've passed on what you know people who are told a secret the first thing they want to do is tell someone else so you get on the phone it's really simple pick up the phone tell our operators what you want to tell us what we can get from you while we've got you and hang up it's just demonstrating the three simple steps of and it can take just a couple of minutes out of the day to share information or online it's it's obviously not hanging up but it's generally the term of clearing your browser history and and moving on with your daily activity how do I hang on and get a reward you can't hang on to the call no because crime stoppers isn't a reactive service where we charge down the street with police and and kick in your door information is processed value added to by police officers and intelligence officers and it could take some time for the information you provide to actually be investigated and the results so that code number that we give you during your anonymous call you can ring back six weeks 12 months two years later and then find out actually whether your information did help us to catch a firearm offender or solve the crime and then possibly yes up to $1,000 depending on the seriousness of the crime that's been solved so the $19,000 prize by the number was that sort of what you said oh look it's an improvement on the last time the amnesty was run which was I think just over 10,000 so very pleasing result that we got significantly more than we did last time and got them off the street so I think it's been a fantastic outcome we never quite know what the end is going to be when you start but we're we're very pleased that it's a very high figure that's a great result for us and for the community safety look in general terms I think they're older style weapons that have obviously been kept in families you know sometimes handed down in generations not kept for any you know specifically illegal purpose just people haven't got around to getting rid of them this provided the ideal vehicle to do that safely there would have to be thousands of more firearms out there and we're not naive to think that there isn't but there is deterrence in place now and penalties in place to make people realize and I think that was one of the aspects that we got out of this amnesty is that people who may have had a firearm that was illegal in their possession that they realized that there is more severe penalties in place and they took the opportunity to either register that firearm and do the right thing because it's not just the you know from a policing perspective as well it's not just the illegal firearms we've got to make sure that we maintain the safety and security of legal firearms as well and that side of the community does a great job in that and I think the more that we have of illegal firearms or not licensed firearms being given to an opportunity of a break and enter or a stealing and so forth and they're having that opportunist crime of coming across a firearm reduced I think that's a great benefit to all of the community and I certainly do thank all members of the community have participated and done the right thing now what will happen in through from that there's a number of items there that they will then be licensed because obviously you could imagine that having those items as illegal and people possibly trying to hide them away and keep them away from authorities increase the opportunity of them actually being stolen by the wrong element and by doing this because if they came into the hands of the wrong element is they could certainly cause severe damage a rocket launchers capacity go through two feet of concrete and and nine inches of metal and it would be quite catastrophic in the hands of the wrong people but now we were able to to get them either rendered inoperable and be able to find out exactly where they are and be make sure that they're stored in a safe place and less opportunity for an offense to develop yeah there was approximately a bit over 13th and a half thousand firearms to be registered and that that was it was very pleasing to see that because obviously these people had the capacity to be able to have their firearms registered but obviously they didn't have the motivation and in some ways it's disappointed that they didn't have that motivation and it took law changes and mandatory sentences to shock them into reality of the of of the risk that they're putting at the rest of the community so I'm very happy that they have you guys check the statistics at all to see if they're involved in any crimes they certainly do look yeah I know we do we do that periodically with firearms and checks of stolen firearms or firearms that have been involved there has been a number of firearms a small number I'm talking about a handful of firearms already that have been subject to stolen property investigations and I'm pleased to following that up yeah thanks minister look obviously a shocking and sickening crime we monitor events all over the world in in our preparation for G20 a sort of attack that no one could have foreseen until it happened but we look at all of these aspects the motivation behind them how they're carried out what lessons we can learn from them so yes we we look at every element of every offense that's gone on around the world and factor that into our planning for G20 and I can certainly say from from my side as a minister as well we have regular briefs we are well ahead of of all our planning phases in relation to the cooperation and coordination both on state and federal level from all risk out angles and we have a team under Assistant Commissioner Katerina Carroll who is certainly advanced in ensuring that we have all possible scenarios task and and it will be a it'll be a magnificent event for Queensland and I'm sure that we'll have the resources and the motivation then and the people in place to to cover all those unexpected circumstances and that's what all those planning phases are currently doing look I think you see extreme you know whether it be the Boston marathon we saw the other day and I think they highlight the the the importance of having all of that planning and preparation in place before an event and people may look and say why are we doing these things and it's great to have a crystal ball and hindsight afterwards but I know the police are doing an immense amount of planning for any possible things I know when we see this particular instance you know I haven't seen all the details yet but I think everyone's seen it on on YouTube or in any forms of the media and it is shocking and it sends a chill through people to see the callous way and the way in which ordinary you know perceived members of their community have an extreme view and manifest that by by such vicious acts that and that is repulsive to anyone in the community and but I can assure you that from the Queensland Police Service it is one of the most professional police services in the world and I have great faith that they can they could meet any planned or or or any particular you know disaster or event that can come their way we are constantly updating our security strategies and our planning in the lead up to G20 and and more broadly we meet as the minister said very regularly with our state and federal colleagues to share intelligence about terrorist threats some of which are obvious some of them not so obvious and we're in a constant state of readiness and preparedness for any event particularly our focus is obviously on G20 for next year it's such a significant event globally but we take all of the incidents that have occurred including the Boston Marathon bombing and today's very savage attack we treat them very carefully and we consider their context within the Queensland environment and we are always constantly reviewing our plans accordingly yeah look we we are constantly reviewing and everything is fluid and assumptions that we make every day about how we're going to react are shaped by events as they occur so we're not rigid in terms of our security planning we're very reactive and flexible and take note of these things and the implications they have for us for our security planning and that will continue every single day until we get to the 14th of November 2014 and not specifically no but I know that all of the drug operations particularly in the smaller regional towns the impact of local drug dealing is every bit as significant as it is in the cities and in many cases more significant because the impact of illegal drugs on people's lives is very well known so it doesn't matter whether it's in Warwick to Womba Brisbane the Gold Coast Townsville Cairns the illegal drug trade destroys communities and ruins the lives of people and that's why at the state drug squad and in regional policing we put a very high emphasis as was identified in the illicit drug report released by the ACC last week the effort that Queensland has put into drug detection we're leading the leading the country we're very proud of that and we make no apologies for it yeah there's there's a couple of phases to do that okay is obviously when we came into government we changed legislation in relation to the evade police powers taking it from a mere fine up to over five thousand dollars and losing your license for two years we then introduced the honing legislation to impact in relation to making sure there was there were severe penalties and that your car would be crushed and confiscated because all this leads into the scientific and the and the and the information that we have got from academia is that you need proper sentences and you need forceful sentences to send a clear message to those people who we think about taking off from police that there is a deterrent in there what we've also said is that whilst we look at the the police pursuit uh obviously uh memory uh sorry the pursuit powers is that we would review them uh in the coming well basically in the coming years okay so I've always said we'd look at that to see how we can make it better we'll maybe change legislation to even make it stronger but there's loss of one innocent life on the road has to be taken into account and that's what we'll always do now there's a lot of misconceptions going out there amongst the community even amongst a number of police officers there is a there is nothing there is not a no pursuit policy it is a managed pursuit policy and uh obviously we don't want to put the lives of officers or the general community at risk at any time um I think that's a that's quite entitled to the comment but the reality is is that's why we have a managed pursuit policy that works in in relation to addressing the the hazards and some of these decisions are made made in split seconds to make sure that we can get the best outcome for everybody involved now if someone is uh is stealing a loaf of bread from the shop and they then are pursued by police and the death is ensued I'm I'm sure that we are quite a different focus on on a pursuit on a pursuit policy and that's why we've got to have a balanced approach and that's why every 12 months we sit down with the commissioner myself and and the executive to go through uh the the policies not just pursuit policies but right across the board look we'll be looking at it towards the end of this year yeah commissioner stewart has already committed in the past to having a review of the policy within the next six months well once we have sufficient data and he's committed to that but as the minister said the really important statistic to keep in mind here is a sensory introduction of the new policy not one single member of the community or a police officer has been killed in a police pursuit compare that with what occurred in the previous years I think that's an outstanding outcome for the community and that's meant the police have not had to turn up and deliver death messages to people about the death of their husband father wife brother who have been killed accidentally as collateral damage in a police pursuit oh look certainly I've had over 20 years in the police force before going into politics and I I certainly understand uh you know uh but the end of the day we you know we haven't got crystal balls or hindsight we have to look in what's in front of us and make the best decisions and uh have the best policy at hand and that's why we said we'd look at it like in a grown-up way to say uh and not in a reactive way to say we'll see we'll assess this and that's why like those laws when when I talked about the honing laws there right if you could imagine an operational shift officer for honing laws under the present scheme it was taking eight hours to process one hoon now they'll be able to be processed with anything in 20 to 30 minutes so from an organisational or imagine an officer in charge of a station that person now has the capacity to get on with you know other ways to to reduce those dangers to you know to get on and get other other other police responses instead of being tied up behind a desk doing paperwork for eight hours and I think that will change a whole different uh culture and perspective towards uh towards policing because we're actually going to you know with the technology that we're bringing forward and introducing towards towards the end of this year police will be be be able to have a more hands-on approach and they won't be I rest assured they won't be doing the paperwork that they're doing now to justify their their actions yeah there's no doubt it is a significant issue amongst rank and file officers their uh instinctive wish is to catch criminals and bring them to justice that's what we train them for and that's I totally understand that but the key question for the community has to remain is the death of an innocent person an innocent motorist a price that the community is prepared to pay for the unfettered right of police to pursue and that's that's a question we've got a grapple with and it's a question that the community also needs to think about you know it's a very high price to pay for an innocent person to be killed uh because the police have an unfettered right to pursue and that's the the fine balance we've got to continue to work on