As it happened: Brisbane on Friday, May 30

The Queensland government is still some time away from deciding on the exact location of the Victoria Park stadium.

Three concepts for the Victoria Park stadium have placed it in three different locations, and Sports Minister Tim Mander said the government was still evaluating the best location for the stadium.

“It’s a big piece of land, so it’s important that we get it in the right place,” he said.

Blight Rayner’s vision for the Victoria Park stadium.Credit: Blight Rayner

“Let’s just let the process take place. That’s what we’ve done so far, we’ve followed process ever since we’ve been elected and that’s worked for us and we want to continue to do that.”

Mander also said he was hopeful the privately funded Brisbane Arena, planned for Woolloongabba, would be ready for the 2032 Games.

Brisbane 2032 president Andrew Liveris has said while the arena would be nice to have, it was not vital for Olympic competition.

But asked whether it would be embarrassing for the US basketball’s Dream Team to play at a sports centre in suburban Brisbane, Mander said he was “well aware of the Dream Team’s pull”.

“We’ll make sure that we have the best facility and that we have as many people as possible that can watch not just the US Dream Team, but the Aussie basketball side as well,” he said.

“All those decisions will be made due course.”

Thanks for joining us for live coverage of the news today in Brisbane and beyond. We’ll be back on Monday morning. If you’re just catching up, here are some of the stories making headlines today:

A surge of COVID cases and the emergence of a new variant ahead have raised concerns from health authorities, with doctors warning Queenslanders have “dropped the ball” on vaccination.

Suspected arsonists have targeted a tobacco shop south of Brisbane, destroying the storefront in a blaze that burned two men, who were rushed to hospital with severe injuries.

A kinesiologist who sexually assaulted a woman on her 20th birthday and then attacked another victim months later, before fleeing to Thailand, has been jailed.

The woman who sped through a red light at a Kangaroo Point intersection while drunk, crashing into then-Greens MP Amy MacMahon, will not spend any time behind bars.

Liberal senator Jane Hume has rebuked Opposition Leader Sussan Ley for demoting her to the backbench, saying it hurt professionally but she would now be free to speak her mind on television.

And a limited number of visitors will get the opportunity to inspect the Roma Street Cross River Rail Station cavern, four years ahead of its official opening, as part of Open House Brisbane, which released its 2025 program of events today.

The Queensland government is still some time away from deciding on the exact location of the Victoria Park stadium.

Three concepts for the Victoria Park stadium have placed it in three different locations, and Sports Minister Tim Mander said the government was still evaluating the best location for the stadium.

“It’s a big piece of land, so it’s important that we get it in the right place,” he said.

Blight Rayner’s vision for the Victoria Park stadium.Credit: Blight Rayner

“Let’s just let the process take place. That’s what we’ve done so far, we’ve followed process ever since we’ve been elected and that’s worked for us and we want to continue to do that.”

Mander also said he was hopeful the privately funded Brisbane Arena, planned for Woolloongabba, would be ready for the 2032 Games.

Brisbane 2032 president Andrew Liveris has said while the arena would be nice to have, it was not vital for Olympic competition.

But asked whether it would be embarrassing for the US basketball’s Dream Team to play at a sports centre in suburban Brisbane, Mander said he was “well aware of the Dream Team’s pull”.

“We’ll make sure that we have the best facility and that we have as many people as possible that can watch not just the US Dream Team, but the Aussie basketball side as well,” he said.

“All those decisions will be made due course.”

Noticing a strange smell, officials opened a package from overseas to discover snakes, iguanas, turtles and tarantulas – many of them dead.

Two years later, a sweeping investigation into an illegal wildlife trafficking ring has led to a Queensland man being sentenced to jail.

Iguanas were among the hauls of smuggled animals (file image).Credit: Mark Daffey

Jesse Sayeg pleaded guilty to three offences related to smuggling exotic animals into Australia in Caloundra Magistrates Court this week.

It came after a multi-year probe spanning three states that exposed an illegal exotic wildlife trafficking gang, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) said.

Officials were first tipped off when Australian Border Force officers noticed the smell coming from a package sent from the Philippines in March 2023.

They tipped off the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry which X-rayed the parcel, revealing its exotic contents.

Overall 15 reptiles and spiders were discovered in drawstring calico fabric bags – six iguanas along with three snakes, soft-shell turtles and tarantulas.

The mostly dead wildlife were in a consignment under a false name and misdeclared as toys, the federal department said.

Brisbane Marathon Festival is on Sunday from 5am, starting from the City Botanic Gardens, crossing the Story Bridge, following the river to New Farm and Teneriffe, then all the way back. Check the Brisbane City Council website for road closures.

Remember snail mail? The Philatelic Society of Queensland Stamp Collectors Expo is on at the Kedron-Wavell Club, also on Sunday, and entry is free.

A David Williamson rom-com, Rhinestone Rex and Miss Monica, is playing at the Bille Brown Theatre, with Glenn Hazeldine (Colin from Accounts) and Logie winner Georgie Parker.

The Ballet Preljocaj production of Swan Lake.Credit: JC Carbonne

French avant-garde dance troupe the Ballet Preljocaj perform a much-lauded Swan Lake at QPAC from Saturday night.

Hear the people sing at a touring arena production of Les Miserables at Boondall. Matt Lucas (Little Britain) plays the Master of the House himself, Thenardier.

Out of town, the Noosa Eat and Drink Festival comes to the Sunshine Coast; Legends of Country play at Woodstock Farm in Tamborine; Sounds Like Gold in Surfers Paradise is a festival of local music; and the Seafire fireworks explode across four Gold Coast beaches on Saturday night.

If you’re a customer with Commonwealth Bank and you’ve been having some issues transferring money, this is why.

Here is a statement from the bank:

We are working to fix an issue affecting transfers from your accounts.

You may be unable to make transfers between your accounts or pay someone using PayID or BSB and account number in NetBank and the CommBank app.

You can still make payments using your card, and use ATMs.

Thanks for your patience. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

A 74-year-old South Brisbane man has died in hospital after being hit by a car on O’Keefe Street in Woolloongabba yesterday.

Police said the crash involved a grey Holden Cruze driven by a woman in her 60s, who was not physically injured.

The man was rushed to the Princess Alexandra Hospital – just a few hundred metres away – in a critical condition, but died from his injuries this morning.

Police have asked any witnesses or anyone with vision of the crash to get in contact.

Australians stripped down their clothing purchases in April as they waited for cooler weather, contributing to a fall in total retail turnover last month according to fresh data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The country’s retail turnover dropped 0.1 per cent in April, with all states except Queensland recording lower sales despite the Reserve Bank in February reducing mortgage holders’ interest bills for the first time in nearly four years.

Shoppers pack Queen Street Mall.Credit: Glenn Campbell

While turnover bounced back for businesses in Queensland as the state recovered from Cyclone Alfred, ABS head of business statistics Robert Ewing said industries such as clothing, footwear and personal accessories and department stores – both down 2.5 per cent – suffered the biggest falls nationwide.

“Clothing retailers told us that the warmer-than-usual weather for an April month saw people holding off on buying clothing items, especially new winter season stock,” he said.

Meanwhile, appetite remained robust for food-related spending as turnover in cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services climbed 1.1 per cent.

Health Minister Mark Butler has urged Australians to consider getting a COVID booster after the outbreak of a new subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus.

“This is pretty consistent with patterns we’ve seen for a few years where a new subvariant of Omicron emerges and starts to spread across the world,” he told the ABC’s Radio National Breakfast.

Health Minister Mark Butler.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“I’ve not got any advice that this should be dealt with any differently to previous subvariants.

“So I do encourage, particularly as we head into winter, for people to think about the last time they got a COVID vaccine.”

He said people over 75 should have a booster every six months, while those between 65 and 74 should have one every 12 months.

“And for everyone else, have a serious think. I’ve just got my booster over the last couple of weeks, and I think that puts me in a good position over winter, and other Australians should make sure that they equip themselves similarly.”

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says there are a substantial number of expressions of interest to take over embattled private equity-owned Healthscope.

Healthscope has five hospitals in south-east Queensland – Brisbane Private, Sunnybank Private, Gold Coast Private, Peninsula Private and Pine Rivers Private – and was placed into receivership earlier this week.

Sunnybank Private Hospital is one of several Healthscope hospitals in south-east Queensland.

“We’re not going to bail out an overseas private equity firm who made a play to make a profit out of the second biggest private hospital operator,” Butler told the ABC this morning.

“What we have done, though, is to engage very closely with the owner and also now with the receivers, who were appointed at the beginning of this week, to ensure as far as possible we can see an orderly transfer and sale of these important assets to a more stable operator.

“So if you’ve got a birth plan or a procedure booked at one of these hospitals, if you’re one of the 19,000 hardworking staff, it’s business as usual while this process plays out and will take weeks and months for the receivers to work through a substantial number of expressions of interest that are already there to take over what is a really important part of our healthcare system.”

Health authorities are warning against a surge of COVID cases as a new variant emerges and vaccination rates fall to their lowest since vaccines were introduced five years ago.

Figures show more than 15,000 COVID cases have been reported in Queensland since January, with nearly 3000 people hospitalised with the virus.

At the same time, fewer than 250,000 Queenslanders have received their free booster jab this year, which Mater Hospital’s director of infectious diseases Professor Paul Griffin said was the lowest since COVID vaccines were introduced.

“We have dropped the ball with COVID-19 vaccinations, but this disease is still very prevalent in the community and poses a serious threat to high-risk patients,” he said.

A new subvariant – NB.1.8.1 – was driving infections and hospitalisations, particularly in Asia and Western Australia, Griffin added.

“There are hundreds of different strains of Omicron … the best way to protect yourself and your family is to get a booster.”

Health authorities in Queensland are also dealing with high cases of flu and RSV. So far this year, more than 2000 people have been hospitalised with the flu, and cases are up more than 30 per cent from the same time last year.