Steven Miles urges authorities to enable magpie to be reunited with ‘devastated’ Gold Coast carers and its ‘best friend’, their Staffy dog Peggy
Queensland’s premier has thrown his support for a campaign to return an Instagram-famous magpie to its former carers and its dog best friend, after it was seized by the environment department.
Gold Coast couple Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen adopted Molly the magpie in 2020 after it fell from the nest.
Continue reading...Luke Dorsett stopped his niece from falling out of a raft but died alongside his sister Kate Goodchild and his long-term partner Roozi Araghi
A man killed in the 2016 Dreamworld rafting disaster has been posthumously given a bravery award after he used his final moments to save his niece.
Luke Dorsett – who died on 25 October 2016 when rafts on the Thunder River Rapids ride collided – was recognised with a commendation for brave conduct from the governor general.
Continue reading...Opposition leader David Crisafulli says LNP would rewrite Youth Justice Act ‘to put victims first’ if it wins October election
The Queensland Liberal National party opposition has vowed to remove the principle of detention as a last resort from the Youth Justice Act before year’s end if it wins the state election.
Speaking in Townsville on Tuesday, the LNP leader, David Crisafulli, revealed more detail about the party’s “Making Queensland safer laws” and accused Labor of having a “conga line of crises”.
Continue reading...The man, in his 30s, said he had been trying to retrieve his phone after it fell into the underground drain
A man has been rescued after spending an estimated 36 hours in Brisbane’s underground drain network.
The man, who is in his 30s, was released from the Kangaroo Point stormwater drain by firefighters at about 11am on Monday.
Continue reading...The federal opposition leader’s calls to include nuclear power in Australia’s energy mix has so far failed to win support from his state colleagues
The federal Coalition faces a battle with the states on its proposal for nuclear power stations at the sites of decommissioned coal power plants, with state premiers and opposition leaders alike largely against Peter Dutton’s proposal.
Labor governments and Coalition oppositions in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia are either outright opposed to the plan or have failed to endorse it.
Continue reading...Concerns raised after former Cherish Life vice-president Alan Baker elected chair of party’s Griffith divisional council
A prominent anti-abortion campaigner has won control of a Brisbane division of the Liberal National party, prompting alarm among moderates that “fringe infiltrators” were attempting to increase their influence as polls point to a state election win.
Alan Baker, a former vice-president of the anti-abortion lobby group Cherish Life, was elected chair of the LNP’s Griffith federal divisional council (FDC) by two votes on Thursday night.
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As part of the latest Aukus developments, Australia will send A$4.6bn to the UK to clear bottlenecks at the Rolls-Royce nuclear reactor production line.
Richard Marles was asked why it costs so much, and why this component needs to be done in the UK. He told ABC News Breakfast:
We made clear a year ago that we wouldn’t be building the nuclear reactors in Australia. They will be built by Rolls Royce at its facility in Derby in the UK and once the sealed reactors are built, they will be taken here to the Osborne Naval ship yard and placed in the submarines which the rest of which will be built here at Osborne.
Building nuclear reactors is difficult to do and in order for this to play out, that facility in Derby, which is building nuclear reactors for Britain’s navy, that needs to be expanded and that is what this contribution is for.
Continue reading...David Crisafulli’s stance means the multi-billion dollar Victoria Park plan recommended by Graham Quirk on Monday is dead
Queensland’s 2032 Olympics will not be held in a brand-new stadium, with both major parties now ruling out the Victoria Park and Gabba rebuild options.
The opposition leader, David Crisafulli, broke his four-day silence on Thursday, promising there will be no new stadium. The LNP leader also ruled out cancelling the Games.
Continue reading...Six-week adjournment granted for Travis Profke, 40, who is accused of spray-painting graffiti on Queensland Woolworths store
A man accused of an Australia Day-related graffiti attack on a Queensland Woolworths faces a six-week delay to the matter due to medical records and other information not being disclosed.
Travis Profke, of Ormiston, is accused of spray painting graffiti outside Woolworths Metro in Teneriffe on 15 January. The 40-year-old has also been charged with vandalising supermarkets at Victoria Point, Cleveland and Teneriffe on 13 January.
Continue reading...Rabbits Eat Lettuce festival will conduct testing onsite at the end of March and first fixed-site clinic will open in Bowen Hills in April
Queensland will establish the first of two fixed pill-testing clinics in Brisbane this year, the first Australian state to back the harm reduction strategy on an ongoing basis.
The Rabbits Eat Lettuce festival near Warwick will be the first to conduct pill testing on site, at the end of the month. In 2019 two people died after taking drugs at the festival.
Continue reading...AgForce is seeking a judicial review of a 2022 decision that found the project did not need to be assessed under federal environmental laws
Queensland farming body AgForce has launched legal action against the federal government in a bid to stop liquified carbon dioxide from being pumped into the Great Artesian Basin.
The Carbon Transport and Storage Corporation (CTSCo), a subsidiary of mining giant Glencore, is awaiting state government approval for a pilot scheme to inject Co2 emitted by a coal-fired power station in southern Queensland into underground water aquifers as part of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project trial.
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‘There’ll be a lot of people grieving today’
Both Barnaby Joyce and Tanya Plibersek were asked about soldier Jack Fitzgibbon, the son of former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon.
The Fitzgibbon family are a family of honour. Jack died in service to our nation. Joel has served our nation. The family will be absolutely grieving. We hope and pray Jack is with our maker, give comfort to them. You’ve seen the Fitzgibbons, you’ve watched them on television. They’re a great family. He is also my mate. We’ll turn up and give what support we can to Jack’s family.
It’s just the worst thing that any parent can imagine and so our hearts go out to Joel and Diane and their family and the friends and comrades that Jack had in the service as well. We know there’ll be a lot of people grieving today.
Well, first of all, of course it’s not on government devices in Australia either. We’ve got a ban here in Australia on government devices. But there are 8.5 million Australians who are using it.
We’ll take the advice of our security and intelligence agencies on anything we need to do around TikTok. I think people should be careful of the data that they put online in general. Like I say, if the security and intelligence agencies give us advice on TikTok, we’ll take it.
Continue reading...Wind gusts of up to 220km/h expected to bring heavy rain and flooding to coastal communities
Top End communities are bracing for the crossing of severe Tropical Cyclone Megan, with destructive wind gusts of up to 220km/h expected to bring widespread damage, heavy rainfall and potential flooding to coastal communities into next week.
The cyclone formed over the Gulf of Carpentaria, east of Groote Eylandt, on Saturday afternoon and was moving south towards the Northern Territory and Queensland border as a category-two system on Sunday morning.
Continue reading...Steven Miles’s government is fighting battles on multiple fronts – and shifting right or left will only create new problems elsewhere
Seven months before Campbell Newman was tossed from office by angry Queensland voters, he called a press conference, flanked by members of his cabinet, and apologised.
“I just want to say I am sorry today if we have done things that have upset people,” Newman said, days after his government was humbled, with a 19% swing, at a Brisbane byelection. “We will be doing a lot better in the future.”
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Paterson blasts government’s immigration detention policy
Shadow home affairs minister James Paterson is now asked about immigration detention, given the government has been briefing that the high court is unlikely to allow indefinite detention to continue.
We have a risk now, that is that offenders, foreign offenders, are in the community reoffending against Australians. People are victims, who should haven’t been, because these people should not have been released. Once they were, they should have been taken off the streets.
All Australian politicians are active on the platform. I think that is OK as long as they follow the government’s national security advice about mitigating the risks. For example, it shouldn’t be on the same device they have their work or personal information on, on a stand alone.
Continue reading...Premier Steven Miles says massive swing against ALP in two key byelections was ‘very bad’ for his government
Queensland premier Steven Miles concedes massive swings against his government at the Ipswich West and Inala byelections are “very bad” for the Labor party and could result in a wipeout at the October general election if it doesn’t acknowledge the message sent by voters.
Labor lost the safe seat of Ipswich West to the Liberal National party after a two-party swing of about 18%.
Continue reading...Girl, 13, taken to hospital with minor injuries after suspected shark attack at Bargara beach in Bundaberg
A teenage girl has been taken to hospital after being injured in a suspected shark attack in Queensland’s north.
Paramedics were called to Bargara beach in Bundaberg on Friday afternoon after reports of a shark attack.
Continue reading...Government report says placing children in prison isolation can affect their health and wellbeing in ‘severe, long-term and irreversible ways’
A Queensland government report has raised concerns over the use of solitary confinement in youth detention, detailing the case of two First Nations children with disabilities who died after spending extensive time in isolation at overcrowded and understaffed youth detention centres.
The Child Death Review Board’s annual report, tabled in state parliament on Thursday, details the anonymised cases of two boys, Harry* and Jack*. The report does not explicitly state their cause of death but Guardian Australia understands it to be suicide.
Continue reading...Housing pressures and the cost of living crisis mean Steven Miles’ government is under threat from the Greens in Brisbane and the LNP in the regions
The old Inala roller skating rink in Brisbane’s south-west has been vacant for more than 15 years. For many locals, it is a symbol that progress moves slower in the outer suburbs.
Earlier this month, the Greens’ campaign for the Brisbane city council election announced plans to buy the building and turn the site into a public pool.
Continue reading...Sunshine Coast man charged with offences including rape, stalking and making child exploitation material
Police allege a Sunshine Coast man groomed two girls aged between 12 and 14 online before sexually abusing them.
Dion Adam Lingard, 31, will face Maroochydore magistrates court again on 18 March on 116 charges including rape, indecent treatment and stalking.
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