REMINDER - next weeks meeting
Guest Speaker - Hayley Mill, Event Coordinator St. Vincent de Paul Society
One Night vs Every Night – Service Above Self.
The link to support Les Pontins' Vinnies Sleepout Night
Greig Lee-Archer opened the meeting and welcomed visiting Rotarians Judy Clark, Warryn Jones, Deborah Taylor and Mark Ward (Caloundra club) and Laurelle Owen (Maleny club).
International Toast
Barbara Bailey proposed a toast to the RC of Belfast as her maternal grandparents came from there.
This was the first RC in the UK and was founded in 1911. They meet for a buffet lunch at the Europa Hotel in Great Victoria Street on Mondays from 1-2 pm. Membership is for men and women representing a wide range of ages. There is an emphasis in the club on having fun while serving others.
Apologies to Geoff Leddy who prepared a toast to the Rotary Club of Capetown, South Africa, as he and Cheryl will be there in 3 weeks’ time on their cruise. This club supports homeless people with meals, soap, towels and hot showers. They have given out 1 million meals in the last 10 years.
Members’ Moments
Ross Harrison gave an update on CalPac’s Philippines project. Some of our members have travelled there and made improvements to a school in a very underprivileged area. Education is the way out of poverty.
Mark Ward informed us of Caloundra club’s Philippines project. They installed a gravity-fed water tank and a fishpond that provides fingerlings for free.
Laurelle Owen spoke of Maleny club’s Wood Expo, which celebrates the Sunshine Coast Hinterland through the beauty of wood.
Peter Hovey has 4 nominees for our Vocational Excellence Awards on 21 May for deserving employees.
Suzanne Lee-Archer implored us all to find teams for our annual Golf Day.
Guest speaker
Geoff Leddy informed our guest speaker Dan Purdie of our RYDA program which aims to save lives on our roads. He then introduced Hon. Dan Purdie, MP, Member for Ninderry. Dan was elected to the Queensland Parliament in 2017 after serving 25 years as a Qld Police Officer. He was given the role of Shadow Police Minister in April 2020 and then became the Minister for Police and Emergency Services in October 2024 when in Government.
Dan covered a number of areas of interest:
Road toll: this is increasing. A total of 308 lives were lost in 2025 marking the highest annual road toll in 16 years, and 2026 is tracking higher than the same period in 2025. Overwhelmingly this is due to driver behaviour. The reason is usually one of the fatal five.
Dan’s department is in the process of indicating the location of all the covert speed cameras. They want to save lives and injuries, not just fine people 3 weeks later. They are rebuilding the police
force with 1600 new police. A patrol car on the road slows drivers down. Even when Dan was a policeman he jumped on the brakes when he saw a patrol car!
Drug driving has become a concern. One in three drug-driving tests come back positive. Random breath testing does not include drug testing.
E-scooters contributed to the record road toll last year with 15 deaths. The police cannot pursue a scooter. They can’t fine a young rider anyway, so the risk isn’t worth the reward. Judges just let the offenders off. New legislation is about to be debated. A committee is tabling a report enabling police to seize and destroy \illegal bikes.
Judiciary: The Government has given judges and magistrates tougher laws, but they find ways round them. Dan agreed with Ken Hinkly that police and teachers are being disempowered by weaker laws, and Ken recommended a book titled “A Bench of Bastards”.
Domestic violence: The police are overwhelmed with calls for assistance, and 85% are for DV. It takes 6 hours to do the paperwork for each one. Greig asked why we don’t remove the perpetrators to make women and children safe. It would be much cheaper than what we are doing now. Dan agreed.
Police morale: Dan said this is his responsibility. A police chaplain says morale has picked up. The unplanned attrition rate has decreased from 6% to 3.5%.
The very interesting and informative meeting finished with the usual raffles!
