Category Archives: Queensland

Brisbane watch house officer tells inquest she did not check if Aunty Sherry Tilberoo was breathing

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Debra Haigh tells hearing she now understands she should have stood in front of cell for longer and used a torch to look for movement

A Brisbane watch house officer who was suspended after the death of First Nations woman Shiralee Tilberoo has admitted during an inquest that she did not check whether she was breathing or shine a torch into the darkened cell on nine occasions.

The Birri Gubba woman – also known as Aunty Sherry – died of a brain aneurysm in Brisbane City watch house in the early hours of the morning on 10 September 2020.

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Queensland to spend $5bn on 1,100km CopperString power line to unlock renewables potential

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‘Eureka moment’ project will provide future energy certainty and trigger new minerals processing, Palaszczuk government says

The Queensland government has said it will take control of a $5bn proposal to build a 1,100km power line connecting Mount Isa to the national grid, which it says will “unlock” development of new-economy mineral deposits in the state’s north west.

The project, known as CopperString 2.0, has long been touted as necessary to provide future energy certainty to Queensland’s north-west minerals province, where miners are considering the potential to extract large amounts of copper, cobalt, vanadium, lead, zinc and phosphate.

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‘Like a little dragon’: new gecko species discovered on rugged Queensland island

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The carnivorous Phyllurus fimbriatus is only found in the wettest, rockiest pockets of Scawfell Island

A new species of gecko that “looks like a little dragon”, with a beaky face and spiny leaf-shaped tail, has been discovered on an uninhabited Queensland island.

The new lizard was found on Scawfell Island, a rugged island about 50km offshore from the north Queensland city of Mackay.

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‘Public anxiety’ no justification to override Human Rights Act on youth crime laws, Queensland MPs told

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Human rights commissioner Scott McDougall warns against making breach of bail an offence for children at tense parliamentary committee hearing

Queensland’s human rights commissioner has told a parliamentary committee that “public anxiety” is no justification for overriding the state’s Human Rights Act to make breach of bail an offence for children, warning that doing so could set a precedent.

In a tense back-and-forth during a hearing into the proposed youth crime laws, Scott McDougall said he was deeply concerned about the impact that the suspension of the act could have.

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Queensland human rights commissioner says police must watch for vigilante activity

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Police have repeatedly warned against vigilantism but there are growing concerns that recent heightened debate might increase risk

The Queensland human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall, says police must closely monitor vigilante activity, amid concern about the role of anti-crime Facebook groups where residents have threatened children or called for violent responses to youth crime.

Debate about youth crime in Queensland last week prompted the state government to override its Human Rights Act to introduce new laws, which will result in children being charged with criminal offences for breaching bail conditions. Experts say there is no evidence to support such a move.

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Queensland becomes first Australian state to introduce pill testing in move away from ‘1950s drug policy’

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Health minister Yvette D’Ath says state will introduce pill testing at mobile and fixed sites following success of trials in Canberra

Queensland will become the first Australian state to roll out pill-testing sites in an attempt to curb the harmful effects of illicit drugs.

The move will shift the country more in line with global standards on harm minimisation, one advocate says.

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Powerpoint and politics: inside Queensland Labor’s shock decision to lock up children for breaching bail

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Government claims a bipartisan approach to respond to community concerns, but experts warn of increased pressure on the buckling youth detention system

At a community crime forum in Toowoomba last week, the Queensland police minister, Mark Ryan, announced the government’s new youth bail plan – an “intensive supervision” program involving police doing home checks and patrols.

It didn’t go down well. Ryan was hounded by attendees and mocked for factual comments that most people on bail do not reoffend.

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‘Recipe for disaster’: Queensland bail law that overrides children’s human rights won’t work, experts say

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Legal groups also criticise the push to override the state’s Human Rights Act to create the offence

Experts say there is zero evidence to support Annastacia Palaszczuk’s controversial decision to pursue criminal charges against Queensland children who breach bail.

Human rights organisations have also delivered scathing criticisms of the government’s bid to override the state’s Human Rights Act to legislate the offence for children, warning that it likely won’t reduce offending.

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Media companies lose bid to name high-profile man charged with Queensland rape

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Toowoomba magistrate rules media will have to adhere to Queensland laws that prevent naming him before he’s committed to stand trial

A media application seeking to name a high-profile man charged with raping a young woman in Toowoomba in 2021 has been adjourned by a magistrate who deemed the bid “premature”.

Queensland media law prevents identifying people accused of serious sex offences until they are committed to stand trial, legislation that magistrate Kay Philipson on Wednesday described as very specific.

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Australia at risk of electricity supply shortages as renewable projects lag behind coal plant closures

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Successive La Niñas have eased demand but with many renewable and storage projects now delayed, the energy market operator has revised its projections

Australia’s main electricity grid will probably avoid major supply shortages next summer, but risks escalate in later years as ageing coal plants exit potentially faster than new renewables and storage projects come on line.

The projections are contained in the Australian Energy Market Operator’s (Aemo) updated Electricity Statement of Opportunities (Esoo) report, released on Tuesday.

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Australia news live: landmark report confirms wage theft by universities; treasurer calls for changes to super laws

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Staff underpaid more than $80m in past three years. Follow the day’s news live

Fresh push to ban ‘asbestos of the 2020s’

There’s a fresh push to ban engineered stone commonly used in kitchen benchtops and linked to an incurable lung disease likened to asbestosis, AAP reports.

Instead of planning a family, we’re planning my funeral. I used to install kitchen benches. People liked engineered stone because it was cheap. But the dust got into my lungs causing deadly, incurable silicosis.

That’s too high a price for anyone to pay. Nothing will save my life but if you join the campaign to stop the importation and manufacture of engineered stone, you can help save someone else’s. Please.

Australian workers like Kyle are dying because of engineered stone.

The companies flooding our markets with this cheap and nasty material know that, but to them profits are more important than people’s lives.

It is incredibly distressing … when we hear about these horrific murders and we have to do more to prevent [them from] happening.

I often say we have to start responding to the red flags before more blue police tape surrounds the family home.

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Australia news live: back safeguard mechanism to ‘put climate wars behind us’, Labor urges Coalition and Greens – as it happened

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‘The onus is on Labor’ to explain why it needs more coal and gas: Bandt

There’s some discussion about possible alternatives – one suggestion is to pause new developments on gas and coal developments while reforms to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 have been hammered out.

We are up for good-faith discussions and proposals like that are coming from people like the Climate Council, from The Australia Institute. I’ve seen the Australia Conservation Foundation out saying there are serious problems with the government’s proposal.

You can’t put the fire out while pouring petrol on it.

I don’t think the penny has quite dropped with the government how much things are have moved on. 66% of people between 18 and 34 back our position – don’t want new coal and gas mines opened. 57% of the general population. Things have moved on.

I know Labor talks a lot about history, but the students who are marching in the streets at the moment, behind banners saying, “No new coal and gas” were in primary school in 2009. They do not want it, no one can understand why we are coming up to the year anniversary of the floods in Lismore, people cannot understand why Labor says they want to open up new projects.

Why does Labor want to go to the wall to open new coal and gas projects? These are huge climate bombs. They’ve got a very – I think it is an untenable task...

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‘They bleed you dry’: the recruitment scammers preying on Australian job seekers

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As cybercriminals increasingly target the job market, antipoverty advocates say punitive welfare rules leave job seekers particularly vulnerable

“I can’t stop kicking myself,” Rose* says.

The 51-year-old has just lost $10,000 to scammers – a life-changing amount for the mother of three.

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Two men trapped underground at outback Queensland mine site found dead

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A search located the bodies of miners Dylan Langridge and Trevor Davis who went missing on Wednesday after plunging into a void in the remote Dugald River zinc mine near Cloncurry

The two men trapped 125 metres underground at a north-west Queensland mine have been found dead.

Dylan Langridge and Trevor Davis went missing on Wednesday in the remote Dugald River zinc mine, near Cloncurry after their ute fell into a stope, a large void that contains the ore being mined, and became trapped at a depth of about 125 metres underground.

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Bodies of missing men found – as it happened

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Where the parties stand

So the Greens are pushing hard against new coal and gas but have not indicated they are willing to kill off the legislation.

We’re willing to negotiate on everything that we consider will be in keeping with our government’s approach and our election mandate. Nothing more, nothing less. We went to the people seeking a mandate. That’s what we will implement.

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Two miners missing 125m underground after ‘collapse’ at Queensland mine

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Search under way for pair who fell into a large cavern – or stope – at the zinc mine in Dugald River near Mount Isa

A search and rescue effort has been launched for two miners missing after their ute plunged into a deep hole after a “ground collapse” in the remote Dugald River zinc mine, near Mount Isa in north-west Queensland.

The men’s ute fell into a stope – a large void that contains the ore being mined – and are now missing at a depth of about 125 metres underground.

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Two people injured and one charged after alleged shooting in Toowoomba

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Queensland police charge 18-year-old woman with multiple firearm-related offences ahead of community safety forum

A woman and a teenage girl have been injured and an 18-year-old charged with a string of offences after an alleged shooting in Toowoomba, ahead of a community forum at which tensions over a perceived youth crime crisis are expected to come to a head.

The Queensland police minister, Mark Ryan, the youth justice minister, Leanne Linard, and the police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, are expected to attend a community safety forum at Toowoomba’s Empire theatre on Wednesday night.

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Government receives strategic defence review – as it happened

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NZ government: worst of Cyclone Gabrielle is over but more rain still to be expected

Back to New Zealand for a moment:

Well … he could be but you know, look, during the republican referendum, he accused all sorts of people who oppose the republican movement of being on the wrong side of history … they seem to be able to survive that experience [of] being on the wrong side of history and go on to be prime minister and all sorts of things.

… You know, when Julia Gillard was prime minister, she was very publicly opposed to legalising same-sex marriage. And I used to say she and Tony Abbott [were] both wrong on this issue, but at least [Abbott] was sincerely wrong, because I never believed Julia believed what she was saying. But she did say it.

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Emergency services expect ‘very difficult day’ as 50 bushfires burn across Queensland

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Communities in state’s south-west evacuated with dry conditions likely to worsen in Monday heat

Communities in south-west Queensland have been evacuated and homes hit by fast moving bushfires, with 50 bushfires in total burning across Queensland as of Monday morning. Emergency warnings have been issued for fires at Montrose and Myall Park.

Residents of Montrose, near Tara in the Western Downs, were told to leave immediately Sunday afternoon. Emergency services warned the large, fast-moving fire was travelling in multiple directions and firefighters may not be able to stop it from advancing.

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Fines against WA climate protester ‘absurdly excessive’, Human Rights Watch says; refund for Myki charges during outage – As it happened

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Activist pleaded guilty on Friday to criminal damage. This blog is now closed

Productivity commission report will be released in March

Chalmers says he has received a five-year review from the productivity commission about how Australia can respond to flagging productivity across the Australian economy.

I’d like to do that sooner, ideally in May, so that we can have this national debate about our productivity performance and some of the recommendations in there. Now, inevitably, a government won’t pick up and run with every single one of the recommendations from the Productivity Commission, but there may be some that we can run with. There will be some that align with the government’s economic plan and our policy objectives.

No doubt people will want to ask him about that and he can explain it. I think there’s a broader issue here about how the bank communicates the context for its decisions. This is one of the things that I have been discussing with the RBA Review Panel. I actually discussed it with them on Friday in one of the regular meetings that I have with the review panel, how they communicate their decisions and the context behind their decisions is one of the key focuses of that review.

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