Police allege officers were threatened by man with a knife at Kingaroy hospital before Friday night’s shooting
A man shot by police outside a Queensland hospital after allegedly confronting them with a knife is in a critical condition.
At about 7.30pm on Friday, five officers attended a call at the Kingaroy hospital, where they were allegedly threatened by a man with a knife, police said.
Continue reading...Queensland Conservation Council is urging the state government to protect the endangered greater glider population as logging continues
There is “damning evidence” of logging occurring close to endangered greater glider populations, conservationists say as they call on the Queensland government to urgently act on a promise to create a park to protect the species.
Volunteers used drones in July to film logging in St Mary state forest near Maryborough, about three kilometres from where gliders had been seen.
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Budgets running on fumes as car costs outpace inflation
High transport costs are fuelling household budget concerns, AAP reports, with research revealing a surge of more than 10% over the course of a year.
Continue reading...New rules declaring the popular devices a form of transport mean the batteries must meet strict international product standards
New South Wales is cracking down on the sale of some ebikes and e-scooters in a nationwide first aimed at reducing the scourge of battery-related fires, while pushing for a nationally coordinated approach to the growing problem.
Low quality ebikes and e-scooters have contributed to a spate of fires across the country, with lithium-ion batteries now the fastest growing cause of fires in the state.
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The prime minister was asked about criticism that increased public spending is fuelling inflation.
Anthony Albanese pointed to two budget surpluses and said this, plus cost-of-living measures, are applying downward pressure:
Fee-free Tafe, cheaper childcare, energy price relief – all of these measures are aimed at making sure we look after people but do so in a way that’s designed to see inflation continuing to moderate, which is what we want to make sure happens.
Continue reading...The Trains used high-calibre guns to engage in firefight as police tried to negotiate, responder tells coroner
A family of killers were “robotic” in response to efforts to get them to surrender, continuing to fire at police vehicles, an inquest into the Wieambilla massacre has heard.
Sert operative 114, a team leader of the police Special Emergency Response Team (Sert), described how an armoured BearCat vehicle was “rocked” as a volley of accurate gunfire hit the windscreen, which was bullet resistant but not bulletproof.
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Wong endorses call from Blinken for de-escalation in Middle East
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said she endorsed Antony Blinken’s call for de-escalation in the Middle East.
We continue to add our voice to the support for the ceasefire outlined by President Biden and endorsed by the security council.
Thank you for an incredibly productive day.
Continue reading...Train family had ‘intense motivation to kill police’ and were highly prepared for shooting ambush, state coroner told
The final shootout between police and three radicalised murderers at a remote property near Wieambilla was the most dangerous operation ever undertaken by Queensland’s specialist tactical police, an inquest into the deadly ambush has heard.
Supt Tim Partridge, who now runs the Special Emergency Response Team (Sert), said the task would have been less risky if police had access to superior tactics such as the use of a sniper from a helicopter, and more reliable communications.
Continue reading...Reserve bank’s two-day August meeting likely to leave key interest rate unchanged for a sixth straight gathering. Follow the day’s news live
Australia will join the US Global Entry program in 2025, creating an easier pathway for the hundreds of thousands of Australians who visit the country each year.
Eligible Australians who sign up for the program would benefit from streamlined and expedited immigration and customs clearance channels on arrival into the US, a statement from the foreign minister, Penny Wong, says.
Joining the Global Entry program is a mark of the closeness and the strength of the relationship between our two countries.
The foundation of the friendship between Australia and United States is the friendship between our people. This program will deepen these links and make it easier to foster greater commercial ties.
Continue reading...Remains are believed to belong to NSW man who went missing at Cooktown on Saturday afternoon
Human remains have been located inside a crocodile at Cooktown in far north Queensland after a man went missing at the weekend.
Queensland police said a formal identification process was under way and a report would be prepared for the coroner, but the remains were believed to be those of a missing 40-year-old New South Wales man.
Continue reading...Premier Steven Miles will announce the policy on Tuesday as he tries to win votes for October election
A re-elected Queensland Labor government would set up state-owned petrol stations, cap daily fuel price rises and take over operation of council buses from local government, Steven Miles will announce.
The premier will use Tuesday’s state of the state address hosted by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia to make a populist pitch for a fourth Labor term.
Continue reading...Rangers euthanise large crocodile believed to have attacked man who went missing while fishing near Cooktown on Saturday
A large crocodile believed to be responsible for a fatal attack on a 40-year-old father in far north Queensland has been euthanised.
Rangers had targeted a crocodile with a distinctive scar near its snout as an extensive search for the NSW man near Cooktown entered a third day.
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For more on this, Daniel Hurst looked into the issue yesterday. A spokesperson for the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, had said the government was “firmly committed to minimising harms from online wagering”.
The government continues to engage with stakeholders regarding the recommendations from the online wagering inquiry as we formulate our response.
I hope that’s not the case. I hope the long consultation is because the government’s actually going to do the right thing and make gambling ads history, just like we did with tobacco. We live in hope it’s not too late, but the rumors are not encouraging.
Continue reading...Operators not predicting a large influx of new customers right away, with patronage still well below pre-Covid levels
In an Australian-first trial of super-cheap public transport, Queensland bus, train and ferry fares are set to drop to just 50 cents this week.
Train tickets in the sunshine state had been among the country’s most expensive – up to $31.10 for a single adult paper train ticket.
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Asked whether the government could still use an advisory body to help it target initiatives, Albanese says he accepts the outcome of the referendum and “the voice was never the end in itself”.
It was about putting Indigenous recognition in the constitution in the form which was asked for through the First Nations constitutional convention in 2017 at Uluru. After a process that was begun by Tony Abbott, and which people participated in. Now, that wasn’t successful. So what we can’t do is say “oh well, we’ll just give up on closing the gap, we’ll give up on moving Australia forward”. What we will do is renew through working with existing bodies. There are land councils, there are organisations such as the Yothu Yindi Foundation here.
That was essentially a work for the dole, a make-work program. We’ve replaced that with the remote community and economic development program. So real jobs with real training. With real wages and conditions, so that’s part of it. $4bn into remote housing.
Continue reading...Emergency services were called to the Byerwen Mine site near Mackay after reports of a crane accident
A worker is dead after an incident reportedly involving a crane at the Byerwen coalmine site near the central Queensland city of Mackay.
Emergency services were called about 7.30am to a worksite on Wollombi Road in Suttor, after the 48-year-old man was located unresponsive, a Queensland police spokesperson said. He was later declared deceased.
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Continue reading...Midway through her 29,000km trek across the globe, the Alaskan was in Australia where she encountered headwinds, wombats and a love affair with ‘big things’
In a small town in the Shire of Banana, a 38-year-old Alaska woman jumps on her bicycle in the chill of the early morning and is about to set off for a day’s ride through the central Queensland countryside when a stranger approaches.
The man, in his 60s, has driven hours and slept in his van for this moment.
Continue reading...Distressing details emerge about what happened when two young police officers were shot dead in an ambush by the Trains in December 2022
None of the four Queensland police officers were older than 30, but the horrors they were about to experience at 251 Wains Road would shock even the most hardened cop.
They’d been sent to the remote area of Wieambilla, halfway between Chinchilla and Tara, in south-eastern Queensland, to find a missing person. It was in the middle of a known radio blackspot, with residents so off the grid some of them laid booby traps.
Continue reading...Rescue team members tell inquest they devised a code to guide Const Keely Brough to safety, drawing gunfire as they blocked property entrance
The leader of a police extraction team sent to rescue trapped constable Keely Brough from the Wieambilla ambush has told an inquest of the moment he saw the officer emerge from scrub “running for her life” to escape the property.
An inquest on Friday heard evidence from several officers involved in the rescue attempt, which was launched while shooters Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train were nearby and considered “active armed offenders”.
Continue reading...Survivor Victor Lewis and victim Alan Dare’s widow Kerry demand changes and accountability in testimony to Queensland inquest
A survivor of the Wieambilla massacre whose friend was shot and killed while standing next to him has demanded answers about why police failed to warn of the danger.
Victor Lewis travelled to the property with his friend Alan Dare to investigate a fire, and was standing shoulder to shoulder with Dare when he was shot and killed.
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