Category Archives: Queensland

Public ownership of power assets key to smooth shift to renewables, Queensland energy minister says

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Government also able to offset impact of higher energy prices globally following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mick de Brenni says

Retaining control of its electricity assets has given Queensland an edge over other regions in coordinating and funding the race to decarbonise the economy, the state’s energy minister, Mick de Brenni, says.

Queensland last month unveiled a $62bn plan to rid its power grid of coal by 2036, replacing the generation with 25GW of large-scale wind and solar farms, new transmission lines and two giant pumped hydro plants for storage.

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Australia news live: 120 schools to be closed on Monday amid Victorian flood crisis

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Residents in Victoria’s north told to move to higher ground; Anthony Albanese and 100 ADF personnel on the ground as situation worsens. Follow live

Federal government ‘in conversation’ with NSW about Warragamba dam wall

King is asked about how the infrastructure spend is being divvied up with New South Wales clearly getting less than Labor-lead states. King says the decisions were based on the projects that had been submitted to the federal government ahead of the budget.

We will work with the New South Wales government as we lead into the May budget.

Of course we will look at it. At this stage we don’t have enough information from the New South Wales government on which to make a decision.

There is back and forth between Infrastructure Australia and the New South Wales department and I haven’t seen any of that yet.

This is for the early works of this project. We haven’t made any further commitments. We will talk to the Victorians around that as we go forward. They have an election they are facing and this will be a contested project, I’m sure, but something we have confidence in.

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Woodchipper murder accused boasted of killing man in meat grinder, court hears

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Peter Koenig said he pushed man into Adelaide abattoir’s meat grinder, fellow murder accused Gregory Lee Roser told Brisbane supreme court

It was while allegedly scoping out the best spot to murder Bruce Saunders that Gregory Lee Roser says Peter Koenig boasted of having killed before.

Koenig thought it was funny, Roser has told the Brisbane supreme court.

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Queensland police discipline failures in ‘clear breach’ of workplace health and safety laws, says lawyer

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Commissioner says not all officers have had a safe workplace as critics label complaints procedure a joke

The Queensland Police Service continues to employ frontline officers whose actions resulted in payouts worth millions of dollars to victims of bullying and harassment, Guardian Australia has learned.

The commission of inquiry into Queensland police responses to domestic violence has revealed dozens of instances where officers were found to have engaged in racism, sexism, misogyny and bullying. In many of these cases, officers were repeat offenders and not subject to disciplinary action.

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Queensland government moves to legislate coercive control as a form of domestic violence

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The bill would amend laws to include a ‘pattern of behaviour’ and update the definition of stalking

The Queensland government will seek to broaden the definition of domestic violence to include coercive control, as it moves towards making it a criminal offence in its own right.

The bill, introduced into parliament on Friday, would amend legislation to include a “pattern of behaviour” and update the definition of stalking to reflect modern technology.

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Covid quarantine centre to reopen for flood evacuees – as it happened

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Daniel Andrews says 500 homes have been flooded and another 500 have been isolated. This blog is now closed

An estimated 500 homes are flooded in Victoria with number expected to grow: Daniel Andrews

Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has been on ABC radio Melbourne this morning, providing listeners with an update on the floods.

Obviously this has been a very, very significant flood event and it’s far from over. There’s a little bit more rainfall but as that weather event passes through, the real challenge is waters continuing to rise and more and more houses being inundated, more and more communities being closed off, becoming isolated, then of course we move to clean up and all of those issues.

We think there’s about 500 homes that are flooded, we think there are another 500 that have been isolated across the state. But I would just say they’re very early estimates and the aerial intelligence gathering choppers are up in the air now ... they’ll be doing all their reports back to the state control centre. So I’d say those numbers are absolutely certain to grow. And indeed, we’re still asking people to leave in some areas. There have been important, important evacuation notices have been issued in a number of communities. So those numbers will go up. That’s why we’ve got nine important relief centres opening and 50 sandbag collection points. There’s an enormous amount of work going on.

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Proposed levy on Queensland’s vacant homes backed by advocates

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Greens bill will see investors pay 5% levy on all residential property left vacant for more than six months

The Queensland Greens say their proposal to tax investors for vacant homes could see tens of thousands of properties returned to the rental market during a nationwide housing crisis.

The bill, introduced into parliament on Thursday, proposes charging investors a 5% levy of the “capital improved value” of all residential property and land that has been vacant for six months or more in a year.

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Residents given a spray as Queensland government hoses down flood threat with free water offer

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Authorities announce plans to reduce Wivenhoe dam level to mitigate flood risk, with residents encouraged to start hosing

Residents of south-east Queensland have been encouraged to break out their gurneys and let loose with the hose as the government reduces the level of Wivenhoe dam due to an increased risk of major floods.

The state’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said lowering the dam level from 90% to 80% capacity would increase its effectiveness for flood mitigation in coming months.

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Queensland police discipline system ‘failed’ officers sexually assaulted by colleagues, minister says

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Mark Ryan says he is appalled by ‘disgraceful’ evidence heard at inquiry and calls for changes to system

Queensland’s police minister has acknowledged that the force’s disciplinary system has “failed” officers subjected to sexual assaults by their police colleagues.

The commission of inquiry into police responses to domestic violence last week heard how officers who perpetrated sexual assault, sexually harassed junior female colleagues or made racist or misogynistic comments often faced little to no consequences for their behaviour.

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Man shot dead by police in Brisbane – as it happened

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Queensland police say officers had been called to Edmonstone Street in South Brisbane around 3pm. This blog is now closed

Treasurer says surging electricity costs will make inflation ‘hang around longer’

We brought you the grim news on the blog yesterday that the head of Alinta energy has predicated a 35% increase to retail electricity bills next year, as energy providers juggle phasing out fossil fuels alongside investment in renewables.

I think one of the reasons this inflation will hang around longer than we want it to is because there are expectations around these electricity price rises being more problematic for longer.

You’ve said the government would put the economy above politics, can you really say that’s what you doing if you leave the stage-three tax cuts in place as they are?

I can say that, and I think what people will see in the budget in two weeks’ time is some difficult decisions in difficult times.

Our job is to make sure that our budgets are perfectly calibrated to the economic conditions as we confront them.

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Australia news live: increased risk of floods, tropical cyclones and heatwaves, long-range forecast warns

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The Bureau of Meteorology has released its long-range forecast for Australia’s coming severe weather season. Follow all the day’s news live

‘It’s time to move on now’: Tanya Plibersek on Andrew Thorburn saga

On Sunrise, environment minister Tanya Plibersek was asked about a war of words between Victoria premier Daniel Andrews and Andrew Thorburn, the would-be CEO of Essendon who resigned following criticism about his role as chairman of City on a Hill.

When it comes to rampant homophobia, when I lead the pride march every year, I do that with a sense of genuine concern, support and commitment.

I think the important thing here is that the fellow in question has resigned from the position, it really is a matter for the football club. It seems like they are moving on from a national perspective, the government is committed to making sure that we introduce religious discrimination laws, as we said we would. I think it’s time to move on now.

I think that his personal views should be separated from the overarching views of the church that he is involved with … I’m in the Catholic Church, it doesn’t mean I believe in every tenet of the Catholic Church. This is completely out of order and Mr Thorburn should get his job back. The whole thing looks like a total mess.

I think you always look back and think I could have done this or not. I tried to do as much as I could as prime minister in the sense that every day was precious, every day we were trying to drive big reforms forward. On sexism and misogyny I specifically regret not calling it out earlier.

I had thought when I first became prime minister that the maximum reaction to me being the first woman would be in the early days and it would wash away … I was clearly wrong on that. Knowing what I know now it was going to gather and get worse. Potentially if I called it out earlier it could have been a bit easier. You never get to run the control test in politics.

I think things have changed, I think it’s impossible to imagine a prominent woman in Australian politics would be called the things I was without it having huge negative consequences today … but we’ve still got a way to go.

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Extinction Rebellion protesters glue hands to prized Picasso – as it happened

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Dutton on his answer to filling the gap should stage-three tax cuts go through

Dutton:

If you look at even post lockdowns on a month by month basis, you can see months where we’ve gone back into surplus, so the settings we have in government, our instinct as Liberals, as a Coalition when it comes to budget management are vindicated.

When you look at where we are with a 50-year low unemployment, when you look at the strength of the underlying indicators here in Australia, that is a very significant contrast to where the UK or US budget is, and this government inherited a very strong position after nine years of Coalition management.

David, we went to the last election with a promise and I’m not in the business of breaking promises. The prime minister can contemplate it. He looked the Australian public in the eye and it seems he wasn’t so genuine and that he was prepared to make that statement.

I want to see the prime minister honour his commitment and not lie to the Australian people.

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NSW floods: SES performs six rescues amid 63 flood warnings and continuing rainfall

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Four defence force helicopters on standby as low-pressure system, forecast to persist until Sunday, brings flash flooding, landslides and damaging winds

Rivers in New South Wales are overflowing and emergency services have had to perform six flood rescues in 24 hours as another battering of heavy rain and thunderstorms descends on the east coast.

The third low-pressure system was forecast to persist until Sunday morning, bringing flash flooding, landslides and damaging winds strong enough to bring down powerlines and trees.

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Dominic Perrottet urges people in NSW to stay out of flood water – as it happened

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Trough tracking over NSW towards the coast is bringing intense rainfall and the risk of flash flooding, Bureau of Meteorology says. This blog is now closed

Storey warned despite blue skies in some areas this morning, heavy rain will set in from the afternoon through to tomorrow.

That heavy rain coming on top of saturated soils and catchments and dams that are already full and overflowing [we] can really see that flooding risk escalate really, really quickly. Not only riverine flooding risk, which we’re monitoring closely, but that flash flooding risk, in particular. A lot of roads may see flash flooding affecting them very, very quickly and catching people unawares.

There is definitely a flood fatigue situation across many, many parts of the state. And in particular in the west and the south of the state as well, who have been experiencing major flooding now for what feels like the best part of a year. Many areas in the west and south are still subject to major flooding as we speak, and with the heavy rains continuing in those areas in the coming days, that’s going to exacerbate that risk.

Unfortunately, the bureau’s forecasting an above-average rainfall storm and flood season, so we’re probably gonna see many more events like this over the coming months.

With the expected heavy rainfall impacting the Hunter, Greater Sydney, and Illawarra over the next sort of 24 hours, so our key focus is on that flash flooding risk in those areas.

If you are in those affected areas or travelling through those affected areas, monitor those conditions and never drive through floodwaters. A lot of roads are already flooded in many parts of the state and will be flooded in the coming 24 hours. So, make those smart decisions for yourselves and your families. And the smartest decision you can make is to never drive through those floodwaters.

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Third person arrested in fatal Brisbane shooting while two suspects remain on the run

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A 38-year-old man died after being shot in the chest at close range at a home in Oxley in the early hours of Tuesday morning

A third person has been arrested after a man was shot dead in the front yard of a home in south-west Brisbane as two male suspects remain on the run.

Officers from the Acacia Ridge criminal investigation branch and homicide unit arrested the 30-year-old east Brisbane man on Friday evening after he was intercepted in a vehicle at Riverview.

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Woodchipper murder trial: ‘Thou shalt not kill’ message left in letterbox of accused, Brisbane court hears

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In recordings played in court, Sharon Graham says to co-accused ‘I don’t want to be in this house any more’

The message “thou shalt not kill” was left in a shaken Sharon Graham’s letterbox during a woodchipper death investigation, a Brisbane court has heard.

Graham, 61, and partner Gregory Lee Roser, 63, have pleaded not guilty to murder after Bruce Saunders died while working on a property north of Brisbane in November 2017.

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Queensland police inquiry hears allegations of recruits being taught racism, officers being raped

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State’s police commissioner reveals she too suffered sexual assault and harassment early in her career

Senior Queensland police officers taught racist attitudes to academy recruits, including comments about Indigenous people that “you can smell them before you see them”, recordings obtained by an inquiry have revealed.

The “distressing” evidence given to the inquiry into Queensland police service (QPS) responses to domestic violence included revelations the police service failed to discipline officers in cases where they were found to have racially abused colleagues, or made racist remarks.

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In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

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Star ‘unsuitable’ to hold a casino licence in Queensland, state government says

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Independent review found a ‘serious dereliction’ of anti-money laundering responsibilities

Star Entertainment has been declared unfit to hold a casino licence in Queensland and will be issued with a notice to explain why it should continue to operate in the state.

Former judge Robert Gotterson’s report into the ASX-listed casino operator was released on Thursday after a public investigation into Star’s conduct in Queensland.

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Australia news live: flood warnings issued as east coast braces for heavy rain and storms

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Kieren Perkins has backed diversity in sport at the national press club and Manasseh Sogavare, the PM of Solomon Islands, is due to arrive in Australia this afternoon on a flight from Singapore. Follow the day’s news live

Fire extinguished in Sydney shopping centre

Maria Kovacic elected NSW Liberals president

The election next March will be hard fought.

Our party will be talking directly to our community, including western Sydney and the regions, about how the Perrottet Government can improve their lives and help their families.

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‘Fear of speaking out’: Queensland police officer’s sexual assaults went unreported for years, inquiry told

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Counsel assisting the inquiry Ruth O’Gorman KC suggests system is ‘stacked against female victims’

A Queensland senior sergeant who was found by an internal police investigation to have committed nine sexual assaults of junior female officers engaged in unchecked problematic conduct for 16 years due to a culture that discouraged complaints, an inquiry has heard.

The commission of inquiry into Queensland police responses to domestic violence heard the man’s conduct included touching the breasts of a female subordinate, and following another into a toilet and suggesting he had come “for a blowjob”.

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