As it happened: Brisbane on Thursday, November 14

The Bureau of Meteorology has revised its storm tracking to issue a warning for people in the Brisbane City area.

In a 5pm update, the bureau advised the storms already hitting Scenic Rim, Logan and Ipswich were tracking north-east towards the Brisbane City Council area.

One of the storms was described as “very dangerous,” threatening large giant hailstones, damaging winds and heavy rainfall.

UPDATE: By 5.30pm, the threat to Brisbane had eased, with a severe thunderstorm hitting Ipswich and another moving north of Kilcoy towards Noosa.

For more information, visit the bureau website.

Thanks for joining us today for our live coverage of news in Brisbane and around the country. We’ll be back tomorrow morning for more updates.

In case you missed them, here are some of today’s major stories:

The LNP will abandon Labor’s major project procurement policies to “get construction sites in Queensland working again”, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has announced.

Melbourne chef Shane Delia is expanding his food and beverage empire to Brisbane, announcing he will open a restaurant at the Thomas Dixon Centre in West End early in 2025.

President-elect Donald Trump has wasted little time in selecting the cabinet for his second administration, with a wide-ranging pool of talent from tech billionaire Elon Musk to a Fox News host and a Democratic presidential hopeful.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared his support for free and fair trade on his arrival in Peru for an economic summit overshadowed by fears of a trade war if incoming United States president Donald Trump launches a wave of tariffs.

Plans for a $100 billion wind and solar project – the biggest of its kind – in the Australian desert have raised hopes that US President-elect Donald Trump’s anti-green agenda could shift major investment from the United States to the rest of the world.

Eruptions from Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki volcano in East Flores and an unfavourable wind have sent ash clouds into the flight path between Australia and Bali – causing dozens of flights to be cancelled.

The Bureau of Meteorology has revised its storm tracking to issue a warning for people in the Brisbane City area.

In a 5pm update, the bureau advised the storms already hitting Scenic Rim, Logan and Ipswich were tracking north-east towards the Brisbane City Council area.

One of the storms was described as “very dangerous,” threatening large giant hailstones, damaging winds and heavy rainfall.

UPDATE: By 5.30pm, the threat to Brisbane had eased, with a severe thunderstorm hitting Ipswich and another moving north of Kilcoy towards Noosa.

For more information, visit the bureau website.

Tropical cyclones and flooding are likely to hit Queensland this summer.Police are urging all residents to create a plan to safely evacuate or lockdown during a natural disaster.

Bureau of Meteorology modelling suggests at least two cyclones could hit the mainland, and flooding may be more severe than in recent years.

“At this stage, long-range forecasts are favouring average to above average rainfall across much of Queensland over the next few months,” Senior meteorologist Kimba Wong said in a statement.

“Combining with current soil moisture levels, this suggests increased flood risk for eastern Queensland into summer.”

Queensland Police State Disaster Co-ordinator Shane Chelepy urged all Queenslanders to prepare an emergency kit allowing self-sufficiency for up to 72 hours.

“Store it somewhere safe so you have the things you need like a first aid kit, a battery-powered radio, a torch, spare batteries, chargers and essential medication,” he said.

“Think about non-perishable food items, a gas-powered stove with a spare canister, and at least 10 litres of water if you must stay put for an extended period.

“It’s not a matter of ‘if’ a disaster will hit Queensland, but ‘when’. Families, businesses and communities who thoroughly prepare recover quicker from disasters, so I encourage everyone to get themselves ready.”

A woman and child were taken to hospital after being injured on a turbulent Qantas flight to Brisbane during Wednesday’s wild weather.

The woman, in her 40s, and the child, who is younger than 10, were taken to the Prince Charles Hospital for treatment suffering bruises and lacerations after flight QF528 arrived from Sydney.

A third person injured on the flight declined treatment from paramedics, who were called to Brisbane Airport at about 3.15pm, according to a statement from the Queensland Ambulance Service.

The injured trio were believed to have not been wearing seatbelts at the time, despite the seatbelt sign being on. It is unknown if they were seated.

The plane, a Boeing 737, landed without issue.

In a statement, Qantas said its pilots and cabin crew were trained to deal with such events “but we know this would have been very unsettling and we thank customers for their co-operation”.

Flights from Australia to Bali are set to resume tomorrow after air conditions were deemed safe following a major volcanic eruption.

Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia will all resume scheduled flights to Denpasar Airport in the morning.

The decision follows three days of cancellations due to significant ash clouds. Dozens of flights were cancelled, with carriers deeming the conditions too dangerous to fly.

It left many travellers stranded in both Indonesian and Australian airports.

“We sincerely regret any disruption these cancellations have caused and assure our guests that our team is working diligently to rebook all impacted guests,” a Virgin Australia spokesperson said.

In Indonesia, the series of deadly eruptions have killed at least nine people during this month and forced thousands of people to evacuate.

The volcanic status in the country continues to be categorised as “above normal” by Indonesian authorities. Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki – one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia – also remains on a level-four alert, the most serious warning.

“We appreciate the changing situation is frustrating, and we thank customers for their understanding and patience,” a Qantas statement said.

Both carriers assured customers they would be contacted to arrange their updated travel plans.

More fire ants have been found in northern NSW after a nest was discovered in turf brought in from Queensland to a property in Byron Shire.

The NSW government yesterday used sniffer dogs to search the turf and treated the area with insecticide.

Fire ants were first found in NSW in November last year at Murwillumbah, also in northern NSW, and nests were discovered following eradication efforts in May and June this year.

The invasive pest, native to South America and now spread across much of south-east Queensland, is notoriously hard to eradicate and poses a significant risk to people, pets and wildlife.

Fire ants first arrived in Australia in 2001 via international shipping in Brisbane.

The National Fire Ant Eradication Program is conducting the world’s biggest insect eradication program.

Fire ants can be found in organic material and are commonly transported in soil, mulch, animal feed, potted plants, agricultural machinery and supplies.

Transport of this material from Queensland to NSW is restricted under a biosecurity order.

Queensland’s Legal Services Commissioner, Megan Mahon, has raised concerns over a backlog of cases that is delaying disciplinary action against lawyers and barristers.

The commission’s annual report, tabled in State Parliament on Wednesday, showed the number of complaints against members of the legal profession surged from 202 in 2022-23 to 345 last year.

Allegations of poor quality service, ethical issues and over-charging remained topped the list, and the commission referred five times as many cases to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Mahon suggested the commission be empowered to deal with some of those cases itself, saying “there are many significant and competing demands on the tribunal that is leading to the increasing backlog of matters and other solutions need to be considered to maintain effective regulation”.

She also called for a crackdown on lawyers advertising for personal injuries claims, saying the “significant growth” in ads suggested there were not only loopholes in the regulatory restrictions but also breaches going unpunished.

“The commission’s long-term educative approach to ensuring compliance with the restrictions has run its course and it appears that it is now necessary to take a more formal regulatory approach,” Mahon said.

Mahon said a crackdown would better protect Queenslanders and ensure “the continued viability of compensation schemes”.

Two bodies have been found in the Queensland outback days after the disappearance of a couple.

The 65-year-old man and a 69-year-old woman reportedly went prospecting at Esmeralda Station, near the tiny town of Croydon in the state’s inner north, on November 10.

Police launched a major land and air search after they were reported missing the following day.

The duo were reportedly found by a helicopter 2.5 kilometres from their vehicle at a caravan park in Croydon about 5pm yesterday.

No information on the circumstances of their death has been made public.

The Brisbane councillor in charge of planning has rejected claims a two-tower Meriton development in the CBD would be eligible for “millions and millions of dollars” in infrastructure subsidies.

Labor opposition leader Jared Cassidy this week claimed the LNP council’s housing strategy was susceptible to exploitation from “five-star hotels and luxurious retirement complexes that really didn’t need that extra profit”.

He claimed the Meriton development in Alice Street, being pushed by billionaire Harry Triguboff, would benefit from subsidies to the tune of “millions and millions of dollars”.

But city planning chair Adam Allan said Cassidy had his facts wrong as hotels were not eligible for infrastructure charge discounts, and Meriton would not benefit as much as Labor claimed – and had not even lodged an application.

“The ‘Green/Labor coalition of chaos’ continues to be caught out for their rank hypocrisy on housing,” Allan said.

“The housing crisis would only get worse under Labor and the Greens, who have opposed tens of thousands of new homes in Brisbane.

“The only way out of the housing crisis is to build homes, which is why we’ve incentivised the construction of new homes by reducing infrastructure charges for eligible housing projects.

“Unlike Labor and the Greens, who wanted to introduce big new taxes on houses, we’re doing what we can to help deliver new homes sooner while protecting our incredible lifestyle.”

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has just told a room of Queensland major construction contractors that the LNP would take the well-telegraphed step of suspending some of the former Labor government’s procurement policies.

Dubbed Best Practice Industry Conditions, the policies were pitched as efforts to collate and set prevailing pay and conditions to ensure the state was setting the standard.

Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie addresses major contractors in Brisbane.Credit: Brisbane Times / Matt Dennien

However, some of the conditions have been criticised as too union-friendly, driving related and unsubstantiated claims of a “CFMEU tax” lifting construction costs by 30 per cent.

“We will be temporarily suspending BPICs, effective immediately,” Bleijie said. “We want workers well paid and they will be, we want workers to be safe. But we also need to increase productivity on work sites.”

The event was interrupted by a man in a CFMEU shirt seeking to ask a question about the truth of the CFMEU tax claims despite “90 per cent” of the firms represented in the room not dealing with the union.

He was ushered out by police as Bleijie wrapped up his speech by imploring the room to work with the new government to “get construction sites in Queensland working again – productivity, productivity, productivity.”