As it happened: Brisbane on October 24

A $20 million expansion of one of Brisbane’s most popular precincts will see a decommissioned barge and trawler moored permanently at Howard Smith Wharves.

Under the plans, lodged with Brisbane City Council, the barge will become an extension of the Felons Barrel Hall while the trawler will become a boutique restaurant associated with Crystalbrook Vincent hotel.

Plans for an expansion of Brisbane’s Howard Smith Wharves, including a permanently moored and decommissioned barge and trawler.

Two pontoons, both 10 metres wide, will be built on either side of the Mr Percival’s bar to improve river access and allow for short-term moorings by tourist vessels.

The council assessment process will consider the risk of the decommissioned boats and pontoons breaking free in a flood.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and Deputy Premier Steven Miles have given their support to the project, which is expected to inject another $60 million a year into the local economy by 2032.

That’s where we’ll leave our live updates. We’ll be back with you tomorrow morning. Here are the headlines you might have missed today:

• Police have been negotiating with a man for more than 12 hours, as several streets north of Brisbane remain locked down.
• Police searching for a man missing from New Farm since the weekend have found his body and that of another man in a national park.

Brisbane Housing Company’s Greta Egerton with Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner at the 92-unit community housing development in Chermside on Tuesday.Credit: Brisbane Times

• Reduced infrastructure charges – up to 100 per cent for the providers of community housing – have been adopted by Brisbane City Council to drive down the price of units.
• More than 50 people have been forced to flee their homes as firefighters battle a southern Queensland blaze, with temperatures set to soar across the state.

And elsewhere, these are the stories throughout Australia and beyond today:

• The Mark Wahlberg-backed fitness franchise F45 is hanging by a thread after a financial loss of more than $582 million over the past two financial years.

The aftermath of a multi-vehicle pile-up on I-55 in Manchac, Louisiana.Credit: AP

• At least seven people have been killed after a superfog of smoke from south Louisiana marsh fires and dense fog caused multiple massive car crashes involving 158 vehicles.
• The much-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza has yet to materialise more than two weeks after Hamas’ brutal incursion into Israel on October 7.
• US President Joe Biden has arranged for band the B-52s to perform at a state dinner for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in a sign of the effort being made in Washington DC to welcome the Australian leader.

You might have seen it already. The slick three-and-a-half-minute internally produced video sent out across Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s social media accounts this week.

Titled “We are committed to delivering for Queenslanders”, the Palaszczuk-narrated taxpayer-funded cinematic pairs uplifting imagery and personal photos with Labor’s self-selected record and plans.

Well, the opposition’s deputy leader, Jarrod Bleijie, has now drawn attention to Palaszczuk’s Facebook audience reaction to the video in a speech to parliament this afternoon.

“There were more laughing emojis than love heart emojis,” he said, describing the video as “arrogant” and pointing out that many of the comments appeared to have been hidden.

To be fair, Brisbane Times found there were more likes than both combined. But of the 142 comments since Sunday, only 21 appeared visible – two from her own ministers.

More than 50 people have been forced to flee their homes as firefighters battle a southern Queensland blaze, with temperatures set to soar across the state.

More than 40 firefighting crews with waterbombing aircraft have been battling to contain the blaze after it flared again on Monday night.

It is one of 50 blazes being monitored across Queensland.

Forty-nine people were in evacuation centres with another five taken to other accommodation.

In the south-west, residents at Millmerran Woods, Millmerran Downs and Cypress Gardens were told it was still not safe to return to their homes.

Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie has backed Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys attending a state dinner at the White House to promote the game.

Beattie, a fellow ARL commissioner who attended a state dinner himself while premier, said the board fully endorsed V’landys’ trip to Washington.

“This is a networking opportunity from the gods,” Beattie said.

“As a sport we’ve tried to break into the US before and failed. But we’ve never tapped on the door of the biggest power players in the country that you need to be successful in the US market. Peter V’landys is doing that.”

The next NRL season will kick off with a double-header in Las Vegas featuring the Brisbane Broncos.

A $20 million expansion of one of Brisbane’s most popular precincts will see a decommissioned barge and trawler moored permanently at Howard Smith Wharves.

Under the plans, lodged with Brisbane City Council, the barge will become an extension of the Felons Barrel Hall while the trawler will become a boutique restaurant associated with Crystalbrook Vincent hotel.

Plans for an expansion of Brisbane’s Howard Smith Wharves, including a permanently moored and decommissioned barge and trawler.

Two pontoons, both 10 metres wide, will be built on either side of the Mr Percival’s bar to improve river access and allow for short-term moorings by tourist vessels.

The council assessment process will consider the risk of the decommissioned boats and pontoons breaking free in a flood.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and Deputy Premier Steven Miles have given their support to the project, which is expected to inject another $60 million a year into the local economy by 2032.

Question time has wrapped up, with the LNP using new right to information documents to attack the government on its youth justice plans and Labor picking apart the opposition’s weekend “priorities” document.

The RTI documents feature text messages and emails between staff in Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s department as they prepared a range of announcements after the alleged home-invasion murder of Emma Lovell on Boxing Day.

One features a text appearing to be from a contact named Steven M who described a redacted message as “almost everything in the cupboard”.

The opposition has used this to suggest the government was, and is, out of ideas in the youth justice space.

Asked by deputy LNP leader Jarrod Bleijie who Steven M was and whether she agreed with him, Palaszczuk said she was “not even going to dignify that absolutely ridiculous question”.

Across several other questions, Palaszczuk sought to highlight the further range of (often controversial) youth justice measures enacted since and suggested the LNP “go to the United Nations” with their plan to scrap the sentencing principle of detention as a last resort.

Brisbane City Council has announced a plan of reduced infrastructure charges up to 100 per cent to drive down the price of one-, two- and three-bedroom units in Brisbane.

Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner said the council would on Tuesday afternoon adopt a suite of 50 per cent, 75 per cent and 100 per cent reductions in infrastructure fees paid by developers to reduce the cost of units.

Brisbane Housing Company’s Greta Egerton says the infrastructure charges waiver announced by Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner will save almost $1 million on their 92-unit community housing development at Chermside.Credit: Brisbane Times

Community housing companies, such as the joint Brisbane City Council-Queensland government Brisbane Housing Company, can receive a 100 per cent infrastructure fee waiver.

Brisbane Housing Company project director Greta Egerton – whose firm has plans for 92 units including 46 social housing units and 46 affordable housing units at Chermside – said the discounted fees would save BHC $1 million in fees for that project alone.

Several streets north of Brisbane remain locked down as police continue negotiations with a man in a Strathpine home following a disturbance in the early hours of Tuesday.

Police were called to the home on Peters Street about 1.30am after a disturbance, believed to be related to domestic violence.

About 4am, police declared an emergency exclusion zone, with streets including Gertrude Street, Peter Street, Rowland Street and Cavendish Street closed.

The man was believed to be inside the property alone, after a woman left the property earlier.

Read the full story here.

Police searching for a man missing from New Farm since the weekend have found his body and that of another man in a national park.

In a statement, Queensland police on Tuesday said the deaths were not connected and not being treated as suspicious.

Police went to Springbrook National Park where the 43-year-old man’s car was found and discovered his body about 2pm on Monday.

During the search, police also located another body, believed to be that of a 75-year-old man missing from Thornlands since July 31.

Police will prepare reports for the coroner.

Areas in Greater Brisbane such as Logan and the Redlands now have access to faster internet plans following fibre network upgrades.

The completion of NBN infrastructure upgrades meant more than 500,000 households and businesses in Queensland would have access to faster internet speeds.

About 68 per cent of Queensland’s fixed-line households and small businesses are eligible for the National Broadband Network’s fastest speeds.

In October 2022 the federal government invested $2.4 billion to expand full-fibre NBN access to more than 1.5 million premises.

Some 660,000 of those residences are in rural and regional communities across Australia.

The Queensland government has committed $250 million on improved internet infrastructure in key parts of the state, particularly the regions, to create the largest publicly owned regional fibre optic network in Australia.

It was hoped the program would boost internet speeds by up to 100 times in regional areas and provide improved mobile phone coverage.

With an average of 21 devices connected to home internet, Jane McNamara from the NBN said infrastructure needed to keep up with surging demand.

“We are consuming three times more data than we were six years ago, and NBN is delivering more fibre to homes,” she said.