A full record of Mark's Speeches are available at www.parliament.qld.gov.au
A full record of Mark's Speeches are available at www.parliament.qld.gov.au
Today I attended police headquarters to make an important announcement about protecting our kids right across Queensland. Last year the Palaszczuk government announced $3.2 million to enhance the capabilities of investigators working tirelessly to target those who commit heinous sexual based crimes against children.
Today with the Queensland Police commissioner I welcomed two internationally regarded investigators to the Queensland Police Service as members of Taskforce Orion: Scott Anderson, a digital multimedia forensic analyst who has been working with government agencies across the globe including the US Department of Homeland Security, has joined the team to help fight child exploitation; and Adele Desirs, who has gained an international reputation working with Interpol’s Crimes against Children unit following secondment from her role as a captain in the French police.
Quite often we focus on the arrest of the offender; however, in every depraved act portrayed in these images is a child victim. As the police minister, I will provide the police with whatever resources they need to identify these young kids and get them to safety. Both Adele and Scott’s role with the Queensland Police Service will be focused on the analysis of images and videos seized by police with the aim of identifying child victims within child exploitation material. With the addition of these two skilled investigators I am proud to say that Queensland now has one of the strongest victim identification units in the country, if not the world. It cannot be said enough how excruciatingly difficult a job these officers have, but their meticulous work is something that not only I but all Queenslanders thank them for. There is no doubt that police right across Queensland are working tirelessly to investigate crimes committed against children and they are achieving significant results. This announcement is one more example of how the Palaszczuk government is ensuring that police are appropriately resourced to tackle this issue. I commend the work of Taskforce Orion, and I wish Scott and Adele all the best in their new roles.