Category Archives: Queensland

Coles and Woolworths face class actions over claims misleading promotions deceived customers – as it happened

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Watt says issue of reconciliation not closed in Australia despite voice referendum

Wrapping up the interview, Murray Watt was also asked about the haka performed in New Zealand parliament yesterday over a controversial bill that proposes to radically alter the way New Zealand’s treaty between Māori and the crown is interpreted.

I think there are many Australians who care very deeply about the rights of our First Peoples. Of course, Australians had their say on the voice to parliament in the recent referendum but I don’t think that means the issue of reconciliation is closed in Australia. That is something that our government remains committed to working on with our First Peoples and I think a lot of Australians support that as well.

I probably won’t comment on what’s happening in New Zealand because it’s their own affairs, but it shows these issues still really matter to people.

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Anger as CFMEU ‘sweetheart deal’ suspended in Queensland government crackdown

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Union members hit out at LNP as deputy premier announces pause on pay and conditions policy

A “sweetheart deal” for the CFMEU has been suspended in an unprecedented crackdown after the embattled union was blamed for major project cost blowouts.

Construction union “perks” were put on ice as the Queensland government stepped up a campaign to tackle the CFMEU, with some union members clearly not happy.

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Police make arrest and seize water pistol after incident outside NSW parliament – as it happened

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Could Donald Trump really fire Kevin Rudd?

The former prime minister’s criticism of Donald Trump has drawn the ire of those in the president elect’s inner circle, and prompted renewed debate about whether the incoming administration could seek retribution.

I’d be very much opposed to that.

You’ve got the world’s richest man, and you’ve given him this position of incredible influence in the American government. I think jobs for mates is a very bad idea. I don’t think that politicians should be putting their friends, their dear friends into positions of great influence in this country.

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News live: Birmingham says Australia could learn lessons from ‘disrupter’ Trump in making government more efficient

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The treasurer, Jim Chalmers will today announce funding of $900m for states and territories through a new national productivity fund to boost competition and productivity across the economy.

Launching the plan in a speech to the Australian Business Economists in Sydney, Chalmers is hoping the plan will will incentivise states to achieve productivity gains through pro-competitive policies such as streamlining commercial planning and zoning, and removing barriers to the uptake of modern construction methods.

In March this year, on behalf of the Council on Federal Financial Relations, I asked the Productivity Commission to model the potential impacts of a revitalised NCP.

Its final report landed this month and the benefits on offer are substantial, if not staggering. The PC found a revitalised NCP could boost GDP by up to $45bn a year and reduce prices by 1.45 percentage points. That GDP boost represents about $5,000 per household, per year.

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Man charged with murder after woman’s body found in Penrith hotel – as it happened

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Meteorologists are forecasting that thunderstorms will develop over large swathes of the country every day this week, and likely into next.

Ben Domensino from Weatherzone has outlined the forecast as follows:

Early in the week, showers and thunderstorms will target central, eastern, southern and southeastern Australia on Monday and Tuesday. Severe thunderstorms are likely in parts of NSW and [Queensland] on both days and are also possible in other states.

Storms will become more focussed on a broad arc stretching across Australia’s eastern and northern states and down into the WA interior through the middle of the week. Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra will all be at risk of severe thunderstorm activity on Wednesday.

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Australia news live: Antic claims misinformation bill is bid to stop young Australians being ‘red pilled’ on social media

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Matt Keogh on Aukus, second Trump presidency

Matt Keogh was also questioned on what he thinks the challenges will be for the Australian government amid a second Trump presidency?

We understand regardless of who is in charge of the White House or what is happening across the globe, what matters to Australians is being able to make ends meet themselves.

We expect that to continue even under a Trump Presidency.

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More than half of Australia sweats through heatwave as BoM forecasts more scorching temperatures

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BoM expects hot weather to continue across parts of Queensland, Western Australia and Northern Territory next week

More than half of Australia is sweating through a heatwave, with scorching temperatures in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory expected this weekend.

Huge stretches of outback across northern Australia had been warned by the Bureau of Meteorology to expect heatwave conditions stretching into next week.

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Sydney homes flooded after water pipeline bursts – as it happened

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Racism, colonialism ‘driving Indigenous self-harm’

Australia’s dark colonial past and ongoing racism are driving self-harm in Indigenous communities, according to a respected Aboriginal psychologist.

That whole process has left communities suffering from intergenerational trauma, disadvantage and ongoing racism, as well as the exclusion from the benefits of society and a lack of acknowledgment and respect for their different cultural values.

We still want clinical approaches but we want to see culture at the centre of that.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Boy, 16, charged with manslaughter after alleged gunpoint carjacking near Brisbane

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Teenager in custody after 69-year-old woman killed and two police officers injured in Murrumba Downs collision

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with manslaughter after a fatal crash north of Brisbane that followed an alleged carjacking at gunpoint.

The teenager was taken into custody after a 69-year-old woman was killed and two police officers injured in the “harrowing” collision on Thursday.

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Shrinkflation a ‘difficult decision’ for manufacturers, inquiry told – as it happened

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Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who had some colourful moments in his relationship with Donald Trump in his first presidency, is up now being colourful on the ABC. He says the Australian prime minister “has to stand up for Australia and not follow the conventional approach, which is being urged on everyone, which is to suck up to Trump and be utterly deferential:

I had a very successful relationship with Trump because I stood up to him, stood my ground, incurred his wrath, won his respect, and then got very good outcomes for Australia.

He did sort of encourage a mob to try to overthrow the peaceful transfer of power in 2021, on January 6.

The deal that Morrison instigated and Albanese signed up to is a very, very asymmetrical deal. All of the risk was on Australia. We have no agency and no leverage over this, and that’s why I think the most likely outcome is we’ll end up with no submarines, and that will be entirely our own fault because we signed up to a dud deal.

We have been clear, in terms of the Liberal party leadership, that Peter Dutton and the Liberal party have no plans, no intentions, to see any changes to abortion laws, that we respect the states’ rights in that regard, and I am very clear in terms of my respect for women’s reproductive rights.

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Heatwave sweeps across large parts of Australia as bushfire threatens Queensland border town

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Weather warnings across multiple states on Wednesday as Dirranbandi residents told to evacuate

A heat warning is in place for large parts of Queensland on Wednesday with temperatures hitting 40C in parts of the state.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a heatwave warning for much of the state, forecasting severe conditions around north-west and inland areas.

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Morrison and Abbott praise Trump – as it happened

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There was some seriously colourful language in Senate estimates yesterday, but in this case the media regulator found radio hosts’ words were a step too far. Sarah Martin reports on what the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young described as “revolting, sexist, racist, misogynistic, divisive stuff”:

A “dangerous anti-abortion bill” before the Senate should be withdrawn, if the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, wants credibility on women’s healthcare, the minister for women, Katy Gallagher, says.

It is typical of Peter Dutton to view this purely as a matter of winning or losing votes, rather than any genuine commitment to women’s healthcare.

If Peter Dutton wants any credibility on women’s healthcare, he must immediately ensure Senators [Matt] Canavan and [Alex] Antic withdraw their dangerous anti-abortion bill currently before the Senate.

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Australia politics live: Albanese tells caucus Labor will campaign on ‘risk’ of Dutton; Miles returns as Queensland Labor leader

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‘We need to extend the average time people stay in our defence force,’ says Matt Keough

The defence personnel minister, Matt Keough, has also been talking about that retention and renumeration package for defence.

We need to extend the average time people stay in our defence force.

That does mean it had a vulnerability. We’re looking at moving to more of a mesh-type arrangement of satellites, which provides greater resilience, with a more up-to-date technology, and we’ll be able to deliver the technology faster as well.

We are very much confident that we can meet these targets and that’s because we have properly funded them and we have a plan to get there, which is about really improving the terms of service for those who work in our defence forces.

We’re increasing and expanding the bonuses for continuing on in the defence force. We’re continuing the original retention bonus after your initial service obligation for three years and beyond that. There will be another bonus for people who stay in the defence force after that. And that’s really targeting those who are in their seventh, eighth, ninth years of service, which gets to the middle ranks where we’ve got an issue. And we’re also going to grow the active reserves so there are more opportunities for people in the reserve to do full-time or part-time work in the defence force.

This original plan goes back seven or eight years and it was about having two or three satellites above Australia to deliver that capability. Since then, we have seen technologies develop which can shoot satellites out of the sky but we have also seen technologies develop where you have thousands of micro satellites in a more distributed way providing the same effect and we are seeing that with Starlink above Ukraine.

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Former Olympian Nathan Baggaley eligible for parole after drug plot sentencing

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The double silver medallist and his brother given 13- and 15-year sentences but could be freed because of time served for 2018 cocaine operation

An Olympic silver medallist and his brother are eligible for parole after being sentenced over a failed attempt to import cocaine worth about $200m.

Nathan Baggaley, 48, a former champion kayaker, and Dru Baggaley, 42, faced Brisbane supreme court on Monday after pleading guilty in October to attempting to import a commercial quantity of drugs – just days before they were due to face a retrial.

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New Queensland government bins Labor’s hydro project set to be key part of renewable transition

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LNP energy minister rules out considering a smaller version of the Pioneer Burdekin scheme

Queensland’s new Liberal National party government has cancelled a Labor hydro project despite public service advice that a downsized version of the scheme would have delivered “exceptional value on both a capacity and storage basis”.

Announced under premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in 2022, the gigantic Pioneer Burdekin pumped hydro scheme formed a key element of the state’s legislated plan for a renewables transition by 2035.

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Heatwave to turn parts of Australia into ‘one of the hottest places in the world’ this week

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Some of the east coast and the north will bake in a furnace of potentially life-threatening heat, the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts

A heatwave is due to strike Australia’s east coast, with temperatures expected above 40C, making the country’s north “one of the hottest places in the world” this week, the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast.

Residents in northern New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory are being warned to brace for unsettled weather through the week, starting on Monday, as a mass of heat moves eastward from central Australia.

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Queensland truth-telling inquiry chair says premier ‘hugely disrespectful’ to demand work cease via media

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Joshua Creamer says he has had no contact from new LNP government after David Crisafulli told press conference inquiry should cease its work

The chair of Queensland’s truth-telling and healing inquiry says the new premier, David Crisafulli, should “just have the decency to front up” to First Nations people, after delivering an edict via the media for the inquiry to immediately cease its work.

Joshua Creamer, a Waanyi and Kalkadoon man, told reporters on Friday he had still received no communication from Crisafulli or any member of the new LNP government.

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Respawned: Queensland magazine the Cane Toad Times takes aim at a post-truth world

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It emerged from the slime of the sunshine state during Bjelke-Petersen’s oppressive regime. Now it’s back – but can it survive more sensitive times?

A man whose pseudonym is Johnny La Rue is holding a yellowed magazine with two toad-headed lovers embracing on the front. He reads aloud a headline that would likely trigger a firestorm on social media were it written today.

“Who wrote that?!” he exclaims.

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Australia news live: PwC reveals it sacked eight staff over data breaches; Perth man dies after being taken to police watch house

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Court to rule in Pauline Hanson-Mehreen Faruqi case

A federal court judge is ready to rule on whether Pauline Hanson made a racial slur when she told Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi to go back to Pakistan.

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David Crisafulli breaks election promise to elevate shadow team to Queensland government frontbench

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LNP leader’s cabinet includes several changes, including former leader Tim Nicholls as health minister and Fiona Simpson in women’s portfolio

Queensland’s new premier, David Crisafulli, has unveiled his new cabinet, breaking a pre-election promise to automatically elevate his existing shadow team to the government frontbench.

The LNP leader repeatedly promised the shadow cabinet he took to last week’s election would be the cabinet after it.

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David Crisafulli: premier and minister for veterans

Jarrod Bleijie: deputy premier, minister for state development, infrastructure and planning, and minister for industrial relations

David Janetzki: treasurer, minister for energy and minister for home ownership

Ros Bates: minister for finance, trade, employment and training

Dale Last: minister for natural resources and mines, minister for manufacturing and minister for regional and rural development

Tim Nicholls: minister for health and ambulance services

Deb Frecklington: attorney general and minister for justice and minister for integrity

John-Paul Langbroek: minister for education and the arts

Dan Purdie: minister for police and emergency services

Laura Gerber: minister for youth justice and victim support and minister for corrective services

Brent Mickelberg: minister for transport and main roads

Ann Leahy: minister for local government and water and minister for fire, disaster recovery and volunteers

Sam O’Connor: minister for housing and public works and minister for youth

Tony Perrett: minister for primary industries

Fiona Simpson: minister for women and women’s economic security, minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships and minister for multiculturalism

Andrew Powell: minister for the environment and tourism and minister for science and innovation

Amanda Camm: minister for families, seniors and disability services and minister for child safety and the prevention of domestic and family violence

Tim Mander: minister for sport and racing and minister for the Olympic and Paralympic Games

Steve Minnikin: minister for customer services and open data and minister for small and family business

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