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.
The LNP has quietly commissioned polling canvassing Queenslanders on their support for a new Olympic stadium at Victoria Park.
Nine News broke the news on Monday, after it exclusively revealed the independent 100-day venue review has recommended construction at the public site.
The poll reportedly asked participants if they would support development at Victoria Park, and did not mention any other potential venues for the 2032 Games.
“[This is] yet another sign … the decision on Victoria Park is made, and they’re now trying to work out how to sell it,” political editor Tim Arvier said.
LNP leader David Crisafulli ruled out construction of a new stadium during the election campaign, but has been softening his language since he was elected premier and this week refused to recommit to the pledge.
“This goes to his integrity and his honesty, and I’m sure that if he backflips on this, Queenslanders will take a very dim view of it,” Opposition Leader Steven Miles said.
Opposition transport spokesperson Bridget McKenzie is leading a push for a “pay on delay” policy that would force airlines to compensate passengers who face delays in a move designed to mirror similar laws overseas and boost competition.
Speaking to ABC’s RN Breakfast this morning about the senate hearing currently probing the issue,McKenzie suggested the Labor government hadn’t effectively regulated the industry, pointing to increases in airfares since the last election.
McKenzie continued: “You shouldn’t have to have a law degree to actually be able to access a refund of your own money, and we’ve seen egregious behaviour by the airlines, in particular, Qantas over recent years and the Coalition believes that customers, travellers deserve to have protections.”
She said it wasn’t acceptable for passengers on cancelled flights to be offered replacement flights days later, because travellers often buy tickets for specific events.
“There’s a whole range of issues with our current system, and we think that the frustrations of the Australian public need to be heard, and we need a set or minimum standard of protection, such as is seen in the UK, Europe and North America.”
A flood-battered region is facing the renewed threat of a days-long deluge leading to still-swollen rivers rising again.
Northern Queensland is in the firing line for rainfall totals exceeding triple digits through to the end of the week just a month after floodwater subsided.
The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast rain extending across the tropical coast, inland to central Queensland and south towards Mackay.
Townsville and the coastal range will likely see the heaviest falls on Tuesday through to Thursday.
It follows the region being drenched by heavy rain over the last day around Tully, Innisfail and Townsville.
Some of the highest rainfall totals include 248mm at Paradise Lagoon with 75mm of that within an hour this morning.
February 2025 was the wettest month in history for some north Queensland towns, with Paluma near Townsville recording more than two metres of rain – double what Sydney receives in a year.
At one stage, 70 schools were inundated and more than 30,000 homes lost power.
There are growing signs Donald Trump’s tariff plans and his broader agenda are buffeting the Australian economy.
The ANZ-Roy Morgan measure of consumer confidence dropped 3.1 points over the past week, falling to its lowest level since October 2024.
There had been sharp lift in confidence after the Reserve Bank cut official interest rates in mid-February, but there’s now been a 3.9 point fall in the index over the past fortnight.
That includes Trump confirming tariffs on all American steel and aluminium imports, including almost $1 billion worth of purchases from Australia. He has also signalled more tariffs from April 2.
ANZ economist Sophia Angala said Tropical Cyclone Alfred delivered a hit to consumer confidence in Queensland, but global trade uncertainty was weighing on sentiment across the country.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will deliver a pre-budget speech in Brisbane today where he will note there has been a “seismic” shift in the global economic order since Trump’s inauguration in late January.
The search for a young man who fell into the Brisbane River early on Sunday morning has resumed today, with the operation entering its third day.
The 23-year-old Brisbane man was socialising with family and friends at the Jindalee boat ramp about 5.30am Sunday, when he fell into the river and was swept away by the current.
Police said the missing man was not a strong swimmer, and a friend attempted to rescue him but could not recover the man before he slipped below the water.
Police said search efforts began early this morning, once it became light enough for crews to go out, and involved police, SES, and water police.
A Queensland Police spokeswoman could not confirm whether PolAir would join today’s efforts.
As Opposition Leader Peter Dutton flags he is considering proposing a referendum to give politicians the power to deport dual citizens convicted of serious crimes, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has dismissed the idea as “quite bizarre”.
Chalmers first said the issue was important, but that Dutton’s suggestion was merely his latest attempt to “avoid coming clean on his cuts or on any economic policies”.
“Last time he tried to impose these laws, the high court threw them out. Now he wants a referendum to fix his mistakes,” Chalmers told ABC’s RN Breakfast.
The treasurer said Labor had taken a “different approach”, by rewriting the laws to create a “more robust system to keep our community safe”.
“It’s quite bizarre. He wants another referendum. I don’t think this idea will last long, just like a lot of the other things that he said, in an effort to try and avoid talking about the economy and his cuts.”
Days after naming controversial MMA fighter Conor McGregor his favourite Irish person, US President Donald Trump has welcomed him to the Oval Office to mark St Patrick’s Day.
McGregor first visited the White House briefing room, where he said he was visiting to “raise the issues the people of Ireland face”.
“What is going on in Ireland is a travesty,” he said, warning that “an illegal immigration racket” put Ireland on the “cusp of potentially losing its Irishness”.
Responding on X, Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin said the remarks were “wrong” and “do not reflect the spirit of St Patrick’s Day, or the views of the people of Ireland”.
McGregor then went to the Oval Office for a meeting and photo opportunity with the president and Elon Musk.
An independent review of the Human Rights Act, commissioned by the former Labor government but never released, is due to be tabled in parliament within days.
Its release, by early April, comes as the LNP government consults on its own legislative changes, having halted Labor reforms due to be implemented in July.
“Reforming discrimination law is a difficult and complex process that attracts significant stakeholder interest, which is why it shouldn’t have been rushed by the former Labor government,” said Attorney-General Deb Frecklington.
While the LNP was concerned the Labor reforms could have undermined discretionary decision-making schemes, such as weapons licensing, Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall said no such concerns were raised during the consultation process and he was “bewildered” by the decision.
“To claim the reforms were rushed and not consultative enough is additionally misleading,” McDougall said.
The Australian Christian Lobby, meanwhile, called for an inquiry into the commission for failing to listen to churches.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has defended the government’s approach to stamping out corruption and misconduct in the CFMEU in an interview on ABC’s RN Breakfast, as the latest instalments of the Building Bad investigation reveal limited progress has been made since its initial publication in August 2024.
Chalmers listed the referral to the police and the appointment of an administrator as proof of Labor’s “decisive steps” in cleaning up the CFMEU.
But as a veteran CFMEU figure claims the Labor-backed administration has failed to stop corruption that is “more aggressive than ever”, host Sally Sara asked if Labor was “too afraid of the CFMEU to put proper oversight in place”.
The treasurer replied that Labor had taken “the most decisive action by putting the administrator in charge”.
He said the alternative proposed by the Coalition, to deregister the union, “would just hand the union back to the worst criminal elements that used to run the show”.
“The old arrangements which were in place under the former government obviously weren’t working to crack down on this kind of acceptable criminal behaviour in the union. So we’ve taken the decisive steps,” he said.
“The administrator is cleaning up the union. It’s a difficult job because some of these issues are entrenched, but the administrator is doing their job, and they should be allowed to get on with it.”
As Australia faces the prospect of US tariffs on beef and pharmaceutical exports, with reports suggesting they could be between 2 and 8 per cent, Treasurer Jim Chalmers says such a move would be “very concerning”.
While the tariffs would reportedly be smaller than the 25 per cent duties slapped on steel and aluminium, beef and pharmaceuticals represent much larger industries in Australia.
In a speech to the Queensland Media Club on Tuesday, Chalmers will cover the impact of tariffs on the Australian economy. While the steel and aluminium tariffs will have limited effects on Australia’s GDP, an escalation of a trade war is “much more concerning,” Chalmers told ABC’s RN Breakfast.
“This is a new world of uncertainty, and the pace of change in the world when it comes to rewriting the rules of global economic engagement has quickened since the new administration took office in the US,” he said.
Chalmers said in the face of the “seismic” developments, Australia was opting “not to go for retaliation, but to go for resilience”.
The treasurer continued:
The imposition of any additional tariffs would be very concerning. We’re not unique here. We’re not uniquely disadvantaged by the sorts of tariffs coming out of DC, but we deserve better as a long-term partner and ally. These sorts of tariffs are self-defeating. They’re self sabotaging. They’re a recipe for less growth and higher inflation, not just in the US, but around the world.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is considering an election pledge to hold a referendum next term on deporting criminal dual nationals as part of the Coalition’s plan to toughen the requirements for Australian citizenship.
As former prime minister Tony Abbott calls for a stricter citizenship test, Dutton and his senior MPs have held high-level talks about changing the Constitution to allow ministers to cancel the citizenship of people guilty of crimes such as terrorism, in what would be the second referendum in as many terms of parliament.
A special vote would be required to get around a 2022 High Court ruling that found the ministerial power to strip citizenship was unconstitutional because it was a form of “punishment in the sense of retribution”.
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