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A young girl has been rushed to hospital with a leg injury after being hit by a car in a Brisbane car park.
Paramedics were called to Fairfield Road just after 1pm, with the toddler suffering a leg injury.
She was rushed to the Queensland Children’s Hospital in a serious but stable condition.
Thanks for joining us. We’ll be back with you live tomorrow morning. Here are some of today’s top stories:
The plan to build more inner-Brisbane homes without parking for each resident has the support of developers and the Queensland Premier, but cyclists warn it must be coupled with improved infrastructure so people can get around safely without a car.
Rio Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers and Swimming Queensland chief Kevin Hasemann led the charge against the National Gallery hanging a portrait of mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, labelling the artwork “offensive to a great Australian”.
Australian swimmer Kyle Chalmers, and the portrait of Gina Rinehart.Credit: Getty; Alex Ellinghausen
Brisbane is set to host two major rugby league events over the coming days – the women’s Origin and NRL Magic Round – plus the huge Paniyiri Greek festival and forecasters say the wet weather should clear up for most of the weekend.
A weed sprayer who directed a “sweaty, little man” to the campsite where Russell Hill and Carol Clay died has described his brief encounter in the remote bush with accused double murderer Greg Lynn.
Federal police are investigating after Australian healthcare business MediSecure was targeted in a large-scale ransomware data breach.
Brisbane have suffered another injury blow before the NRL Magic Round with fullback Reece Walsh ruled out of their Manly clash with a knee injury.
Australia’s largest sugar producer, Wilmar Sugar, said on Thursday that industrial action by its employees would delay the start of cane processing at its factories by several days.
Wilmar has eight sugar mills in Queensland, which it says run 24 hours a day during the cane-crushing season from June to November.
“Despite our best attempts to mitigate the impact of work stoppages and other industrial action, we are unable to complete the preparatory work necessary to meet our scheduled start dates,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.
Wilmar Sugar has been hit by strikes.Credit: Photo: Tamara Voninski
Production will be delayed by two days at seven of the mills and by seven days at the eighth, the Plane Creek Mill, the spokesperson said.
“With another full-day work stoppage planned for next Tuesday, the start of production may be further delayed,” they said.
As debate about the energy transition rolls on, state-owned CS Energy is looking to buy out the half of troubled major central Queensland power station Callide C it doesn’t own.
The Callide C power station.Credit: Robert Rough
The Australian Financial Review has reported on the ongoing effort and some of the long running and complex legal happenings around the situation today, including this statement from a CS Energy spokesperson:
“Having Callide C’s full capacity publicly owned through the energy transformation would help Queensland effectively manage its power generation until new replacement capacity from renewables, firming and storage is available.”
The purchase idea has been floating around since last March, when the joint venture partner (which opposes it) entered voluntary administration after the yet-to-be fully explained 2021 explosion took the station offline – but is now being looked over by the competition watchdog.
Speaking to journalists in Bundaberg, Premier Steven Miles reiterated his frustration at a delayed independent report into the explosion and described the joint venture as a “terrible deal” which had “stood in the way of us managing that power plant properly”.
As if the news that Reese Walsh has been ruled out of this weekend’s NRL Magic Round isn’t bad enough, sporting fans will have to contend with wet weather ahead of two major rugby league events kicking off in Brisbane.
Suncorp Stadium will host the opening women’s State of Origin match tonight, which is expected to draw a crowd of more than 25,000.
It’s a wet start to a big weekend in Brisbane but the Bureau said there’s sun on the horizon.Credit: Felicity Caldwell
Fans will want to pack their ponchos for the interstate opener, though, as the Bureau of Meteorology warns the rain could return throughout the evening.
“The shower activity will be less extensive than what we saw during this morning and the afternoon, but there’s still the risk of shower activity for the game tonight,” Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Felim Hanniffy said.
“It’s going to be more of a hit or miss affair, rather than what we saw today which was more of a hit.”
The city can expect a gap in the clouds by Saturday, though, with conditions drying out into the weekend, with cool, crisp mornings.
A young girl has been rushed to hospital with a leg injury after being hit by a car in a Brisbane car park.
Paramedics were called to Fairfield Road just after 1pm, with the toddler suffering a leg injury.
She was rushed to the Queensland Children’s Hospital in a serious but stable condition.
While Steven Miles is in Bundaberg spruiking government efforts in Labor’s most marginal seat (held by first-term MP Tom Smith on just 0.01 per cent), Brisbane was the focus of a couple of questions to the premier at his morning media conference.
Specifically: news that Brisbane City Council will seek to flip minimum car park requirements in new high-density housing outside the CBD from at least one per apartment to a maximum of 0.5 per bedroom – capped at two.
Miles praised the move, which is referenced in the recent SEQ Regional Plan, saying it was something the government had been calling for as a way to reduce the cost of building apartments and create more affordable housing.
“The idea that you would force people in areas very well-serviced by public transport to pay for one, even two, car parks just always seemed ludicrous to me,” he said, noting Brisbane’s move was only aimed at a handful of inner-city areas.
“Frankly, I think there are more parts of the city where this policy could be applied … And I would support [the council] extending it even further to those parts of the city well-serviced by rapid heavy transport, those areas that are close to train stations.”
Federal police are investigating after an Australian health business was targeted in a large-scale ransomware data breach.
Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness said an unnamed “commercial health information organisation” was the victim of the breach.
“I am working with agencies across the Australian Government, states and territories to coordinate a whole-of-government response to this incident,” she said.
National Cyber Security Coordinator Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness confirmed the breach today.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“The Australian Signals Directorate Australian Cyber Security Centre is aware of the incident and the Australian Federal Police is investigating.
“We are in the very preliminary stages of our response and there is limited detail to share at this stage, but I will continue to provide updates as we progress while working closely with the affected commercial organisation to address the impacts caused by the incident.”
Police say recent arrests made as part of a $2.5 million drug bust were also connected to the discovery of an explosive device in a Brendale storage shed this week.
Detective Inspector Ken Rogers said a significant operation had been stopped, after finding a laboratory at Tingalpa, as well as $100,000 in cash, and drugs including GHB and MDMA.
“Probably of more significant concern was some fairly sophisticated explosive devices that were located in a search warrant on a storage shed in the suburb of Brendale in the last two days,” Rogers said, adding that detectives had found three types of bombs as part of Operation Victor Ludacris.
He said the first device was allegedly a pipe bomb.
“I know our bomb squad were quite amazed at the level of sophistication that had gone into the making of these devices,” he said.
“The second two devices were also similar to a pipe bomb, but what was of note was that they can be detonated remotely.
“Thankfully our bomb squad was able to bring it to a successful conclusion, without any injury to police officers or members of the public, otherwise it could have been a potential disaster.”
Several people have been charged over the alleged operation.
More than $2.5 million worth of drugs has been found after police raided suburbs across north Brisbane.
Police raids throughout north Brisbane uncover drugs and a lab, weapons and ammunition, with charges laid against five people.Credit: Queensland Police Service
During the raids, officers found a major drug laboratory, which included three firearms and 30 kilograms of ammunition, 300 grams of methylamphetamine, 450 kilograms of GHB, 2.75 kilograms of MDMA, and three remote improvised explosive devices.
Police also seized $100,000 in cash, as well as commercial-level drug manufacturing equipment.
Another police photo from the Operation Victor Ludacris raids.Credit: Queensland Police Service
Five people – a 35-year-old West End man, a 38-year-old Carseldine woman, a 35-year-old Bald Hills woman, a 35-year-old Zillmere man, and a 41-year-old Rochedale man – have been charged on a total of 74 charges.
Detective Inspector Ken Rogers said Operation Victor Ludacris had infiltrated strong drug distribution channels across the north of the city, and police were expected to arrest more people.