Category Archives: Queensland politics

Number of children under 14 in adult watch houses in Queensland rises 50% in 12 months

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Report to parliament states watch houses are an ‘inadequate place to keep young people overnight’ and are ‘harmful and traumatising’

The number of children aged 13 or under in Queensland’s adult watch houses has increased by 50% in 12 months, according to new statistics.

The statistics – which were included in a paper tabled by the Office of the Public Guardian in Queensland parliament on Tuesday – showed 120 children aged between 10 and 13 spent at least one night in a police watch house in 2023–24.

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Children will get sentences ‘more punitive than necessary’ under new crime law, Queensland LNP admits

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Attorney general Deb Frecklington acknowledges bill will likely increase number of children in state watch houses

Queensland’s Liberal National party government has acknowledged their signature youth crime legislation will “directly discriminate” against children, by limiting their “protection from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.

The bill is also “expected to have a greater impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, who are already disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system,” according to the government’s tabled statement of compatibility with human rights.

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If David Crisafulli wants ‘generational government’, the LNP can’t afford to wage ideological warfare

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New Queensland premier must tread carefully to avoid ‘culture wars’ that plagued previous LNP government

It’s been just a month since the Liberal National party emerged from Queensland’s political wilderness, and David Crisafulli has already been talking about how it can govern for decades.

And the new premier knows the precise answer to that question.

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‘We’ve got a responsibility’: Queensland truth-telling head vows to complete inquiry despite premier’s plan to scrap it

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Commission chair reopens submissions and says report will be finished and tabled in parliament

The head of Queensland’s Indigenous truth-telling and healing commission has vowed to complete the inquiry, defying the government’s plan to eliminate it.

The chairperson, Josh Creamer, restarted the historic inquiry on Friday, 23 days after the new premier, David Crisafulli, ordered it to halt work.

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David Crisafulli promised to set serious KPIs for his ministers. Are they worth the paper they’re printed on?

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Queensland’s new premier vowed to sack cabinet members who didn’t meet public targets. A month in, accountability questions are being raised

David Crisafulli staked his government’s success – and his own future – on meeting targets.

During last month’s election he vowed to resign if crime figures didn’t decline and to sack ministers who couldn’t deliver on key performance indicators (KPIs) set for each portfolio.

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Anger as CFMEU ‘sweetheart deal’ suspended in Queensland government crackdown

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Union members hit out at LNP as deputy premier announces pause on pay and conditions policy

A “sweetheart deal” for the CFMEU has been suspended in an unprecedented crackdown after the embattled union was blamed for major project cost blowouts.

Construction union “perks” were put on ice as the Queensland government stepped up a campaign to tackle the CFMEU, with some union members clearly not happy.

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Boy, 16, charged with manslaughter after alleged gunpoint carjacking near Brisbane

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Teenager in custody after 69-year-old woman killed and two police officers injured in Murrumba Downs collision

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with manslaughter after a fatal crash north of Brisbane that followed an alleged carjacking at gunpoint.

The teenager was taken into custody after a 69-year-old woman was killed and two police officers injured in the “harrowing” collision on Thursday.

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Pauline Hanson claims Brisbane councillor racially vilified her by calling One Nation ‘racist’

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Party leader threatens to take Labor’s Emily Kim to Human Rights Commission over ‘racial comments’

Pauline Hanson has threatened to take Emily Kim, a Brisbane city councillor to the Human Rights Commission, claiming racial vilification for Kim describing One Nation as “racist”.

Kim, a Labor councillor received a letter from Hanson’s legal representative Donald Bundesen by email on 25 October, the day before Queensland’s state election.

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New Queensland government bins Labor’s hydro project set to be key part of renewable transition

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LNP energy minister rules out considering a smaller version of the Pioneer Burdekin scheme

Queensland’s new Liberal National party government has cancelled a Labor hydro project despite public service advice that a downsized version of the scheme would have delivered “exceptional value on both a capacity and storage basis”.

Announced under premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in 2022, the gigantic Pioneer Burdekin pumped hydro scheme formed a key element of the state’s legislated plan for a renewables transition by 2035.

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Queensland truth-telling inquiry chair says premier ‘hugely disrespectful’ to demand work cease via media

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Joshua Creamer says he has had no contact from new LNP government after David Crisafulli told press conference inquiry should cease its work

The chair of Queensland’s truth-telling and healing inquiry says the new premier, David Crisafulli, should “just have the decency to front up” to First Nations people, after delivering an edict via the media for the inquiry to immediately cease its work.

Joshua Creamer, a Waanyi and Kalkadoon man, told reporters on Friday he had still received no communication from Crisafulli or any member of the new LNP government.

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Respawned: Queensland magazine the Cane Toad Times takes aim at a post-truth world

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It emerged from the slime of the sunshine state during Bjelke-Petersen’s oppressive regime. Now it’s back – but can it survive more sensitive times?

A man whose pseudonym is Johnny La Rue is holding a yellowed magazine with two toad-headed lovers embracing on the front. He reads aloud a headline that would likely trigger a firestorm on social media were it written today.

“Who wrote that?!” he exclaims.

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Australia news live: PwC reveals it sacked eight staff over data breaches; Perth man dies after being taken to police watch house

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Court to rule in Pauline Hanson-Mehreen Faruqi case

A federal court judge is ready to rule on whether Pauline Hanson made a racial slur when she told Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi to go back to Pakistan.

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David Crisafulli breaks election promise to elevate shadow team to Queensland government frontbench

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LNP leader’s cabinet includes several changes, including former leader Tim Nicholls as health minister and Fiona Simpson in women’s portfolio

Queensland’s new premier, David Crisafulli, has unveiled his new cabinet, breaking a pre-election promise to automatically elevate his existing shadow team to the government frontbench.

The LNP leader repeatedly promised the shadow cabinet he took to last week’s election would be the cabinet after it.

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David Crisafulli: premier and minister for veterans

Jarrod Bleijie: deputy premier, minister for state development, infrastructure and planning, and minister for industrial relations

David Janetzki: treasurer, minister for energy and minister for home ownership

Ros Bates: minister for finance, trade, employment and training

Dale Last: minister for natural resources and mines, minister for manufacturing and minister for regional and rural development

Tim Nicholls: minister for health and ambulance services

Deb Frecklington: attorney general and minister for justice and minister for integrity

John-Paul Langbroek: minister for education and the arts

Dan Purdie: minister for police and emergency services

Laura Gerber: minister for youth justice and victim support and minister for corrective services

Brent Mickelberg: minister for transport and main roads

Ann Leahy: minister for local government and water and minister for fire, disaster recovery and volunteers

Sam O’Connor: minister for housing and public works and minister for youth

Tony Perrett: minister for primary industries

Fiona Simpson: minister for women and women’s economic security, minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships and minister for multiculturalism

Andrew Powell: minister for the environment and tourism and minister for science and innovation

Amanda Camm: minister for families, seniors and disability services and minister for child safety and the prevention of domestic and family violence

Tim Mander: minister for sport and racing and minister for the Olympic and Paralympic Games

Steve Minnikin: minister for customer services and open data and minister for small and family business

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Four Davids and two Nigels: can Crisafulli deliver a modern and inclusive cabinet? | Ben Smee

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As Queensland’s new premier prepares to announce his frontbench, he may struggle to incorporate women and multicultural MPs into the LNP lineup

David Crisafulli will be breaking a promise either way. He said he’d keep his old opposition frontbench in place after the election. He also promised to lead a forward-thinking, modern-looking government.

It’s unlikely he can do both.

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Australia news live: PM to announce clean energy projects; property market losing heat but prices still going up

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Anthony Albanese to launch schemes in NSW and Victoria today; Domain says rate of price increases is cooling. Follow today’s news headlines live

Bowen derides Coalition’s ‘nuclear fantasy’

Chris Bowen, minister for climate change and energy, is speaking on ABC Radio National this morning.

If I was the energy minister of another country, I would consider the opportunities that I had in that country – but a country saying to Australia, with our excellent renewable resources, that we should go down the nuclear road when we have no nuclear industry, no nuclear expertise of the scale that we would need for a nuclear power industry, is like us going to Finland or Scandinavia and saying, ‘Listen, we know [you have] a lot of snow, but you should really try beach surfing.’ It just doesn’t make any sense.

We have to play to our strengths in Australia, and we have the best renewable resources in the world, and the opposition wants to stop us using them, and in turn, keep coal in the system for longer. They’re quite explicit about that while we wait for this nuclear fantasy to come on board. That would be terrible for emissions and fatal for energy reliability.

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Australia news live: Dutton says he ‘respects’ Crisafulli’s rejection of nuclear power but will push for a ‘mature conversation’

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Earlier this morning, David Crisafulli said it was still a ‘no’ to any nuclear proposal, and Dutton said he ‘respected’ that. Follow the day’s news live

Employment minister Murray Watt has refused to comment on reports Anthony Albanese used his membership in Qantas’s chairman’s lounge to solicit flight upgrades when he was transport minister and opposition leader.

Watt was on RN Breakfast, where he refused to be drawn on what he called “unsourced claim by a journalist” that Albanese would reach out directly to former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce directly about his travel.

If you have a look at Peter Dutton behaviour, for example, several upgrades from the Qantas and other airlines, he’s had free flights paid for by Gina Rinehart.

I really would wonder whether it’s wise for the opposition to start calling this kind of stuff into question.

We obviously spend an enormous amount of time at airports. I think this week, I’m going to be in about three or four different cities, flying from place to place. And it is helpful from time to time, to be able to have private meetings or private environments, to be able to have teams meetings with your office, which I do every time I fly.

We want Labor to negotiate like we did in the previous housing legislation, where we not only improved and passed Labour’s housing legislation, but we got $3bn to start building public and community housing.

I think this is part of the message that we’re trying to give to the government. We are up for negotiation.

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Labor lost Queensland election partly because it was obsessed with the Greens, Chandler-Mather says

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Greens housing spokesperson argues that lesson for federal Labor is if PM spends next six months fighting party ‘he’s going to hand the keys to Peter Dutton’

The Greens’ federal housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, says the Queensland election result shows federal Labor needs to drop its “deep hostility” to the minor party – or risk losing next year’s national poll.

The Liberal National party’s victory at the weekend – its first majority in almost a decade – relied upon gains from Labor in regional areas, including heartland seats in central and north Queensland.

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New Queensland premier David Crisafulli vows to legislate ‘adult time for adult crime’ policy by Christmas

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LNP leader plans to ‘get cracking’ in majority government but critics have said locking up more children isn’t the answer

Queensland’s incoming premier, David Crisafulli, and his deputy, Jarrod Bleijie, will be sworn in as an interim cabinet of two so the LNP can “get cracking” with governing, the party’s leader says.

“We’ve got to get to work,” Crisafulli said on Sunday after securing majority government.

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Labor accuses Peter Dutton of trying to ‘force nuclear energy on Queenslanders’

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Nationals MP Keith Pitt claims Coalition would have mandate if it won federal election despite opposition to nuclear power from state’s incoming LNP government

A senior federal Labor minister has accused Peter Dutton of trying to “force nuclear energy on Queenslanders” following the LNP’s state election win after which a Coalition MP claimed the federal party would forge ahead with its power plan.

The federal Nationals MP for Hinkler, Keith Pitt, on Sunday said the Coalition would have a mandate to press ahead with its nuclear policy if Dutton won the next election.

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Crisafulli makes first speech as premier-elect; trucks deliver food aid to western NSW after power outages – as it happened

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The LNP leader again thanked unsuccessful candidates from both sides before declaring he would get to work quickly. This blog has now closed

A look at ‘incredibly expressive and very flirtatious’ Maratus spiders

Australian Maratus spiders, which measure 3-5mm, are known as “peacock spiders” because of the extravagant colourings they display during courtship rituals and combat.

They’re incredibly expressive and very flirtatious. The male wants to get all the attention of the female, like birds of paradise.

That’s not talking about net zero. That’s talking about actual emissions reductions as a total.

So what’s the proposal? Are you intending to wipe out the cattle herd, are you going to reduce traffic by 75%?

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