As it happened: Brisbane on Thursday, July 4

Thanks for joining us. That’s where we’ll leave the posts for today.

Among the biggest stories this Thursday, Crime Reporter Cloe Read was in a Toowoomba court, reporting that Bruce Lehrmann has been committed to stand trial for rape, after his barrister failed to have the case thrown out of court. After allegedly raping a woman he had met at a Toowoomba nightclub on a drug-fuelled night in 2021, Lehrmann is accused of consoling her before allegedly raping her again.

Also today, rebel senator Fatima Payman has quit the Labor Party after creating a political firestorm over her decision to vote against the government over recognising Palestinian statehood, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Brisbane’s northside residents have successfully argued for a more western route for the fourth – and most northerly – section of an inland alternative to the Bruce Highway.

Longwang opened earlier this year in a former laneway space in Brisbane’s CBD.Credit: Markus Ravik

And Food and Culture Editor Matt Shea brings us Brisbane’s most exciting restaurant openings of 2024 – from steakhouses, laneway CBD diners and new French cuisine to the arrival of a southern hospitality powerhouse.

Further afield, a man has died after swallowing cyanide during an arrest in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges, and five police officers potentially exposed to the substance were taken to hospital.

In sport, Reporter Nick Wright writes that given Reece Walsh has not been in a Broncos’ jersey for five weeks, can he save the Broncos’ season?

And he brings us the story of how a chance meeting with TV’s Kochie changed the life of a Queensland wheelchair racer, who now has his sights on the Paris Paralympics.

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has unveiled his first Test team to meet Wales on Saturday, and yet again there are no shortage of new faces. In only his fifth Test, and first run-on role, Queensland breakaway Liam Wright was confirmed as the new Test captain.

Brisbane Times’ live local updates will return tomorrow morning.

A woman accused of driving off a road deliberately and flipping a car with four children inside has been charged with attempted murder.

Police in north Queensland have charged the woman in relation to two incidents on June 26 and 27.

They will allege the woman was driving a Nissan X-trail along Kennedy Highway near Atherton, south of Cairns, in the early hours of June 26 with five passengers including a 43-year-old man and four children aged between three months and nine years.

Police allege the 32-year-old woman deliberately travelled off the road and crashed into a sign, flipping the vehicle, with a child inside the boot and not properly restrained.

No injuries were suffered by the occupants and authorities were only made aware of the incident when a member of the public notified them later that day.

Police will also allege the accused woman assaulted two children the next day after they were called to a property in Evelyn about 12.30pm on reports a three-month-old girl and a two-year-old had been injured.

Police have charged the 32-year-old with five counts of attempted murder (domestic violence offence), and one count each of assault occasioning bodily harm whilst armed (domestic violence), assault occasioning bodily harm (domestic violence), as well as two driving offences.

The woman was expected to appear in the Cairns Magistrates Court on Thursday.

A Sunshine Coast police staffer has been charged and suspended over alleged domestic and family violence offences.

The 60-year-old man, who was not a commissioned officer, has been suspended from the Queensland Police Service after he was charged with 18 offences, including domestic violence, wilful damage and stealing.

Although the man was arrested on May 14 and before Maroochydore Magistrates Court the following day, the QPS only went public with the charges today.

He is due to reappear at Maroochydore Magistrates Court on July 19.

Yesterday, a male 30-year-old senior constable was served with a notice to appear in Hughenden Magistrates Court, in outback Queensland, for allegedly driving under the influence of a prescription drug.

The senior constable was stood down from duty ahead of his September 10 appearance, where he will face on charge of driving a motor vehicle whilst under the influence of liquor or a drug.

Brisbane’s northside residents have successfully argued for a more western route for the fourth – and most northerly – section of an inland alternative to the Bruce Highway, connecting at Beerburrum.

Two routes selected by Department of Transport and Main Roads planners in late 2023 for the most northerly of an inland alternative to the highway were rejected by the community in 850 submissions, Transport Minister Bart Mellish announced.

As part of a $20 million study, planners will now examine a route further west, connecting Moodlu and Beerburrum, north of the D’Aguilar Highway, west of Elimbah.

Results of the study into this alternative for the fourth section will be known in early 2025. No construction is likely for a decade, although the plans are already influencing development in Caboolture West. Details can be read here.

Planning began two years ago and southern stages of the alternative have been chosen.

Senator Fatima Payman has announced her split from Labor.

At 2.05pm she announced she would sit as an independent, as reported by this masthead on Wednesday.

At a snap press conference this afternoon, Payman said the tragedy of Gaza had a sense of urgency.

“I stand before you not just as a senator but as a member of the … Australian Labor Party,” she said.

“The Labor Party has always championed the rights of the marginalised and defenced the common people against bullies, intimidators and exploiters. It is a party I’ve proudly served, the ongoing genocide in Gaza is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions… calling us to action with a sense of urgency and moral clarity.

“Unlike my colleagues, I know how it feels to be on the receiving end of injustice, my family did not flee from a war-torn country to come here as refugees, for me to remain silent when I see atrocities inflicted on innocent people.”

Speaking through tears, Payman said she was “torn”.

“On one hand, I have the immense support of rank and file members, the unionists, the lifelong volunteers who are calling on me to hang in there and make change happen internally,” she said.

“On the other hand I am pressured to conform. Our actions must align with our principles, when history looks back, it must see that we stood on the right side of humanity even when it was difficult.

“Sadly I do not believe our principles align with those of the leadership of the Labor Party.

“With a heavy heart, but a clear conscience I announced my resignation from the Australian Labor Party.”

Human remains have been found during a search for a 12-year-old girl attacked by a crocodile in a remote Northern Territory community.

Yesterday, NT Police said the child went missing about 5.30pm on Tuesday near the tiny town of Palumpa, about 360 kilometres south-west of Darwin.

She was reportedly attacked by a crocodile in Mango Creek and an extensive search was launched, but NT police said shortly after midday today they had now found remains believed to be th 12-year-old’s.

“This is devastating news for the family, the community and everyone involved in the search,” Senior Sergeant Erica Gibson said.

“Police are providing support to the family and community, along with the first responders who attended the scene.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters have unfurled banners from the roof of Parliament House in Canberra.

Four people were atop parliament wearing keffiyehs and masks, with a banner hanging beneath the coat of arms of Australia reading “WAR CRIMES”.

Pro-Palestine protesters at Parliament House in Canberra.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Other banners read “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “no peace on stolen land genocide since 1788″.

The protesters flew down a paper plane with a statement to the media:

Political reporter Olivia Ireland holds the paper airplane message.Credit: Olivia Ireland

Liberal senator Simon Birmingham has slammed the Parliament House protesters, saying people are “fed up with those types of protesters”.

A lack of regulation at Queensland’s fertility clinics may have led to a donor fathering hundreds of children, sparking incest fears.

Health Ombudsman Lynne Coulson Barr has unearthed “significant systemic issues” in Queensland’s IVF sector.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said the government would work with families affected on the best way to proceed.Credit: Jamila Toderas

Yesterday we reported that a Queensland fertility clinic covered up a laboratory worker’s error when telling a would-be mother only one of her two embryos had survived the thawing process.

In a separate case, a woman reported the sperm donor she used had donated on more than 200 occasions at the same clinic, raising concerns about how many siblings her child may unknowingly have.

When investigating a number of clinics, the probe was unable to establish the number of families created or how many siblings a child may have from the same donor.

Barr said the excessive recurrent use of sperm donations in a number of fertility treatments could pose the risk of donor-conceived individuals “inadvertently having a sexual relationship” with a blood relative.

New laws before parliament will place restrictions on how many times a person’s sperm sample can be used.

Some families who intended to have another child from the same donor will no longer be able to under the new legislation.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said the government would work with those families on a path forward.

“We don’t want people who are donor conceived to have all of these siblings and not know about it,” she said.

Bruce Lehrmann will face another hearing at a local Queensland court on Thursday, with his lawyers expected to push to have his rape charges dismissed.

Lehrmann is accused of raping a woman twice after a night out in Toowoomba in 2021.

Bruce Lehrmann leaving the Toowoomba Magistrates Court in June. Credit: Dan Peled / The Sydney Morning Herald

The woman, who made a formal complaint to police in November 2021, recently gave evidence in closed court as part of a committal hearing. She cannot be named for legal reasons, and media were unable to be present in the court to hear her evidence.

Lehrmann’s barrister, Andrew Hoare KC, later told the court he would be making a no-case submission in “respect to the sufficiency of evidence to place my client on trial”.

Lehrmann is expected to dial in to today’s hearing from interstate.