As it happened: Brisbane on Wednesday, May 22

Thanks for joining us, and here’s where we’ll finish posting updates for the day. Our live blog will return on Thursday morning.

Among the stories that mattered most today:

Australian Teandra Tuhkunen hit the roof and was thrown to the floor during turbulence on her way to Melbourne.

An Australian woman was hurled into the ceiling of a Singapore Airlines flight before smashing to the floor among glass and breakfast food during extreme turbulence that left one person dead and eight Australians in a Bangkok hospital.

Closer to home, opposition MP Ros Bates yelled “cross your legs” across the floor of Queensland parliament this afternoon while Health Minister Shannon Fentiman was talking about cancelled maternity services. Both politicians sounded off on social media, with Fentiman posting a video of the exchange.

Queensland’s police minister has slammed unknown culprits making threats to a local MP and her staff in a regional town. Labor MP Brittany Lauga said two staff members in her office faced threats after she disclosed she was drugged and sexually assaulted while on a night out.

And new details about the shootings of two police officers and others during the 2022 Wieambilla tragedy have been unveiled in the US case against an Arizona man who has pleaded not guilty to five charges.

In sport, a Super Rugby player’s difficult decision to abandon his NRL dream could earn him a shock call-up, writes Brisbane Times sports journalist Nick Wright.

Nundah by Night markets take place next to the station.Credit: Goodwill Projects

And the season of night markets has returned in Brisbane. While you’ll have to mark your diary for each one-off annual night market, others occur monthly, weekly or more often. Here’s our comprehensive guide.

A child returning from overseas has been confirmed as Australia’s first recorded human case of a strain of bird flu that has been spreading globally, causing widespread bird deaths.

The child, who returned to Victoria from India in March, experienced a “severe infection” after contracting the H5N1 strain but has since made a full recovery, Victoria’s chief health officer confirmed on Wednesday.

“This is the first human case of H5N1 avian influenza in Australia,” Dr Clare Looker said.

“The avian influenza virus was detected through further testing of positive influenza samples that takes place to detect novel or concerning flu virus strains, as part of Victoria’s enhanced surveillance system.

“Contact tracing has not identified any further cases of avian influenza connected to this case.”

Looker said the chance of additional human cases was low as avian influenza does not easily spread between people.

AAP

About 100 more Australians stranded in New Caledonia following deadly riots are set to be repatriated, meaning more than half the people who want to leave the French territory will have gotten home.

A French plane will arrive in Brisbane after 84 Australians and 24 other nationals were repatriated to the Queensland capital on Tuesday.

There are about 500 Australians in New Caledonia and some 300 in total had registered their interest in coming home with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Pacific Minister Pat Conroy said.

“That number may move slightly, but we think approximately 100 Australians will be on that flight,” he told ABC TV on Wednesday.

Australia would continue to work with the French government on further flights, Conroy said.

“The primary plan is more French flights but as I’ve indicated publicly, we do have contingency plans and we do have planes on standby should there be an issue with that,” he said.

Those on board the first two flights were filled with relief after days of failing to find a way off the island, said Fadi Chemali who was on the first plane to reach Australia.

“Everyone clapped once we landed, we were all just so happy,” he said shortly after landing in Brisbane.

Chemali had been holidaying with his wife and daughter for a week before rioting erupted and spent eight days scrambling to find a way home.

“I didn’t see any of the violence up close, but we heard a lot, including gunshots from where we were, it has been fairly intense.”

AAP

Opposition MP Ros Bates has caused outrage after yelling “cross your legs” across state parliament while Health Minister Shannon Fentiman was responding to a question about cancelled maternity services.

Bad behaviour in state parliament is nothing new, but question time became increasingly heated on Wednesday as the LNP repeatedly quizzed Fentiman about maternity services being scaled back or put on bypass at various Queensland hospitals, forcing women to give birth elsewhere.

Fentiman was responding to a question from MP Jon Krause about Beaudesert hospital’s maternity unit being put on bypass numerous times when Bates interjected.

Fentiman and Premier Steven Miles seized on Bates’ comment in social media posts, accusing Bates of yelling “close your legs”. The official parliamentary Hansard quotes Bates as saying “cross your legs”.

Speaker Curtis Pitt asked Bates to withdraw her comment, which she did.

Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman (left) and Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates.

Premier Steven Miles described Bates’ comment as “disgraceful”. “This is disgraceful behaviour by the LNP’s Ros Bates. No woman should be treated like this in a workplace, or anywhere for that matter.”

Bates has defended her comment, saying Labor was resorting to a “baseless misrepresentation” of what she said.

“With Labor suggesting women could just bypass their local hospital to go to another hospital to give birth, I could not believe Labor was telling mothers to ‘cross your legs’ while in labour. This is the comment I made,” Bates said via social media site X this afternoon.

Earlier, Labor MP Ali King accused LNP leader David Crisafulli of being a “grub” after he interrupted Fentiman. The speaker also warned King over her comment.

The Queensland government will make almost half a billion dollars out of traffic fines from its speed, red light, seatbelt and mobile phone cameras this financial year.

While the government will fall short of its $504 million target for 2023-24, having also missed its target last year, it will still rake in $409 million – and forecasts $466 million next year.

Figures released by Transport and Main Roads Minister Bart Mellish show the Camera Detected Offence Program has fallen short of revenue expectations, prompting the government to set less ambitious forecasts for the future.

In response to a question on notice from the opposition, Mellish said the government had expected to rake in $500 million this year, and $534 million next year.

Instead, it is forecasting revenue to remain at $466 million next year and again in 2025-26.

“It is important to note that all penalties collected from the CDOP - in excess of the administrative costs of collection - must be re-invested back into road safety, with the CDOP being integral to Queensland achieving its vision of zero deaths and serious injuries by 2050,” Mellish said.

He said an evaluation by Monash University Accident Research Unit last year estimated that the CDOP was associated with a reduction of 897 casualty crashes in 2020, and 1191 casualty crashes in 2021.

Queensland parliament has rammed through laws to set aside $2.2 billion in funding for the state government’s $1000 power bill rebate.

Every Queensland household will receive a $1000 electricity rebate from July 1 (in addition to the federal government’s $300 energy bill rebate).

Premier Steven Miles announced the move only three weeks ago, arguing it was “too urgent” to wait for the June 11 state budget, which is now set to fall $3 billion into deficit.

Miles insisted the rebate needed to be a lump sum credit on each household’s electricity account, or risk being reversed by the LNP, pending the outcome of the October state election.

The opposition ultimately supported the measure, but some LNP ministers accused the Labor government of trying to pork-barrel its way to victory in the October state election.

“It is absolutely abundantly clear from these comments that the LNP do not support cost-of-living rebates,” Dick said on Wednesday, following a late-night session of parliament that was extended to debate the rebate.

“And they would cut them, and that absolutely vindicates our Labor government’s decision to protect these rebates via this supplementary appropriation bill and pay them upfront.”

As MPs in parliament often note, Katter’s Australian Party is nothing if not consistent with its views.

One such view is the need for north Queensland to be its own state.

KAP leader Robbie Katter gave notice this morning that he would move a motion calling for the Queensland parliament to support “taking the necessary steps to form a separate state of north Queensland, in accordance with section 124 of the Commonwealth Constitution”.

Robbie Katter (left) with his father Bob Katter.Credit: Lydia Lynch

The issue has been kicking around since the mid-1800s, often bubbling up ahead of elections (or when KAP held the balance of power in state parliament), but has failed to get much traction or contemporary support from major parties.

“I think anyone from north Queensland instinctively knows that there is a vast, vast chasm … of cultural divide between the governing centre 2000 kilometres away and what we do up there,” Katter told journalists this morning.

Katter’s north-west Queensland electorate of Traeger takes in towns including Mt Isa, Cloncurry and Charters Towers. He intends to move the motion in parliament this afternoon.

Six years ago he moved a similar motion, even calling for a $250,000 feasibility study. His father - federal MP Bob Katter - has been on his own decades-long quest.

Robbie Katter could not say where the geographical line would be drawn to split the state.

However, he was confident a separate state for the north was “gonna happen at some point”.

with AAP

Queensland’s police minister has slammed the people behind threats to a local MP and her staff in a regional town, saying they lack decency and respect.

Labor MP Brittany Lauga said two staff members in her Yeppoon office faced threats after she disclosed earlier this month she was drugged and sexually assaulted while on a night out in the town.

“No matter what your job is, you should be able to do that job without people attacking you, assaulting you, bullying you,” her colleague Police Minister Mark Ryan said.

Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan.Credit: Matt Dennien

“I know people are entitled to their opinions and expressing their views on things but wouldn’t the world be a better place if respect and decency were the priority for everyone in the way they conducted themselves.”

Police are investigating Lauga’s allegations and have called on anyone in Yeppoon who has had their drink spiked or believed they were sexually assaulted to formally report the matter.

One in four Queensland women have experienced sexual assault since they were 15 years old, the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows.

For the smaller community of Yeppoon, sexual assault reports nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023. Queensland Police data showed a similar trend for small regional communities of an increase in sexual assault reports.

AAP

Queensland’s gas could be shipped from coast to coast, rather than sending it through pipelines, to help power homes and businesses interstate, industry executives say.

Gas shortfalls are getting closer and closer, particularly for Australia’s southern states, Origin Energy boss Frank Calabria says.

“If there’s not further supply into those markets, you’ve got two choices - you’ve got to transport gas from Queensland or you’re going to have an import terminal,” he said.

Gas is more than an insurance policy for reliable power, the industry insists, as executives prepare to ship gas from coast to coast for homes and industry.Credit: Bloomberg

LNG import terminals in NSW or Victoria could store and supply homes and industry - taking gas from Queensland - instead of sending it through eastern pipelines.

Households in Victoria have the highest gas dependence in the country, with almost 90 per cent on gas appliances, while in Western Australia the domestic gas supply is almost entirely consumed by industry.

Woodside Energy boss Meg O’Neill said meeting Victoria’s seasonal demand with LNG could be a “quite elegant” solution.

AAP

The second inquiry into the culture at The Star Entertainment Group has heard that the company is not fit to keep its NSW casino licence, even with caveats.

Caspar Conde, the counsel assisting the inquiry, said The Star is “not presently suitable regardless of any proposal in relation to licence conditions or the manager”.

His damning assessment came in his closing submission to the inquiry this morning, following more than one month of hearings.

“We say that there is no basis in the evidence to discern a future time by which the inquiry can be satisfied that the Star will or is likely to become suitable [for a licence],” Conde said.

The Queensland government is monitoring the inquiry, led by Adam Bell SC, and has until December 20 to decide whether to suspend Star’s casino licences in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

The Star plans to move its Treasury casino in Brisbane into the new Queen’s Wharf development, which is due to open in August. It also operates The Star casino at Broadbeach.