Retail company to vacate premises at the Myer Centre it opened in 1988 after talks broke down with landlord over new lease
Myer will close its flagship Queensland store in Brisbane’s Queen Street mall after more than three decades.
The retail company says it will vacate its five-floor store in the Myer Centre days after posting a 24% jump in half-yearly sales.
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Turnbull concerned about UK economic situation
Malcolm Turnbull rounded out his concerns there with one shared with Paul Keating – although the language he used was a little more moderated than the former Labor PM is famous for.
The bottom line is their economy is sick. It’s got fundamental, sort of existential problems. And you’ve got to ask yourself, whether Britain is going to be able to sustain investment in its navy and its military in the years ahead, given this huge demand that they’ve got elsewhere, not least the National Health Service.
Continue reading...New laws include the overriding of the Human Rights Act to allow children to be charged for breaching bail
The Queensland government’s controversial youth crime laws have been passed in parliament despite strong opposition by human rights advocates and experts who warn they are ineffective and will result in more children incarcerated.
The laws include overriding the state’s Human Rights Act to make breach of bail an offence for children. They will also expand an electronic monitoring trial for children as young as 15 and provide additional funding of $9m to assist victims of crime.
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Acting prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles has spoken to ABC News Breakfast this morning after the $368bn announcement of the Aukus deal yesterday.
In response to the reaction from China accusing Australia, the US and Britain of embarking on a “path of error and danger”, Marles defends making a decision that is in Australia’s national interest:
We are seeking to acquire this capability to make our contribution to the collective security of the region and the maintenance of the global rules-based order.
And one of the issues within our region we are witnessing the largest conventional military build-up that the world has seen since the end of the second world war. And it’s not Australia who is doing that, but that shapes the world in which we live.
We’re completely confident these are in complete compliance with non proliferation.
Continue reading...Energy regulators issue draft default market offer, which set cap for this year’s increases
Power bills for households in three states will rise as much as 23.7% from 1 July if the Australian Energy Regulator’s draft determination, announced on Wednesday, is confirmed. Prices in Victoria may rise by almost a third.
The AER chair, Clare Savage, said the increases were “significant” but they could have been as much as 40% to 50% without the federal government’s intervention in December to cap domestic gas and black coal prices.
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Continue reading...Authorities say community still in town could be isolated for up to two weeks with water levels continuing to rise
About 70 people are holding out in the stranded Queensland town of Burketown, as the swollen Albert River to the town’s east continues to rise, and authorities warn that flood waters are likely infested with crocodiles.
Ahead of the expected peak of flood waters, the ranger in charge of the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, Zachariah Sowden, said there had already been reported sightings of crocodiles swimming in flood waters.
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Continue reading...More knowledge needed about whether vaping is a ‘stepping stone’ to smoking and to raise awareness of harmful effects among youth, premier says
The Queensland parliament will hold an inquiry into the health risks, use and prevalence of e-cigarettes, amid concerns that some vaping products marketed as “nicotine free” actually contain the addictive chemical.
Queensland laws allow the sale of nicotine-free vaping devices in tobacco shops. E-cigarettes containing nicotine are only available with a prescription.
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Continue reading...Residents in state’s rural west are bracing for the peak of record flooding on Sunday
Residents in Queensland’s rural west are bracing for the peak of record flooding on Sunday as authorities warn any remaining residents, particularly the elderly and children, to leave immediately.
Police concerns centred on the outback town of Burketown, in the state’s north-west, where authorities were on Saturday “strongly urging all remaining residents to leave … as soon as possible”.
Continue reading...Gulf of Carpentaria town’s elderly residents airlifted and supplies flown to nearby Indigenous community as rivers reach peak levels
Vulnerable people will be evacuated from an outback town by air amid widespread record-breaking floods across Queensland’s vast north-west.
Small helicopters and planes will be used to airlift elderly people from Burketown near the Gulf of Carpentaria to Mount Isa, about 400km to the south, on Friday.
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Continue reading...Widespread rainfall expected in state’s south-east this weekend but nowhere near the 500mm recorded in the north-west
The tropical storm that has caused widespread flooding across far north Queensland is heading south, but is expected to ease before it hits Brisbane, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Parts of Queensland’s north-west were hit with more than 500mm of rain in the 48 hours to Thursday morning, the BoM information specialist Danny Teece-Johnson said.
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Continue reading...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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Continue reading...‘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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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Continue reading...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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Continue reading...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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Continue reading...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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Continue reading...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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Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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