For today’s news updates in Brisbane and beyond as they happen, follow us here.
For today’s news updates in Brisbane and beyond as they happen, follow us here.
A teenage girl has been arrested after a late-night graffiti blitz at one of Peter Dutton’s offices north of Brisbane.
Red paint and posters with various slogans were splashed across the building on Dawson Parade in Arana Hills.
Police were called about 2.30am to reports of four people in a red sedan acting suspiciously.
The group reportedly fled, but the dog squad tracked an 18-year-old woman to a nearby park.
She has been charged with wilful damage and is due to appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court on May 20.
The building is a secondary office for the opposition leader as member for Dickson.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has hit up the suburban Brisbane seat of Bonner with a 10-minute visit as he dashes around the city. The voters of Bonner have elected the Coalition at every poll in the last two decades aside from 2007, when it briefly switched to Labor.
So Albanese’s decision to visit a polling booth here in his final week is telling. He is not spending the morning shoring up Labor seats where he fears the Coalition will make inroads. This is an offensive move from the prime minister that suggests confidence.
Albanese shook hands with voters queuing to cast their ballot, alongside Labor candidate Kara Cook. Just opposite him, also greeting punters, was long-term Liberal National Party MP Ross Vasta, who holds Bonner on a 3.4 per cent margin.
Vasta seemed unfazed by the prime minister’s presence. “This is democracy and we welcome democracy. There’s no problem,” he said.
Behind them was a heckler trying to get the prime minister’s attention. “What’s a woman? What are you going to do about the price of housing?” he yelled repeatedly at Albanese, who ignored him.
A local woman butted in: “And what’s the other one going to do?”
The heckler replied: “Well the other one’s worse.”
Then Albanese was off again, leaving more than a few bemused voters in his wake.
The LNP will use its majority to have parliament call on Opposition Leader Steven Miles to allow the release of Labor cabinet documents relating to hospital projects.
Health Minister Tim Nicholls today moved that parliament give Miles until 5pm on Wednesday to consent to the release of the former government’s confidential documents from the State Archives.
“It has become evident in the last week that Labor are running from their history, they are running from their failures,” Nicholls said, referring to the recent review that found the building program was “undeliverable”.
Miles tried to amend the motion to have parliament note that his government relied on advice – including from health bureaucrats still in their roles – to deliver projects Queensland needed.
“There is nothing here other than politics, other than the determination of those opposite not to deliver,” Miles said.
Premier David Crisafulli has easily deflected the latest salvo from the Labor opposition.
Opposition frontbencher Grace Grace asked Crisafulli why former federal Liberal MP Julian Simmonds was appointed to head planning authority Economic Development Queensland while still politically active and authorising federal campaign material.
Crisafulli told parliament that while “those on this side of the house do understand his competency”, Grace, as minister, had also appointed Simmonds to the South Bank Corporation.
“Don’t besmirch people who’ve got good character regarded by both sides,” Crisafulli told the members opposite.
“Wake up earlier, work harder, do some research, and don’t be the worst opposition that’s made a start to this parliament in a generation and a half.”
MPs are back in State Parliament today, and have resumed the debate over various integrity issues.
Speaker Pat Weir told parliament he had referred Labor frontbenchers to the ethics committee over their claims Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie had a conflict of interest in relation to the Sunshine Coast rail project.
Weir said the MPs had failed to explain themselves and he was “of the view there is an arguable case that the members’ statements were deliberately misleading”.
Opposition Leader Steven Miles used his first question of the day to again ask about the appointment of director-general John Sosso to an electoral redistribution panel, prompting Attorney-General Deb Frecklington to declare Labor had “nothing new”.
Deputy Opposition leader Cameron Dick sought to ask Premier David Crisafulli about his previous business dealings, only for Weir to rule the question out of order because the issue was already before the ethics committee.
Crisafulli later accused Labor of a “high level of grubbiness” over the issue, insisted there was no evidence he had done anything wrong, and suggested the opposition instead explain its handling of the hospital building program.
Meanwhile, Nick Dametto, the Katter’s Australian Party MP for Hinchinbrook, told parliament he had been cautioned by police after being caught drinking alcohol in a dry community.
Stones Corner Festival returns on Sunday for its free-entry 10th-anniversary edition, with plenty of music, food and markets on offer.
There will be live performances from award-winning Queensland blues-roots duo Busby Marou, a solo set from the band’s Tom Busby, tribute acts Never Ending 90s and Roaring Lion (Bob Marley), country stars Tori Darke and Brad Butcher, Byron Bay indie rockers Seaside and John Hanley & Don’t Shoot the Hurricane.
Hanley, who has battled motor neurone disease for more than a decade, is a proud supporter of the MND and Me Foundation and the festival will accept gold coin donations to the charity on entry.
The event, which has featured past performances from Mental As Anything, Regurgitator, Sneaky Sound System and Art Vs Science, will also have food trucks, local breweries and market stalls.
It runs from 12-10pm on Logan Road, Stones Corner.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to media from the southside Brisbane electorate of Griffith.
Anthony Albanese’s first visit this morning is to a housing project in Stones Corner, in the Brisbane electorate of Griffith.
This is where Max Chandler-Mather, the Greens MP, took a seat off Labor in the last election.
Chandler-Mather then became the Greens’ housing spokesman and, in turn, a thorn in Albanese’s side as he challenged the government on its housing plans.
He holds the seat on a 10.5 per cent margin. Read more about the contest for Griffith here.
A teenage girl has been arrested after a late-night graffiti blitz at one of Peter Dutton’s offices north of Brisbane.
Red paint and posters with various slogans were splashed across the building on Dawson Parade in Arana Hills.
Police were called about 2.30am to reports of four people in a red sedan acting suspiciously.
The group reportedly fled, but the dog squad tracked an 18-year-old woman to a nearby park.
She has been charged with wilful damage and is due to appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court on May 20.
The building is a secondary office for the opposition leader as member for Dickson.
The Brisbane City Council is celebrating one million trips taken on Brisbane Metro since it started permanent services in January after a trial last year.
In figures released on Thursday, it said numbers on the route between the University of Queensland at St Lucia and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital at Herston were up 12 per cent compared to the former 66 route.
“We’re so pleased to see Brisbane residents voting with their feet and embracing our leap from public transport to mass transit,” Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said.
More major changes are expected for Brisbane’s bus network this year. The metro is due to be expanded mid-year with the M1 route, which will run from Eight Mile Plains to Roma Street.
Construction on the Adelaide Street tunnel is still ongoing, and upgrades to both platforms at Buranda, platform 3 on Melbourne Street at the Cultural Centre, and shelters along Adelaide Street are yet to be completed.
Dutton has given a hesitant answer on whether there should be a royal commission for domestic violence, steering back from a previous pledge.
In May last year, the opposition leader pledged a royal commission if one is required to unearth the evidence to end men’s violence against women, particularly in Indigenous communities.
At the time, Dutton said there was a “strong argument” for a federal inquiry.
Speaking this morning on 4BC, Dutton was asked if he would still commit to a royal commission into domestic violence, as the interviewer referred to his pledge when he last spoke to the station.
“I probably said during that interview, whatever it takes to reduce domestic violence in our country,” he said.
Asked again if he would commit to a royal commission, Dutton said: “I think change is certainly required and I think we need to do more and I think we need to identify where good programs are making a difference and identify what’s working and put more money into those programs.”
Dutton repeats that he believes change is required, before saying: “If a royal commission is required, then yes, but whatever we can do to reduce violence against women and children and make our community safer.”