As it happened: Brisbane on Thursday, April 3

The Queensland government has ramped up penalties for supplying illegal tobacco and vape products, increasing on-the-spot fines by a factor of 10 and expanding the range of finable offences.

The state added vapes and nicotine pouches to the list of illegal tobacco and vape products, and increased on-the-spot penalties for corporations to $161,300, and individual fines to $32,260.

Cases escalated to a court can result in up to two years’ prison time and even higher penalties – $322,000 for an individual and $1.6 million for a corporation.

The move comes as the state battles a quiet war on the illegal tobacco trade, with overseas imports growing significantly in recent years.

Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said the fines were a necessary step in reducing the illegal trade.

“These are now some of the highest infringements that can be issued in Queensland, and they recognise the scourge that these illegal chop shops are on our community,” she said.

Thanks for joining us for our live coverage of news in Brisbane today. We’ll be back tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, catch up on some of the stories that made headlines today:

About 40 passengers were told to get off a Brisbane ferry before their stop on Thursday morning, with one saying the vessel “felt dodgy from the minute we took off”.

A woman has been charged with murder after being accused of administering lethal levels of prescription medication to a man in Brisbane’s south-east in 2023.

US President Donald Trump has singled out Australia’s beef in his trade crackdown, sparking a defiant reaction from farmers, who have declared the country’s biosecurity measures must not be compromised to benefit US exports.

While Trump’s tariffs mean Australian exports to the US will attract a 10 per cent charge, goods from the five worst-hit countries won’t get off so lightly.

Brisbane rents have soared to fresh highs, making it the nation’s second-most expensive city in which to lease a unit. But in one unexpected suburb, renting a room now costs $550 a week.

Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims who earlier this week said she only had a few days to live, is facing another court battle, charged with breaching a violence restraining order in Perth.

Guiffre posted this image to her Instagram claiming she was suffering from kidney failure and had just days to live.Credit: Instagram

Speaker Pat Weir has come down hard on MPs, accusing them of undermining his authority and lowering the standard of parliamentary debate.

Weir, a former farmer, has been the LNP member for Condamine for 10 years, and speaker since the change of government.

After tabling an updated code of conduct, that for the first time requires MPs to treat each other with courtesy, honesty and fairness, Weir today pointed out how he felt disrespected:

The Speaker’s authority — and that includes the authority of all deputy speakers — is derived from the House itself. All are ultimately responsible to the House. It is the duty of the Speaker and the deputy speakers to maintain order and uphold the rules of the House. It is the duty of each member to respect the decisions of the Speaker and the deputy speakers.

Order quickly dissolves if members believe that they always know better and start disrespecting the authority of the chair. Some members are disrespecting the authority of the chair—sometimes in subtle ways such as talking about consistency when raising points of order, the inference being that there is inconsistency. Others are making comments that are audible and obviously directed at the decisions of the chair.

I would ask all members to check their behaviour and respect the authority of the chair.

“They’re wonderful people, wonderful everything – but they ban American beef.”

Despite singling Australia out for its ban on imports of uncooked beef from the US, Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” left the country relatively unscathed when compared with Saint Pierre and Miquelon – both of which were hit with 50 per cent tariffs.

Australia’s 10 per cent tariff is the lowest rate of those unveiled at the White House’s Rose Garden – Trump described this as the “baseline” rate, and it matches that of the United Kingdom, Singapore, Chile, Turkey, Brazil and more.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged Trump’s tariffs were “not the act of a friend”, while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said: “We have a special relationship with the United States and it hasn’t been treated with respect by the administration or by the president.”

So why is Trump imposing these tariffs, and how has it affected Australia so far? Will Australia retaliate, if it should? Here’s everything you need to know about Trump’s tariffs.

The Queensland government has ramped up penalties for supplying illegal tobacco and vape products, increasing on-the-spot fines by a factor of 10 and expanding the range of finable offences.

The state added vapes and nicotine pouches to the list of illegal tobacco and vape products, and increased on-the-spot penalties for corporations to $161,300, and individual fines to $32,260.

Cases escalated to a court can result in up to two years’ prison time and even higher penalties – $322,000 for an individual and $1.6 million for a corporation.

The move comes as the state battles a quiet war on the illegal tobacco trade, with overseas imports growing significantly in recent years.

Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said the fines were a necessary step in reducing the illegal trade.

“These are now some of the highest infringements that can be issued in Queensland, and they recognise the scourge that these illegal chop shops are on our community,” she said.

Former Queensland Reds star Jordan Petaia has taken a huge step towards realising his NFL dream, signing with the Los Angeles Chargers.

The two-time Wallabies’ World Cup sensation left his rugby union career in a bid to follow his American dream, joining the competition’s International Player Pathways intent on becoming a standout tight end.

While Petaia embarked on the 10-week training program before his selection, his former teammates have surged to the top of the Super Rugby Pacific ladder, with the 25-year-old praising his “Reds family” for helping him come to his bold career move.

“I’ll definitely be supporting the boys in 2025 and ahead, and I’m looking forward to supporting the gold [Wallabies] jersey from afar - and the Reds jersey for that matter,” Petaia said.

“It’s going to be cool watching from a different perspective, but I wish them all the best and I think they’re coming off a great tour. I’ve got a lot of close mates there, so I’ll be in touch.”

The LNP has used its numbers in state parliament to redirect a debate over an upcoming review of electorate numbers and boundaries in Queensland.

On Wednesday night, Opposition leader Steven Miles moved that parliament condemn Attorney-General Deb Frecklington for seeking to appoint John Sosso to the Queensland Redistribution Commission.

Miles said Sosso, who is Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie’s top bureaucrat, was a former Liberal Party member who “cannot be considered independent”.

But the LNP voted to amend the motion to instead condemn Miles for “defaming a public servant who has served for multiple decades under both Labor and LNP” – Sosso had also been a member of the Labor Party – and note “the former Labor government’s efforts to corrupt the electoral process by changing the voting system in defiance of Fitzgerald-era recommendations and their installation of a financial gerrymander that favoured their union donors”.

Miles took up the issue again in question time this morning, prompting Frecklington to say she was “more than happy to stand by that appointment”.

“Mr Sosso is not a member of the Liberal National Party and I think what we’re seeing here is a director-general of high standing being besmirched by those opposite,” she said.

Brisbane rents have soared to fresh record highs, making the city the outright second-most expensive in the country to rent a unit, behind Sydney, as tenants battle one of the longest rent rise streaks in the capital’s history.

Domain’s latest Rent Report, released today, shows median asking rents for a unit climbed to $615 a week, up $15 a week over the March quarter.

Brisbane rents have soared.Credit: Courtney Kruk

House rents also rose, hitting a new peak of $650 per week following a $10 rise in three months.

But there’s a glimmer of hope for renters on the horizon.

The relentless price rises, which have hammered tenants every quarter for more than four years, are slowing, with growth now at its weakest pace since 2021 for houses and since 2022 for units.

Read the full story.

About 40 passengers were told to get off a Brisbane ferry before their stop on Thursday morning, with one saying the vessel appeared to be taking on water.

Just after 8am, about 40 people were asked to get off the CityCat at the Sydney Street terminal in New Farm. The service was travelling upstream into the Brisbane CBD.

Passengers mill at a Brisbane River ferry terminal after being told to alight from a CityCat.

“[It] felt like it was going to sink and water seemed to be coming on,” a passenger says.

“Bit of an ongoing issue as they are so overcrowded.”

Brisbane Times has contacted Translink and Brisbane City Council for further information.

A woman has been charged with murder after allegedly using prescription medication to “accelerate” the death of a man.

The 56-year-old male died at a property in Alexandra Hills before 10pm on December 7, 2023.

Police say investigations into the cause were extremely complex, with inquiries made into his health and treatment prior to death.

Detectives have charged a woman with murder following a protracted investigation into a suspicious death at Alexandra Hills, in December last year.Credit: Queensland Police

Yesterday officers attended a home in Alexandra Hill and arrested a 50-year-old woman. She was charged with murder.

Police allege the man has been in the last stages of his life, however the woman administered lethal levels of prescription medication to accelerate his death.

She is due to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court today.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie will attend a town hall meeting on the Gold Coast this month as the government considers whether to proceed with stage four of the light rail system.

In parliament yesterday, Bleijie again accused the former Labor government of failing to tell local residents that 235 properties would be resumed, and 1000 car parks lost, in a project that had blown out from $4.46 billion to $7.6 billion.

Since reopening public consultation on the project two weeks ago, there have been 2700 submissions, and Bleijie said the LNP government would be more transparent about its plans.

“The people of the southern Gold Coast deserve a world-class public transport system,” he said, without speculating on the mode or route.

The government recently broke its promise to extend heavy rail to Maroochydore by 2032, instead proposing to take it to Birtinya where commuters could switch to a Metro-style rapid bus running to Sunshine Coast Airport at Marcoola.