Category Archives: Queensland

‘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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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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NSW Labor pledges to improve ageing regional trains after ‘botched’ rollout of new fleet

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Opposition says it will step into vacuum left by NSW government’s lack of interim solutions to improve experience for passengers

Labor has promised to improve the ageing trains that run from Sydney to Melbourne and Brisbane if it wins the New South Wales election, as the Coalition’s delayed replacement fleet leaves passengers in carriages without phone reception for most of this decade.

The pledge follows revelations from an advisory report that the NSW government’s contract for new regional trains is set to blow out by more than $1bn, with the first of the rolling stock that was meant to enter service this January now delayed to as late as December 2025.

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‘Disgraceful and gutless’: Queensland deputy premier pilloried for attack on judiciary

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Steven Miles said a magistrate’s decision to release children locked in Townsville watch house was ‘a media stunt’

Queensland’s deputy premier, Steven Miles, has been accused of engaging in a “disgraceful” breach of the separation of powers for claiming the safety of residents was being “held to ransom by rogue courts and rogue justices”.

At a press conference on Friday, Miles said a decision by a Townsville magistrate to release several children being held on remand in the local watch house was a “media stunt”, prompting fierce pushback from civil liberties veteran Terry O’Gorman.

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Queensland magistrate grants bail to teenage girl after raising concerns over adult watch houses

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Eoin Mac Giolla Ri in a separate case last month said children could be exposed to ‘drunk, abusive, psychotic’ detainees

A Queensland magistrate who previously raised concerns about children being held in “harsh” conditions in adult watch houses has granted bail to a teenage girl after saying he was “conscious” that she may otherwise end up in one.

Mount Isa magistrate Eoin Mac Giolla Ri last week said the 15-year-old girl would probably be held for an “extended” period in a watch house if bail was refused, as all three of the state’s youth detention centres were at capacity. Bail was initially refused for the girl on Friday, and the matter adjourned until Monday, in the hope that the parties could find a solution as to her placement. She was subsequently granted bail on Monday.”

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Coles and Woolworths ordered to dump more than 5,200 tonnes of soft plastic into landfill – as it happened

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The government has been accused of deliberately withholding detail on its push to enshrine an Indigenous voice in the constitution for political reasons.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton and shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser were briefed by the referendum working group after calling for more information on the proposed voice’s make-up and function.

Like all Australians, we want to see a better outcome for the Indigenous people of our country.

We are willing to look at any measure to do that. There are lots of questions around the voice and lots of detail that hasn’t yet been provided.

It’s not the airlines that do the turn backs that you should be worried about. It’s the airlines that keep on going to the destination and don’t make that turn back.

This is what happens with aviation across the world. And it’s an important part of the safety management system. I would rather there be not, but again I encourage our pilots to do this. I applaud them when they do it.

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Australia news live: voice working group says Dutton committed to ‘further talks’; Alice Springs report may not be made public until next week

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Australian batter Usman Khawaja has been cleared to join his teammates in India after his visa issues were sorted, AAP reports.

Pakistan-born Khawaja will fly out of Melbourne today, more than a day later than planned, after an anxious wait for his visa to be approved.

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Summer pause: cold weather forecast for south-east Australia to bring snow across Alps

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Sharp temperature drops expected in SA, Victoria, NSW and Tasmania on Friday while north-east faces heatwave conditions

Break out the winter woolies. Temperatures across Australia’s south-east are set to plummet with some areas expected to experience their coldest February days in two decades on Friday.

A strong cold front is pushing up from southern Australia and is forecast to sweep across South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania on Friday.

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‘Storm the house’: Queensland care home receives threats after being wrongly identified as halfway house

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Online posts urge violence against residents in care home after it was described as a place for ‘youth offenders’

Children living in a Queensland residential care home were the subject of death threats on social media – including calls for neighbours to “storm the house” and “hang whoever is inside” – after media reports incorrectly claimed the premises was a halfway house for young criminals.

The head of the Queensland family and child commission, Scott Twyford, said last week he was “deeply concerned” at public sentiment which called for more punitive responses to youth crime in the face of clear evidence that “tough” approaches don’t work.

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