Subject: National Police Remembrance Day.
PETER DUTTON:
It’s been a real honour to be here today. Right across the country Australians stop and pause to remember those who wore the uniform and who lost their lives, and today especially, we remember all of those family members, who in many cases, will never recover from the loss of their loved ones.
We live in the greatest country in the world, and a big part of that is because we have a civil society, and that’s because of the police officers who wear the uniform of our respective police forces around the country. They keep us safe, they run into harm’s way to make sure that we are safe and in many cases they prevent crimes from happening.
So, today we honour all of those officers who have lost their lives and we really stop, pause and say thank you to those officers who sacrifice a lot in their own family lives to keep us safe and to keep our country great.
QUESTION:
Being a former serving police officer yourself in the Queensland Police Service, Opposition Leader – the 29th of September, what emotions go through your mind?
PETER DUTTON:
I think for any former police officer it’s a time when you reflect back. You think of the funerals that you’ve attended of police officers, the grieving widows and the kids who were at those funerals. You see a lot of old friends and catch up, talk about those old times and I think it really stops people in their tracks and rightly so.
I think people today should stop a police officer and say thank you for what they did and it’s a time to pause and say thank you. We all lead busy lives, but this day, every year we stop and say thank you.
QUESTION:
How special is it to see the march return?
PETER DUTTON:
I just think it’s one of those signs of life returning back to normal, post COVID.
This is a very significant day in the calendar, and it should be celebrated with a march. It really highlights in the CBD – not just here in Brisbane, but around the country – the respect that the public has for people in uniform and the Queensland police officers here are held in very high regard, because they sacrifice a lot, and they keep us safe, and we are very grateful for that.
QUESTION:
Opposition Leader, just in terms of the Optus hack, we now see that businesses would be fined millions and millions of dollars for not protecting their customers data. Questions will now be raised as to whether the Coalition dragged its heels for five years on not passing that legislation. Your response to those comments?
PETER DUTTON:
I just think given the memorial today, I’m not going to take questions on other issues, but I’m happy if you put it through to my office, we’ll provide some comment.
Thank you.
[ends]