Category Archives: Queensland

Peregian homes destroyed after ferocious bushfire rips through Sunshine Coast community

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Firefighters fear significant property losses, with scores of blazes still burning in Queensland and NSW

• Mass evacuations as bushfires threaten more homes – live updates

Hundreds of people are holed up in evacuation centres on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast as crews wait to see how many homes have been lost to a ferocious fire, while firefighters in New South Wales are still battling out-of-control fires near the border.

There are fears of significant property losses, with a destructive blaze still burning out of control at Peregian Beach and Peregian Breeze Estate, south of Noosa.

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Crews still fighting huge fires threatening Queensland and NSW towns

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About 50 fires still burning around Queensland and 60 across NSW, 21 of them uncontained

Queensland and New South Wales fire crews are still battling difficult conditions.

There are 57 fires burning around Queensland on Sunday but one at the border towns of Applethorpe and Stanthorpe and another in the Gold Coast hinterland are causing the most concern.

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Biloela Tamil family’s deportation to Sri Lanka prevented by last-minute injunction

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Peter Dutton says family of four ‘not owed protection’ after they were removed from deportation flight in Darwin thanks to court injunction

A Tamil asylum-seeker family whose deportation was halted in mid-air on Thursday night do not deserve protection from Australia, Peter Dutton has said.

The family of four were put on a non-commercial flight from Melbourne bound for Sri Lanka about 11pm on Thursday.

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Intellectually disabled man held in solitary confinement for six years in ‘outrageous’ case

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Adrian was held in seclusion 99% of the time between 24 September 2012 and 18 June 2018

Disability advocates have expressed outrage at revelations an intellectually disabled man judged unfit to face criminal charges was effectively detained in permanent solitary confinement for six years.

The case of Adrian, whose real name has been suppressed to protect his identity, is contained in a scathing report by the Queensland ombudsman into the state’s forensic disability services system.

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Security blunder as Queensland premier’s office publishes name of Asio agent

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Exclusive: accidental release of intelligence operative’s name in Annastacia Palaszczuk’s diaries blamed on ‘administrative error’

The Queensland premier’s office has mistakenly published the name of a secret intelligence operative in an extraordinary national security breach potentially punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

The name of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (Asio) agent was accidentally published during the routine public release of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s diaries, a practice designed to boost government transparency.

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Torres Strait search: child’s body in PNG probably not one of missing five, police say

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Queensland police say group that set off in boat for Dauan Island on 31 July are unlikely to be found alive

Queensland police have concluded the child’s body found on the Papua New Guinea mainland is unlikely to belong to one of five people missing from an empty boat found floating in the Torres Strait.

The search operation continued on Sunday with police vessels and aerial surveillance.

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Extreme weather has damaged nearly half Australia’s marine ecosystems since 2011

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CSIRO says dramatic climate events are compounding the effects of underlying global heating

Extreme climate events such as heatwaves, floods and drought damaged 45% of the marine ecosystems along Australia’s coast in a seven-year period, CSIRO research shows.

More than 8,000km of Australia’s coast was affected by extreme climate events from 2011 to 2017, and in some cases they caused irreversible changes to marine habitats.

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Queensland pilot and passenger die in South Australian outback crash

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Brumby 610 aircraft left William Creek airport and crashed on approach to Leigh Creek airport, police say

A pilot and his passenger from Queensland have been killed in a light plane crash in northern South Australia.

Police have confirmed stud farmer Peter Gesler, 59, and his 48-year-old female passenger died after the plane crashed in scrubland near a small airport just before 6.30pm on Saturday.

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Culture shock: politics upended in era of identity

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Two worldviews face each other uncomprehendingly – and the flashpoint is the climate emergency

This is the first piece in a new series on what the election result means for the progressive side of politics and the path forward

Political commentators reflexively overinterpret election results. The story we’ve been told is that the Coalition’s win means that “Australian voters” have rejected Labor’s radical plan for reform of the tax-and-spend system, confirming that Australians prefer stability and incremental change.

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Death in custody: police failed to see Indigenous man no longer needed restraining, coroner says

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Shaun Coolwell died in hospital after being handcuffed and injected with the sedative midazolam

Queensland police and paramedics dealing with an Indigenous man during a violent, drug-induced episode failed to recognise the sudden deterioration of his health, a coroner has said.

Shaun Charles Coolwell died in hospital after being sedated and restrained in his sister’s Logan home, south of Brisbane, in October 2015.

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Police excavate Brisbane property in search for US woman missing since July

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Partner assisting with inquiries as cold case disappearance of Priscilla Brooten becomes a homicide investigation

Queensland police are excavating the front yard of a home in Brisbane’s north where a missing American woman lived with her partner.

Priscilla Brooten was formally reported missing in December last year but the 46-year-old was last seen in July, in Bracken Ridge.

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Body of missing Queensland toddler Ruben Scott found in dam

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Divers found two-year-old’s body after searching a large dam near his family’s Cape York home

The body of a toddler missing for days on a remote cattle station on Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula has been found near his home.

Ruben Scott was found by divers searching a large dam near the homestead on Koolatah Station on Friday afternoon, police said.

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Queensland Coalition MPs push for inquiry to lift Australia’s nuclear power ban

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Keith Pitt and James McGrath behind move, saying ‘we have to be able to investigate all options’

A group of Queensland Liberal National party MPs reportedly want parliament to consider the feasibility of nuclear power in Australia.

The energy source is banned as a source of power but several Coalition MPs will put forward a motion in the Senate to create a committee to investigate using nuclear power in the energy mix.

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Death toll on Queensland’s roads reaches 13 after horror week

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Police investigating whether deaths of mother and four children in Monday’s crash were part of a murder-suicide

Thirteen people have lost their lives in crashes on Queensland’s roads this week.

The death of a 20-year-old woman in a crash on the New England Highway near Crows Nest on Friday comes at the end of a dreadful week for the state.

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Queensland signs off Adani’s plan for endangered black-throated finch

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Coordinator general releases decision to approve the coal mine’s management plan for bird

The Queensland government has signed off on Adani’s black-throated finch management plan, one of two state approvals the company needs to begin preparatory construction for its Adani coalmine.

Queensland’s coordinator general published the decision on Friday morning.

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Firefighters haul ass after pet donkey found trapped in septic tank

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‘Other than being a bit cold and a bit smelly he still had a full appetite,’ rescuer says

A miniature donkey has caused a stink after falling into a large septic tank, sparking a challenging rescue north of Brisbane.

Firefighters were called to a Morayfield property on Thursday night after its panicked owners called to say their donkey had tumbled into the concrete tank and was wedged firmly inside.

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Australia to achieve 50% renewables by 2030 without government intervention, analysis finds

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RepuTex modelling suggests surge in state schemes and rooftop solar will reduce wholesale prices, making gas- and coal-fired power less competitive

Australia is on track to achieve 50% renewable electricity by 2030 even without new federal energy policies, according to modelling by the energy analysts RepuTex.

The analysis, to be released on Wednesday, suggests that a surge in renewable energy driven by state schemes and rooftop solar installations will reduce wholesale prices from $85 per MWh to $70 over the next three years.

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Australian federal election 2019: Tony Abbott concedes defeat to Zali Steggall in Warringah – politics live

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Western Australia seats crucial as Queensland swings to LNP. Follow all the updates and analysis, live

It’s worth noting that the polls have predicted a very different result to what we are seeing now.

The primary vote gap between Labor and the Coalition is a lot bigger than the polls suggested.

For those who missed when I was talking about Dawson a few weeks ago in the campaign, the mood there was that the stories were part of a southern conspiracy to remove George Christensen.

So they fell in behind him.

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Adani deal with Myanmar military-linked company raises human rights alarm

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Australian expert worries Queensland coal may help fund armed forces accused of genocide

The Adani Group has signed a US$290m commercial deal with a holding company controlled by the Myanmar armed forces, who have been accused by UN investigators of committing genocide and crimes against humanity.

The Indian conglomerate behind the controversial Carmichael coal project in north Queensland was granted permission in April to develop a container port in Yangon, on land owned by the Myanmar Economic Corporation. The MEC generates significant revenue for the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw.

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Federal election 2019: Older Australians are waiting for Shorten with baseball bats, says Dutton – politics live

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Home affairs minister makes rare appearance on the campaign trail while Tanya Plibersek says Labor is ‘not contemplating a royal commission’ into media monopolies. All the day’s events live

OMG the Sky ticker has actually changed to “Latham calls out political correctness”.

This has made my day.

The Sky ticker currently says “Latham criticises ‘leftist elites’” and truly, it is not just death and taxes we can rely on any more in this crazy world, and I for one am grateful for some sort of consistency. It’s comforting.

It would only be more obvious if the ticker said something like “Latham stands against political correctness”, but I guess we have to save some things for tomorrow.

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