The sunshine state is heading to the polls on 26 October. Can Labor cling to power or will there be an LNP landslide?
Queenslanders will go to the polls on 26 October. Here are five things you should know.
Continue reading...Historic moment celebrated despite LNP vow to abolish process should the party win government
Queensland’s historic Indigenous truth-telling and healing inquiry has commenced in Brisbane, nearly two centuries to the day after a penal colony was established in Queensland.
Counsel assisting Angus Scott said the first settlers landed at what was now known as Redcliffe on 12 September 1824. In 1825, they resettled in Meanjin – later named Brisbane, a few hundred metres from where the inquiry is being held.
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Continue reading...Premier Steven Miles says scheme saves money and ‘takes cars off the road, gets people home sooner and is great for the environment’
The Queensland opposition says it will match the state government’s commitment to keep 50c public transport fares in place beyond the October election.
The cut-price bus, train and ferry tickets were initially slated as a trial – to run three months before and after election day – and had been criticised as a “desperate political gimmick” from a government struggling in the polls.
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Continue reading...Mixed messaging for government as they try to conquer the ‘Queensland paradox’ – wooing both urban and regional voters
Six weeks out from the Queensland election, two polls dropped this week. They both told remarkably different stories.
Resolve Strategic, published in the Brisbane Times, put Labor’s primary vote across the state at 23%. That’s disaster territory. For context, when Anna Bligh’s Labor government was obliterated at the 2012 election, its primary vote was 26.7%.
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Investigations under way after alleged theft of non-fuctional guns from museum
An investigation is under way after a museum in Lithgow, in the NSW Central Tablelands, was allegedly broken into overnight.
Continue reading...State government apologises for data system breach as victim says it left her ‘completely defeated, broken, scared and worried’
The addresses of domestic violence victims have been shared with offenders by Queensland police, including a “vulnerable woman” who was then allegedly told to relocate by officers.
The state government apologised on Thursday after it emerged a woman felt “completely defeated” when her personal information was exposed by the serious data breach.
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...Exclusive: Labor MP Jonty Bush among those speaking out about state’s youth justice policies after Guardian Australia investigation
Queensland’s most prominent victims’ rights groups say the state government must remove children from police watch houses after the release of confronting footage showing the “brutal” treatment of children in the adult holding cells.
The videos, published after a year-long investigation by Guardian Australia and SBS The Feed, showed young people locked in “freezing” isolation cells, becoming panicked and struggling to breathe.
Continue reading...Ipswich West’s LNP representative informed of his microvascular ischemic disease the day he was sworn in
A 52-year-old Queensland MP has announced his resignation from state parliament after being diagnosed with a brain disease that leads to early-onset rapid developing dementia.
Ipswich West LNP MP, Darren Zanow, has announced his imminent retirement after he was diagnosed with microvascular ischemic disease.
Continue reading...Party’s new policy includes limiting cost increases on 30 essential items, with the shopping list to be determined by a ‘Fair Prices Authority’
The price of 30 basic essentials such as bread, milk and nappies would be capped, with increases tied to wages, under a new policy to be announced by the Queensland Greens on Wednesday.
The party will also lay out a plan to break up the Coles and Woolworths “duopoly” by requiring the companies to sell supermarkets if they own more than 20% of the market.
Continue reading...Policy unveiled by leader David Crisafulli on Sunday means those convicted of crimes such as manslaughter and robbery would face regular criminal code
Queensland’s top social services body has criticised a Queensland LNP proposal to sentence many youth criminals as adults, saying it is “cruel”, “populist” and ineffective.
On Sunday, the opposition leader, David Crisafulli, used the party convention to announce the “adult crime, adult time” policy, which he said would act as a deterrence by subjecting children to much longer potential sentences behind bars.
Continue reading...Double Island returned to state government over leaseholder Benny Wu’s failure to reopen it for tourism
A far north Queensland island has been returned to the state government after a Hong Kong businessman was stripped of a tourism lease for breaching conditions.
Double Island near Cairns was home to a luxury resort that shut down six years ago.
Continue reading...Simon Birmingham contradicts Nationals’ leader, saying renewables are ‘an important part of the mix’ while Queensland LNP leader rules out nuclear
The federal Coalition’s climate and energy policy is in disarray, with a senior Liberal contradicting the Nationals’ anti-renewables push and the Queensland LNP leader ruling out allowing nuclear energy in that state.
After the Nationals further undermined the push for net zero by 2050 by claiming the Coalition would “cap” investment in large-scale renewable energy, the Liberal leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, declared on Tuesday it is an “important part of the mix”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Disabled people, DV victims also at risk after broken promise to pass new anti-discrimination laws, advocates say
The Queensland government will renege on its promise to pass new anti-discrimination laws before the October state election – a move advocates say will leave women fleeing domestic violence, people with disabilities and members the LGBTQ+ community at risk.
Guardian Australia revealed on Monday that the state government was considering watering down reforms proposed by a review of the 33-year-old act.
Continue reading...Opposition leader says Coalition will ‘make our announcements in relation to our targets in due course’. Follow today’s news headlines live
Murray Watt says the opposition has “started the new climate wars” after Barnaby Joyce and Keith Pitt, two senior Nationals, called for Australia to pull out of the Paris agreement. You can read more on this from Karen Middleton below:
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Watt said:
We’re back to the same old climate wars in the Coalition. I saw overnight that [Joyce and Pitt] openly called for the Coalition to pull out of the Paris agreement. They’ve spent the last couple of days trying to paper over the cracks in the Coalition, saying that they can withdraw the target without withdrawing from the agreement. Now it’s out there in the open for everyone to see. And you can set your clock by Barnaby Joyce causing new climate wars within the Coalition. It’s seem like we’re back to the bad old days.
We’re on track to get to 42%, which is only 1% short of the 43% target.
Continue reading...A Katter’s Australian party petition says homeowners should be allowed to use ‘whatever force necessary’ – but experts warn of dangers
“A Queenslander’s home is their castle” and they should be able to use “whatever force necessary” to protect themselves against intruders.
That’s according to a controversial petition from the Katter’s Australian party MP Nick Dametto to enact “castle law”, which has gained more than 36,000 signatures in support of importing the self-defence doctrine from the US that allows people to kill intruders threatening their homes..
Continue reading...Premier Steven Miles will announce state’s largest ever investment in green power ahead of next week’s budget
The Queensland premier, Steven Miles, is expected to announce today a pledge in next week’s budget to spend $26bn on renewable energy.
It would be the largest ever investment in green power for the sunshine state, and is about $7bn more than previously earmarked.
$16.5bn towards renewable energy and storage projects
$8.5bn to build a “SuperGrid”, including the CopperString project and renewable energy zones
$500m for network batteries and support of local grid solutions
$192m for the transmission and training hubs in Townsville and Gladstone.
Continue reading...Townsville’s 10 councillors join Queensland premier in calling for mayor to stand down after revelations he exaggerated his military history
Troy Thompson is under growing pressure to resign as mayor of Townsville after revelations he exaggerated his military service, with all 10 of the city’s councillors joining the Queensland premier in urging him to stand aside.
But the former One Nation candidate has dismissed the calls, writing in a Facebook post on Friday that he had “no intention to step aside as some of the naysayers would like”.
Continue reading...Brisbane city council ordered 60 of the electric vehicles, but a cut back in scheduled services means just over half may be needed
Two dozen state-of-the art, multimillion-dollar electric buses could be left sitting idle in a shed when the Brisbane Metro service starts operations this year, because it will operate less frequently than initially planned.
The system was originally designed to operate every three minutes, but it’s now planned to run every five minutes, which would require fewer vehicles.
Continue reading...LNP MP Ros Bates sends concerns notice to Labor’s Shannon Fentiman demanding an apology and money to cover legal costs
A Queensland MP has raised the prospect of defamation action by sending a concerns notice to the state’s health minister over a social media post she claimed fuelled violent threats against her.
An explosive stoush erupted last week after the shadow health minister, Ros Bates, shouted “cross your legs” while the health minister, Shannon Fentiman, was speaking about maternity services in Queensland parliament.
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