Escalating violence, not trigger-happy officers, is behind a spate of police shootings in Queensland, police say.
Police have shot seven people in Queensland this year. Four incidents have been fatal, three of them within a week last month.
Australian Institute of Criminology statistics show the national average of fatal police shootings is about four a year.
In the latest incident, a first-year constable repeatedly shot a man accused of rushing at him and a female senior constable with a serrated hunting knife and a large machete-style weapon on Thursday night.
The officers were responding to a domestic violence call at the northwest Brisbane suburb of Ashgrove.
The man was shot in the stomach and chest and remains in a critical condition at the Royal Brisbane Hospital.
Queensland's Deputy Police Commissioner Ross Barnett said the officers tried to retreat when the man, aged in his 40s, came at them.
"They did everything by the book. They did all they could to try and tactfully resolve the situation," he said.
"They tried to retreat and not provoke a confrontation that was ongoing. They did all they could to try to avoid the use of lethal force."
Mr Barnett says the increase in shootings is not evidence of a culture of trigger-happy officers, but rather proof of a rise in violence faced by police.
"It is an escalating situation in terms of the threats to our officers," Mr Barnett said.
He said there'd been around a dozen other recent cases in which people threatened police with weapons, but officers resolved the situations without using their guns.
"These things are happening on a very regular basis. It should be a cause for concern for the community," he said.
Premier Campbell Newman said there would be a thorough investigation into the shootings.
"I just want to reassure the public that it'll be fully investigated, not just by the police but also by the coroner," he said.
"We have previously said the coroner will be looking at these things not just as individual cases but also collectively, and will also be encouraged to make recommendations if there has to be changes to police practises."
Mr Newman, who is also the member for Ashgrove, said he felt for the police and the family affected by the latest incident.
"Behind every one of these sad events there's a human story," he said.
"There are families and friends who are impacted and there are the police officers who are also quite traumatised having to use lethal force."
An independent review into police training and the recent shootings is due to start on Monday.
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