As it happened: Brisbane on Friday, July 11

Thanks for joining us for our live news updates from Brisbane and beyond. We’ll be back on Monday morning for more coverage of local news.

If you’re catching up on today’s news, here are some of our top stories:

A Brisbane tradesman who hit an elderly man with his car and left him to die on the road has been jailed, with a court hearing he had more than 40 previous driving convictions.

Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has called for access to a second unpublished version of the investigation conducted for the administrator of the state CFMEU and what has been described as a “culture of violence” within the union.

Former deputy mayor of Sydney local council Ashfield, Nick Adams – a self-described “Alpha Male” and pro-Trump internet troll – is set for a major US diplomatic posting.

More than one in four young adults are getting sunburnt, and rising numbers are exposing themselves to high levels of cancer-causing UV radiation with little protection, as social media trends promote tan lines and sunbathing routines.

“Erin was a constant target for heckling and shouts of shit like ‘Have you got any mushrooms?’ It was pretty regular when she was first there,” a former guard in convicted mushroom killer Erin Patterson’s prison unit said.

A shadowy group that came to police attention for shutting down the Port of Melbourne led protesters away from an anti-police rally to the Miznon restaurant on Friday.

Blossoming Brisbane Lions star Zac Bailey starred against Carlton on Thursday night and has shown signs he could be the X-factor who delivers back-to-back premierships.

Twelve years after playing five-eighth for the Wallabies against the British and Irish Lions, veteran playmaker James O’Connor has won a stunning recall to the Wallabies squad for another Test series against the Lions.

Often labelled the “father of the LNP” for his role creating the merged party, the former state opposition leader took on the voluntary leadership role in 2021.

In a message to party members on Friday, Springborg told them of his decision communicated to the state executive at an afternoon meeting.

Goondiwindi mayor and former LNP leader Lawrence Springborg has resigned as party president.Credit: Renee Melides

Here’s an excerpt of the email, in which the Goondiwindi mayor described his four years in the role as “a rare honour”:

‘I wanted to make this announcement now, to provide our party’s membership with enough time to properly contemplate the critical decisions that they will need to make around the Party’s leadership going forward into State Convention.

‘This is solely at the discretion of our membership, as represented at State Convention through their delegates. The only encouragement that I would provide, is for consideration to be given to the teamwork, professionalism and unity that has been built, fostered and harnessed through your party’s leadership working with the membership and our elected representatives in recent times.’

Into the second day now of fallout from the Watson report into violence in the state’s CFMEU branch, and Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has again refused to say whether the government will seek to launch a new royal commission-style inquiry.

“I was asked that yesterday, and I will say today, I’m not ruling anything in or out,” he told journalists at a parliament house media conference in which two industry figures also invited to speak called on the government to launch such a probe.

Jarrod Bleijie has refused to shut down calls for a royal commission-style investigation. Credit: Jamila Filippone

Without saying where they should go, Bleijie urged Queenslanders to “prepare to come forward with their stories” about the union, described by the report commissioned by its administrator as using a “culture of violence” to advance its aims.

“Queenslanders can be confident to come forward, because they have a government that will protect them,” he said, again accusing former Labor ministers of “enabling” the union and enacting favourable laws the LNP was now combing over with an eye to change.

The union’s ousted leadership have dismissed the report’s key finding the union was misogynistic, violent and abusive as “offensive and untrue”.

A “tentatively rescheduled” greyhound racing tournament has been cancelled, after issues with the new south-east Queensland $85 million racing track postponed races last weekend.

Based in Purga, near Ipswich, three-track facility The Q began hosting races in March, but officially opened as the state’s “home of greyhound racing” on June 10.

It has faced criticism from greyhound advocates, who claim at least 11 dogs have died of injuries sustained on the tracks, a figure Racing Queensland has not disputed.

While hosting the Brisbane Cup on the weekend, the facility was forced to suspend racing, with a Racing Queensland spokesman saying the event had been “tentatively rescheduled” to this Saturday.

The event was completely cancelled later this week after Queensland Racing Integrity Commission stewards ruled the track condition was not suitable for racing, despite refurbishment works carried out on Monday.

“Racing Queensland will explore alternate programming options for upcoming meetings whilst the Q2 Parklands undergoes further remediation,” the spokesman said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is speaking in Sydney ahead of his visit to China tomorrow.

A woman gored by a boar near Bundaberg last night has woken up in hospital in stable condition.

Paramedics were called shortly after 1am to a rural property on Sullivan Road in Berajondo, a small community about 55 kilometres north-west of Bundaberg with a population of about 110 people.

They arrived to find a woman in her 50s suffering a leg injury from a boar tusk, and transferred her by ambulance to Bundaberg Hospital.

In Queensland, boars can be hunted on privately owned land both recreationally and to reduce the damage they cause on agriculture and the environment.

They are nocturnal, and known to prey on small animals, including native species and livestock such as lambs, eat crops, and spread diseases.

Watchhouses are dangerous, degrading and unfit for people – especially children – a child safety advocate said in response to the findings of an internal review by the Queensland Police Service.

Sisters Inside chief executive Debbie Kilroy added that the review confirmed what advocates had known for years.

Kilroy called for an immediate ban on the detention of children in police watchhouses, and the redirection of resources away from police and into community-led support services.

“This is not a failure of policy – it is an intentional act of harm,” she said.

“Right now, even as this report is being circulated, children are sitting in concrete boxes under fluorescent lights, with no schooling, no privacy, and no access to fresh air. This is not a question of capacity – it is a question of cruelty.”

Youth Advocacy Centre’s Katherine Hayes told ABC Radio a large number of children in watchhouses could have been diverted in the first place.

“If they are diverted, they need to have proper services wrapped around them so they don’t end up in the watchhouse again.

“You see the same young kids cycle in and out of the watchhouse all summer long. Summer is the peak period for youth crime.”

You can read about the internal review here.

Police have arrested a 21-year-old man over the alleged armed robbery of nitrous oxide cans from a delivery driver in Browns Plains.

Officers were called to a Banksia Street address on the night of June 15 after reports the driver had been robbed by two men who fled in a ute.

“This was a calculated and co-ordinated attack on an unsuspecting delivery driver who was simply doing his job,” Detective Acting Inspector Adam Bennett said.

This week officers searched two properties in Flagstone, along Creekside Crescent, finding empty nitrous oxide canisters, cannabis and mobile phones.

They arrested the 21-year-old following the searches, charging him with armed robbery and drug-possession offences.

He was expected to reappear at Beenleigh Magistrates Court on August 22, as investigations continued.

Details of a previously unknown meeting between Australia’s US ambassador Kevin Rudd and US President Donald Trump has been revealed.

An answer to an official Senate estimates question from Liberal frontbencher James Paterson was released last night.

“Ambassador Rudd met President Trump in the dining room of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 11 January 2025,” the answer from the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Ambassador to the US and former prime minister Kevin Rudd.Credit: AP

“A diplomatic cable was produced. Ambassador Rudd has professional relationships with and has met with a range of senior Administration officials.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has faced scrutiny for not having met Trump since his inauguration.

The Coalition is seeking more details about the meeting.

“I don’t understand why there’s such secrecy around this,” shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien said on Nine’s Today program.

“We don’t know if it was a matter of Kevin Rudd just waving at the president.”

Health authorities are warning parents to prepare as students return to school next week amid a surge in flu cases, with the season peak expected before the end of the month.

Queensland Health recorded more than 3000 cases in the past week, including 210 hospitalisations, marking the highest number of flu cases recorded in a single week this year.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Heidi Carroll said about 130 beds a day were occupied by patients suffering from the flu across last week.

“We are expecting flu hospitalisations to overtake COVID-19 hospitalisations in coming weeks,” Carroll said.

“While more than 32,600 lab-confirmed flu cases have been recorded in Queensland this year – we know the actual number of flu cases in the community are much higher – and flu is spreading.”

Carroll said a spike was also likely next week, as the school students returned for a second semester, and urged parents to vaccinate their kids, prioritise good hygiene habits, and keep children with symptoms home.

“Children are more likely to catch and spread influenza contributing to transmission in the community, but also young children are vulnerable to serious illness from the flu,” she said.

Almost 26,000 Queenslanders were vaccinated for the flu last week, with about 1.6 million people now vaccinated across the state.