Mr DEAN - I want to raise the current position in relation to intercepting drivers - and I know that there is a national position in place in relation to how police will go about that. I will very quickly relate a position to you where a couple recently, late at night, were travelling in a rural area when a car came behind. It was a police car but they did not know it was. They had the lights in the grill, the lights flashed and these people were very upset because it just continued to stay behind. They travelled at the speed limit or below, but it would not go past. To cut a long story short, they were absolutely beside themselves, really frightened because they thought it was hoons. They were pursued for 42 kilometres into Rocherlea where the police had radioed ahead and put up a road block which stopped these two people, a husband and wife. They were told by the police, 'You were very lucky you stopped because we had the road spikes to throw out in front of you'. That is the situation with the police now, as I understand it, they follow, they will not go past. These people even pulled off to the side of the road to let them go past and they still would not go past. They were booked for failing to stop for police but that was later withdrawn and I thank the Commander of Police in Launceston for seeing commonsense and withdrawing it.

Is that strategy going to be looked at, Minister, because they had the Falconio case on their mind. They referred the public statements being made, 'Don't stop for anybody unless you know it's the police'. Is that going to be looked at or considered?

Mr COX - I am obviously going to defer that one to the commissioner because I am not aware of it. I am not too sure the commissioner is either.

Mr JOHNSTON - No, I am definitely not aware of it. I would be more than happy for us to review our operational skills training to see whether or not that is something that they are now being taught. If that is the case, I personally would like to see that it is reviewed. Quite seriously the application of commonsense is far more important than any of those things. If you have two drivers in the car in front of you and it is safe to pull them over, I cannot see why they would not. Please, let me have a look at it and I am more than happy to address it.

Mr DEAN - I might add in this instance they were given a breathalyser, they are tea totallers, so there was no recording at all.

Mr JOHNSTON - You might recall that we installed flashing lights in all of our operational vehicles for just that reason. We used to try pulling people over and we did not have any means of identifying that we were police vehicles. Now we have at least done that much, but unfortunately some people still do not recognise us.

Mr DEAN - The unfortunate thing is they had never seen an unmarked car with lights and a grill.

Mr JOHNSTON - I can understand that. Of course there are the safety elements that police officers focus on at the moment, but I am more than happy to address it.

Mr DEAN - I appreciate that comment, commissioner.