As it happened: Brisbane on Tuesday, March 19

Queensland Premier Steven Miles has started the week’s parliamentary sitting where yesterday left off: the 2032 Games review and byelection fallout.

While the LNP used question time to grill Health Minister Shannon Fentiman about the death of a Logan grandfather after what his family described as health system failures, Labor’s backbench questions to Miles were about the “risky” alternatives to government plans to help residents.

Miles used the first opportunity to launch an attack on Opposition Leader David Crisafulli about his party’s failure to articulate a position on the Graham Quirk-led review’s calls for a new stadium at Victoria Park (rejected by Miles).

Miles said he had taken the “tough decision” to reject that multibillion-dollar stadium proposal while cost-of-living pressures were biting, with Crisafulli instead “squibbing it” by not facing reporters.

“If you want this job, you better put your big boy pants on,” Miles said.

“Too weak to even take a position. So weak that he suggests outsourcing that decision to an independent authority.”

That’s where we’ll leave the live updates, and thanks for joining us. Here were the stories that mattered today:

The premier launched an attack on the opposition leader about his party’s failure to articulate a position on the calls for a new stadium at Victoria Park. “Put your big boy pants on,” Steven Miles taunted.

The opposition leader, David Crisafulli, eventually responded that the LNP did not support Labor’s plan to rebuild the Gabba (now also off the table), and said the Games legacy focus needed to get back to how it was sold.

An artist’s impression of Brisbane Arena, now set to be built at Roma Street Parkland.

And more fun and Games: The only proposed inner-Brisbane venue to survive Monday’s Games turnaround is an entertainment centre that will transform the western CBD. Read about it here.

Relief for mortgage-holders has come from the RBA, holding rates steady.

But your electricity bill could be set to rise.

In sport, Bronco-turned-boxer Tevita Pangai junior, mulling a return to top-level league, says Wayne Bennett has “lost my number”. And speaking of rugby league, the NRL has blocked Triple M from filming interviews after Souths’ complaints over Latrell Mitchell’s potty mouth.

The portrait appears to show several inconsistencies.Credit:

Way further afield, Princess Kate’s photographic fiddling is again under the microscope: now a photo she took of the Queen surrounded by her grandchildren has been recalled.

We’ve now heard from Opposition Leader David Crisafulli on the 2032 Games venue review, but we’re not much clearer on where the LNP stands than we were before.

Crisafulli’s deputy, Jarrod Bleijie, yesterday declined to outline his party’s position on the review’s key recommendation – rejected by Premier Steven Miles – for a new $3.4 billion stadium at Victoria Park.

After criticism from Miles for suggesting the LNP would delegate the decision to a soon-to-be-running independent Games infrastructure body if it won government in October, Crisafulli used a regular speech in parliament on Tuesday to essentially repeat Bleijie’s lines without outlining a direct response to the review’s key recommendation.

While calling out “personal attacks” from Miles, Crisafulli reiterated that the LNP did not support Labor’s plan to rebuild the Gabba (now also off the table), and said the Games legacy focus needed to get back to how it was sold: a chance to build “generational infrastructure, roads, rail”, plus tourism strategies.

“If [the] government changes in October, we will make sure that an independent infrastructure delivery authority delivers projects that are generational for this state,” he told parliament.

The Reserve Bank has kept official interest rates steady at 4.35 per cent as inflation continues to ease and economic growth all but stalls.

In February, RBA governor Michele Bullock said the bank could still go either way with interest rates to combat inflation, which fell to 4.1 per cent in the year to December.

RBA governor Michele Bullock.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Since then, household consumption has slowed and the jobs market has continued to soften.

The RBA board is no longer warning further rate rises could be necessary to keep inflation in check, but hasn’t ruled the possibility out completely.

“Returning inflation to target within a reasonable timeframe remains the board’s highest priority. This is consistent with the RBA’s mandate for price stability and full employment,” the board said.

“The board needs to be confident that inflation is moving sustainably towards the target range. While recent data indicate that inflation is easing, it remains high. The board expects that it will be some time yet before inflation is sustainably in the target range.”

Read more on the decision here.

British comedian David Walliams has announced a unique Australian tour, with one show scheduled for Brisbane in September.

David Walliams will perform in Brisbane on September 15.

The Little Britain star is bringing his show, An Audience with David Walliams, to the Brisbane Convention and Entertainment Centre’s Great Hall on September 15.

“Audiences Down Under are the best ... I am delighted to be back on the stage here,” he said.

Fans will get to listen to Walliams’ anecdotes, see some of his beloved characters and learn interesting behind-the-scenes moments from his career.

“I have never done a show like this before, which makes it all the more exciting. I promise there will be lots of laughs, stories I have never told before and a chance for you to ask me anything you want.”

Tickets go on sale at midday on March 26.

Also in question time this morning: the LNP’s energy spokesperson Deb Frecklington quizzing Premier Steven Miles on why today’s Australian Energy Regulator-proposed retail power price caps in Queensland were going up when other states were declining.

After some confusion between the former LNP leader, Miles and Energy Minister Mick de Brenni about what Frecklington was referring to, Miles said the draft default market offer (the limit on what retailers can charge) in south-east Queensland was the lowest in the country.

“That means … the lowest bills even before we apply our rebates,” Miles said.

Real comparisons with 2023-24 are based on RBA 2023–24 inflation forecast of 3.3% in its RBA February 2024 forecast for the two years ending Jun 2025.Credit: Australian Energy Regulator

While the proposed 2024-25 standard residential price cap for Energex, which comes under the AER’s oversight, rises 2.7 per cent (or $53) to $2022, this is lower than those in South Australia and all but one of the NSW power distributors.

Small businesses in south-east Queensland are set to see a small (0.3 per cent, or $11) reduction in prices to $4191 – the lowest of the AER-set caps across its jurisdiction of NSW, South Australia and south-east Queensland, where prices are driven by retailer competition.

A report from tenant advocacy organisation Better Renting has found renters across Australia experienced unlivable indoor temperatures this summer, with Queensland the hottest state.

Data from Cruel Summers found the median indoor temperature in Queensland rental homes was above 28.2° 50 per cent of the time, with an average humidity of 64.4 per cent.

“Queensland was hands-down the hottest state we saw in our data from rental researchers,” Better Renting executive director Joel Dignam said. “I know people in Queensland are a bit used to hotter weather but there’s no getting used to that.

“[It’s] an awful situation to be living through, particularly when you also have high average humidity.”

Renters surveyed for the project reported high temperatures inside their homes for an average of six hours a day, with night-time temperatures also high. “That makes sleep [and] functioning really difficult,” Dignam said.

Better Renting researchers found the tight rental market left many renters dealing with neglected repairs and living in substandard properties during record heat.

The report recommends the introduction of minimum energy performance standards for rental homes, which currently only Victoria and the ACT have.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles has started the week’s parliamentary sitting where yesterday left off: the 2032 Games review and byelection fallout.

While the LNP used question time to grill Health Minister Shannon Fentiman about the death of a Logan grandfather after what his family described as health system failures, Labor’s backbench questions to Miles were about the “risky” alternatives to government plans to help residents.

Miles used the first opportunity to launch an attack on Opposition Leader David Crisafulli about his party’s failure to articulate a position on the Graham Quirk-led review’s calls for a new stadium at Victoria Park (rejected by Miles).

Miles said he had taken the “tough decision” to reject that multibillion-dollar stadium proposal while cost-of-living pressures were biting, with Crisafulli instead “squibbing it” by not facing reporters.

“If you want this job, you better put your big boy pants on,” Miles said.

“Too weak to even take a position. So weak that he suggests outsourcing that decision to an independent authority.”

Queensland MPs are returning to parliament again this week for another three-day sitting, in the wake of bruising weekend byelections for Labor and the 2032 Games venue review.

Some of what we’re expecting to see out of the week includes:

• Debate and passage of laws enacting 11 recommendations from the 2022 review of Star’s Queensland casinos, including mandatory carded play and cashless gambling for transactions of more than $1000.
• New bills introduced by Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon to ban rent bidding, and also limit market rent increases in “lifestyle villages” where residents rent their land.

A man who ploughed a ute head-on into a police van, leaving three officers with a “massive range of injuries”, has been jailed for at least four years.

David James Nichols, 30, faced Brisbane District Court on Monday via audio link having earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of dangerous driving while speeding and with prior convictions causing grievous bodily harm.

The marked police van with three officers was responding with lights and sirens to the stabbing when Nichols collided with them just before 3pm.

The court was played dashcam footage from the utility vehicle Nichols was driving and from the police van he hit while speeding down the wrong side of a residential road at more than 100km/h in a 60km/h zone.

Judge Ian Dearden said he was required to view materials that “wake me up a night with the shivers” and the dashcam video would be one of them.

“I involuntarily looked away,” Judge Dearden said.

Read more here

Griffith University, home of Griffith Sports College, has thrown its support behind the Queensland government’s decision to invest in the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre ahead of the 2032 Games.

“The uses for QSAC will only grow as we approach the Olympics and well after they are finished,” Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Carolyn Evans said.

Evans added that this option would leave a “lasting legacy” in the city. Additionally, she explained, investment in transport connections to the area would greatly benefit those living in the city’s south.

“It has been home to major sporting fixtures and teams and as a venue for international musical acts such as Madonna and Billy Joel.”

The university was also hoping to work more closely with the Brisbane Games organisers to use facilities at its campuses, as QSAC was within walking distance of its Nathan campus.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles on Monday rejected one of the key recommendations of the Graham Quirk-led review – a $3.4 billion stadium at Victoria Park – instead choosing to refurbish QSAC.

Work on the stadium will increase capacity to 40,000 through temporary stands for the 2032 Games.