For today’s news updates in Brisbane and beyond, follow us here.
For today’s news updates in Brisbane and beyond, follow us here.
Librarians and other Brisbane City Council workers will walk off the job between 2pm and 4pm today, as part of their union’s campaign for a new pay deal.
Earlier this week, the council disputed that the industrial action would force libraries, call centres and other public services to be closed.
But today they’ve released a statement acknowledging the public will be impacted by the strike.
“Residents are asked to avoid visiting libraries during the two-hour period of industrial action,” the statement says.
“Longer than usual wait times may be experienced at council’s contact centre during the industrial action.
“We thank residents for their patience.”
Bus drivers, also fighting with the council for a new pay deal, are planning their next strike for the afternoon peak tomorrow.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the deal that will see Qatar Airways take a 25 per cent stake in Virgin Airlines was made “in the national economic interest”.
Speaking at a steel fabricator in Kurri Kurri in NSW’s Hunter region, Chalmers said the deal would put “downward pressure” on the price of flights and attract more tourists.
“It means more options and more flights for Australians. It means more competition in aviation, and it means more customers for our tourism businesses here and right around Australia,” he said.
“More flights is good for competition, more competition is good for prices and that’s been my motivation here.”
Chalmers said the agreement was subject to “some very strict, enforceable conditions” including around local jobs, data sharing and the number of positions the airline could hold on the Virgin board.
As part of the acquisition, Qatar can appoint two of the 12 Virgin board members, one of whom must be an Australian citizen, Chalmers said.
“We’re really confident this is the right call because more competition, more flights, more options puts downward pressure on prices,” he said.
In October last year, Virgin confirmed Qatar’s intention to take a 25 per cent stake in the Australian airline, and flagged it may soon fly to Doha from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth under a “wet-lease” agreement with its new backer.
Librarians and other Brisbane City Council workers will walk off the job between 2pm and 4pm today, as part of their union’s campaign for a new pay deal.
Earlier this week, the council disputed that the industrial action would force libraries, call centres and other public services to be closed.
But today they’ve released a statement acknowledging the public will be impacted by the strike.
“Residents are asked to avoid visiting libraries during the two-hour period of industrial action,” the statement says.
“Longer than usual wait times may be experienced at council’s contact centre during the industrial action.
“We thank residents for their patience.”
Bus drivers, also fighting with the council for a new pay deal, are planning their next strike for the afternoon peak tomorrow.
With a federal election around the corner, the Albanese Labor government has today pledged millions of dollars to plan bridge and public transport projects in Brisbane.
That includes $50 million towards a business case to expand the Brisbane Metro to the northern suburbs, including Carseldine.
There is $2.25 million to investigate the cost and scope of works to restore and maintain the Story Bridge – Brisbane City Council had asked for more than $4 million.
Another $1 million in federal cash will deliver an updated business case for the construction of a new active travel bridge from Toowong to West End.
Brisbane City Council will also get $5 million towards a $12 million project to construct the Sylvan Road Bikeway to complete the link between the Western Freeway Bikeway and the Bicentennial Bikeway, to provide 20 kilometres of cycling path between Brisbane’s west and the CBD.
Infrastructure Minister Catherine King is in Brisbane today to announce the funding pledge, and it comes after federal Labor this week announced $2 billion for Melbourne’s airport rail link.
Reserve Bank deputy governor Andrew Hauser says the bank’s interest rate call is made first thing in the morning on the day of the decision.
Appearing before the Senate economics committee estimates hearing today, Hauser said the formal interest rate decision, which happens approximately every six weeks, is the first item of business on the second day of the RBA’s two-day meetings leading into every decision.
“What the governor likes, usually, to do is to go around the table in the morning on Tuesday,” he said, after board members had reflected overnight on what they’d heard both from staff and one another the day before.
“We usually have a discussion that can be short or can be a bit more extended, and the governor will then take the temperature at the table.”
Hauser said there was no ban on board members discussing matters with each other outside of the meeting but said that “frankly speaking, the substance of that conversation happens there”.
Nine News has revealed a closer-look at the suspicious device that washed up on a Gold Coast beach this morning.
Police were called to the scene before 6am and have set up a 100-metre exclusion zone at The Spit near Main Beach.
The device looks like a torpedo, but has not been formally identified.
Brisbane fuel retailers charged motorists more than double the retail margins compared to other capital cities, according to the ACCC’s latest quarterly fuel price report.
While average fuel prices fell in Brisbane in the December quarter, fuel company gross retail margins increased.
Brisbane’s gross retail margins were 24.1 cents per litre.
Dr Ian Jeffreys, from the RACQ, said there was no reason Brisbane drivers should be paying so much more to fill up their cars.
“This is why we’re calling for the state government to regulate the market and impose a five-cent daily cap on fuel price increases to bring an end to dramatic and unjustified margins,” he said.
The ACCC report also found Brisbane had the second-longest fuel price cycle in the country, lasting six weeks, while Perth has a weekly cycle.
In an escalating political debate, Defence Minister Richard Marles has defended the government’s handling of Chinese warship’s surprise exercise in the Tasman Sea on Friday, which was only brought to Australia’s attention by a commercial airline pilot.
Marles has revealed that despite previous reports, it is not clear that live firing took place in China’s naval exercise on Friday.
After receiving criticism from the Coalition for not more strongly condemning the incident, Marles said the government had made it “really clear that the notice was inadequate”.
“[China] notified a window which, according to the evidence and Senate estimates, would appear to have begun before the notice was given,” Marles said.
“But it’s also unclear whether or not live firing took place,” the defence minister said, noting that the New Zealand frigate that was observing the Chinese task group at the time didn’t observe any live firing on Friday.
Marles continued that whether the live fire had occurred or not, the advice was that China’s actions were in accordance with international law, but that the notice was “inadequate”, a view that Marles says has been expressed to Beijing.
He said that it “was unacceptable” that planes had to be told to divert midair, saying it would have been “deeply disconcerting” for the pilots involved.
Quizzed on the time it took for New Zealand authorities to alert Australia, reportedly as long as 90 minutes, Marles said it wasn’t a pertinent point because the New Zealand Navy were observing the exercise and it was “not a real incident”.
Police have set up a 100-metre exclusion zone at Main Beach on the Gold Coast on Thursday morning after a suspicious device washed up at The Spit.
People are asked to avoid the area.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised former Triple M host Marty Sheargold for his derogatory remarks about the Matildas.
Speaking on Nova Melbourne, Albanese said women’s sports dominated, after Sheargold said, among other controversial comments, that the Matildas remind him of “year 10 girls” with “all the infighting and all the friendship issues”, and that he would rather “hammer a nail through the head of my penis than watch” women’s soccer.
Albanese said the Matildas were incredible. “More successful historically than our men’s team have been,” he said.
Residents further north along Queensland’s coast are nervously watching the progress of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which has strengthened into a category 3, with wind gusts up to 185km/h.
At 4am, the Bureau of Meteorology said the cyclone was over the Coral Sea about 860km north-east of Mackay and 960km north-north-east of Rockhampton.
It is moving slowly south through the Coral Sea and is forecast to continue to move generally south while slowly strengthening.
There is a high confidence Alfred will remain well off the Queensland coast into the weekend.
But there is high uncertainty about Alfred’s movement after Saturday, with the weather bureau warning there is a possible risk the cyclone might move closer to the central or southern Queensland coast by Sunday.