As it happened: Brisbane on Friday, July 19

An unsecured gate, a faulty lock, and a lack of supervision allowed a two-year-old to disappear from a Brisbane childcare centre for 30 minutes.

After an investigation by Queensland’s Early Childhood Regulatory Authority, the company that runs the childcare centre at Coorparoo was prosecuted for failing to provide children with adequate supervision and protection from harm or hazard.

Brisbane Magistrates Court was told that after leaving KidCademy Early Learning Centre, the child ventured through the carpark and down a main road before being found by a member of the public.

Sumyu Investments has been fined $15,000 over the incident in January 2023.

Magistrate Joseph Pinder found the failures put children at high risk and could have easily been mitigated.

Thanks for joining us for the Brisbane Times live news blog this Friday. That’s where we’ll leave it for today, but we’ll see you again on Monday morning.

In case you missed it, here’s what’s been making news today:

Residents living in WWII-era houses in Brisbane have kept the right to renovate their homes after Brisbane City Council reversed plans to add tougher heritage protections that would stymie them.

Queensland’s Environment Department has asked a Gold Coast couple for a briefing on a new animated series about their dog Peggy and adopted magpie, Molly.

A judge has imposed new restrictions on CFMEU representatives and measures to allow safe passage for other workers on the $6.3 billion Cross River Rail project in Brisbane.

Leaked text messages reveal a network of Labor-linked women rallied around John Setka over criminal harassment charges and his criticism of Rosie Batty’s domestic violence advocacy work.

On day four of the Republican National Convention, former president Donald Trump formally accepted the party’s presidential nomination.

Finally, do you remember what character the late Shannen Doherty played on Beverly Hills 90210? And five Qld universities are joining forces to build what near Brisbane Airport? Test your knowledge in our news quiz.

A widespread Microsoft outage is affecting the nation’s supermarkets, banks, telecommunications companies and more.

The technical issue is thought to be related to Microsoft’s cloud services, which have already caused the grounding and cancellation of flights across the US.

A computer showing a blue screen.Credit:

Outage website Downdetector shows issues across NAB, Bendigo Bank, Telstra, CBA, Google and more.

Microsoft has been contacted for comment.

It’s not every day we look out the window of Brisbane Times HQ to see a movie star strutting around (though there was that time Ioan Gruffudd kept jumping into a car downstairs one afternoon during a Harrow shoot), but that’s what we were greeted with today.

King George Square was decked out like downtown Rio de Janeiro, and Mark Wahlberg was in the middle of the action filming comedy Balls Up.

Mark Wahlberg (mustard shirt) as seen from the Brisbane Times newsroom.Credit: Cameron Atfield

We managed a grainy pic from our lofty vantage point, but Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner went one better.

The last desperate bid for the Broncos to salvage their season has received a telling boost, with Adam Reynolds cleared to play for the first time in nearly three months.

The Brisbane skipper has not been sighted since rupturing his biceps in round 9, but will join the side’s cause against Newcastle on Saturday after strongly completing today’s Captain’s Run.

Coach Kevin Walters will also thrust State of Origin contingent Payne Haas, Pat Carrigan and Reece Walsh into the fray, with Selwyn Cobbo the only man not to back up after Walters said he has “still got some problems”.

Carrigan was spotted in a moon boot following Queensland’s Wednesday night defeat, while Walsh was battered by the Blues and looked worse for wear, but Walters confirmed they, along with Reynolds, would be firing.

“You can see the difference and the confidence [Reynolds] brings to the group. It’d be wrong to dump it all on Adam, but he’s that type of player who does bring a lot of experience and confidence to the team,” Walters said.

“Medically he has been cleared and we certainly wouldn’t go against any medical advice.

“He’s been up in the coaches’ box for the last nine weeks, 10 weeks, and … just hearing him talk about the game and the position of the game at different times, I know if he was on the field he could be helping them.”

Queensland children with gender dysphoria are not being rushed or coerced into receiving puberty blockers or hormones, a review has found.

But the state’s Children’s Gender Service is struggling with the number of kids receiving care and waiting to see a clinician.

An independent review of the service found there are 547 children across the state receiving care, 40 per cent from regional areas, while 490 are on waitlists.

Waiting times are between 25 and 577 days depending on the urgency for care.

Pressure from the extensive waitlists and ongoing debate around the care children with diverse gender experiences should receive is weighing on the service’s operations.

However, the review found the service remains dedicated to its young patients and had an “unwavering focus and commitment” to the health care provided.

There was no evidence children or their families were hurried or coerced into receiving medical treatment like blockers or hormones.

The Planning and Environment Court has ordered a heritage listing for the Riverside Centre be amended so as not to interfere with CityCat and ferry operations.

Earlier this year, Brisbane City Council took the Queensland Heritage Council to court, arguing the listing “could unnecessarily complicate” developments planned for Eagle Street.

Council argued the listing could also hamper ongoing maintenance of the riverfront, and as well as ferry operations, with “the potential to result in greater inefficiencies and costs which will ultimately be borne by the public”.

After mediation, the parties came to an agreement, and the court has now ordered the heritage listing be amended to specifically exclude the ferry terminal. Other developments in the area will still need to respect the heritage value of the Riverside Centre.

An unsecured gate, a faulty lock, and a lack of supervision allowed a two-year-old to disappear from a Brisbane childcare centre for 30 minutes.

After an investigation by Queensland’s Early Childhood Regulatory Authority, the company that runs the childcare centre at Coorparoo was prosecuted for failing to provide children with adequate supervision and protection from harm or hazard.

Brisbane Magistrates Court was told that after leaving KidCademy Early Learning Centre, the child ventured through the carpark and down a main road before being found by a member of the public.

Sumyu Investments has been fined $15,000 over the incident in January 2023.

Magistrate Joseph Pinder found the failures put children at high risk and could have easily been mitigated.

State of Origin’s all over for another year, but swap codes and head back to Suncorp Stadium tonight as the Queensland Reds take on Wales in the first International Tour Match for over 20 years.

If Ruva Ngwenya’s storming performance of Advance Australia Fair at Origin on Wednesday had you eager for more then go see her starring in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, continuing its run at QPAC.

The life of legendary singer Tina Turner is brought to life in a jukebox musical.

Masterpieces by Australian art legend Brett Whiteley come to Logan Art Gallery this weekend with the opening of Brett Whiteley: Inside the Studio. The exhibition will continue through to September 8.

Experimental music festival Open Frame returns to Brisbane Powerhouse from this weekend, with performances by Kim Gordon, Carl Stone, Joep Beving and more, plus a screening tonight of the last performance by legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Sunday morning sees the opening of the new Rivermakers Farmers and Artisan Markets by the river in Morningside, promising produce direct from farmers, artisan craft, street foods and live music.

Rivermakers in Morningside is a historical site now given over to hospitality, events and markets.Credit: BMI

Feel like a fun movie? Twisters is the belated, bad-weather sequel to 1996’s Twister and promises good old-fashioned big-screen thrills. It’s in cinemas now.

A man from Brisbane and a man from Mackay have been arrested by detectives and charged with buying child pornography on the dark web after a joint FBI and Taskforce Argos police investigation.

The 35-year-old Mango Hill man and a 29-year-old man from Mackay were charged after Taskforce Argos detectives searched their homes in July and allegedly found both men in possession of the material.

The Mango Hill man will appear in Pine Rivers Magistrates Court on July 30, and faces one charge.

The Mackay man faces 42 charges in total, for soliciting, possessing, and transmitting or distributing child abuse material, and will appear in Mackay Magistrates Court on August 5.

The joint investigation will accuse both men of sourcing the child porn from the dark web and using encrypted cryptocurrency networks to pay for it.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has attacked the government’s decision to appoint an independent administrator to take control of the CFMEU, opting not to deregister the union.

“To appoint an administrator is the weakest possible path that Anthony Albanese could have taken. It should be deregistered. The AWU could come in and represent these workers. If you deregister the CFMEU, you stamp it out,” Dutton said in a Today show interview with NDIS Minister Bill Shorten.

“That’s exactly what Bob Hawke did because he had the guts and the backbone to stand up against a militant, corrupt union in the [Builders Labourers Federation].

“Anthony Albanese isn’t a patch on Bob Hawke, and he’s just demonstrated again how weak and pathetic he is as a prime minister.”

Shorten replied that deregistration “would just see the creation of a whole lot of mini CFMEUs”, saying, “Only an administrator can get to the bottom of making sure that the people who seek to be officers of that union are honest and fit and proper people.”