 Good afternoon everyone, if everyone's ready what I'd like to do is just read out a few things and and then I'll just open the floor up to questions if that's okay cool with that well ladies and gentlemen as of midnight tonight I will become the 19th Commissioner of the Queensland Police Service only the 19th in 148 years I'm very very proud to have been chosen to take that role on I understand the accountability and the transparency that will come with that role and I'm looking forward to working with the community but more most importantly with all of the members of the Queensland Police Service to provide excellent policing to this state in doing that I'm going to provide three directions to my staff I'm going to challenge them to stop crime to make the community safer and to build relationships across the community and within the Queensland Police Service in doing so I'm going to ask all of our police and our members to strive to be courageous to be fair and to be proud these are important characteristics that I expect my staff will embody and provide to the community every day my support for my staff has been questioned in recent times every day I attend public meetings I attend meetings of our staff at functions all over the state and on every occasion I thank our staff for the work that they do in what is a very very complex environment I hope that all members of our organization will look to my record all of my record in the way that I look to them to provide that service excellence on a daily basis and I do that by providing them with the appropriate training the appropriate equipment and the appropriate support that they need to do that what is a very very complex job I'm happy to take questions from from any of you yeah it's a great it's a great new nickname and I actually like it I'm very grateful to Ian Leavis for it I'm probably cycling would have been better but I'll go with Hurricane at the moment look we've got some rocky days ahead there's no doubt about it Ian's a great friend of mine I've known him for a long time and I've had a very productive and professional working relationship with him as I as I have with all the unions and tomorrow morning I intend to ring Ian I intend to ring John pointing who is the president of the Commissioned Officers Union and I intend to talk to Alex Scott of the Together Union to start that dialogue for me in my new role to talk to them consult with them on issues which I think are important for our organization into the future he made a range of statements that came from comments that I've made over the last couple of weeks in in in media conferences just like this and one of the issues with media conferences is that I have no control over what you print or what you report on even though they may go for some time you choose the issues that you want to get out there and I'm fine with that that's the role of media but I hope that particularly my staff my members of the Queensland Police Service will use their common sense in judging me judging what I stand for and judging the way that I represent a whole range of issues that I want to take forward during the next few years as the Commissioner of this great organization look I think that the Union has a very very vital role to play in representing the issues that are important that they think are important to the membership but again I would just say that I hope that people will use their common sense to make their judgments themselves on how I have behaved and how I have acted over a long period of time I think I've demonstrated that I'm a decisive person I have very very strong standards and and this is not about people who perhaps make mistakes who errors that are minor in nature I actually believe that most discipline issues in this organization could be handled by local bosses right on the spot with the appropriate recording and that's going to be a very important factor for the future in trying to allow people just to perhaps get some counseling or if they're not right for it if they haven't committed it the breach or the error of the complaint then there are processes that we can go through to show that they should be exonerated from any complaint that's made in that regard so there are always two sides to this story but if there has been a mistake and it's an honest mistake let's let's get the counseling let's get the guidance and let's get on with our job at the other end of the spectrum though we do have those who who don't meet the standards I believe are necessary to remain in this organization and I will be talking to the government about my ability through a commissioners confidence to actually be able to quickly and decisively ask people to show cause why they remain now there are checks and balances in in all of that there is administrative law there are appeal processes and I have no problem with that at all because I think that they're the rights when people are talking about their employment but there are definite standards that that I have and I think the community expect of us that people will have to meet every day look we're heading into an eb arrangement I think I'm the new boy on the block and and I think that there's a bit more of this to come yet it's that settling in period and I understand that I accept it I've been in this organization a long time and I've changed jobs numerous times in the organization as you move into a new role you've got to prove yourself and I have to do that comfortable are you with the politics of the role already having to deal with the union the police that came out today and danced around the subject oh well they're entitled there I mean you're a you're a policeman your leader your whole standards but there's politics involved too is there's always politics and the police commissioner's role fundamentally is about keeping politics away from the operational day-to-day work of our organization and I expect that I'll have many of these types of challenges into the future and as I said we're coming up to an eb negotiation for the organization so I suspect there'll be a lot of posturing going on and and I understand that I have no problem with absolutely the government have flagged as they have flagged to every public sector organization that they want to see greater performance greater efficiencies more innovation I think we're up for that as an organization I really do I get a sense that the organization's ready for change we are already doing work on looking at structural reform we've had the same framework and structure for the last almost 25 years ever since Fitzgerald there were there were issues then that drove the plans and the framework and the structure which no longer exist and what I want to be able to go to government with is a very consolidated plan with I hope the unions support for it to look at ways that we can do things better that we can actually get the front line greater number of police back on that front line to do to do the job that the public expect us to do I think one of the greatest things and probably one of the most underestimated roles that we play is simply being visible out there every day so that the criminals know that we're there and that certainly they don't chance their arm they don't commit the offences simply because the police are out on the on the job and of course we use intelligence based policing to achieve that that's my goal to get more police out onto that front line in a way that the government I think has an expectation on behalf of the community what you mean by wanting to have the ability to ask particular officers to show cause at the moment about the only way that a person can leave this organization is either by resigning or through a often very very protracted discipline process I think there are circumstances where the evidence is so clear that I think that the the commissioner should have the right to simply call on that person to show cause why they should remain in other words they have to argue their case about what occurred now please this is not again this is not one-sided I suspect that any any power like that would come with an appeal process of checks and balances and I'm more than comfortable in in talking to the government about that and how that would operate but I do believe that we waste so much time as an organization putting together a brief of evidence which would boggle boggle most people's minds just to simply say to someone you haven't met our standards and I'm talking I'm not talking about officers who turn up late or not wearing a uniform or who who may be accused of being rude to the public I'm not talking about that at all 99% of our people go to work every day just to do the best job that they possibly can but like everyone they're human beings they make mistakes sometimes at the and those mistakes if they're little mistakes they're easily dealt with in my opinion but the high-end stuff the stuff that's quasi-criminal or actually criminal I think that there comes a time where an organization should be able to say you don't meet our standards look there are many examples of this around the country Western Australia and New South Wales have a commissioners confidence some I think the legislation needs to be quite strong legislation because it's more an administrative law it's not actually in the criminal law that this occurs and it would simply be the power to show cause in person in other words ask them to explain why they should stay in the organization when there is evidence of serious misconduct look over time I have actually sacked a range of people in this organization through discipline through the discipline process and that is true of my brother and sister deputies before me I would rather wear the cases very clear instead of waste wasting often months of effort and time to be able to do this very very quickly and you know with some with a level of respect for the organization but also the individuals involved there's always victims in these in these matters taking a person's employment away is a very serious thing and I understand that but I think there comes a time and all of you would have experienced this in your organizations where people cross the line and they don't deserve to be part of the organization because they won't meet the standards I think that's sort of already happened hasn't it I was very interested in that I think what Ian was talking about was the prefit sterile type times where there was a suggestion that senior officers would corrupt senior officers would silence junior officers by simply sending them off to the out to the woods so to speak in other words transferring people to places that weren't as nice as the Gold Coast or the Sunshine Coast I think that's what he's actually talking about but again I think the environment has shifted so far and the accountability and the transparency of our organization has shifted so far since those days I I perhaps don't consider there is a risk of that occurring certainly certainly I would be suggesting if there was a an issue of Commissioner's confidence that there would be checks and balances and it may be as it may actually be that I don't make the decision I simply ask a tribunal to enact that confidence or enact my request for the show cause that's possible to know well yeah I mean I didn't understand and I haven't spoken to Ian he hasn't explained to me exactly what he was talking about so I can't overly comment on that but I think he was talking about those corrupt times where officers would be punished for doing virtually nothing wrong for perhaps being even morally correct and and quite ethical I think as I said I think I'm the new boy on the block and this is a testing time I think the Union probably seeing where how far they can go with me in terms of talking to their members and that's what they did yesterday but of course it also got into the papers I actually think that the best way forward is in a partnership I think the Union have a lot to offer in working with me as the Commissioner to to enhance the the workplace for our people I've talked about a healthy a more healthy police service and I said right from day one that if you do that it would be a longer term process where you would consult with all the unions and you get the backing scientific evidence that was my claim right from day one unfortunately that that information probably wasn't accurately depicted to Ian and he made the claims he did I think he calls it thought bubble policing but if I as the Commissioner and can't float these types of the ideas to the community as well as to my people then I think it'll be a very sorry place I mean part of this is testing the waters across from my perspective as well to see which issues will will gain traction and acceptance and like the rest of the community I think we're all much more focused on our on our health and well-being and I would hope that over time that I can put in place programs and structures to assist our police to motivate our police and all members of the organization to be fitter and healthier I think there are huge benefits for the community if I do that takeover at midnight on Halloween and you've previously some left in the middle of a store driving right do you believe in owners no not at all that was these things happen I've been in many storms throughout my career and I'm really looking forward to the next period but I said earlier there are going to be changes and they're not going to be easy there will always be those who who would prefer it to be the way it's always been but society and the environment in which we work is moving so rapidly now that we actually have to paddle very very hard to keep up and and to get ahead of that and that's what I want to take the organization absolutely I think a leader who's who is a do as I say but not as I do is it is an abject failure and I try every day I work very very hard to maintain the standards I talk about and certainly those characteristics that I talk about in terms of courage and fairness and pride I'm going to need them more than ever in this new role he said enjoy the ride absolutely and great advice amongst other things but that's probably the most important thanks everyone