As it happened: Brisbane on Monday, February 10

Discount train travel to Brisbane airport has ended today.

Fifty cent fares were made permanent this morning as the initial six-month trial expired, but Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg confirmed subsidised travel on the privately owned Airtrain line would not continue.

Across the public transport network, more than 93.3 million trips have been taken since the former Labor government’s trial was announced. This equates to about $183 million in savings.

“Effectively what 50¢ fares has done is unlock the capacity that already existed in the public transport network,” Mickelberg said this morning.

“It’s an investment in ensuring that we address Queenslanders’ cost-of-living concerns and make public transport more accessible.”

The minister confirmed the initiative would cost about $1.5 billion over the next four years, and Airtrain subsidies would not continue.

“I understand the former government was in discussions with the owners of that asset with a view to potentially buying it out, but that went nowhere,” he said.

“I have met with Airtrain and Brisbane Airport Corporation, who are obviously particularly interested in improving public transport to the airport.

“We’re happy to work and collaborate with all stakeholders to find a solution.”

Thanks for joining us for live coverage of today’s news. The live blog will be back tomorrow morning – in the meantime, we’ll be updating stories on the Brisbane Times home page.

If you’re just catching up, here are a few of today’s top stories:

Star Entertainment Group has confirmed that it is in talks with its Chinese partners to sell its Queen’s Wharf casino precinct provided it gets the best price.

The Philadelphia Eagles obliterated the Kansas City Chiefs’ bid to become the first NFL team to win three consecutive Super Bowls with a blowout 40-22 win in New Orleans.

A man accused of shooting a property owner with a homemade shotgun when he was confronted under a house will remain behind bars after his arrest in bushland.

A young couple set a record for Upper Kedron with a three-bedroom home on Saturday, paying $1.301 million in an emotional auction showdown.

Comedian and architecture fan Tim Ross loves Brisbane’s distinctive homes, but says we have to rethink what affordable housing means for the future.

And with students returning to school and kindy after the holidays, our reporter Felicity Caldwell asked a nutritionist to rate her kids’ lunchboxes. She was shocked by their verdict.

Discount train travel to Brisbane airport has ended today.

Fifty cent fares were made permanent this morning as the initial six-month trial expired, but Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg confirmed subsidised travel on the privately owned Airtrain line would not continue.

Across the public transport network, more than 93.3 million trips have been taken since the former Labor government’s trial was announced. This equates to about $183 million in savings.

“Effectively what 50¢ fares has done is unlock the capacity that already existed in the public transport network,” Mickelberg said this morning.

“It’s an investment in ensuring that we address Queenslanders’ cost-of-living concerns and make public transport more accessible.”

The minister confirmed the initiative would cost about $1.5 billion over the next four years, and Airtrain subsidies would not continue.

“I understand the former government was in discussions with the owners of that asset with a view to potentially buying it out, but that went nowhere,” he said.

“I have met with Airtrain and Brisbane Airport Corporation, who are obviously particularly interested in improving public transport to the airport.

“We’re happy to work and collaborate with all stakeholders to find a solution.”

There are now 15 electorates across Australia – including one in Brisbane and one on the Sunshine Coast – where no GP clinics offer bulk-billing, according to online healthcare directory Cleanbill.

The organisation has compared its most recent report on national GP billing arrangements to a 2023 report. That earlier report found four electorates without bulk billing clinics.

The 15 electorates include Brisbane in the city’s inner north, Fairfax on the Sunshine Coast, Newcastle and Shortland in NSW’s Hunter region, and Jagajaga in outer north-east Melbourne.

Cleanbill also said 131 of Australia’s 151 electorates saw an overall decrease in clinics offering bulk billing in the past two years, and patients in 136 electorates saw their out-of-pocket costs for GP visits increase.

The government has tripled bulk-billing incentives for certain appointments since it came to power, and recently announced it will introduce new Medicare rebates for menopause assessments.

Flood-weary northern Queensland residents are bracing for more rising floodwater as yet another deluge is forecast to hit the drenched region.

More heavy rain and flash flooding is expected to hit Queensland’s Gulf Country today, with falls up to 250 millimetres over the next day.

A severe weather warning stretches from the Gulf Country across the tropical coast and down to the Burdekin region.

Between Tully and Ayr, including flood-hit regions such as Ingham, rainfall is expected to ramp up until Wednesday.

“This rain is falling onto saturated land, particularly along the north-east coast, as well as flash flooding, we may still see further river rises,” meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said.

It comes after a wet weekend with rainfall totals of 143mm at Rollingstone on the tropical coast, 104mm at Kowanyama in the state’s north-west, and 88mm at Paradise Lagoon on Sunday.

There were more than 60 requests for State Emergency Service assistance in flood-affected regions in the past 24 hours, including tarping requests owing to leaking ceilings, sandbagging requests due to groundwater entering homes, and resupply.

The persistent wet weather has hit regions already impacted by flooding, marking more than a week since some towns were submerged.

About 1900 residents remained without power across northern Queensland, with Ergon Energy hoping to restore most services today.

Brisbane City Council has released the final plan in its bid to rip up a network of concrete drains in the eastern suburbs to restore Kingfisher Creek at the centre of a new public precinct.

Following the success of the Hanlon Creek rejuvenation in Stones Corner, the council wants to revitalise a long-forgotten creek running between Woolloongabba and East Brisbane in the Norman Creek Catchment.

Renders show what Brisbane’s Kingfisher Creek corridor would look like if the waterway was restored with more public spaces.Credit: Brisbane City Council

Under the plan, which council said would require state and federal funding to deliver, parks would be linked by active transport paths, with new nature-based playgrounds, dog parks, sports courts, picnic areas and amenities.

Local councillor Fiona Cunningham said the project promised to build on Brisbane’s reputation as “Australia’s lifestyle capital”.

“Woolloongabba and East Brisbane are two of our city’s fastest growing suburbs,” Cunningham said.

“Transforming ugly concrete drains into incredible lifestyle destinations won’t just create more to see and do, it will help make our city more flood resilient as well.”

The council conducted three rounds of community consultation, and received more than 1000 pieces of feedback, in finalising the plan.

Brent Mickelberg, Queensland’s Minister for Transport and Main Roads, is speaking to the media at the Cultural Centre in South Brisbane.

A man has died after rolling a ride-on lawnmower in central Queensland township of Dixalea yesterday morning.

The 59-year-old man was reportedly mowing along the fence line of his Lanigans Lane property about 8.15am on Sunday when the mower rolled over. He died at the scene.

Investigations continue today, although police said the death was non-suspicious.

Police urged anyone with more information to come forward.

The Star Entertainment Group has formally rejected takeover bids from its partners in the Destination Brisbane Consortium behind Queen’s Wharf.

In a statement to the ASX on Monday, Star confirmed it had “received several confidential, indicative and non-binding proposals from Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited (CTFE) and Far East Consortium International Limited (FEC) seeking to acquire The Star’s 50 per cent interest in DBC, along with other assets”.

“The Board of The Star has assessed each of the CTFE and FEC Proposals received to date, and after careful consideration (which has included external advice), concluded that none of the proposals have provided sufficient value for The Star.”

The consortium took over the Brisbane casino licence when Star, still under a regulatory and financial cloud, moved its local operations from the old Treasury building to Queen’s Wharf.

Queensland Attorney-General Deb Frecklington has declined to say whether a change in ownership of the consortium would require a new probity process.

CTFE obtained a court order to prevent this masthead publishing a previous probity report, however Frecklington said she was considering its public release.

The Queensland government has so far declined to provide a financial lifeline to Star, which Premier David Crisafulli accused of failing to meet its obligations for Queen’s Wharf.

Today’s Closing the Gap policy announcement will see the cost of essential grocery items in remote communities across Australia capped at the same price as major cities.

The price cap will be applied to 30 essential products such as milk, bread, rice, chicken, toothpaste and toilet paper across 76 remote stores.

Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said the price caps would help reduce the cost of living for many in remote communities, and address crucial health outcomes.

“We have high rates of chronic kidney disease, rheumatic fever, we have high diabetes. What we want to see is food products that actually assist as well in healthy living,” she told ABC Radio.

“[It’s] making sure that we are concentrating not just on the costs of food, but the quality of food ... we have a long way to go in terms of trying to improve the lives and the healthy lives, for First Nations people.”

Nationals leader David Littleproud has suggested the government may have to replace Kevin Rudd as ambassador in Washington DC to ensure Australia has the best response to a sudden move by United States President Donald Trump to impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from all countries.

In the first Coalition reaction to Trump’s announcement, Littleproud said the trade move was a test for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and could require a new ambassador in the US capital.

Nationals leader David Littleproud.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Littleproud argued that Australia should be able to gain a carve-out from the tariffs in the same way it gained an exemption from similar moves in 2017 during Trump’s first administration when then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull negotiated the exemption and the ambassador in Washington DC, Joe Hockey, made the case for special treatment because of the security alliance between the two countries.

“If there is a decision to be made and that Kevin Rudd’s not the right person to have these discussions, then we should be mature enough as a country to send someone who can have those discussions to get that carve-out,” Littleproud told reporters in Parliament House.

Asked if the trade move was also a test for the Coalition, given it should set out any alternative approach ahead of the election, Littleproud said the US should see Australia as an ally because of the AUKUS alliance on nuclear-powered submarines.

“You’d be leading in with the right personnel, with those that have had a tried and tested relationship with the previous Trump administration, in drawing on that experience and those relationships and also reinforcing the close relationship that we’re able to tie under AUKUS, and the fact that we are doing much of the heavy lifting under AUKUS as well,” he said.

“We’re not, we’re not taking a free ride with the United States, and particularly with steel. Much of that steel is going to come back in submarines. So there is a compelling case for Australia to have those conversations with the United States. They should be having those in the United States, and we should be sending the right people to have those discussions.”

Read more about Trump’s newly announced tariffs here.