Category Archives: Queensland

Queensland public servants forbidden from including acknowledgments of country in email signatures, Labor says

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Government denies it issued directive, but opposition MP Leeanne Enoch says whistleblower has shared document outlining the decision

Queensland’s Labor opposition claims the state’s public servants have been issued a “strict directive” not to include acknowledgments of country in email signatures.

The shadow minister for reconciliation, Leeanne Enoch, tabled a partly redacted document in question time on Thursday which reads: “Departments are no longer permitted to add additional departmental branding elements such as the First Nations acknowledgement.”

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Lehrmann seeks to halt Toowoomba rape case and claims police ‘illegally obtained’ his lawyers’ phone calls

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Former Liberal staffer accused of raping a woman after meeting her at a strip club in Queensland in 2021

Bruce Lehrmann has sought to halt a rape case against him, claiming that police “illegally obtained” his lawyers’ phone calls.

Lehrmann, 30, is accused of raping a woman twice during the morning of 10 October, 2021 after they met at a strip club the previous night in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.

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Queensland budget 2025: Crisafulli vows no austerity despite state facing $218bn debt

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Premier says you can ‘respect people’s money’ and still lift public services as LNP hands down first budget since 2014

The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, has promised no austerity in his first budget, despite the state facing a forecast $218bn in debt.

Tuesday’s state budget will be the Liberal National party’s first since 2014. Then led by premier Campbell Newman, the LNP lost government in 2015 after slashing tens of thousands of public service positions and proposing the sell-off of public assets to balance the books.

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Queensland MP calls for return of vagrancy laws to allow police to prosecute homeless people

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LNP member for Mermaid Beach says absence of legislative power to remove tents set up in his electorate is ‘unacceptable’

A Gold Coast Liberal National party MP has called for the return of vagrancy laws to allow police to prosecute homeless people amid an ongoing crackdown on tent cities in Queensland.

Ray Stevens, the member for Mermaid Beach, made the call in a speech to parliament last week.

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Pheobe Bishop: human remains found near Bundaberg confirmed as those of missing Queensland teenager

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Police, who have charged the 17-year-old’s housemates with her murder, confirmed identification of remains discovered close to Gin Gin in early June

Police say they have identified human remains found in scrub near Bundaberg as missing teenager Pheobe Bishop.

Bishop’s housemates – James Wood, 34, and Tanika Bromley, 33 – were arrested on 5 June and charged with her murder. They have not entered pleas and are on remand awaiting trial.

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Pheobe Bishop: Queensland police testing human remains found in search for missing teenager

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Police say remains found during search of area near Good Night Scrub national park on Friday afternoon

Queensland police have identified remains found in the search for missing 17-year-old Pheobe Bishop as human, and further testing is being done to formally identify them.

The discovery of remains was made at about 2.30pm on Friday after a search of an area near Good Night Scrub national park, close to Gin Gin, police said. The remains were found one day after her housemates were charged with her murder.

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Queensland’s puberty blockers review panel criticised for lacking gender experts and trans lived experience

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Health department defends panel as chosen based on specialist expertise and says public can contribute via consultation process

Transgender advocates have criticised the panel assembled to conduct the Queensland government’s review of puberty blockers for lacking experts in gender affirming care and people with lived experience of trans healthcare.

The state government opened its independent review of stage 1 and stage 2 hormone therapies in Queensland’s public paediatric gender services to public submissions last week, but kept the panel conducting the review secret.

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Natural disasters cost Australia’s economy $2.2bn in first half of 2025, new Treasury analysis shows

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Wild weather, including Cyclone Alfred and floods in NSW and Queensland, significantly slowed retail trade and household spending

Six months of natural disasters in 2025 have cost the economy $2.2bn, largely in slower retail and household spending, according to new federal Treasury analysis.

Wild weather has repeatedly battered the Australian east coast this year.

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‘Gut punch’: top shark expert quits Queensland advisory panel after LNP expands cull program

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Exclusive: Colin Simpfendorfer’s resignation from working group comes as conservationists lash expansion of lethal program they say ‘does nothing to improve beach safety’

One of Australia’s leading shark researchers has resigned from his position of almost eight years advising the Queensland shark control program, as members of that scientific working group say they were “shocked” and sidelined by the state government’s decision to expand the lethal control of sharks.

Announcing an $88m shark management plan overhaul which would see shark nets and baited drum lines designed to kill target shark species rolled out at more beaches, and existing drum lines used more intensely, the primary industries minister, Tony Perrett, claimed this week that the Liberal National party’s strategy was backed by research.

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Geelong overtakes Sunshine Coast as top tree- and sea-change destination

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Rate of people moving to Australia’s regions increases by more than 10% in March quarter

While the Geelong Cats are fifth on the AFL ladder, their home city is the reigning champion.

The Victorian region has become the most popular place for people escaping capital cities to settle, with its picturesque coastline and thriving industry making it an ideal sea-change destination.

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Police search national park for Queensland teenager Pheobe Bishop after ‘suspicious’ disappearance

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Good Night Scrub park, about an hour from where the 17-year-old was last seen, is ‘crucial’ to land, water and aerial search

The search of a national park is “crucial” to an investigation into a missing teenager in south Queensland as police continue a land, water and aerial search more than a week after her disappearance.

On Saturday, Queensland police said they were relying “heavily” on information from the public for leads, after expanding the search for Pheobe Bishop to include the Good Night Scrub national park.

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Police search national park for Queensland teenager Pheobe Bishop after ‘suspicious’ disappearance

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Good Night Scrub park, about an hour from where the 17-year-old was last seen, is ‘crucial’ to land, water and aerial search

The search of a national park is “crucial” to an investigation into a missing teenager in south Queensland as police continue a land, water and aerial search more than a week after her disappearance.

On Saturday, Queensland police said they were relying “heavily” on information from the public for leads, after expanding the search for Pheobe Bishop to include the Good Night Scrub national park.

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Police search national park for Queensland teenager Pheobe Bishop after ‘suspicious’ disappearance

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Good Night Scrub park, about an hour from where the 17-year-old was last seen, is ‘crucial’ to land, water and aerial search

The search of a national park is “crucial” to an investigation into a missing teenager in south Queensland as police continue a land, water and aerial search more than a week after her disappearance.

On Saturday, Queensland police said they were relying “heavily” on information from the public for leads, after expanding the search for Pheobe Bishop to include the Good Night Scrub national park.

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Award judges resign after Queensland state library strips writer’s prize over Hamas tweet

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One resignation letter expresses ‘disgust’ over library’s decision to rescind First Nations author’s $15,000 award after arts minister weighs in

At least four judges for the Queensland literary awards have resigned over the past 24 hours, protesting against the State Library of Queensland’s decision to withdraw a prestigious $15,000 fellowship from First Nations writer Karen Wyld over comment she made last year about the Gaza conflict.

The 2022 Stella award winning poet Evelyn Araluen, Wiradjuri academic and writer Dr Jeanine Leane, writer and reviewer Nigel Featherstone and Gamilaroi poet Luke Patterson all confirmed to Guardian Australia on Friday they have resigned from the awards’ judging panels. It is believed several other judges have also resigned, but wish to remain anonymous.

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Queensland to restrict good character references in sentencing of accused rapists

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Good character references from friends and families of accused rapists had previously been a consideration in a judge’s sentencing decision

The consideration of good character references for accused rapists will be restricted under major Queensland court reforms but some advocates say it does not go far enough.

The changes introduced to Queensland parliament this week are among the recommendations made by a Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council report into rape and sexual assault.

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A bridge too far: Brisbane grapples with the multimillion-dollar cost of revitalising an icon

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Cash-strapped council may seek to raise funds from rate-payers, state and federal governments, or road users to fix 85-year-old Story Bridge

When the ribbon was cut on Brisbane’s Story Bridge on 6 July 1940 it was not an auspicious time to open a new bridge.

Five days earlier, the infamous Tacoma Narrows Bridge had opened in Washington State.

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Queensland government held 21-minute consultation on puberty blocker ban at same time it announced decision

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Exclusive: Legal challenge launched as expert says an alleged failure to conduct ‘genuine’ consultations could lead to ban being overturned

The legality of Queensland’s ban on puberty blockers has been questioned after it was revealed the state government undertook 21 minutes of internal consultation at the same time as a press conference announcing the decision.

According to one administrative law expert, an alleged failure to conduct “genuine” consultation could lead to it being overturned in a legal challenge launched this week.

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Three children dead after suspicious fire in Toowoomba home

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A nine-year-old boy is believed to have died in the fire while girls aged four and seven died later in hospital from critical burns

Two young children have died in hospital after a ferocious fire at a family home, taking the death toll to three.

The house in suburban Harristown in Toowoomba, about 130km west of Brisbane in the Darling Downs region, went up in flames in the early hours of Wednesday.

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Queensland unions predict ‘hell of a bloody fight’ if LNP attacks nurses’ right to strike

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State government offered to backdate wages for nurses and midwives on condition they do not undertake protected industrial action in May

The Queensland union movement has warned the state’s conservative government it will be in for a “hell of a bloody fight” if it pursues threats to strip nurses and midwives of backpay should they enact their legal right to strike.

A pay dispute between the LNP government and the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union (QNMU) is ongoing after their previous enterprise agreement expired on 31 March.

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Man charged with murder over wife’s Queensland kayak drowning tried to claim $1m insurance, police allege

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Graeme Davidson lived in Thailand for a ‘number of years’ and was arrested and charged with murder, fraud and attempted fraud while visiting Brisbane

Years after his wife died while kayaking, a man has been accused of murder and trying to claim more than $1m in life insurance.

Graeme Davidson, 55, who now lives in Thailand, was charged over the death of his wife, Jacqueline.

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