As it happened: Brisbane on Thursday, May 22

Thanks for joining us for live coverage of the news today. We will have more for you in the next live news coverage.

If you’re just catching up, here are some of the top stories making headlines today:

The Coalition could come back together within weeks after Nationals leader David Littleproud and Liberal leader Sussan Ley agreed to put their next steps on hold while they search for a fix that will allow their MPs to walk back into parliament together.

Two Israeli embassy staff members have been shot dead outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC.

Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer believes there is a “shroud of secrecy” over an investigation into allegations the former Liberal Party staffer raped a woman after a night out.

US President Donald Trump has demanded to know which outlet a reporter worked for, and after being told replied: “I don’t even know what the hell that is. Get yourself a real job.”

It has been a sodden few months for most of the east coast. Yet just a few hours inland, great swaths of the southern half of the continent are gripped by record-breaking drought.

A nurse has described the moments after Erin Patterson first arrived at a Gippsland hospital, explaining that she complained about feeling ill several days after a lunch she served containing mushrooms.

Opposition Leader Steven Miles has used question time to ask Health Minister Tim Nicholls why the head of the health projects review, Sam Sangster, is being called before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption tomorrow.

Miles also tabled documents in parliament which he said showed Sangster had been sacked by the NSW government before the LNP asked him to review Queensland hospital projects.

But Nicholls said Sangster was not the subject of the investigation, and had made full disclosures ahead of his appointment, which the minister insisted was based on merit.

Nicholls said Labor was trying to deflect blame for its mismanagement of health projects, through the “indiscriminate use of ‘coward’s castle’ to try and besmirch the reputation of someone who has delivered more than $20 billion of hospital projects”.

He said Labor also had a record of cronyism.

Police are yet to make a breakthrough in the disappearance of teenage girl Pheobe Bishop in Bundaberg, but say multiple people are being questioned.

Investigators renewed their appeal this morning for a “small piece of information” that could help crack the case, after the girl failed to check in for her flight to Western Australia last week.

Pheobe Bishop, 17, pictured with her mother Kylie.Credit: Facebook

Police say no one is in custody, but they “continue to speak to people”.

Investigators believe the disappearance is suspicious. Yesterday they declared the 17-year-old’s home in the nearby township of Gin Gin a crime scene, and seized a grey Hyundai ix35 SUV.

“You may have the small piece of information that leads us to finding Pheobe,” Detective Acting Inspector Ryan Thompson said this morning.

“People don’t vanish – someone knows something and we’re urging anyone with information to contact police immediately.”

Read more about the investigation.

A spate of new laws pitched as the “toughest in the nation” have been proposed to battle the growing cigarette black market in Queensland.

Approval for undercover operations by investigators, jail time and heavy fines for landlords that knowingly lease property to illegal tobacconists, and an increase in interim closure powers from 72-hours to three months are among the state government’s planned changes.

The proposal was announced by health minister Tim Nicholls this morning. “Illegal traders will face the toughest laws in the nation,” he said in a statement.

“Despite all our recent progress, the illegal trade remains deeply entrenched.

“This is because the profits simply outweigh risk of enforcement and the current laws limit enforcement responsiveness by being too onerous or relying on prosecution through the courts.”

The proposed laws are open for public consultation until June 19.

It comes after Brisbane Times covered the extent of the burgeoning trade. More than 5.2 million cigarettes and 1.2 tonnes of loose tobacco were seized from Queensland retailers over just 12 weeks from July last year. About 8500 illegal vapes and 12,000 nicotine pouches were also found.

A man that possessed and shared child abuse material just south of Brisbane has been sentenced following an international investigation.

The 32-year-old man’s home at Browns Plains in Logan was raided by police on a month ago and a collection of illegal content was recovered. He was arrested.

It followed a multi-year operation after the United States’ National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children tipped off the AFP in 2021.

The man was first charged in March 2023 and released on bail.

The AFP later investigated new reports that child abuse material was being shared on an encrypted app and uploaded through a search engine, leading to the later search warrant and arrest in Logan.

He was sentenced for 12 offences at Beenleigh District Court yesterday, and will serve a maximum of five years behind bars with two-and-a-half years without parole.

State Parliament has expanded the LNP’s “adult crime, adult time” laws to increase to 33 the number of offences attracting tougher penalties.

After legislative amendments were passed last night, Premier David Crisafulli said treating young offenders like adults had already seen “change in the right direction”.

“Early police data shows we’re starting to see fewer stolen cars, break-ins and robberies, but we have a long way to go,” Crisafulli told parliament this morning.

Crisafulli said Labor had weakened the laws for a decade, allowing a “generation of offenders” to go unpunished.

Meanwhile, Attorney-General Deb Frecklington told parliament backlogs at the state DNA laboratory were so significant some tests would be outsourced to the private sector at a cost of $50 million over two years.

“Work will continue at Forensic Science Queensland lab as we strengthen their capacity to clear Labor’s backlog,” she said.

The Royal Edinburgh Military tattoo has doubled its Brisbane shows after ticket sales hit the halfway mark this week, just hours after opening public sales.

Spruiking the state’s tourism industry in parliament this week, Tourism Minister Andrew Powell said the shows – on February 12 and 14 next year – were expected to attract 38,000 tourists to Brisbane.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will be coming to Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane in February 2026.Credit: Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

“Due to overwhelming demand, the Saturday performance has sold out, and in response, the Tattoo has decided to add not one, but two additional shows at Suncorp,” he said.

Powell said the decision doubled the number of shows, in a “brilliant outcome” for the tourism industry.

The new dates include Friday, February 13 and Sunday, February 15. Ticket presales opened last week with public sales launched from 10am on Wednesday.

Cannes, France: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is thinking about how to become politically active again once he has fully recovered from his prison ordeal.

Assange, 53, returned to Australia after pleading guilty last June under an agreement with US officials to one count of illegally obtaining and disclosing national security materials.

Eugene Jarecki, Julian Assange and Stella Assange at the Cannes Film Festival.Credit: Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP

Assange, who was born in Townsville, spent five years in a British prison, after seven years at the Ecuador embassy as he sought to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations. Assange denied those allegations and called them a pretext to extradite him to the US over WikiLeaks.

“He was in a very grave situation in the prison. He’s recovering from that,” his wife Stella Assange said on Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival, where they are promoting the documentary, The Six Billion Dollar Man.

“But now he’s coming to understand how grave the situation outside [prison] is and thinking, making plans to find the means of what to do about it. He’s very, very concerned about the state of the world and the state that we’re all in right now.”

Julian and Stella Assange, holding a sign saying “Stop Killing”, walked the red carpet on Wednesday evening.

Julian Assange has so far not spoken at any of his appearances. The documentary from Emmy-winning director Eugene Jarecki takes on the tone of a high-tech international thriller to recount Assange’s fight against extradition, using WikiLeaks footage and archives and previously unpublished evidence.

Reuters

A woman involved in a crash with a truck that killed two people and seriously injured a baby was allegedly intoxicated and speeding at the time.

A Hyundai i20 and and a Fuso Canter truck collided at the intersection of Bellmere Road and King Street in Caboolture about 6.30pm, April 6.

A 35-year-old woman and 50-year-old woman – both passengers in the hatchback – died at the scene.

A woman has been charged after a fatal crash in Caboolture.

A one-year-old boy also in the car was taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition.

Police will allege the Hyundai was travelling north-west on King Street when it approached the intersection at high speed and did not stop at the red light.

The truck was allegedly driving in the opposite direction and trying to turn right onto Bellmere Road.

The male truck driver was not injured, and the 26-year-old Caboolture woman who was driving the Hyundai suffered minor injuries.

Police announced this morning they had charged a 26-year-old woman with a string of offences including driving while affected by an intoxicating substance and while excessively speeding.

The woman is due to appear in Caboolture Magistrates Court on June 17.

The state government has denied claims it planned to slash a program designed to teach children about healthy relationships, consent, and body image, after emails detailing the cuts were leaked.

An email detailing changes to the Queensland women and girls’ health strategy 2032, which was tabled twice in parliament on Wednesday.

The Queensland puberty health education program – aimed at children in years 5 and 6 – was introduced as part of the Queensland women and girls’ health strategy 2032 by the former Labor state government.

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said the opposition was “trying to weaponise” women and girl’s health, when members attacked the government over alleged cuts to the program.

Leaked emails from a Health Department employee – seen by this masthead and tabled twice by opposition members in yesterday’s parliament sitting – said it would not continue after “a shift in government priorities and funding”.

“As a result, any work planned or underway will no longer continue and there will be no program pilot or trial,” the email read.

Labor opposition MPs slammed the LNP state government, calling the move a “health cut” and a contradiction of promises made ahead of last year’s election.

In parliament yesterday Treasurer David Janetzi said there would be no cuts, and any information that claimed there would be cuts “had not come from the government”.

The government said it would continue to fund the $247 million women and girls’ health in its entirety, which includes rural health access for women, and boosts to sexual and reproductive health for women across the state.