As it happened: Brisbane on Friday, May 10

Thanks for joining us. This is where we’ll leave our live updates for this week, but we’ll be back on Monday.

Here are a few of Friday’s top stories:

The Brisbane watch house is operating at 60 per cent capacity due to a broken pipe that prompted a memo urging officers consider alternatives to detaining suspects at the Roma Street site.

On-again, off-again discussions between the state government and Airtrain to end the private company’s monopoly on public transport to Brisbane Airport are on again, with the transport minister confirming negotiations are back on the table.

Airtrain talks are back on.

Bruce Lehrmann has been ordered to pay a significant portion of Ten and Lisa Wilkinson’s multimillion-dollar legal costs after a judge found the former Liberal staffer had sued the network and the star presenter for defamation on a “fanciful” and “knowingly false” premise.

Vanuatu’s only airline has entered voluntary liquidation after its government ordered a review of the carrier’s operations, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds scheduled to fly between the island nation, Australia and New Zealand over the next week.

Australia is set to vote in favour of a UN resolution that would expand Palestinians’ right to participate at the world’s premier global forum, but stops short of granting full membership.

Brisbane captain Adam Reynolds hopes to start light training in the coming weeks as he turns his attention to helping coach Kevin Walters plot a winning path during his three-month absence.

The winners of the 2023 Artforce Brisbane Awards have been crowned. ⁠
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For more than 20 years, the awards have celebrated the colourful murals that have transformed 65 traffic signal boxes and nine Energex padmount transformers into works of art.⁠

Left to right: Gabrielle Oliffe’s “Roll with it” won the people’s choice award; the Lord Mayor’s award went to Ally Douglas’s “Arcade”; and Tara Hooppell won best overall traffic signal box for “Our Ekka”.Credit: Brisbane City Council

In that time, more than 5000 volunteers have painted more than 1200 boxes around Brisbane.⁠
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“Each year the calibre of works gets better and better, so choosing our winners is always a difficult task,” Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said. ⁠
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“We are proud to offer a program that supports local artists and groups in honing their talents and making Brisbane’s lifestyle even better.”

A 34-year-old Logan man, already facing 18 sexual assault and domestic violence related offences, has been charged with a further 34 offences after an extensive police investigation.

The man is accused of using dating apps and social media platforms to meet women in Brisbane and the Gold Coast between 2019 and 2023, before allegedly committing offences against nine of them.

The man was charged with the first 18 offences in March and April. Today, he was charged with 34 more, including 24 counts of distributing intimate images, three counts of rape and one count each of attempting to commit rape, choking in a domestic setting, recordings in breach of privacy, unlawful stalking and contravening a domestic violence order.

He is expected to appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court on May 27.

Police believe there are more women in the community who can help with the investigation.

“We have uncovered multiple intimate images and videos where the identity of the person depicted is unknown and we are urging anyone who had contact with this man to come forward to police,” Detective Senior Constable Katherine McDonald said.

For confidential information, counselling and support, call the State-wide Sexual Assault Helpline on 1800 010 120 or 1800 RESPECT for 24-hour help.

Convicted paedophile Allan Hopkins, who is wanted over a new child sex crime in South Australia, is believed to be on the run in south-east Queensland.

The 44-year-old was spotted in Millicent in SA’s south-east, before evading a roadside intercept by police in Victoria.

The predator was then seen on the Barrier Highway in NSW, with police locating his ute in Queensland.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Australia’s crumbling centre of sporting excellence will be given a $250 million facelift to prepare the nation’s top athletes for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Having decided not to move the Australian Institute of Sport to Brisbane, the federal government will instead upgrade its Canberra site. Initially, that will include new housing for athletes, an indoor training facility and a high-performance training and testing centre.

“This facility has been allowed to decay and not be as good as it should be,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters on Friday.

“By making this announcement today, we position ourselves to be in a really positive frame in the lead-up to 2032, when we will host for the third time the Olympics that will be so important in Brisbane.”

The funding comes as part of the government’s response to an independent review into the state of the AIS. A further $10 million will be set aside to develop a precinct masterplan to ensure the site is fit for purpose.

Hall Chadwick has told some of Bonza’s 60,000 creditors there is an outside chance the airline could be saved, with multiple “interest parties” including investors, other airlines and travel companies in talks.

“We are unable to provide further information as these discussions are commercially sensitive,” Hall Chadwick partner Richard Albarran said today. He confirmed the administrators are considering selling the airline, or liquidating it.

Bonza entered voluntary administration and appointed Hall Chadwick as its administrators on April 30.Credit: Louis Trerise

Albarran also confirmed the federal government is unlikely to provide any financial assistance.

“The Queensland government is considering its position, so hopefully there will be some assistance, but we can’t say what that looks like. They want to know what’s the strategy for Bonza, who’s the purchaser – there’s a few things to be dealt with.”

Bonza currently owes about $115 million to about 60,000 creditors. The bulk of this amount is owned to private equity owner 777 Partners, with the remaining owed to staff, airports, ground handling companies, and passengers.

Hall Chadwick is still unclear as to whether any of the passengers will receive refunds, or whether the company traded while insolvent, but said it continues to investigate both matters. A credit report is expected next month.

The future of the Bulimba Barracks has become a little clearer after detailed plans were submitted for a unit development backing on to a heritage-listed shed, which would be converted to a “community heart precinct”.

The Shayher Group proposed the 69-unit development on Apollo Road, at the western end of the 20-hectate barracks site, in plans submitted to Brisbane City Council yesterday.

Developers have proposed 69 units next to the Bulimba Barracks’ historic fabrication shed.Credit: Buchan

If approved, the three-storey development would include 21 three-bedroom, 38 two-bedroom and 10 one-bedroom units. There would be 179 car parks for residents.

“The project aims to become an iconic destination within the larger master plan,” town planning firm Urbis says in its assessment report submitted to the council on Shayher’s behalf.

“It will offer diverse housing options to the Bulimba area while complementing the adjacent fabrication workshop.”

The Shayher Group bought the site from the Defence Department for $63 million in 2019 and has an approved masterplan for more than 800 homes, with heights of up to five storeys in the mixed-use development.

It’s budget season around the country, with the federal government set to deliver theirs next Tuesday, while Western Australia and Victoria handed theirs down this week.

And Queensland’s senior government figures are assuring their budget in a month’s time won’t be anything like the latter – which hit the brakes on projects to manage spending.

“We’re not going to disclose the budget [early], but it is not the intention of the government to cut,” Infrastructure Minister Grace Grace, who sits on the powerful cabinet budget review committee, told journalists asking about any Victorian parallels today.

Transport Minister Bart Mellish, speaking alongside Grace, echoed the sentiment amid recent federal project pruning, construction sector crunches, and warnings of a “difficult budget” from cabinet colleague Cameron Dick.

“I’m really keen to see what we can do within the funding envelope on what the federal government gives us, but our early indications are we’re looking to increase our infrastructure spend in terms of transport in terms of the number of projects.”

Back in November, then premier Annastacia Palaszczuk led what her office described as the state’s largest trade mission to China – its biggest export market, worth $23.7 billion.

By mid-June she will have led another delegation to the country: this time in her first post-politics role. And politics is something she’s keen to keep at arm’s length for now.

In an interview with ABC Radio Brisbane, Palaszczuk said she was proud to start a part-time role – announced this week – as international ambassador with the Smart Energy Council.

But she would not be drawn on whether she’s likely to join campaign efforts to help the Labor Party she led for almost 12 years fight for a fourth-term in government.

“We will have to wait and see,” she said when asked about plans to write a memoir. “I’ve been able to take a bit more care of myself, engaging in sport activities, keeping healthy and I’m very much enjoying my lifestyle.”

On-again, off-again discussions between the state government and Airtrain to end the private company’s monopoly on public transport to Brisbane Airport are on again, with the transport minister confirming negotiations are back on the table.

Brisbane Times revealed in 2022 the state government was negotiating to bring Airtrain’s 35-year exclusivity agreement, signed by the Borbidge Liberal-National Coalition government in 1998, to a premature end.

It costs $21.90 to catch the Airtrain to Brisbane Airport from inner-city stations.

Those negotiations under former transport minister Mark Bailey broke down in November, but his successor Bart Mellish said today the topic was – potentially – back on the table.

“In terms of the contract itself – and getting out of that contract – it would have to be a commercial negotiation … so we’re having that discussion,” he said.

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