As it happened: Brisbane on Friday, October 18

Two historic Brisbane pubs have been ranked among the most valuable in the country.

The Crown Hotel and Regatta Hotel made a list of Australia’s 50 most valuable venues compiled by the AFR newspaper this week.

The value of the Regatta in Toowong was estimated at $60 million.Credit:

Ranking at 19th, the Crown in Lutwyche is worth an estimated $61 million. The Regatta in Toowong was just behind in 21st place, with an estimated value of $60 million.

The Ferry Road Tavern on the Gold Coast also made the list. It placed 45th, with a value of $46.6 million.

Justin Hemmes’ Merivale venues in Sydney dominated, with the Ivy, Establishment and Coogee Pavilion taking out the top three spots.

Thanks for joining us today, and have a great weekend. We will be back on Monday morning with more rolling news coverage.

Here are some of the day’s top headlines:

Anti-Israel protesters have cost taxpayers at least $118,000 by vandalising federal offices over the war in the Middle East, with a single Jewish MP suffering an overwhelming share of the damage.

The Prime Minister is in the midst of a huge political clean-up – in the aisles of the nation’s supermarkets.

Former pilot Greg Lynn muttered only two words following his 32-year sentencing for the brutal and violent murder of grandmother Carol Clay. Her family’s pain was summed up in one small courtroom interaction.

Investigations are under way into multiple complaints from staff within the Nine news and current affairs division, in the wake of a damning workplace report that detailed a culture of bullying, belittling and sexual harassment within the organisation.

Queensland’s record strongest-ever footballer has been training alongside the Wallabies in a bid for a shock Spring Tour inclusion. And he is yet to even make his Super Rugby debut.

All over Australia there are beaches only locals know about that are often just as good, if not better, than the ones that make international “world’s best beaches” lists. Here are Traveller’s best secret beaches (including some Queensland gems).

While in Cairns, the Labor campaign visited the local showgrounds, where Premier Steven Miles, Cairns MP Michael Healy – the Sports and Tourism Minister – and Deputy Premier Cameron Dick visited a prepoll booth.

It was more a trickle of voters coming through than a steady stream, as the Premier and his Labor colleagues handed out how-to-vote cards and thanked Labor volunteers at the booth.

Keeping a watchful eye on the Labor heavyweights was Yolonde Entsch, the LNP candidate for Cairns and wife of federal Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch.

Cairns LNP candidate Yolande Entsch (left), the wife of local federal MP Warren Entsch, watched on as the Labor campaign rolled through the city.Credit: Cameron Atfield

She was asked the same question posed to LNP candidates across the state – would she support the recriminalisation of abortion?

“That’s not part of our plan,” Entsch told journalists, echoing the comment of every LNP candidate asked the question in recent weeks.

As of yesterday, 11,726 Cairns voters had cast their ballot at the prepolling station.

A young girl reported missing after being seen in the Brisbane CBD this week has been found.

The 12-year-old from Murrumba Downs had reportedly been at Roma Street Station on Sunday before disappearing.

Police say she was located on Friday. No further details were provided.

Initial reports suggested investigators believed the girl may have been in the North Lakes area, where she was known to frequent.

Two historic Brisbane pubs have been ranked among the most valuable in the country.

The Crown Hotel and Regatta Hotel made a list of Australia’s 50 most valuable venues compiled by the AFR newspaper this week.

The value of the Regatta in Toowong was estimated at $60 million.Credit:

Ranking at 19th, the Crown in Lutwyche is worth an estimated $61 million. The Regatta in Toowong was just behind in 21st place, with an estimated value of $60 million.

The Ferry Road Tavern on the Gold Coast also made the list. It placed 45th, with a value of $46.6 million.

Justin Hemmes’ Merivale venues in Sydney dominated, with the Ivy, Establishment and Coogee Pavilion taking out the top three spots.

Two teenagers have been charged after a string of break-ins across Brisbane were linked by police.

Police arrested a Kingston 16-year-old boy and 18-year-old Brown Plains man at a home in Park Ridge, after a tip-off helped identify their Ford Falcon cars.

A cafe, real estate agency, barber shop and petrol station were among the businesses allegedly targeted in Eagle Farm, Deagon, Pinkenba, Lutwyche and Hamilton over several days between October 13 and October 16.

Both teens will appear in court today, charged with a string of offences.

Premier Steven Miles has started his day of campaigning in Cairns, where he announced $700,000 in additional Meals on Wheels funding and revealed a sample menu of his flagship $1.4 billion free school lunches commitment.

In a synergy of announcements, Miles helped prepare some of those school lunches in the Meals on Wheels kitchen in the grandstand at Barlow Park, a local athletics and football stadium.

Premier Steven Miles sits with children at Cairns Meals on Wheels.Credit: Cameron Atfield

The menus include both snacks and lunch, varying from day to day and week to week.

“These example menus have been developed on the advice of Health and Wellbeing Queensland. They are nutritious. They cover all of the food groups, and they teach kids what healthy eating looks like,” Miles said.

LNP leader David Crisafulli has again been asked how he can rule out any changes to abortion laws when his party affords MPs a conscience vote on the issue.

His comments came after LNP candidate Freya Ostapovitch was recorded telling a voter at a pre-poll booth she was “pro-life” and wanted changes but “we have got to get elected before we do anything”.

Katter’s Australian Party has vowed to bring the issue to a head on the floor of parliament, where LNP members have traditionally been afforded a conscience vote and may have the numbers to change the laws.

LNP leader David Crisafulli has again been asked about the future of Queensland’s abortion laws.Credit: Catherine Strohfeldt

Crisafulli again ruled out changes and said “Freya’s committed to that”.

But he still could not say whether the LNP would have to deny MPs a conscience vote to achieve that.

“You’re talking about the vehicle to deliver something, I’m talking to you about the outcome,” he told reporters in Nambour.

Crisafulli made the comments at a media conference next to Nicklin candidate and former MP Marty Hunt, who previously voted against decriminalisation but was also adamant there would be no changes under an LNP government.

Crisafulli dismissed the issue as a “massive scare campaign”.

A man accused of domestic abuse over more than a year has been hit with a string of charges including torture, rape and deprivation of liberty.

The 46-year-old was arrested on October 15 after flying into a Brisbane airport.

Investigators alleged he committed rape, torture, deprivation of liberty and multiple assaults and extreme coercive and controlling behaviours towards a victim north of Brisbane between June 2023 and October 2024.

He remains in custody and is due to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court today.

A re-elected Labor government would spend $30 million opening more police beats across the state, including two in far north Queensland, despite 42 of them closing across the state since 2016.

Deputy LNP leader Jarrod Bleijie said it was a belated promise from Premier Steven Miles, who Bleijie suggested did not want to talk about Labor’s record on crime.

“The Premier, despite the fact we’re three weeks into this election campaign, has barely mentioned the youth crime crisis,” Bleijie said.

Deputy Opposition Leader Jarrod Bleijie (left) with Opposition Leader David Crisafulli in Nambour.Credit: Catherine Strohfeldt

Miles acknowledged police beats closed under the Labor government but said that was a matter for police.

“They’ve been operational decisions made by the Queensland Police Service, largely so that they could reallocate those resources to those mobile police beats, which allow them to move them around based on need and allow them to move them around alongside those high visibility policing operations,” he said.

“So that’s what police have been doing over recent years. This is the government providing them additional funding to be re-establishing 10 static police beats as well as have more of those mobile police beats.”

Bleijie said Miles was more interested in “Labor’s lunchbox lunacy policy”.

Dozens of Brisbane hospitality businesses have been raised in a surprise government blitz investigating treatment of migrant workers.

The Fair Work Ombudsman and Department of Home Affairs audited payslips and other records at about 40 restaurants, cafes and fast food outlets across the city this week.

“We consider workplace breaches that involve migrant workers to be particularly serious as they can be vulnerable to exploitation. We find they are often unaware of their workplace rights or unwilling to speak up if something seems wrong,” acting ombudsman Michael Campbell said in a statement.

A spokesperson did not say if breaches were uncovered, but told Brisbane Times its audit covered businesses across more than 20 suburbs.

“With investigations continuing it’s not appropriate to comment on details to date. We will consider making public the findings and any enforcement outcomes where and when appropriate,” the spokesperson said.