As it happened: Brisbane on November 1

That’s where we’ll leave today’s live updates.

Brisbane News Live will return tomorrow morning, but meanwhile, here are the biggest headlines in the city today.

• ‘Biggest bang’: CityCat collides with moored boat, causing it to sink
• Bruce Lehrmann’s case returns to court for first time since identity reveal
• Council staff thought empty tents where homeless lived were ‘abandoned’
• Queensland should replace the royal rag with a real state flag

And elsewhere in the country and around the world:

• Child dies in lift accident at Sydney school
• BHP says proposed labour laws threaten $3.2b Australian investment
• Tony Abbott says ‘climate change cult’ will be discredited
• ‘His behaviour was escalating’: Court views video of O’Keefe’s arrest
• Rushed delivery of Black Hawk helicopters to replace grounded Taipan fleet
• Angry Birds, Stack: Israeli ads showing Hamas atrocities pop up in children’s video games

And in entertainment and sport:

Robbie Deans (right) says he will not put his name forward to replace Eddie Jones (left) as Wallabies coach.Credit: Getty

• ‘You don’t go back’: Why one former Wallabies coach won’t return
• ‘Traumatic’: Mitchell, Wighton break silence after fighting charges dropped
• ‘A big street party’: The Valley’s free music festival returns this weekend
• ‘Sheer terror’: Peter Jackson makes video for new Beatles song

Brisbane Lions veteran Dayne Zorko has garnered one last chance to claim a coveted AFL premiership, having inked a one-year extension with the club.

Dayne Zorko in the second preliminary final match against Carlton at The Gabba in September. The veteran has signed on for a 13th season.Credit: Getty Images

The 34-year-old, who played his 250th game in the heartbreaking grand final loss to Collingwood, will extend his career to a 13th season.

When asked about his plans earlier in the year, the former club captain and All-Australian scoffed when suggestions of retirement were thrown around, adamant he still had plenty of quality football ahead of him.

Now, he will be out to prove that, and help guide the Lions to a first title since 2003.

“I am really happy to be going around again with a group that has so much potential and that is on the cusp of achieving something special,” Zorko said.

“I feel like I am still contributing to the team in terms of my on-field performances, and I believe I have plenty to offer this group off the field through leadership and my experience.

“After having a taste of playing in the Grand Final, it has spurred me on to go again, and I can’t wait to get back to work this preseason and prepare for an exciting 2024.”

The body of a boatie missing in central Queensland has been found.

Authorities began searching after three men in a tinnie failed to return from a fishing trip in The Narrows on the Fitzroy River.

Police say the alarm was raised about 9.20pm on Tuesday with two men subsequently located and rescued by a helicopter on a beach at 3.10am on Wednesday.

The man’s body was found in the river with formal identification under way, police said.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.

Across the past two days, LNP leader David Crisafulli has refused to voice an opinion on the comments from police union boss Ian Leavers — said to have expressed an “outward racist ideology” by a significant group of First Nations figures and supporters last week.

“I want to see an end to the division,” Crisafulli said on Tuesday, while labelling Transport Minister Mark Bailey’s response to Leavers, backed by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Police Minister Mark Ryan, “divisive” instead.

Brisbane Times asked Crisafulli if his abandonment of the Path to Treaty program just days after the failed Voice referendum had paved the way for Leavers’ comments.

He said this “would be unfair to say”.

The inflammatory opinion piece by Leavers, railing against the truth-telling and treaty program with unfounded claims and misrepresented data, opens with praise for Crisafulli’s backtrack in its first 10 words.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says 83 firefighters are arriving from Victoria, with 42 support aircraft now available, to help battle bushfires in Queensland.

Many were expected to bolster crews at the Tara fire, which is still threatening homes after claiming one life and burning more than 20,000 hectares in the past week.

To date it has destroyed 53 homes, four more than the Black Summer fires claimed across Queensland.

Caravans are due to arrive in the coming days with temporary accommodation constructed over the next two months for those who have lost their homes on the Western Downs.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expects 42,000 claims to be made by Queenslanders for federal government funding available through the disaster recovery payment and allowance.

Palaszczuk has also pledged $1 million toward a bushfire appeal.

A three-year study led by QUT researchers has found families risk being left behind as education, employment and parenting practices shift online.

The study involved research teams from four universities who partnered with children’s charities to work closely with 30 families across Australia.

“Digital accessibility for everyone needs to be seen as a human rights issue as important as running water and electricity with digital literacy required to access digital-by-default government services,” said QUT professor Michael Dezuanni.

“Participating families reported great inconsistencies in how schools provide technology to students, and this highlights the need for a coordinated approach to supporting how children in low-income families access educational opportunities through digital technology.”

Two men who escaped from a north Queensland prison have been arrested.

The search for Vaughn Michael James Hunter and Fabien Brian Galigan began on Sunday when the pair fled from the Townsville Correctional Centre.

Queensland Corrective Services said on Wednesday the two men had been arrested by police and are now back in custody.

Hunter is serving 10 months for serious assault and Galigan two years and six months for wounding.

A bay cruiser has sunk off West End after it was struck by a CityCat on Tuesday night.

Rescue crews have placed emergency buoys around the largely submerged cruiser, opposite Orleigh Park, while the collision is investigated.

“I heard the biggest bang I have ever heard,” said a local resident, who declined to be named.

“It was like a Halloween horror.”

No one was on board the cruiser at the time, and the resident said it usually had a flashing mooring light to alert other vessels to its position.

A largely submerged cruiser in the Brisbane River after a collision with a CityCat.

The CityCat was returning from St Lucia at the time. Crew members did not report any injuries, and it was unclear how much damage the ferry sustained.

More than 60 Victorian firefighters are heading north to relieve fatigued crews battling numerous ferocious blazes across Queensland.

Western Downs Mayor Paul McVeigh said it was timely support for crews fighting a deadly blaze at Tara, west of Toowoomba, that has destroyed more Queensland houses than the 2019 Black Summer disaster.

“It will go on record as having burnt the most number of homes across Queensland in any one fire - it is a real tragedy,” McVeigh said of the 53 houses destroyed to date.

McVeigh expected interstate reinforcements to also help the Southern Downs border towns where fires are forcing people to flee their homes.

Overall more than 1000 firefighters battled about 80 fires across Queensland on Tuesday.