As it happened: Brisbane on Thursday, May 29

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has bitten back after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese criticised the council’s management of the Story Bridge:

I’ve been working closely with Federal Minister King, however, I’m also happy to brief the Prime Minister on the independent report written by respected experts, which found we’ve been excellent stewards of the Story Bridge.

As the report noted, we have invested more than $120 million into maintaining the Story Bridge over the past 20 years in addition to investing $3 million into ongoing maintenance every year over the long term.

The Story Bridge is an 85-year-old national icon that was only built to last 100 years and we want to restore it so it can last another 100 years, just like we did with City Hall.

The latest advice states the Story Bridge footpaths would need to be replaced “in the next two to five years,” however, we’re progressing a replacement sooner to ensure they’re safe.

What we’re proposing now is a long-term restoration project over the next 15 to 20 years, just like what has been undertaken on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in recent times.

The state and federal governments collect 97 cents in every tax dollar paid, which is why we’re saying no to a toll and yes to sustained investment from all three levels of government.

Thanks for joining us for live coverage of news in Brisbane today. We’ll be back tomorrow morning. In the meantime, catch up on some of the other stories that have been making news:

A protest organiser has labelled Brisbane’s lord mayor “budget Bjelke-Petersen” after a protest that would have shut down all six traffic lanes on the Story Bridge during peak hour was blocked by a court ruling.

Working at home could boost productivity, the government’s own analysis has found, as a major report reviewing the pandemic economy concluded hybrid arrangements are not to blame for Australia’s stagnating growth.

A US trade court has blocked President Donald Trump’s tariffs from taking effect, ruling that the president overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board duties on imports from countries that sell more to the United States than they buy.

Having written over 100 books, many of them cookbooks, and spawned countless imitators, who better to comment on the latest food world stoush than the doyenne of homemaking, Martha Stewart? Last night, she did just that.

Even in defeat, Zane Nonggorr’s 78-minute stint attempting to thwart the Hurricanes announced him as a key inclusion for the Wallabies when the British and Irish Lions arrive in Australia.

And in this week’s Perspective, Courtney Kruk asks us to spare a thought for the business owner who’s just been savaged by a one-star review and watched their Google rating drop – all because a dish didn’t agree with one guy’s palate.

Despite a week of cooler nights, Queensland is in line for a warmer-than-usual winter this year, with the south-east set for above-average-rainfall through the next three months.

The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted the state will likely see both warmer daytime maximum and overnight minimum temperatures in its long-term weather outlook, released today.

With a rainband set to hit Brisbane and surrounds tomorrow, meteorologist Helen Reid said autumn was still clinging on in the south-east, and would likely overstay its welcome.

“We have seen other parts of the country, further south, really have a sense of drying out and clearing and getting some very cold mornings, but that hasn’t been able to work its way further north yet,” Reid said.

Reid said rain later this week was unlikely to bring more than 20 millimetres to greater Brisbane and would clear by Sunday – although coastal regions might see a thunderstorm on Saturday.

While May rainfall has fallen well below year-on-year averages for Brisbane, the city waded through its wettest March on record this year, with ex-tropical cyclone Alfred dumping over 450 millimetres in four days.

A teenager who stabbed his stepfather 35 times has walked free after a Brisbane Supreme Court jury found him not guilty of murder.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded not guilty to murder on the basis of self-defence, after being accused of fatally stabbing his stepfather on September 7, 2022.

The court had been told the teen – aged 16 at the time of the incident – was scared and thought his stepfather was going to kill him. After a tense conversation where the stepfather called the teen “weak” and a “pussy”, the boy tried to defuse the situation by going to the toilet.

The pair got into a struggle where the stepfather grabbed the boy by the collar. The boy pulled a 23cm knife from his pocket and slashed at his stepfather in an attempt to break free of a “bear hug”.

After a week-long trial, the jury deliberated for a matter of hours and unanimously found the teenager not guilty of murder and the alternative charge of manslaughter.

Justice Frances Williams told the teenager he was discharged and allowed to walk free from the dock, with gasps of relief from family members in the gallery.

Backbench Nationals senator Matt Canavan said he was fighting for his country as he discussed the decision to approve the controversial North West Shelf gas project in Western Australia.

New Environment Minister Murray Watt yesterday gave Woodside preliminary approval for the project, meaning the network of offshore gas-drilling facilities and the Karratha gas-processing plant is now likely to continue operating for another 45 years.

“If we stop the North West shell project, it’ll make absolutely zero difference to climate,” Canavan told the ABC Melbourne’s Mornings program.

“So even if you believe every natural disaster in the country is caused by climate change, it’s not correct, but even if you ... accept that, nothing about this approval is going to change that.”

Backbench Nationals Senator Matt Canavan.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“If we don’t export our gas to Asia, they are not going to stop their economic development. They will use other types of fuels. And primarily what Asia has in abundance is coal, and not particularly efficient forms of coal, either. So if you do not make gas available to the Asian region, Indonesia, India, China will continue to mine enormous amounts of coal.”

Canavan was also asked by host Raf Epstein about petty infighting within the Nationals within recent weeks following their short-lived separation from the Liberal Party.

“I’m fighting for our country,” he responded. “I want to save my party, I want to save the Coalition, but my priority is our country and our nation. And as I say, I think we’re becoming poorer, but we definitely are becoming poorer. Everyone’s feeling it. We are less able to defend our country.”

A specialised Brisbane disability services and support service has been permanently banned from NDIS funding, with the clinic’s director and any future clinics he might operate also barred.

The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission investigated Cocoon SDA Care, based in Eight Mile Plains, for “serious and systemic conduct”, finding it had issued claims to the federal health funding provider for people that were dead or imprisoned, and had unlawfully breached patient privacy.

The clinic’s trading director, Muhammad Latif, was also issued the banning order, which will come into effect on June 7.

NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioner Louise Glanville said the care provider had “grossly violated” the trust of families and frontline workers.

“This was nothing less than callous and deliberate abuse of a system designed to support dignity, independence and fairness for people with disability,” Glanville said.

Cocoon SDA Care had been monitored by federal agencies for a “significant period”, with the commission issuing Latif a notice to ban in March, which was escalated to a suspension of registration on May 10, and finally a permanent ban.

Brisbane traffic could be set to meet its match with AI programming, as the council launches an expressions of interest process next week.

The Brisbane City Council’s traffic management system upgrade would leverage AI processing to control red lights, reroute vehicles during heavy traffic, or after accidents, and plan detours during events or road closures.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said similar systems across the globe had incorporated AI into management systems to improve traffic flow.

“Brisbane traffic drops by an average of just six per cent during school holidays, so smarter technology has enormous potential to help ease congestion right across our city every day,” he said.

The program will open expressions of interests from Friday, June 6, with council having held an industry briefing in November last year.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has bitten back after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese criticised the council’s management of the Story Bridge:

I’ve been working closely with Federal Minister King, however, I’m also happy to brief the Prime Minister on the independent report written by respected experts, which found we’ve been excellent stewards of the Story Bridge.

As the report noted, we have invested more than $120 million into maintaining the Story Bridge over the past 20 years in addition to investing $3 million into ongoing maintenance every year over the long term.

The Story Bridge is an 85-year-old national icon that was only built to last 100 years and we want to restore it so it can last another 100 years, just like we did with City Hall.

The latest advice states the Story Bridge footpaths would need to be replaced “in the next two to five years,” however, we’re progressing a replacement sooner to ensure they’re safe.

What we’re proposing now is a long-term restoration project over the next 15 to 20 years, just like what has been undertaken on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in recent times.

The state and federal governments collect 97 cents in every tax dollar paid, which is why we’re saying no to a toll and yes to sustained investment from all three levels of government.

Plans to shut the Story Bridge’s six lanes of traffic during tomorrow’s peak hour have been binned, after a magistrate ruled the protest could not go ahead.

Protesters had lodged a notice of intention of the protest on May 20, making it an authorised action under the Peaceful Assembly Act, for a one-hour walk across the bridge to draw attention to their calls for Brisbane City Council to allocate one car lane to pedestrian, cyclist and scooter traffic while the footpaths are repaired.

The Story Bridge footpaths – used by about 4000 walkers, bike and scooter riders daily – were closed on March 5, with reports later revealing several parts of the bridge were an “extreme risk” to the public, while council has called for cash from the state and federal governments to restore it.

Mediation last week failed to resolve the issue, and police took the matter to Brisbane Magistrates Court.

Magistrate Ross Mack pointed to disruptions for thousands of commuters if the protest went ahead.

Kathryn Good, who lodged notice of the protest and was self-represented in court, said she understood the protest would cause disruption, but pointed to numerous other times the Story Bridge was shut, including for seven hours this Sunday for the Brisbane Marathon.

On ABC Radio Brisbane this morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked about the imminent closure of Toowong Private Hospital and whether his government would step in.

“Mark Butler, our Health Minister, is looking at the whole funding of private hospitals, making sure, as well, that the relationship between the money that’s paid from the health insurers to the private hospitals is fit for purpose,” Albanese said.

“Quite clearly the health insurers need to pay additional money for the private health care that’s provided, and that is creating an issue across the board.

Toowong Private Hospital has been operating on Milton Road for more than 40 years.Credit: Facebook

“So Toowong is one of the issues that is being dealt with, but this is a challenge across the board. The government is very conscious of it. The private hospital sector plays an important role in delivering our healthcare.”

Albanese said Labor had increased funding for mental health, including dedicated clinics “available to people right around our regions as well as our cities and our suburbs”.

The prime minister has reflected on trolls on social media as well as watching weightlifting at the Sydney Olympics in a discursive interview on Brisbane’s Nova FM radio station.

Discussion of NRL State of Origin, and Queensland’s loss, was kept to a minimum. Instead, Albanese ruminated on Peter Dutton’s sudden ejection from Parliament.

Albanese said he paid $15 to watch weightlifting at the Sydney Olympics.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“I had an OK relationship, a professional relationship, if you like,” he said.

“It’s really tough for him and his family as well... And now I’m not sure what he will do, but I’m sure he’ll be successful in other arenas as well.”

Albanese offered some advice for aspiring politicians.

“It’s an honorable profession, and I think people overwhelmingly go into it ... for all the right reasons, because they want to make a difference to the country and to their local community,” he said.

“You expose yourself publicly, particularly with social media. You know, don’t read the comments out there, folks. It can be really brutal, and you’ve got to be resilient.”

Talk turned to the coming Brisbane 2032 Olympics and the government backing major infrastructure upgrades.

“We want to make sure there’s value for money. That’s the first thing. Second thing is that we want to make sure that there’s a legacy, so that people look back and go, gee, ‘That 2032, Olympics. Wasn’t that a fun time to be in Brisbane’?”

“One of the best things I did at the Sydney Olympics was you could get a ticket for, I think it was $15 for weightlifting. Now, I wouldn’t have thought weightlifting was uplifting in every sense.

“But let me tell you. The great thing about it is only been once in my life, of course, but at the Olympics, we had the best day, sitting there being with a whole bunch of mates, having a few beers. And the good thing is, everyone in the audience wants everyone to be successful.”