As it happened: Brisbane on Friday, November 22

More than 6 million Australians will lose cover at 38 private hospitals after the country’s second-largest hospital operator pulled out of agreements with dozens of funds, including major health insurer Bupa.

In a dramatic escalation of the funding stoush between private hospitals and health insurers, Healthscope announced on Friday that it would be terminating its contracts with Bupa and 30 other funds represented by the Australian Health Services Alliance (AHSA).

Healthscope’s Queensland hospitals are the Brisbane Private Hospital, Gold Coast Private Hospital, Peninsula Private Hospital, Pine Rivers Private Hospital and Sunnybank Private Hospital.

Healthscope chief executive Greg Horan said the company had been left with no choice but to cancel the agreements after the insurers threatened legal action against its decision in October to impose up to $100 out-of-pocket fees on Bupa and AHSA members using their facilities.

“In the absence of fair funding, this fee was Healthscope’s best option,” Horan said in a statement. “The response from the insurers was lawfare, and we are not prepared to engage in protracted and expensive legal challenges.”

AHSA chief executive Andrew Sando said Healthscope’s decision was driven by concern for investors, not patients.

“Gouging the Australian public to generate profits for their private equity owners is not in the national interest, and flies in the face of compassionate, equitable and sustainable healthcare,” Sando said.

Thanks for joining us for our live coverage of news today. We’ll be back on Monday morning. If you’re just catching up, here are some of the stories that have been making headlines:

The father of teenager Holly Bowles has confirmed that the Melbourne teenager has died in a Thai hospital after a suspected methanol poisoning incident while holidaying in Laos, one day after the passing of her best friend Bianca Jones, also 19.

Australians have been charged billions of dollars in illegal merchant fees for federal government services, in a major financial scandal dating back to the Howard government era.

The long-awaited panel to decide on Queensland’s Olympic venues will be in place by next week, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie confirmed while on a site visit at one of the stadiums expected to make the list.

Flooded fairways and unrelenting rain in Brisbane has forced the Australian PGA Championship committee to abandon play on day two and reduce the $2 million showpiece to a 54-hole event.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has challenged billionaire Elon Musk on his criticism of the government’s plans to block children under 16 from using social media, saying it is not Australia’s job to please the X owner.

In a separate stoush, Chalmers has accused his predecessor Peter Costello of being trapped in the past and being rolled into a “deliberately unhinged” attack on plans to encourage the $230 billion Future Fund to invest in new homes, renewable energy and cybersecurity.

Brisbane’s King George Square Christmas tree, one of the largest in the southern hemisphere, has been unveiled and will be officially lit next Friday, featuring a performance by Dami Im.

Brisbane Yuggera Elder Aunty (Gaja) Kerry Charlton has won the Indigenous Podcast category at the 2024 Australian Podcast Awards, held on Thursday.

And India’s quest to conquer Australia again on their own turf began disastrously on an opening day of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy during which Virat Kohli was removed cheaply and batting stalwart KL Rahul was involved in a controversial third-umpire decision.

A Perth grandmother at the centre of a Japanese drug trafficking trial has detailed her relationship with an online lover and accused him of tricking her into smuggling meth into the country.

Donna Nelson’s handcuffs were removed before she entered the witness box in Tokyo on Thursday, where she told the court she did not know the suitcase she arrived with at Narita Airport in January last year contained methamphetamine.

The 58-year-old broke down in tears as she described how she started online dating after her divorce because she was lonely and raising her five children as a single mother.

She sparked a relationship with an online lover called “Kelly”, who told her he was a fashion designer who lived in Japan.

The pair communicated for three years before making plans to meet in Tokyo.

“At no point did I feel like Kelly was scamming me,” Nelson testified.

The Nigerian man flew her business class from Perth to Singapore and then on to Laos.

“I felt very happy because he was treating me like the queen,” she said.

Nelson ran as the Greens candidate for the West Australian electorate of Pearce in the 2022 federal election.

Read the full account of Nelson’s testimony here.

A man will appear in court today after allegedly crashing a stolen car 10 minutes after police say he attempted to steal another car at knife-point on the Gold Coast yesterday.

Police say the man was armed with a knife and accompanied by another man with a sawn-off shotgun, when he allegedly approached a 28-year-old man who was sitting in a car at a business on Bundall Road in Bundall.

The man with the knife allegedly stole the victim’s car keys before fleeing in a white Holden Cruze that police say was stolen from Merrimac on Tuesday.

The other man fled the scene on foot.

The victim was taken to hospital for stab wounds to his hands.

Police allege 10 minutes later, the man crashed the stolen Holden Cruze after driving dangerously on Showcase Court.

A 41-year-old Gilston man was arrested at the scene and charged with wounding in a public place while adversely affected by intoxicating substance, robbery armed in company and unlawful use of a motor vehicle.

Police arrested a 41-year-old Gilston man at the scene.Credit: Nine News

No one was injured in the crash.

Witness Jag Guthmann-Chester told 9News the man was “yelling and hanging out the window”.

“He did this big burnout and smashed into the gutter and then passed out behind the wheel.”

A man has been allegedly stabbed in the hand during an attempted carjacking on the Gold Coast.Credit: Nine News

He is due to appear at Southport Magistrates Court today.

Police are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed either incident, or who may have CCTV or dashcam footage, to come forward.

Investigations are continuing.

Work on new Metro stations is set to cause more traffic disruption in the coming weeks.

From 6am Monday, the westbound section of O’Keefe Street at Woolloongabba, between Ipswich Road and Kent Street, will be closed to traffic to allow for work on the Princess Alexandra Hospital Station.

Vehicle access to the hospital will be via Diamantina Road, while detours will be in place for pedestrians and buses.

The work is scheduled to finish before December 9.

From Friday, until January 13, there will be major disruptions on North Quay and Adelaide Street to allow for construction of a new Adelaide Street tunnel entrance.

The chair of Queensland’s Truth-Telling and Healing Inquiry, barrister Joshua Creamer, has called for written submissions and vowed to deliver a report – including recommendations – to the LNP government that has promised to shut it down.

Acknowledging the inquiry was not likely to last the full three years, or hold proper hearings, Creamer said the government’s inability to bring about its legislative demise meant his team would consult until the end of January and then deliver a report.

“We’re all governed by the rule of law and if you want to dismantle a functioning and effective inquiry you have to comply with the law,” Creamer said, ahead of the first sitting of parliament next week.

Describing his relationship with the government as “frosty,” Creamer said he had not received a response to his six pieces of correspondence and had decided to forge ahead as best as possible.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Fiona Simpson recently cancelled a scheduled meeting with Creamer.

“I saw the minister at the Women’s Legal Service breakfast yesterday and she ran away from me,” Creamer said today.

“She certainly wasn’t coming up for a chat. She saw me and went the other way.”

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie had earlier defended the government’s approach, saying Creamer had asked questions and Simpson had sought advice on the answers.

“We’ve said that we’ll have the meeting but once the minister is armed with the information,” Bleijie said.

A testy exchange between a senior Coles executive and the ACCC’s deputy chair has been the highlight of the final day of the consumer watchdog’s supermarket inquiry hearings so far.

Earlier today, ACCC counsel assisting Naomi Sharp SC was frustrated in her attempt to clarify a crucial detail with Coles’ chief commercial officer Anna Croft regarding the supermarket’s order volumes with fresh produce suppliers.

Naomi Sharp grills Coles executives at the ACCC hearing on Thursday.

Croft said the supermarket was heavily focused on delivering on its “commitments” to purchase from suppliers.

“When you say commitment, what you really need is non-binding forecast?” Sharp asked.

In response, Croft said: “We endeavour to deliver our forecasts with all of our suppliers and where we would not deliver that, we would seek to understand what that is. We go to great lengths to try and understand where we think individual categories will be, but we don’t always get those forecasts right.”

ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh then interrupted and said Croft had not answered the question.

“The question was quite specific about the nature of the contractual obligation. You talked about a lot of factors that might be the reason why Coles doesn’t meet that commitment, but you didn’t answer the question about whether it is a legally binding contractual obligation on Coles,” he said.

Croft said she could not add anything more. Coles’ lawyer, Michael Borsky SC, jumped in, and pointed out the ACCC already had the contractual documents, and that Croft wasn’t a lawyer.

Sharp continued her questioning, and Croft started responding by saying Coles had long-term partnerships, but was interrupted again by Sharp, who tried many times to ask if a “commitment” meant something legally binding. This back and forth went on for a while. Sharp asked: “Why won’t you answer my question, Ms Croft?”

Borsky interrupted again. “Chair, I object to the continuation of this line of questioning. It’s impossible that the answers could be of assistance to the inquiry.”

Keogh said this was noted. “I also note that it is an obligation on the witness to answer questions. Perhaps we’ll leave it here for the moment, but we may come back to it.”

The inquiry then adjourned for lunch.

An independent MP has been particularly vocal this week on the social media ban, calling it cynical and a ploy to chase votes.

Kylea Tink told ABC News Breakfast this morning the timing of the bill raised alarms for her.

“Of all the things the government could have prioritised in the last two sitting weeks of the year, I just don’t see any other reason other than chasing votes for them to have introduced this legislation at this point in time.”

With the government hoping to pass the bill next week, it has been sent to a fast-tracked Senate inquiry that will allow about 24 hours for public consultation and less than a week to report its findings.

Tink continued that she understood the difficulties in trying to keep children safe online, but that the “subtlety of this piece of legislation has been lost”.

She said the lack of evidence around the effectiveness of such a ban made it very hard not to be cynical, especially when the government hadn’t moved on banning gambling ads, a proposal backed by a wealth of evidence.

“I absolutely agree that we have to do something in this area, but surely the solution is to introduce legislation that places an onus of care on the platforms themselves to make sure they are providing content that is suitable for our young kids, rather than saying to our young kids, ‘You are banned.’ ”

The Royal Australian Air Force has broken its non-stop flight record, with a journey from Amberley to Jerez, Spain, taking just short of a full day.

The 23.3-hour flight had 21 RAAF personnel on board, including five pilots who rotated to avoid fatigue.

“We were able to successfully manage both flight endurance and aircrew fatigue to achieve the maximum result,” Flight Lieutenant Elliott Hyder said.

Air-to-air refuelling during a record non-stop flight from RAAF Amberley to Jerez, Spain.Credit: ADF

Along the way, the KC-30A tanker (a modified Airbus A330) had two midair refuellings – one by another RAAF KC-30A and the other by a French Air and Space Force Multi Role Tanker Transport (also a modified A330).

“The highlights for me were the successful spare parts and logistics exchange, the knowledge sharing to increase both the RAAF and the FASF processes, and the cuisine of course, which the locals gladly helped us explore,” Hyder said.

It’s the final weekend for Brisbane Motor Museum’s Small and Compact exhibition featuring classic small cars such as Herbie the Love Bug, a 1930s Morris Minor, a 1949 Fiat Topolino, and several classic Minis.

When too much paint is not enough – it’s called “impasto” – you get visceral paintings like Ben Quilty’s. Quilty has a new show at Jan Murphy Gallery in Fortitude Valley, titled Ben Quilty: 20 Years, that includes his famous Archibald-winning portrait of Margaret Olley.

Ben Quilty, Margaret Olley, 2011.Credit: Art Gallery of NSW

Get a jump on gift buying at the Carseldine Christmas Twilight Markets on Saturday evening, 4-10pm – food trucks will be out in force and there’s even an ugly Christmas T-shirt comp happening.
The Enchanted Garden is on now at Roma Street Parkland. See LED lights, glittering lasers and sparkling night-time projections nightly from 6.30pm, with tickets just $7-$9.

A few seats are available still for Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Cinematic: Music from A to Zimmer. There are three performances, tonight and tomorrow, of themes from movies such as Batman, Jurassic Park, The Lord of the Rings and Spirited Away.

La Boite’s hilarious satire Yoga Play finishes Saturday – if you’ve ever suspected the “wellness industry” was a contradiction in terms, then get over to the Roundhouse Theatre.

Rugby league legend Paul “Fatty” Vautin has been inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame, joined on stage on Thursday night by an elite calibre of athletes.

Paul Vautin in his post-playing and coaching career at Channel Nine.Credit: Getty

Vautin, who amassed 22 State of Origin appearances for the Maroons and famously coached the side to a shock 1995 series win, was joined in the honour by Kookaburras champion Mark Knowles, former Brisbane Lions star Shaun Hart, six-time Paralympic gold medallist Darren Thrupp, rugby sevens star Emilee Cherry and renowned horse trainer Jim Atkins.

The awards also recognised Kaylee McKeown as Queensland’s Athlete of the Year, following her Paris Olympics exploits in which she claimed four individual gold medals.

Alexa Leary, who captured the nation’s hearts to go from a life-threatening accident that left her with brain injuries to become a Paralympics swimming champion, was named Para-Athlete of the Year, while teenage skateboarding sensation Arisa Trew claimed the Junior Athlete of the Year gong.

Lions coach Chris Fagan was named Coach of the Year after guiding the club to its first AFL premiership since 2003.