For the latest updates as they happen in Brisbane and beyond, follow us here.
For the latest updates as they happen in Brisbane and beyond, follow us here.
Defeated Brisbane MP Stephen Bates says he’s “not going anywhere” in a thank-you message to supporters.
The 32-year-old Greens representative lost his seat to Labor in the May 3 election, joining party colleagues Max Chandler-Mather and Adam Bandt in leaving Parliament.
“Being your MP is a huge privilege and I couldn’t have wished for a better team, a better community and a better time to have done that,” he said in a statement.
“I’m proudest about being able to have touched so many thousand lives in the work my team and I did. It’s an honour that basically no other job gives you.
“It’s intimate and special and something you can’t even explain until you’ve experienced it.
“I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not going to stop helping people just because I’m not their MP any more.”
A representative for Bates said he was not giving interviews at the moment.
Ryan MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown could be the last Greens member in the federal lower house, with the seat yet to be called amid a tight contest with Labor.
A tourist flight with seven passengers on board was travelling too fast when it landed at a North Queensland airport in November and overshot the runway, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has found.
The ATSB found Wave Air GA8 Airvan, which was operating a scenic flight before its high-speed landing at Shute Harbour’s Whitsunday Airport, should have initiated a go-around instead of attempting a landing on November 2 last year.
“The aircraft’s approach was above profile with a high airspeed,” ATSB transport safety director Stuart Macleod said.
“Subsequently, the landing was beyond the planned touchdown point.”
After overrunning the runway, the Airvan rolled on its wheels across grass before it reached marshy ground and came to a stop in a ditch.
While the aircraft was substantially damaged, the pilot and passengers were uninjured.
“While landing beyond the planned touchdown point, there was adequate landing distance remaining, however the pilot did not apply sufficient braking to stop the aircraft departing the runway,” Macleod said.
The ATSB said, since the accident, Wave Air has updated its training and checking manual, appointed a new head of training and checking, updated pilot training, reviewed procedures and errors in the weight and balance system, and revised its stabilised approach criteria.
Nationals MP Michael McCormack said David Littleproud will remain party leader and urged Coalition colleagues to find unity as they rebuild from a disastrous election.
McCormack told ABC Radio National he expects Littleproud – who holds the Queensland seat of Maranoa – to be the sole candidate for the Nationals leadership when the party room convenes in Canberra next week.
He also confirmed he wouldn’t run for the deputy leadership, which is expected to be vacated as incumbent Perin Davey faces an uphill battle for re-election in the Senate.
“Both Coalition parties will go away and have legit wounds … this has been a devastating result,” McCormack said.
“The important thing now is not to get bitter, it’s to get better [and] to put in place people who we will get behind, to be united, both within our own parties and as a Coalition, and go forward from here and come back in three years’ time and provide a credible alternative.”
McCormack was tight-lipped about the future of the Coalition’s nuclear policy, saying all policies “would be on the table” in both parties’ election reviews.
Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf admits star hooker Jeremy Marshall-King was on an indefinite comeback timeline, after a nasty gash he suffered against the Penrith Panthers last month reopened.
Kurt Donoghoe will instead don the No.9 jumper against the Parramatta Eels tonight, as the Kiwi Test rake remains on ice to ensure he does not risk any infection to the leg wound.
“I spoke with Jeremy and unfortunately he got a direct blow there again that’s reopened up. He obviously can’t play this week, and we need to be really careful with it,” Woolf said.
“He had a pretty major infection there, it’s certainly a major gash. We need to make sure it’s healed probably before he runs out.
“I don’t have a timeline, I know it’s not a really lengthy one, but we have to see how it goes and make sure it heals.”
Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTin Eats has won for illustrated book of the year at the Australian Book Industry Awards, beating fellow cook Brooke Bellamy a week after accusing Bellamy of copying two of her recipes.
It’s the second year in a row that Maehashi has won the award, this time for her cookbook Tonight. Bellamy’s Bake with Brooki was on the shortlist in the same category.
Maehashi accused Bellamy last week of plagiarism, arguing she was forced to go public after six months of unsuccessfully trying to reach an agreement with Bellamy’s publisher Penguin.
Both Penguin and Bellamy, who owns Brooki Bakehouse in Fortitude Valley, denied the allegations, and the dispute is unresolved.
Penguin, meanwhile, won the title of best publisher for the fourth time in five years.
A former adviser to the Queensland Academy of Sport has taken extraordinary steps to make clear she was not consulted on a shakeup of the body.
In a parliamentary committee hearing last year, top sport bureaucrat Andrew Hopper was asked about the QAS governance structure, the departure of CEO Chelsea Warr, and whether the QAS advisory board was consulted on changes.
Hopper told the committee he “had a conversation with the then chair of the advisory board,” former hockey player Renita Garard, who had also left.
But Garard has since demanded a rare right of reply, with the ethics committee this week agreeing to put her response on the public record.
“I was not consulted at all prior to the decision being made by Mr Hopper on the changes to the governance structure of the QAS, nor was I consulted on the decision made by Mr Hopper relevant to the employment status of the then QAS CEO,” Garard said in response.
“Mr Hopper informed me of the changes following his decisions having already been made, and after the decisions had been actioned by him.”
The Crisafulli government today announced a new advisory board, headed by former businessman and diver David Lyons and including former Olympic swimmer Cate Campbell and rugby league administrator Ben Ikin.
Albanese has shared “tentative” plans for his new ministry to be sworn in on Tuesday morning, following a meeting of caucus on Friday.
Speaking on ABC’s 7.30 on Wednesday night, Albanese said he had proposed Tuesday to present his new frontbench to Governor-General Samantha Mostyn.
While senior government ministers are expected to retain their positions, the fate of the rest of the frontbench is largely unknown. The PM is expected to mull over changes to his cabinet on the weekend, before making a final decision early next week.
“We’ll make all the decisions down the track about who’s in what portfolio,” Albanese said.
“We have a caucus meeting on Friday, I respect our internal processes, and I’m not about to pre-empt them … we’ll have plenty of time to work through those issues.”
A major roadworks project has finally been finished, with the final touches made on the Moggill Road overpass works near the Indooroopilly Shopping Centre last night.
Construction on the new overpass, which replaced a roundabout, began in 2020, after 40 car crashes were recorded there between 2013 and 2020.
The traffic corridor connects Brisbane’s inner-west to the Western Freeway, and carries about 55,000 vehicles per day.
Following the last works overnight – painting new lines – the speed limit has been increased to 60km/h.
“The Moggill Road Corridor is one of Brisbane’s busiest road corridors and this upgrade was critical to improving safety and reducing congestion in the western suburbs,” Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said.
Brisbane City Council estimated the project took 3500 workers about 50,000 hours to complete, using almost 24,000 tonnes of steel and concrete.
The project was first announced by Brisbane City Council in 2020, and costs spiralled before work had even begun.
A teenage girl missing from Bribie Island since Sunday afternoon is suspected to have crossed into New South Wales with a man known to her, say police.
Officers issued a missing person notice yesterday afternoon for the 16-year-old girl, who was last seen leaving Bribie Island about 2.20pm on Sunday.
She was described by police as Caucasian, with dark hair and a nose ring.
Police appealed to anyone who might have information, or the teen, to come forward.
Scottish rock greats Franz Ferdinand will tour Australia later in the year, including a show at the Riverstage in Brisbane on November 29.
The five-date tour also takes in Perth (November 26), Melbourne (November 28) and Thirroul, near Wollongong (December 2).
The tour will culminate in a performance in the Sydney Opera House Forecourt on December 3.
One of the UK’s most successful bands with more than 10 million albums sold, the art-school rockers took the number one spot on Triple J’s Hot 100 in 2004 with their second single, Take Me Out.
Their well-received sixth album, The Human Fear, was released in January.
Ticket presale begins on Monday, May 12, with general sale starting on Wednesday, May 14.
Read Michael Dwyer’s interview with frontman Alex Kapranos here.
Anthony Albanese has laid into ousted MP Max Chandler-Mather in one of his first TV interviews since re-election, singling out the firebrand’s decision to front a CFMEU rally in Brisbane.
Speaking to ABC’s 7.30 on Wednesday, the Prime Minister was asked to respond to comments from the outgoing Greens representative that parliament is a “bloody awful” place.
“He should have a good look at the way that he asks questions in the parliament, and maybe what he needs is a mirror and a reflection on why he’s no longer in parliament,” Albanese said.
“This is a guy who stood before signs at the CFMEU rally in Brisbane describing me as a Nazi.
“I think he should have a look at the way he conducted himself in question time, including the questions that he asked of me, which I found pretty offensive.
“I think it’s a bit rich for him of all people, who has been rejected by his own electorate after just one term.”
Chandler-Mather lost his seat of Griffith to Labor.
Brisbane MP Stephen Bates was also ousted in a devastating night for the Greens, and leader Adam Bandt is set to lose his Melbourne seat, but is yet to concede.