Police chief ‘grateful’ Queensland has avoided terror attack

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart says he’s grateful every day that there hasn’t been a terror attack in the state.

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart in Brisbane yesterday. Picture: AAP

Outgoing Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart says he’s grateful every day that there hasn’t been a terror attack in the state, as he warned of “people in our community who we are very wary of”.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Australian ahead of his July departure from the role, Mr Stewart yesterday said Queensland, in conjunction with federal and interstate agencies, was well placed to deal with extremism, ­including of the far Right.

He said lone-wolf attacks were the greatest concern “because that’s probably the most difficult one to deal with”.

“Every day I’m grateful we haven’t had an incident in this state,” Mr Stewart said.

“I think that’s partly because of our great relationship right across the community and the amount of information we get.”

Risk levels had been “pretty static for a long time”, and it would be misleading to rate one form of extremism as a greater concern than another, he said.

“The players change. The ­people involved change from time to time,” Mr Stewart said.

“We have people in our ­community who we are very wary of and we watch and we talk to as well.”

Commenting on Victoria’s Lawyer X royal commission ­examining the use of lawyer ­Nicola Gobbo as an informant, Mr Stewart said he was confident there was “no smoking gun” in Queensland.

“For many years we’ve had a policy that works to prevent anything like that happening in this state,” he said.

“We have taken steps to make sure that doesn’t happen in Queensland.”

On the ongoing issue of children being held for lengthy periods in Queensland watch houses, Mr Stewart said no one in the police service liked having them there.

In the past, children had been moved on quickly, but the state’s youth detention centres had been unable to cope following the transition of 17-year-olds into the youth justice system last year.

Mr Stewart said the government was looking for ways to remove children from watch houses by finding “extra space in better places”. The long-term answer was to prevent crime and divert children away from the justice system.

“No child is born bad, I’m ­absolutely convinced of that,” he said.

“Where I think the answer is in the first instance is to put more money into resourcing those ­systems that help parents ­adequately deal with their children and provide a sense of discipline and provide a sense of right and wrong.”

Mr Stewart, 65, has been a police officer for almost 45 years, and commissioner since 2012. He will be replaced by fire service commissioner and former police assistant commissioner Katarina Carroll, who has his full support.

Retiring from the service a year before his contract ends, he said he always intended to leave after last year’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

“These jobs are intense. While I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, I’ve always known when it’s time for me to move on in a role. The reality is the only one who pushed me was myself.”