2018 award recipients

In early 2017, the Department of Housing and Public Works began exploring options for the relocation of the Fortitude Valley Housing Service Centre, triggered by the imminent expiry of its property lease.

Providing housing assistance to people in need involves a complex set of service interactions across multiple government and community partners. Facing such a system-wide challenge required a collaborative and transdisciplinary approach. The decision was therefore made to co-design the new centre. The project included a six-week focus period incorporating staff workshops, in-depth interviews, brainstorming sessions and workshops with clients, community providers and senior stakeholders.

The ideas and feedback from stakeholders were used in the final design of the new office, and has resulted in a housing service centre that truly meets the needs of the Queenslanders who visit the centre and the staff who work there, and makes it easier for customers to access information and services. This is reflected in the overwhelmingly positive feedback from both clients and staff, and the accolades received from the community. In the first three months of operation, the centre received a feedback rating of “excellent” by 100 per cent of clients.

The Speak Up, Be Strong, Be Heard project has demonstrated exceptional commitment to child protection in Far North Queensland since its implementation in June 2016. Due to the success of a six-month trial of the project in the communities of West Cairns and Aurukun, the project was extended into all discrete Indigenous communities in Cape York and the Torres Strait.

The project increases community awareness by incorporating delivery of tailored presentations with participation in community engagement activities and use of promotional materials. Community ownership of child protection is encouraged throughout the delivery of the project, through a whole-of-community approach.

The project is led by two Indigenous police officers, which has greatly enhanced engagement and delivery with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities, and also ensured the project was developed and implemented in a culturally appropriate manner. The presentations are delivered in partnership with the Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women to community members and representatives from government and non-government agencies. The project team has engaged with more than ten thousand community members to raise awareness and promote the key messages of the project since the initial project period.

The Commonwealth Games Business Support (CGBS) team comprising both Public Safety Business Agency (PSBA) and Queensland Police Service (QPS) police officers and staff members, planned and delivered corporate services to the 3700 plus police and public safety contingent deployed to the 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) while also providing support to their home agencies. CGBS services were highly customer-focussed and innovative, and demonstrated the team’s exemplary leadership delivering outstanding performance from planning through to delivery. GC2018 was highly significant for both agencies as it involved the longest police deployment in one of the most complex, decentralised operations in the QPS’ history.

Underpinning CGBS’ success was the forging of new and effective relationships between QPS, PSBA, federal agencies, private business and community groups, culminating in the formation of multi-agency approaches to delivery. These relationships translated further into achievement of economies of scale in several areas such as procurement, accommodation and technology.

Innovative approaches, especially those leveraging technology and multi-channels, resulted in strong positive feedback from agency deployees in terms of communications and engagement not previously seen on the same scale in major projects, change processes or deployments. Development of joint innovative solutions such as the accreditation system and workforce management business intelligence tool, will have long-term legacy benefits and potential for application in novel situations.

Following a 2015 state election commitment, the Queensland Government opened the $21 million Reparations Scheme in December 2015 to further address the longstanding historical issue of the control of wages and savings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders. This important initiative represents the first commitment from any state or territory government in Australia to offer reparation for past injustices regarding the control of wages and savings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The scheme acknowledges the historical injustices of the controls as part of healing and is one of Queensland’s strongest ever reconciliation gestures.

The Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships’ Reparations Team was established to administer the scheme, predominantly through frontline services, liaising with the community by phone, email, post and face-to-face. The team has fielded more than 100,000 calls, or an average of 100 plus calls per day.

The team has processed more than 12,000 claims and as at 4 July 2018, has processed more than $20 million in reparations payments for eligible claimants. Final applications are currently being processed with the full $21 million funding expected to be distributed before the end of September 2018.

The Solar for Public Housing trial was designed to test new business models to deliver solar to public housing with no upfront capital costs for customers or the Queensland Government. The project was also designed to give access to solar for people who may not otherwise be able to obtain its benefits, therefore unlocking a new market segment. A further benefit was the project being able to contribute to the Queensland Government’s renewable energy targets, including one million rooftops or 3000 megawatts by 2020, and 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

By partnering with the Department of Housing and Public Works, more than 800 homes in Cairns and Rockhampton received solar, which is enabling vulnerable electricity customers to reduce their electricity costs.

The project also encompassed installing solar in the Lockhart River Aboriginal Community—a 200kW solar system and a battery was installed across council buildings and the Lockhart River State School. A total of 130 households in Lockhart became eligible for $100 worth of pre-paid energy cards to help offset the cost of their electricity bills.

Energy Queensland has control of systems to ensure a smooth integration with existing electricity infrastructure. This system delivers 10 per cent of the Lockhart community’s overall energy needs and a significant proportion of its daytime load. The Strategic Futures Energy team was committed to delivering high standards of policy and program development and implementation to better support Queensland's sustainable energy future.

Serious casualties at intersections with operating traffic lights account for approximately 11 per cent of all serious casualties on Queensland roads. Over the past five years, there have been more than 3000 people hospitalised and 42 people killed at signalised intersections in Queensland, representing a social cost of more than $2 billion. One of the primary causes of crashes at signalised intersections is vehicles entering an intersection on a red light.

In an Australian first, the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) and the Queensland Police Service (QPS) are trialling innovative radar technology to reduce collisions at signalised intersections by implementing technology that detects cars about to run a red light. The concept, ‘Hold the Red’, was one of the four winning ideas from TMR’s DG’s innovation challenge in 2017.

In a joint TMR Hack submission with the QPS, the team proposed trialling the active collision prevention system, Hold the Red, to detect an approaching speeding vehicle that is going to run the red light. The traffic control system is then triggered to prevent the opposing lights and pedestrian signals from turning green and mitigating the risk of a crash. The Queensland trial involved four complex intersections and commenced at the end of July 2018.

The Digital and Telecommunications Investigation (DTI) team within the Queensland Police Service (QPS) Homicide Group was initiated due to the evolving nature of digital evidence. This significant project, driven by Detective Sergeant Adam Riley, is transforming QPS’s ability to identify, interpret and use digital evidence.

Detective Sergeant Riley developed innovative tools, investigative techniques and strategies to acquire digital evidence from various sources. The capabilities developed are now widely used across the QPS, and by other law enforcement agencies, for gathering and using vital evidence to resolve the most serious of crimes committed.

The datasets made available by the tools and techniques developed have proven pivotal in advancing an investigation and either supporting or refuting the evidence of a witness or a suspect. The positive and significant impact on investigations into serious and major crime has been identified and acknowledged service wide. Police services across the nation are developing their own team capability based on the successful model initiated. The training initiatives have significantly improved service wide knowledge and capability in the use of digital investigative techniques.

Hailo is a multi-layered solution to alleviate the disconnect between passengers hailing a bus and bus drivers. This disconnect frequently results in vulnerable passengers, particularly people with vision and mobility impairments, children and elderly people, being left behind at the bus stop at a substantial cost to their safety and wellbeing.

Hailo proposes a technological solution using an app to establish a direct connection between the customer and bus driver. The technological solution will be supported by an education and communication campaign aimed at target customer groups and the bus industry, along with an increased presence of TransLink’s Customer Liaison Officers and volunteers at key trouble spots identified through Hailo’s research.

TMR’s leadership team has committed to implementing Hailo as part of the recently-announced Next Generation Ticketing project. Industry engagement with bus operators, contractors and unions will commence this financial year, with technical specifications and builds to be incorporated in the Next Generation Ticketing early-rollout trials in 2019 and 2020. The app pilot will follow in 2021.

The QPS LGBTI Support Network was founded in 2016 as an innovative QPS endorsed program to generate a greater understanding and inclusion of QPS members within this often-marginalised group. As the network established itself internally, members reached out to external stakeholders to begin repairing relationships long-forgotten between the QPS and the Queensland LGBTI community. During this process, network members identified an opportunity to not only empower and influence Queensland’s youth, but to show the world the QPS values and endorses inclusiveness and diversity.

This resulted in the production of the QPS 'It Gets Better' video, released on 25 August 2017 on Wear it Purple Day—capturing the struggles, confusion, pain, hope and encouragement of QPS officers undergoing their own journey of self-discovery and growth in terms of their sexual identity. The video also demonstrated acceptance of diversity within the QPS.

With more than one million Facebook views, the reach and positive impact for the QPS and community is greater than anything the QPS has seen before.

In March 2018, Rheinmetall Defence Australia was awarded the Department of Defence’s $5.2 billion LAND 400 Phase 2 contract. This project will not only create 450 Queensland jobs and pump $1 billion into our economy, it heralds the beginning of a new military vehicle manufacturing industry for Queensland. This historic moment was the culmination of an active three-year campaign by the Department of State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning’s LAND 400 team to secure this project for Queensland.

Rheinmetall’s Ipswich-based Australia-New Zealand Headquarters and Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence will deliver the Phase 2 project that includes 211 Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicles, 12 additional modules and the first seven years of vehicle sustainment.

The manufacture of these vehicles in Queensland is set to consolidate Queensland’s status as the nation’s largest heavy vehicle manufacturer, provide advanced manufacturing, technology and innovation opportunities across multiple sectors that will create thousands of jobs and significant investment in Queensland.  It will also contribute further to Queensland’s defence industry that currently supports approximately 6500 direct jobs, generates more than $4.2 billion in annual revenue and contributes more than $1.3 billion annually to the Queensland economy.

The Police Command Project commenced in 2014 to provide government and the Commissioner with confidence that operational level commanders were provided the best possible preparation to command an incident or event. The project commenced with the development of an operational command doctrine—a first in law enforcement—which laid the foundations upon which the service approached command by empowering subordinate commanders to think and act independently but within an intent provided by a superior.

As a result of the doctrine development, training development commenced. Tiered training was developed and delivered for all police to provide awareness of the QPS approach to command. Enhanced training was developed and delivered for all officers who would potentially undertake junior command roles. Advanced training and exercising was provided to executives responsible for commanding major incidents or events.

Over four years, the project developed and introduced a new approach to command within the service. The initiative and doctrine have been positively reviewed by international experts and by Australian subject matter experts and academics.

As police prepared for the closure code-named Operation Oscar KOHL, it was obvious due to the scale and magnitude of drug use and trafficking in the community of St George that closure of the operation could have a catastrophic effect on the community. For this reason, a robust strategy of community engagement was implemented to ensure the closure of the operation could have a positive impact on the community.

The Mani Tribes Gallery was one such initiative. Realising drugs had gained a foothold in St George because of a lack of meaningful employment, Police Liaison Officer (PLO) Osborne secured funding and obtained approval to use a vacant business premises. Through PLO Osborne’s vision, drive and leadership, other stakeholders joined the project team, with the Balonne Shire Council donating materials and Probation and Parole encompassing the project into its community service orders.

Harnessing the talent and enthusiasm of many Indigenous members, the office building was transformed into a contemporary art space, displaying Aboriginal artworks. A number of the artists and workers who helped construct and paint the gallery were impacted by, or were offenders from the previous drug operation. The recent opening of the gallery was the subject of national media, and several pieces of artwork have already been sold from the gallery.

The 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games was the largest event and security operation hosted in Australia in the past decade. The ability to deliver a safe and secure environment for the 6500 international athletes and officials, and the 1.6 million spectators whilst simultaneously ensuring service delivery to the communities of Queensland hosting or impacted by the games or games related events required a dedicated, high-performing and professional planning team with the ability to deliver against stringent timeframes where change was the norm rather than the exception.

The challenge in developing innovative, integrated strategies that ensured an appropriate balance between athlete, spectator and visitor experience, and a suitable security platform, required an agile team of planners dedicated to exploring past learnings and implementing best practice to achieve success.

Building on the requirements and input of partners and stakeholders, the Commonwealth Games Group collaboratively met, and on most points exceeded, all facets of this intent creating valuable, sustainable legacy for the Queensland Police Service in reputation, skills, experience and memories for its workforce and a world class event that showcased Queensland as a safe place to live, work, visit, do business and invest.

The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) was a major international event that required a collaborative and innovative approach to public safety. As the major provider of emergency services in Queensland, QFES was required to design and deliver a comprehensive public safety plan that supported the smooth running of the games and thereby enhanced Queensland’s national and international reputation. QFES’ Commonwealth Games Office (CGO) team was brought together to achieve these goals.

At the heart of the CGO team’s remit was to showcase QFES’ professionalism in delivering integrated service across Fire and Rescue Service, Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service at a major international sporting event. An event of its size required detailed and meticulous planning to ensure the safety of the public, both those attending the games and those living and working in areas surrounding the games. The CGO demonstrated professional excellence in its approach to the planning for this event. The team created innovative solutions to a range of practical problems, including assessing venue readiness and streamlining deployment of large numbers of staff across multiple locations, and provided a consistent approach towards planning and executing operational-based events management.

Throughout the project, the CGO team focused on innovative thinking to design solutions that not only supported GC2018 but created new ways of working for QFES that met the community’s rapidly changing needs.

The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) Transport Coordination Centre (TCC) was established to facilitate the integrated management of the transport networks and services to support GC2018 and keep Gold Coast customers moving throughout the games period. The TCC was a cohesive multi-agency centre staffed by experienced operators supported by their existing comprehensive transport management operations centres which allowed timely and collaborative decision making.

The TCC was the central point for coordination of all transport services for GC2018. It provided enhanced awareness of all transport issues and facilitated timely deployment of integrated multi-modal responses to planned and unplanned activities and incidents. It was critical to support the safe and efficient movement of games athletes, officials, media, workforce, spectators and the general public. TMR was the lead agency responsible for the creation and management of the TCC, and continuously collaborated with all key stakeholders to ensure the facility met needs of all stakeholders. An integrated incident management system was developed for the TCC and was utilised throughout the games for all events in Cairns, Townsville, Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.

The TCC was integral to the successful delivery of the GC2018 Transport Operations Plan. The TCC ultimately managed the immense transport task with careful planning and investment. The result was a successful transport operation which contributed to the success of GC2018, moving thousands of athletes, officials, volunteers and workforce between venues and more than one million ticketed spectators attending GC2018 events.

As a consequence of recommendation 4.14 of the Queensland Organised Crime Commission of Inquiry, on 1 January 2016 the Queensland Police Service established a taskforce codenamed Orion to improve frontline investigations into online child exploitation.

Cabinet approved $3.2 million to fund Task Force Orion which had the key focus of building regional Child Protection Investigation capability. From that allocation, the Crime and Corruption Commission received $485,000 to augment its Forensic Computing Unit to tackle child exploitation. The composition of the taskforce was drawn from three sources, namely the existing investigative staff at Argos, child victim identification experts (recruited from overseas law enforcement agencies) and regional child protection investigators.

Led by a Detective Inspector, the key achievements of the taskforce were in the areas of training, victim identification, technology and operational enforcement.

Working collaboratively, each cell of the taskforce performed a role which led to the identification and prosecution of numerous child exploitation offenders. Training in the latest forensic triage software was undertaken, offenders identified, enforcement action instigated, seized child exploitation material categorised, child victims located and removed from harm.

Correctional Officer Russell Stanford has researched, sourced and commenced the development of an Australian native foods orchard at the Palen Creek Correctional Centre. Mr Stanford developed sustainable areas of agriculture with the aid of Indigenous prisoners and the approval of the Brisbane Elders. He initially commenced a ‘bush tucker’ garden within the grounds of the centre and has expanded this to the market garden area of the centre to grow additional plants and the Australian native Gumbi Gumbi scrubs.

Australian native foods are high in nutritional density and have high levels of protein, fibre and micronutrients. The aim of the native foods orchard at the Palen Creek Correctional Centre was threefold—to develop cultural awareness, to gain a deeper knowledge about Indigenous foods and develop sustainable environmental practices.

The innovative and unique project is growing Gumbi Gumbi trees to supply the Chinese herbal market (Gumbi Gumbi leaves were also used by Aboriginal peoples as medicines). What makes this project unique is that the team is combining two ancient cultures to treat illness using Australian native plants and Indigenous knowledge in a sustainable way. Once established and productive, the centre will explore avenues to sell the herbs and bush tucker to recognised distributors.

The Ports and Transport Governance (PTG) Team developed the Maintenance Dredging Strategy for Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area Ports and the Guidelines for Long-term Maintenance Dredging Management Plans which sets a clear approach for ports operating along the globally significant Great Barrier Reef.

The PTG team worked with the port authorities, Queensland and Australian regulators, and non-government organisations (NGOs) to cultivate practices that facilitate sustainable port development while ensuring the long-term protection of the reef. These partnerships resulted in practical solutions that provide certainty to the ports industry and the wider community, that the economic and social contribution of ports is maintained, while ensuring the continued protection of our valuable environmental assets.

The framework prescribes greater coordination, efficiency and effectiveness of maintenance dredging activities, and how the ports industry, regulators and the community can work together to strengthen how maintenance dredging is undertaken. It has been recognised by regulators and peak environmental NGOs alike for its emphasis on the application of adaptive management strategies and continual improvement processes.

Jayne Rice from the Property and Facilities Management team has significantly improved the sustainability practices across the Queensland Police Service (QPS), Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) and the Public Safety Business Agency (PSBA).  She prepared and implemented the first consolidated Waste Reduction and Recycling Plan across all three agencies.

This plan presents a new and innovative way of moderating waste reduction and management behaviour. The PSBA Waste Reduction and Recycling Plan is a framework that allows the variables to be amended and developed in accordance with specific circumstances. The plan also allows PSBA to make a significant contribution across government to environmental behaviours and sustainability policies, practices and values.

As a result of Jayne's plan, the Property and Facilities Management team within PSBA has successfully developed a number of practical solutions to improve sustainability across PSBA, QPS and QFES. Examples include facilitating the use of a warehouse to store second-hand furniture and equipment to be re-used for general office furniture or provided at no cost to volunteer organisations such as the State Emergency Services and the Rural Fire Service.

Through Jayne's leadership an authentic baseline data measurement system has been implemented which will allow for accurate management and monitoring of performance under the plan.

The Fleet Asset Services Group within the Public Safety Business Agency led the design proposal and engineering drawings for a self-contained mobile workspace for Queensland Police Forensic Officers to operate for extended deployments at major incidents. With a focus on sustainability and innovation this workspace can operate unassisted in isolated locations for up to a week at a time, entirely powered by one of the largest solar/battery installations of its kind on a vehicle in Australia.  The team worked with the Queensland Police Service (QPS) to identify requirements such as the need to operate power, air conditioning, lighting, computers and forensic equipment for a minimum of 48 hours unassisted.

The team saw this as a chance to incorporate innovative and sustainable options while delivering on requirements. The design for the workspace, which was built on a used Pantech truck, included wool insulation and low impact technology such as solar.

The solar/battery installation includes 16 roof mounted solar panels. All of the facility's ancillary equipment, including lights, air conditioning, computers, even the hydraulic levelling system, are powered by this solar/battery installation.

The project has greatly increased the capability of the QPS Forensic Services Group and consideration is underway to build another two vehicles to the same specification for other regions.

The Solar for Public Housing trial was designed to test new business models to deliver solar to public housing with no upfront capital costs for customers or the Queensland Government. The project was also designed to give access to solar for people who may not otherwise be able to obtain its benefits, therefore unlocking a new market segment. A further benefit was the project being able to contribute to the Queensland Government’s renewable energy targets, including one million rooftops or 3000 megawatts by 2020, and 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

By partnering with the Department of Housing and Public Works, more than 800 homes in Cairns and Rockhampton received solar, which is enabling vulnerable electricity customers to reduce their electricity costs.

The project also encompassed installing solar in the Lockhart River Aboriginal Community—a 200kW solar system and a battery was installed across council buildings and the Lockhart River State School. A total of 130 households in Lockhart became eligible for $100 worth of pre-paid energy cards to help offset the cost of their electricity bills.

Energy Queensland has control of systems to ensure a smooth integration with existing electricity infrastructure. This system delivers 10 per cent of the Lockhart community’s overall energy needs and a significant proportion of its daytime load. The Strategic Futures Energy team was committed to delivering high standards of policy and program development and implementation to better support Queensland's sustainable energy future.

The QPS LGBTI Support Network was founded in 2016 as an innovative QPS endorsed program to generate a greater understanding and inclusion of QPS members within this often-marginalised group. As the network established itself internally, members reached out to external stakeholders to begin repairing relationships long-forgotten between the QPS and the Queensland LGBTI community. During this process, network members identified an opportunity to not only empower and influence Queensland’s youth, but to show the world the QPS values and endorses inclusiveness and diversity.

This resulted in the production of the QPS 'It Gets Better' video, released on 25 August 2017 on Wear it Purple Day—capturing the struggles, confusion, pain, hope and encouragement of QPS officers undergoing their own journey of self-discovery and growth in terms of their sexual identity. The video also demonstrated acceptance of diversity within the QPS. With more than one million Facebook views, the reach and positive impact for the QPS and community is greater than anything the QPS has seen before.