Category Archives: Queensland

Man arrested over alleged 1997 murder of Meaghan Rose on Sunshine Coast denied bail

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Keith Lees, 72, evaded warrant for almost 18 months in relation to alleged murder, and is accused of trying to bite police

A man is behind bars and will likely face extradition after his arrest over a woman’s alleged murder more than two decades ago.

Keith Lees, 72, remains in custody after spending about 18 months evading an arrest warrant over the death of his former partner, 25-year-old Meaghan Louise Rose, who was discovered at the base of Point Cartwright Cliffs on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in 1997.

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Brothers wanted over alleged Queensland shooting murder of Chloe Mason believed to be camping in NSW

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Warrants for the arrest of Codye Thomson and Kaine Thomson-Gleeson have been issued over the killing of 23-year-old in Caboolture

Two brothers wanted for an alleged shooting murder north of Brisbane last month are now on the run after they were released after being questioned last month, according to Queensland police.

Police named 29-year-old Codye Thomson and 32-year-old Kaine Thomson-Gleeson as wanted for the alleged offence, on Friday.

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Man dead and woman in hospital after jetski crash north of Cairns

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Investigations under way after jetski crashed into mangroves on the Barron River north of the Stratford Boat Ramp in far north Queensland

A 56-year-old man has died in a jetski accident north of Cairns, after crashing into mangroves.

The man and a 60-year-old woman were riding on a jetski on Friday on the Barron River when they crashed north of the Stratford Boat Ramp at about 10am, police say.

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Two dead in accidents at popular Queensland swimming spots over new year period

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Woman dies in tubing accident near Toowomba, while another drowns scuba diving near Wave Break Island on the Gold Coast

A woman has died in a New Year’s Day scuba diving accident at a popular Gold Coast swimming spot.

Meanwhile, another woman was found dead on Wednesday after an extensive search following a water tubing accident north-west of Brisbane on New Year’s Eve.

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Police praise mostly well-behaved NYE revellers despite firework-related blazes

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Melbourne and Sydney fires brought under control, including in Tempe, and stabbings reported in Guildford and the Mornington Peninsula

New Year’s Eve revellers have largely been praised for their behaviour at Australia’s biggest fireworks shows, while officers were kept busy with outbursts of trouble around local fireworks.

More than a million people swarmed the main vantage points around Sydney harbour and hundreds of thousands of Melbourne partygoers were treated to a fireworks and laser spectacular.

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All the 1 January changes in Australia: Centrelink increases, import bans and pay rises

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Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also in 1 Jan changes

With the new year comes new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.

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All the 1 January changes coming to Australia in 2025: Centrelink increases, import bans and pay rises

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Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also ahead

With the new year comes new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.

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Man dies in Canberra river as life savers warn of elevated drowning risk over summer holidays

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The country has recorded more than 30 drowning deaths in December, including multiple fatalities over the weekend

A 21-year-old man has died while swimming in a river on Canberra’s southern edge, bringing the number of drowning deaths around Australia in December alone to more than 30.

The man was swimming in the Murrumbidgee River at Pine Island reserve, near Tuggeranong, with family and friends on Sunday afternoon but failed to resurface.

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Youth pastor identified as man who died after shark bite off Queensland coast

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The 40-year-old school chaplain was bitten by the shark while fishing with family in waters off Keppel Islands on Saturday

A youth pastor and school chaplain described as an inspirational leader has been identified as the man who died after being bitten by a shark while on holiday with his family in Queensland.

Emergency services were called to Humpy Island in the Keppel Bay Islands national park, about 18km off the central Queensland coast, on Saturday after reports a man had been attacked.

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Mild weekend weather brings relief to firefighters after homes lost in Grampians bushfire

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Victorian temperatures to rise from Monday, with fire warnings also in place in NSW and Western Australia

Milder conditions across the weekend will bring temporary relief to firefighters who continue to battle an out-of-control bushfire in Victoria’s Grampians.

But the forecast rain was not expected to extinguish the fires and hot weather was expected to ramp up again from Monday.

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Birdsville notches up another temperature record as Australia faces more heat before New Year’s Eve

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The town hit 47.2C by mid afternoon, but locals are already well-versed in the art of staying cool

It might have been the hottest place in the country on Boxing Day, but when the tiny outback town of Birdsville hit 47.2C by mid-afternoon, locals were already well-versed in the art of staying cool.

Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist, Dean Narramore, said Birdsville was “looking like it’s going to be the hottest in the country,” even though places across the Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales had reached the mid 40s.

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Two women fighting for life after suspicious house fire in Townsville

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Investigators appealing for information after blaze erupted around 3am on Boxing Day

Two women are fighting for life after a house fire authorities consider suspicious.

Detectives were investigating the cause of the Boxing Day blaze, which erupted shortly after 3am in Gulliver, a suburb of Townsville.

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Labor declines to review three coal proposals for potential climate impact – as it happened

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More on the new Malaysia-based maritime institute:

The government is contributing $1.78m over four years to support the institute, which will train regional government officials on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, broader maritime law and ocean governance, awareness of maritime domains and environmental protection.

We don’t want to see any unilateral changes to the status quo across the Taiwan straits, and our focus is on doing everything we can in terms of exercising our international voice around promoting stability and peace in and around the Taiwan straits, in and around Taiwan.

Rules and norms are vital for our shared maritime region and the countries of our region make an ongoing contribution to maintaining and promoting them.

The institute will deliver training to officials from across the region on complex maritime legal and policy topics. It will nurture leaders and help further our collective contribution to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.

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Australia news live: Allan defends Victoria after it’s named worst state for business; Burke to meet Indonesian minister over Bali Nine

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The Victorian premier has defended the state’s business credentials saying there’s key data missing from the Business Council of Australia’s report. Follow today’s news headlines live

Weather check shows mixed conditions forecast across Australian cities

It’s a mixed, if warm, bag in capital cities today, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting storms in Melbourne, sunny skies in Brisbane and Adelaide and showers across all other major cities.

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South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and NSW could experience blackouts from too much solar power, Aemo warns

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Aemo says it does not want to ‘directly control people’s rooftop solar’ but it may be necessary to reduce or cut off power gleaned from the sun

The power grid in eastern Australia could experience “outage conditions” as soon as next spring unless states speed up actions to cope with surplus generation from solar panels on sunny days, the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) has warned.

In a report released on Monday, Aemo called for an “emergency backstop” mechanism to ensure grid stability when households and other solar photovoltaic (PV) owners export excess electricity.

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Cruise ships urged to ‘clean up their act’ amid concerns toxic effluent being dumped on Great Barrier Reef

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Environmentalists say marine park waste regulations need updating to limit grey water and exhaust chemicals as passenger cruise numbers rise

Environmentalists and tourism operators on the Great Barrier Reef say authorities must enforce stricter pollution standards on cruise liners visiting the world heritage area amid growth in passenger cruise numbers and concern that ships are dumping toxins into the water.

The Whitsunday Conservation Council says the definition of “waste” used to prevent marine discharge on the reef – which dates back to the 1970s – does not restrict discharge from sulphur “scrubbers” that have become commonplace in the shipping industry.

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Australia charts hottest spring on record for mean temperatures – as it happened

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The health minister, Mark Butler, is holding a press conference in Adelaide to announce the endometriosis drug Visanne will be added to the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. It’s the first listing of an endo treatment in three decades.

This is a condition that impacts more than 1 million women – one in seven women and teenage girls – and for too long, too many women have been made to suffer in silence.

[They’ve] been told by many healthcare professionals, it has to be said, that this is “normal”. That it is a normal part of period pain or many other explanations for debilitating, crippling pain.

This is all about providing cheaper medicines and cutting-edge treatment to Australian patients generally, but [particularly] in the area of endometriosis, which has attracted such inadequate support for hundreds of thousands of Australian women.

This listing is beyond time.

The major contributor to the record has been the minimum temperatures, which averaged 17.2ºC over the spring season for the site, and were elevated by cloud cover, precipitation, and most notably, humidity.

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Ashley Griffith committed ‘depraved’ abuse at childcare centres for nearly 20 years. Were warning signs ignored?

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As one of Australia’s worst paedophiles is sentenced to life in prison for 307 sexual offences, parents and victims demand answers

In 2021, the serial paedophile Ashley Paul Griffith wrote a letter to parents of children at a Brisbane childcare centre, where he was employed as the director, addressing claims on social media the centre was “involved in a pedophile ring”.

“We want to reassure families that the wellbeing and safety of you and your family are of paramount importance,” wrote Griffith, who had set up a tripod camera inside the centre so he could film his sexual abuse of young girls from two different angles.

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Senator calls social media ban a ‘sham’ – as it happened

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Canavan says under-16 social media ban has caused new generation to become passionate about democracy

Nationals senator Matt Canavan was loudly outspoken against the under-16 social media ban bill and voted against it – but as we know, the bill ultimately passed.

It has been great seeing people learn how the parliament works. And with that in mind, note that the social media bill is not yet law. Tomorrow morning it heads back to the House of Representatives because there were amendments passed in the Senate tonight. It then has to go to the governor general. But both these steps are almost certain to happen.

Thanks again for all of your help and support. We got some amendments on digital ID so it was not for nothing and the fight continues.

As it currently stands, underlying inflation is still too high to be considering lowering the cash rate target in the near term.

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Children will get sentences ‘more punitive than necessary’ under new crime law, Queensland LNP admits

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Attorney general Deb Frecklington acknowledges bill will likely increase number of children in state watch houses

Queensland’s Liberal National party government has acknowledged their signature youth crime legislation will “directly discriminate” against children, by limiting their “protection from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.

The bill is also “expected to have a greater impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, who are already disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system,” according to the government’s tabled statement of compatibility with human rights.

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