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Questions Without Notice Questions without notice are asked of Ministers and answered during Question Time.
Mr LAWLOR: My question is directed to the Minister for Police and Corrective Services. At Easter the minister launched two new highway patrol cars for police. At the time the minister said that the trial over Easter would be fully evaluated. Can the minister reveal what results these cars obtained and whether they were a success?
Ms SPENCE: I thank the member for Southport for his interest in this matter. He, like other members of parliament, was present when the Premier and I unveiled the two new highway patrol cars just before Easter. These two new, bright blue V8 Holden Commodores, with their bright chequered markings, were very busy over the Easter holiday period. I am pleased to report that over that 4-day period those cars travelled 9,173 kilometres on the highways from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast and then up to Toowoomba.
I did a bit of driving myself over Easter and I saw them on a number of occasions. I also saw other highway patrol cars. Over the Easter break the police breath-tested over 100 drivers. The police tell me that public reaction to the cars was very positive, even by those who were issued infringement notices. I am sure the police would wish that was the case every time they issued an infringement notice.
The officers who were assigned to these cars focused on dangerous, illegal and life-threatening behaviour over the Easter period, as they do all the time. They are continually targeting speeding and drink-driving. The police say that the trial over Easter was very successful. Today I am pleased to announce that we are going to put those highly visible highway patrol cars in every police region throughout the state so that every region will have a highly visible marked highway patrol car by Christmas this year. Members will remember that the reason the cars were blue on this occasion was that they were the only two identically coloured cars that we could get in a V8 Holden Commodore at short notice at the beginning of the year. The police are still considering the future colour of the highway patrol cars. As members could imagine, there is much debate over the most appropriately coloured car that we are going to go with in the future.
Mr Schwarten: What about pink?
Ms SPENCE: I can tell the minister for public works that colours such as yellow and lime green are being hotly debated, but not pink.
The Queensland Police Service, like the Queensland government, is certainly committed to reducing our road toll. Any death or injury on our roads is unacceptable. We have a good story to tell in terms of reducing the road toll over the last decade. I believe that these highly visible cars, which are meant to act as a deterrent and which are meant to remind people to slow down, will be an important feature in highway traffic patrols in the future. Last changed: [PUBLISHED_DATE] at 12:00 AM
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