Category Archives: Queensland

Government ‘recognises concern’ over monkeypox with 44 cases recorded – as it happened

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Labor wants consensus between business and unions – Burke

Burke says “everything is on the table” including the potential for fixed enterprise bargaining. He also says that the government would like to seek consensus between business and union groups if it can. Asked specifically about a deal struck between the ACTU and the Business Council last year, Burke says he doesn’t know whether that is possible now but he’d be interested in exploring it.

If I can find agreements where there’s consensus I don’t know whether the consensus of that agreement of a couple of years ago still existed in identical form, but if a consensus like that turns up at the job summit you could work on the basis I will be inclined to grab it, because that did have safeguards around it to prevent workers from in fact going backwards.

When you don’t have an energy policy for a decade that’s inflationary. When you have a skills crisis and refuse to invest in skills, that’s inflationary. So in establishing the first bill will be dealing with in the Parliament will be jobs and Skills Australia, we have already had Chris Bowen taking action in terms of making sure we are dealing with the energy crisis. But none of this turns around straight away.

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Australia records 102 Covid deaths – as it happened

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New South Wales has reported similarly high numbers, with 41 deaths and 14,953 new cases in the 24-hours to 4pm yesterday.

There are 2,176 people with Covid-19 in hospital, and 59 in intensive care. Just over 68% of people have received their third shot, despite a fourth booster now being available.

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Woman jailed for attempting to suffocate father in Queensland aged care home

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Rebecca Burden was visiting her brain-injured dad for the first time in six months when she says he asked her to kill him

A Brisbane woman has been jailed for at least 10 months after admitting a lapse of judgment when she tried to suffocate her brain-injured father.

Rebecca Louise Burden was visiting 68-year-old Steven Burden for the first time she was permitted after Covid-19 restrictions lifted at his aged care home when she says he asked her to kill him.

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Plea for Queensland to resume publishing vaccination status of Covid fatalities

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Experts say data could help convince public to get booster shots as state’s Covid hospitalisations reach record levels

A leading infectious disease expert has questioned why Queensland has stopped releasing the vaccination status of Covid fatalities, as the state struggles to convince residents to get booster shots, despite record hospitalisations from the virus.

Queensland has the lowest rate of Covid booster shots in the country, with less than half the state having received a third dose.

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Australia news live updates: Greens aim to ‘improve and pass’ Labor climate bill; Andrews rules out mask mandates as nation records 90 Covid deaths;

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No change in Operation Sovereign Borders policy

Clare O’Neil is asked about the desperate situation in Sri Lanka, where many people are trying to find a way out.

Operation Sovereign Borders is Australian government policy.

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Queensland police misidentify domestic violence victims as attackers, inquiry told

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Inquiry hears no effort was made to communicate with deaf woman wrongly identified as a perpetrator

Queensland police regularly misidentify the victims of domestic violence, with a lawyer telling an inquiry that a woman was subjected to a protection order due to scratches she inflicted in self-defence when her partner was strangling her.

In another case, officers wrongly identified a deaf First Nations woman as a perpetrator despite making no effort to communicate with her, a lawyer from the Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service told the inquiry.

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Calls for employers to allow working from home as 75 Covid deaths recorded – as it happened

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Victorian students aged eight and over are being urged to wear masks when indoors to help counter the Covid-19 surge.

The request comes in a joint letter from the state education department and independent and Catholic schools.

I respect the fact that people on the crossbench were elected to deliver action on climate change and our government wants to work with them to do just that.

That’s why one of the very first acts of the new government will be to legislate that higher ambition. They want more than the 43% that Labor is offering though.

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Letter urges Victorian parents to send children to school in masks as Covid surges

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While masks remain optional in schools nationwide, authorities in several Australian states have strengthened requests for action

The Victorian education department and independent schools have written a letter to parents urging students over the age of eight to wear masks at school.

While masks are not currently mandated for general student populations anywhere in Australia, a letter signed by the heads of the Victorian government, Catholic and independent schools sectors asks students aged eight and over to wear masks during class and if travelling on public transport. The state opposition has seized on the recommendation, labelling it a “mandate by stealth”.

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ANZ buys Suncorp’s banking arm for $4.9bn to boost Queensland presence

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Queensland jobs and bank branches to be protected for at least three years under terms of the takeover

ANZ has agreed to buy Suncorp’s banking business for $4.9bn in a deal the big-four lender described as a vote of confidence in Queensland.

Under the deal, ANZ will continue operating under the Suncorp Bank brand for five years as it takes on an additional $47bn in home loans and $45bn in deposits.

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PM criticised for ‘delaying’ flood support announcement – as it happened

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Labor adopting ‘take it or leave it’ approach, says Bandt

Bandt warns the government is adopting a “take it or leave it” approach to negotiating climate legislation, when there are real issues to address, such as the extent of climate ambition and how to phase out fossil fuels.

We’re saying that’s not our position. We’re saying we’d be willing to have discussions with the government but these are the things that have to be on the table. We’re not going into it with ultimatums.

I’m not talking about bottom lines and ultimatums but you can’t even have this discussion if the government is saying it’s my way or the highway, which is with where, with respect to the target, where they’re at at the moment.

If we’re negotiating climate legislation, then this government, now they’re in power, has to grapple with the question of are they going to open up more coal and gas projects that could potentially blow 43% out of the water? Just one of those projects could do that.

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Australia live updates: PM to meet with state and territory leaders at emergency national cabinet meeting as Covid hospitalisations soar

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Australia’s chief medical officer will give a briefing to state and territory leaders on Saturday and the pandemic leave payment is expected to be extended. Follow live

There were 11,082 new cases in the last reporting period, and 66 people are in intensive care.

First home buyers blowing their budgets

Underquoting is where a property is listed at a price lower than what it’s worth to bait buyers.

It’s illegal but it does happen, particularly in the case of auctions, where underquoted prices can attract more buyers and lead to a bidding war.

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‘In two years no one will care’: expert in institutional amnesia explains where flood response falls down

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Ongoing focus on disaster management needed to avoid kneejerk reactions from one event to the next

Australia’s response to flood emergencies will only improve when governments can maintain focus in the times between crises, a researcher specialising in the topic has warned.

Speaking before the release of reports into this year’s floods in Queensland and NSW, Dr Alastair Stark, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Queensland, said disaster inquiries often produced effective lessons only for their implementation by governments and agencies to stall.

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‘Not just another wave’: Australia’s Covid hospitalisations reach record levels in several states

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Experts warn of worse to come, with most states likely several weeks away from peak hospitalisation rates

Hospitals across the country are “bursting at the seams” as the number of people being admitted with Covid-19 reaches record levels in several states.

Western Australia recorded its highest number of Covid hospitalisations to date on Thursday, with Queensland also expected to surpass its January peak in coming days.

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Covid-19 Australia data tracker: coronavirus cases today, deaths, hospitalisations and vaccination

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Guardian Australia brings together all the latest on daily new Covid-19 cases, as well as stats, charts and live state by state data from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, ACT and NT. We bring together the latest numbers on the vaccine rollout and fourth dose booster vaccination rates.

Due to the difference in reporting times between states, territories and the federal government, it can be difficult to get a current picture of the pandemic in Australia. Here we have brought together data on cases, deaths, hospitalisations and vaccinations.

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Queensland police officer minimised domestic violence despite ‘punch-sized’ bruises, inquiry hears

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Inquiry told threat to decapitate a dog and ‘clear photographic evidence’ of assault on woman downplayed

A domestic violence victim was “failed” by a Queensland police officer who minimised her assault, despite clear evidence of a “punch-sized” bruise on her ribcage and allegations her partner threatened to decapitate a dog, a commission of inquiry has heard.

The inquiry into police responses to domestic and family violence also heard of instances of officers failing to switch on body-worn cameras and victims being turned away from front counters when attempting to report domestic violence.

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End to Covid leave payment and RAT subsidy ‘disincentives’ for casuals to be tested

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Australian Council of Social Services says end of supports amid new wave of virus leaves insecure workers more exposed

Lilly Hallett has become accustomed to regular lentil meals amid recent spiralling costs of living as a way to curb everyday expenses.

But the Melbourne-based casual call centre employee is also now trying to stash away part of her income in case she becomes reinfected with Covid, amid a surge in cases driven by the highly infectious Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.

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‘Too ugly to be raped’: Queensland inquiry hears police were dismissive of domestic violence victims

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Officer gives evidence of colleagues describing rapes in intimate relationships as ‘surprise sex’, and saying they ‘deserved to be raped’

A Queensland police officer broke into tears as he told a commission of inquiry that he witnessed domestic violence victims being turned away and colleagues claiming some victims “deserved to be raped”.

The officer, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, gave evidence that he had heard colleagues make offensive remarks about victims who were raped in intimate relationships, claiming it was “surprise sex” or they “deserved to be raped”.

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‘Exceptionally rare’: Australian scientists find 17 dinosaur teeth in Queensland

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Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum in Winton first discovered 12 sauropod teeth in 2019, with a further five uncovered

Scientists have unearthed 17 teeth from a giant herbivorous dinosaur that roamed Queensland millions of years ago in an “exceptionally rare” Australian find.

The teeth were discovered near the western Queensland town of Winton, which palaeontologists believe was at the edge of an inland ocean around 96 million years ago.

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Queensland woman who tried to smother father in aged care says he begged her to ‘please just kill me’

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Rebecca Louise Burden pleads guilty to attempted murder but tells court she believes ‘I am a good person who made a grave mistake’

The first time Rebecca Louise Burden was allowed to visit her father after Covid restrictions lifted at his aged care home, she tried to smother him with a cushion.

Burden has told a court her “lapse of judgment” came after her 68-year-old father – who had a brain injury and severe dementia – asked her to “please just kill me”.

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End of rapid Covid test and telehealth subsidies criticised – as it happened

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Payments extended to eight more local government areas and sped up to prioritise victims over auditing; free Covid rapid tests for concession card holders to end this month. This blog is now closed

A new campaign has launched today to tackle racism by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Chin Tan, the race discrimination commissioner, was on ABC Radio this morning discussing the campaign he says calls on all Australians to reflect on the causes and impacts of racism, not only on its victims but Australia’s collective wellbeing as a society.

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