Police are investigating after two bodies were found in a Brisbane home.
Emergency services were called to the property on Kentville Street in Mitchelton about 8.50am today.
It’s unclear what caused the deaths or how long the bodies had been inside.
A crime scene has been established and the street is partially closed.
Thanks for joining us for our live news updates today. We’ll be back tomorrow morning.
Here are some of the top stories making headlines in Brisbane today:
Two days after a baby boy was scalded with hot coffee in a random attack in Hanlon Park on the city’s southside, police released new photos of a man they want to speak to.
Temperatures have been predicted to soar to within a degree of Brisbane’s record August maximum on Saturday.
The families of two Queensland constables who were fatally shot in a religiously motivated attack have criticised police policies and procedures and how the inquest into their deaths was conducted.
The debate over rental e-scooters is set to continue after Sunshine Coast Council voted to end an 18-month trial and not revisit the issue until 2026.
And a disused brick building on Boundary Street has been brought back to life as a 400-seat cabaret club just in time for Brisbane Festival.
Cast your mind back through the COVID fog to the 2020 election campaign and you might remember then-premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s promise to build seven satellite hospitals across the south-east.
Well, with the last of those opening on Bribie Island last month, a new-ish premier, and two months to the next election, the Labor government is pitching an expansion (rumoured to feature up to seven new sites).
The Redlands Satellite Hospital opened its doors in August 2023.Credit: Queensland Health
After promising one for Mackay earlier in the week, Premier Steven Miles has ducked down to Beenleigh this afternoon to put $78 million on the table for one there, too – both relatively safe Labor seats.
“We know satellite hospitals can reduce low-acuity presentations at nearby emergency departments by up to 25 per cent, and that’s what we want this Beenleigh satellite hospital to deliver,” Miles told journalists.
Local Labor member Melissa MacMahon, the MP for Macalister, said the government was yet to land on a location, but would go through a process of identifying land.
Administrative employees could get a legal right to work from home through a plan unveiled today from the national industrial tribunal.
The Fair Work Commission has announced it will hold hearings on overhauling the pay award for clerical workers to include work-from-home rules.
That could serve as a model for other white-collar workers.
It will consider whether administrative workers should have a right to request to work from home, when those requests can be made, and what grounds employers should have to refuse them.
It will also look at how overtime rules should work when an employee is not commuting.
The commission introduced work-from-home rules during the pandemic but they were temporary. Some unions have negotiated specific work-from-home rights in their pay deals with businesses.
A first hearing on the issue will be heard on September 13.
Greens’ representative Amy MacMahon says she was “really proud to stand alongside” members of the CFMEU this week in Brisbane.
The union has been placed into administration following reports from Nine newspapers revealing allegations of serious corruption and criminality within its ranks.
“The legislation that the state Labor government pushed through last week was shocking, undemocratic, and draconian,” the member for South Brisbane told Brisbane Times.
“I was really proud to go and stand alongside everyday construction workers who are now being denied their right to a democratic union.
“Why is it that Labor were willing to go after a union, when they haven’t gone after other big corporations where there has been demonstrated evidence of wrongdoing, like going after the big banks?”
MacMahon says she “vehemently opposes” thuggery, bullying, corruption and sexism but believes allegations should be tried through criminal courts.
The Queensland Ambulance Service has issued warnings for high weekend temperatures across the state’s south-east.
QAS clinical director Lachlan Parker said people experiencing periods of confusion, chest pain, or shortness of breath should immediately call triple-zero.
“We also are very mindful of some of those people in our population who are at higher risk,” he said. “So the elderly, any young infants, also pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and anyone who has any significant medical history.”
Parker added that people unsure about the severity of their symptoms could call the 13 HEALTH line (13 43 25 84) for immediate access to professional advice.
The warning came as paramedics suspected that, coming off the back of cooler winter months, Queenslanders might be unprepared for the mid-30s temperatures expected across the weekend.
The weather bureau forecast temperatures to peak at up to 35 degrees in Brisbane on Saturday, and remain high until wind directions changed next Tuesday.
However, cool sea breezes and low humidity have the potential to keep both actual and apparent temperatures lower than expected, within the low 30s range.
One of the biggest changes to Queensland healthcare in a generation has been proposed by the Greens.
A plan for 200 new free GP clinics across the state has been announced by member for South Brisbane Amy MacMahon.
Amy MacMahon outside her electorate office in South Brisbane.Credit: South Brisbane Electorate Office
“This would be a historic reform for our healthcare system on the scale of Medicare,” she says.
“Decades of underfunding by both Labor and the LNP have left our primary healthcare system in tatters.”
The Greens say their plan would cost $4.75 billion, with funds raised through an increased tax on mining companies.
MacMahon says the proposal will be central to any negotiations with a minority government after the state election.
“Look, we will be putting pressure on the next government to make sure they deliver the healthcare system that Queenslanders deserve,” she says.
Safety officials have begun shoring up launch zones this morning for Riverfire’s 6258 fireworks, due to light up Brisbane skies this Saturday night.
Fireworks will fly from a total of 15 launch zones, including a number of barges in the river, the Story and Goodwill bridges, and several rooftops.
Last year’s Riverfire fireworks over the Story Bridge.Credit: Paul Harris
Senior inspector of explosives Raymond Stewart, from Resources Safety and Health Queensland, said the event was one of the most logistically complex displays in Australia.
“This year Riverfire consists of just over 6200 (firework) cues,” he said.
“Considering each firework has probably 10 effects, that’s 25,000 individual effects that people will see on Brisbane Riverfire.”
Riverfire fireworks are scheduled for 7pm this Saturday.
Premier Steven Miles has taken the stage at a pre-election tourism and transport sector event in South Bank, following LNP Opposition Leader David Crisafulli.
He used his speech to talk up today’s opening of parts of the Queen’s Wharf development and the looming completion of Cross River Rail as reasons the city scored the 2032 Games.
“Trust me, when you see this giant development and how it has reshaped this end of the city, you will never call Brisbane a big country town again,” he said.
Miles then spruiked yesterday’s proposed Metro bus expansion announcement (including the still uncertain airport element) but also noted that despite such buzz in the room – and others like it – many Queenslanders were facing living pressures.
“Now, I don’t want to put a damper on all of this but I do need to point [that] out”, Miles said, before going on to talk about his government’s cost-of-living support.
Labor’s 50¢ public transport trial has, three weeks in, pushed usage above pre-pandemic levels for the first time, and saved travellers about $21 million, he added.
Pressed in a Q&A session by the ABC’s David Speers about his chances of remaining in the job after October 26, Miles said “times are difficult for incumbents” but that he was trying to set out a “real ambitious agenda” to show what he could do if re-elected.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows Brisbane is the most youthful of the state capitals.
According to the data, Brisbane’s median age is 36.5 years, which is younger than Melbourne (36.6), Sydney (36.8), Perth (37.6), Hobart (38.9) and Adelaide (39.2). Territorians tend to be younger still.
Brisbane also has a higher proportion of its population aged in the spritely 20-44 year bracket (47 per cent) than the rest of Queensland (31 per cent), due to young adults moving to the River City for study and work.
As a consequence, Brisbane also has a lower proportion aged 55 years and over (25 per cent) than the rest of the state (32 per cent).
For those on the straight dating scene, Brisbane isn’t far off having a gender balance (98.2 males for every 100 females), with the ABS placing it in front of Melbourne (97.9) but behind Sydney (99) and Perth (99.6).
At a local level, Robina on the Gold Coast has one of the lowest rates of males per females (82.2) in Australia, due to its older population and men dying younger. By contrast, Wacol has the highest rate nationally (278.1) but only because of all the men’s prisons.
Police are investigating after two bodies were found in a Brisbane home.
Emergency services were called to the property on Kentville Street in Mitchelton about 8.50am today.
It’s unclear what caused the deaths or how long the bodies had been inside.
A crime scene has been established and the street is partially closed.