Nicholas Petrovski used his skills to manufacture weapons that in the wrong hands could have caused havoc, court told
A fitter and turner who pleaded guilty to making submachine guns that presented a “catastrophic degree of dangerousness” to the public will spend the next eight months behind bars.
Nicholas Petrovski, 36, pleaded guilty in the Southport District Court on Wednesday to possessing four submachine guns, three silencers and manufacturing weapons.
Continue reading...Photographer Brendan Beirne visited massacre sites across Australia. Using infrared technology he has created a series of images which take you to the unquiet places where Indigenous people were slaughtered
Continue reading...Police say deaths of Barak Austral, 5, and Jhulio Sariago, 3, in Ross River a ‘preventable tragedy’
The mother of two young brothers who drowned in Townsville’s Ross River in February has been charged with manslaughter, and bail has been denied.
Barak Austral, 5, and Jhulio Sariago, 3, drowned after they wandered away from their home sometime between 5.30pm and 6.30pm on 25 February.
Continue reading...Authorities catch up with 57-year-old, wanted on drugs charges, after he travelled 150km across the Torres Strait
A wanted British man has attempted to flee Australia on a jetski, travelling almost 150km (93 miles) across the Torres Strait while armed with a crossbow.
The 57-year-old man is subject to an outstanding warrant for drug-related charges in Western Australia.
Continue reading...Al-Jazeera journalist posing as gun campaigner films senior party figures in Washington DC soliciting financial support to help One Nation seize the balance of power
Senior One Nation figures James Ashby and Steve Dickson have been caught seeking millions of dollars of political donations from US gun rights group the National Rifle Association in a bid to seize the balance of power and weaken Australia’s gun laws.
The revelations are contained in an al-Jazeera investigation which used hidden cameras and a journalist posing as a grassroots gun campaigner to expose the far-right party’s extraordinary efforts to secure funding in Washington DC in September.
Continue reading...Nationals MPs have demanded action to underwrite new energy generation before the election
The energy minister, Angus Taylor, has signalled to restive Queensland Nationals that taxpayer backing for a dispatchable energy project is on the way as one of the rebel MPs has warned a decision is necessary before the election.
With cabinet set to consider energy among a range of issues on Tuesday, with the budget looming and the federal election now only weeks way, Taylor told journalists it was “critically important” that Queensland see more competition in power generation, and more dispatchable supply.
Continue reading...As the Northern Territory begins its big mop-up after Cyclone Trevor, local authorities have hosed down racism claims concerning evacuation efforts.
Trevor forced mass evacuations before it made landfall on Saturday morning as a category four system, with destructive winds gusting up to 250km/h.
Continue reading...Gatton, Beaudesert and Archerfield among towns with record-breaking maximum temperatures for the month
Multiple Queensland heat records have been broken for March, with some areas recording temperatures of more than 10 degrees above their average maximum.
Highs of 40C or more in the state’s south-east were recorded for the first time in March, with the town of Gatton reaching 40C on Monday and 41.1C on Tuesday, about 11 degrees above its average maximum temperature for the month.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Civil liberties experts sound alarm, saying ‘police have given us no reason to trust that they can investigate themselves impartially’
Queensland is poised to repeal the police disciplinary system established after the landmark Fitzgerald corruption inquiry, prompting concerns from civil liberties experts that the proposed changes have “fundamental” flaws.
Legislation to establish a new police discipline system was tabled in the state parliament last month, after years of pressure from the influential Queensland police union. The bill has bipartisan support and will likely pass later this year.
The police union president, Ian Leavers, has hailed the demise of “the old punitive police discipline system” established in 1990, in the immediate aftermath of the Fitzgerald inquiry.
The new system encourages the use of “management strategies” rather than formal sanctions for police misconduct and misbehaviour. Officers can no longer have their salary reduced. Complaints are to be “streamlined” to ensure they do not take longer than 12 months.
Related: Queensland police accused of 'whitewash' over investigation into shredded rape file
Continue reading...Many MPs are exasperated with Michael McCormack and despairing about where they have washed up post-Barnaby Joyce
In practical terms it’s a strange thing to demand – calling on the leadership to pass a package that has no obvious prospect of passing the parliament without amendment in the time left available.
But six Queensland Nationals have elected to put the boot into their leader, Michael McCormack, for failing on two fronts: failing to pressure the Liberals to pass the so-called “big stick” package, which they believe will lower power prices, and failing to sign up to new taxpayer-backed investments in power generation. For most Nationals north of the New South Wales border, that means new coal generation.
Continue reading...Holidaymaker shocked to see stowaway python in her slip-ons on return from Queensland
As souvenirs go, it is a unique one. A woman has returned to Scotland from a holiday in Australia to discover a stowaway snake hidden in one of her shoes.
In an incident that will confirm the worst fears of visitors to Australia, Moira Boxall unpacked her luggage after the more than 9,300-mile journey from Queensland to find the small and very much alive creature curled up in her slip-ons. It even shed its skin during its voyage in her footwear.
Continue reading...Mother charged with failing to provide for girl whose body was found on Gold Coast beach
The mother of a baby girl whose body washed up on a Gold Coast beach after drowning in the Tweed River has briefly faced court.
The woman, who cannot be identified, is charged with failing to provide her daughter with the necessities of life. The baby’s father, 47, was charged on 22 November with murdering his daughter.
Continue reading...‘Unpredictable’ storm could continue to bring abnormally high tides and damaging winds
East coast surfers have defied warnings about large swells whipped up by ex-cyclone Oma, a sub-tropical system that intensified into a category two storm early on Saturday but was downgraded by 11am after taking a south-eastern turn.
The storm, twice the diameter of 2017’s deadly cyclone Debbie, was tracking south towards Lord Howe Island but was predicted to turn and head north again.
Continue reading...Cyclone delays cleanup after ship runs aground in rough seas near Rennell Island
Solomon Islands authorities are scrambling to clean up an oil spill caused after a bulk carrier came aground about a fortnight ago on a coral reef on the southern coast.
Category 2 cyclone Oma and rough weather had delayed efforts to salvage the ship, MV Solomon Trader.
Continue reading...The Southport State high school had to have paramedics come out three times during the day
A Gold Coast high school has had to call paramedics three times in one day after four girls became ill from an unknown prescription drug.
It’s not known if the Southport State high school girls took the drug together or at different times throughout the day.
Continue reading...Mother is on trial in Brisbane after girls were allegedly taken from grandmother’s house and subjected to procedure
Two Queensland girls were playing outside their grandmother’s house in Somalia when they were allegedly taken away to have their genitals mutilated, a court has heard.
Their mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is on trial in Brisbane district court.
Continue reading...Study rates this week’s unprecedented monsoonal rainfall as comparable to a one in 1,000-year flood
Australian authorities must plan for more severe floods, experts have warned, amid concern that the management of the Townsville Ross River dam contributed to extensive flooding when a massive amount of water was released downstream.
The decision to open the floodgates when the dam water level reached 43m was based on a 2012 study that warned doing so could cause more extensive property damage during the most extreme flooding events.
Continue reading...Hundreds of residents in Townsville have been evacuated and two men are missing as the area is hit with a year’s worth of rainfall in nine days
• Townsville flooding: two missing as questions mount over dam release
Continue reading...State government warns residents to beware of crocodiles and snakes, which were reportedly heading into suburban areas
After eight days of heavy monsoonal rain, authorities in the north Queensland city of Townsville had no choice but to open the floodgates of the Ross River Dam, deliberately flooding about 2,000 homes.
The decision was made as the Queensland government also published a warning to people to beware of crocodiles, snakes and other wildlife, which were reported to have left the swollen river and headed into some suburban areas.
Continue reading...Torrential rain forces authorities to open Ross River dam floodgates, releasing 1,900 litres a second in ‘once-in-a-century flood’. Follow all the developments • Townsville floods: Queensland premier warns ‘we haven’t got to the peak’
At this stage, authorities expect the Ross River to peak about 11am, and for the peak to last most of today.
That’s potentially good news for Townsville residents, especially those under threat but not yet underwater. It’s also a sign that the flood emergency is unlikely to end any time soon.
Overnight, Townsville residents were warned to stay out of the water – and for good reason. A number of crocodiles sightings have been reported, while the authorities also warned of snakes in the water.
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