As it happened: Brisbane on Monday, February 10​on February 10, 2025 at 3:25 am

Brent Mickelberg, Queensland’s Minister for Transport and Main Roads, is speaking to the media at the Cultural Centre in South Brisbane.

There are now 15 electorates across Australia – including one in Brisbane and one on the Sunshine Coast – where no GP clinics offer bulk-billing, according to online healthcare directory Cleanbill.

The organisation has compared its most recent report on national GP billing arrangements to a 2023 report. That earlier report found four electorates without bulk billing clinics.

The 15 electorates include Brisbane in the city’s inner north, Fairfax on the Sunshine Coast, Newcastle and Shortland in NSW’s Hunter region, and Jagajaga in outer north-east Melbourne.

Cleanbill also said 131 of Australia’s 151 electorates saw an overall decrease in clinics offering bulk billing in the past two years, and patients in 136 electorates saw their out-of-pocket costs for GP visits increase.

The government has tripled bulk-billing incentives for certain appointments since it came to power, and recently announced it will introduce new Medicare rebates for menopause assessments.

Flood-weary northern Queensland residents are bracing for more rising floodwater as yet another deluge is forecast to hit the drenched region.

More heavy rain and flash flooding is expected to hit Queensland’s Gulf Country today, with falls up to 250 millimetres over the next day.

A severe weather warning stretches from the Gulf Country across the tropical coast and down to the Burdekin region.

Between Tully and Ayr, including flood-hit regions such as Ingham, rainfall is expected to ramp up until Wednesday.

“This rain is falling onto saturated land, particularly along the north-east coast, as well as flash flooding, we may still see further river rises,” meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said.

It comes after a wet weekend with rainfall totals of 143mm at Rollingstone on the tropical coast, 104mm at Kowanyama in the state’s north-west, and 88mm at Paradise Lagoon on Sunday.

There were more than 60 requests for State Emergency Service assistance in flood-affected regions in the past 24 hours, including tarping requests owing to leaking ceilings, sandbagging requests due to groundwater entering homes, and resupply.

The persistent wet weather has hit regions already impacted by flooding, marking more than a week since some towns were submerged.

About 1900 residents remained without power across northern Queensland, with Ergon Energy hoping to restore most services today.

Brisbane City Council has released the final plan in its bid to rip up a network of concrete drains in the eastern suburbs to restore Kingfisher Creek at the centre of a new public precinct.

Following the success of the Hanlon Creek rejuvenation in Stones Corner, the council wants to revitalise a long-forgotten creek running between Woolloongabba and East Brisbane in the Norman Creek Catchment.

Under the plan, which council said would require state and federal funding to deliver, parks would be linked by active transport paths, with new nature-based playgrounds, dog parks, sports courts, picnic areas and amenities.

Local councillor Fiona Cunningham said the project promised to build on Brisbane’s reputation as “Australia’s lifestyle capital”.

“Woolloongabba and East Brisbane are two of our city’s fastest growing suburbs,” Cunningham said.

“Transforming ugly concrete drains into incredible lifestyle destinations won’t just create more to see and do, it will help make our city more flood resilient as well.”

The council conducted three rounds of community consultation, and received more than 1000 pieces of feedback, in finalising the plan.

A man has died after rolling a ride-on lawnmower in central Queensland township of Dixalea yesterday morning.

The 59-year-old man was reportedly mowing along the fence line of his Lanigans Lane property about 8.15am on Sunday when the mower rolled over. He died at the scene.

Investigations continue today, although police said the death was non-suspicious.

Police urged anyone with more information to come forward.

The Star Entertainment Group has formally rejected takeover bids from its partners in the Destination Brisbane Consortium behind Queen’s Wharf.

In a statement to the ASX on Monday, Star confirmed it had “received several confidential, indicative and non-binding proposals from Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited (CTFE) and Far East Consortium International Limited (FEC) seeking to acquire The Star’s 50 per cent interest in DBC, along with other assets”.

“The Board of The Star has assessed each of the CTFE and FEC Proposals received to date, and after careful consideration (which has included external advice), concluded that none of the proposals have provided sufficient value for The Star.”

The consortium took over the Brisbane casino licence when Star, still under a regulatory and financial cloud, moved its local operations from the old Treasury building to Queen’s Wharf.

Queensland Attorney-General Deb Frecklington has declined to say whether a change in ownership of the consortium would require a new probity process.

CTFE obtained a court order to prevent this masthead publishing a previous probity report, however Frecklington said she was considering its public release.

The Queensland government has so far declined to provide a financial lifeline to Star, which Premier David Crisafulli accused of failing to meet its obligations for Queen’s Wharf.

Today’s Closing the Gap policy announcement will see the cost of essential grocery items in remote communities across Australia capped at the same price as major cities.

The price cap will be applied to 30 essential products such as milk, bread, rice, chicken, toothpaste and toilet paper across 76 remote stores.

Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said the price caps would help reduce the cost of living for many in remote communities, and address crucial health outcomes.

“We have high rates of chronic kidney disease, rheumatic fever, we have high diabetes. What we want to see is food products that actually assist as well in healthy living,” she told ABC Radio.

“[It’s] making sure that we are concentrating not just on the costs of food, but the quality of food … we have a long way to go in terms of trying to improve the lives and the healthy lives, for First Nations people.”

Nationals leader David Littleproud has suggested the government may have to replace Kevin Rudd as ambassador in Washington DC to ensure Australia has the best response to a sudden move by United States President Donald Trump to impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from all countries.

In the first Coalition reaction to Trump’s announcement, Littleproud said the trade move was a test for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and could require a new ambassador in the US capital.

Littleproud argued that Australia should be able to gain a carve-out from the tariffs in the same way it gained an exemption from similar moves in 2017 during Trump’s first administration when then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull negotiated the exemption and the ambassador in Washington DC, Joe Hockey, made the case for special treatment because of the security alliance between the two countries.

“If there is a decision to be made and that Kevin Rudd’s not the right person to have these discussions, then we should be mature enough as a country to send someone who can have those discussions to get that carve-out,” Littleproud told reporters in Parliament House.

Asked if the trade move was also a test for the Coalition, given it should set out any alternative approach ahead of the election, Littleproud said the US should see Australia as an ally because of the AUKUS alliance on nuclear-powered submarines.

“You’d be leading in with the right personnel, with those that have had a tried and tested relationship with the previous Trump administration, in drawing on that experience and those relationships and also reinforcing the close relationship that we’re able to tie under AUKUS, and the fact that we are doing much of the heavy lifting under AUKUS as well,” he said.

“We’re not, we’re not taking a free ride with the United States, and particularly with steel. Much of that steel is going to come back in submarines. So there is a compelling case for Australia to have those conversations with the United States. They should be having those in the United States, and we should be sending the right people to have those discussions.”

Read more about Trump’s newly announced tariffs here.

A man who allegedly shot a resident with a handmade shotgun, after being disturbed while hiding under his house in Tallebudgera Valley, has been charged.

The shooting happened on Thursday. The alleged offender, 57, left the scene and was found yesterday morning in bushland near the victim’s property after a police search of the Tallebudgera area.

Police believed he might have lived in a tent nearby for up to four years.

The 59-year-old resident received injuries to his head and shoulder.

He reportedly knew his alleged attacker, but did not recognise him immediately because of his dishevelled appearance.

The 57-year-old was charged with four offences, including attempt to murder and unlawful possession of a shotgun.

He remained in hospital receiving treatment for his injuries, and was expected to appear in Southport Magistrates Court today.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has responded to reports a new Nationals rule around election travel is directed at keeping him in his electorate during the campaign, telling Seven’s Sunrise he “doesn’t know” if the move was designed to hide him away.

First reported in this masthead, senior party sources confirmed the rule implemented late last year was a strategy to muzzle Joyce, despite the party falling short on fundraising and the Coalition facing several turncoat MPs and tight regional races from a rising number of well-funded independents.

Joyce defended his popularity, citing the Nationals’ electoral success under his leadership, but when asked if leader David Littleproud had instructed him to stay in his electorate, Joyce could only reply, “no, not directly”.

“They have said that everybody has to co-ordinate out of the leader’s office. But maybe that’s the case in all parties. I don’t know,” Joyce continued.

“I don’t know whether it’s directed at me. You’d have to go to the person who dropped the story and ask them”.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, who also appeared on the program, was given a chance to give her two cents.

“All I can say is Barnaby’s welcome in my electorate. I think the more people who see him, the better,” she quipped.

Read the full story on the “Barnaby rule” here.