As it happened: Brisbane on Monday, October 28

Jarrod Bleijie used his first press conference as Queensland’s new Deputy Premier to boast about the LNP’s election result and predict the party will claim “at a minimum, 53 seats” in the next parliament.

“Now, if this trajectory continues, even with the 53 seats, the Liberal National Party will form a majority government with more seats than the Labor Party achieved at the 2020 COVID election,” Bleijie said.

Queensland’s new Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie.Credit: Joe Ruckli

“And I’ve seen a lot of interesting commentary on election night from the Labor Party, and Labor former ministers, in terms of their result.”

The LNP is on track to claim at least 48 seats, ahead of Labor’s 30, with 10 seats still in doubt. Forty-seven seats are needed for a majority.

Bleijie also extolled his party’s success in inner Brisbane, pointing to the result in the electorate of Maiwar where there was a swing of at least 4.7 per cent towards the LNP’s Natasha Winters from Greens MP Michael Berkman – although Berkman is still expected to retain his seat.

“Everybody was saying it was going to be a contest between Labor and the Greens … in the inner-city Brisbane, [and it was] between the Greens and, not the Labor Party, but the Greens and the Liberal National Party,” Bleijie said.

“[This] shows that no matter whether you’re in the city or rural and regional Queensland, Queensland voted for change … We want to be a government for all Queensland, and we want to govern for all Queenslanders. That’s our intention, and we intend to stick to it.”

Maiwar, a new electorate first contested in 2017, was notionally an LNP seat, but won by Berkman in a contest against the LNP’s then-shadow treasurer Scott Emerson. The 2020 result was also a contest between Berkman and the LNP candidate.

Thank you for joining us on this post-election Monday. We will be back tomorrow with more rolling news coverage, so do join us.

Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli was sworn in today as the 41st premier of Queensland, marking the start of a new era for the Sunshine State. Jarrod Bleijie was sworn in as deputy premier. The new government’s full cabinet will be decided later in the week.

• One of the new premier’s first orders of business was to send a letter to the state’s public servants, assuring them that their jobs are safe.
• Jarrod Bleijie used his first press conference as deputy premier to boast about the LNP’s election result and predict the party will claim “at a minimum, 53 seats”. The LNP is on track to claim at least 48 seats ahead of Labor’s 30, with 10 still in doubt.
• Meanwhile, opponents of plans to demolish and rebuild the Gabba stadium for the 2032 Olympics are gearing up for another fight, after the LNP’s election win put the project back on the table.
• Former premier Steven Miles was licking his wounds today but told ABC Radio Brisbane he did everything he could during his 10 months as the state’s leader and would prefer to remain leader of the Labor party in Queensland.
• Greens leader Adam Bandt blamed Labor for his party’s disappointing results, accusing Labor of giving up on the suburbs and regions, and instead adopting Greens’ policies in inner-city seats.
• Labor seized upon the disappointing result for the Greens as a sign it can reclaim federal inner-city seats from its progressive rival next year.
• In other news, revelations that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese received at least 22 free Qantas upgrades from economy class, including some for his family and personal travel, and liaised directly with former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce dominated Canberra’s political circles.
• In world news, Donald Trump returned to his native New York to deliver his campaign’s closing message – creating mayhem in midtown Manhattan – as Kamala Harris visited the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Outgoing NDIS Minister Bill Shorten says Queensland’s election results are mainly a reflection of state, rather than federal, issues.

Speaking on ABC Afternoon Briefing, Shorten said: “I don’t think the prime minister’s name was on the ballot paper.

Outgoing disability minister Bill Shorten.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“There was time-for-a-change mood in the electorate, and that was clear. It’s been emphatic. I congratulate the new premier of Queensland.

“It was mainly state issues.

“The cost of living is a global issue, it’s a state issue, it’s a federal issue, it’s a council issue, so I’ve got no doubt cost of living is a giant factor.”

The LNP picked up at least 13 seats after claiming a 7.3 per cent swing on a two-party preferred basis against Labor.

Jarrod Bleijie used his first press conference as Queensland’s new Deputy Premier to boast about the LNP’s election result and predict the party will claim “at a minimum, 53 seats” in the next parliament.

“Now, if this trajectory continues, even with the 53 seats, the Liberal National Party will form a majority government with more seats than the Labor Party achieved at the 2020 COVID election,” Bleijie said.

Queensland’s new Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie.Credit: Joe Ruckli

“And I’ve seen a lot of interesting commentary on election night from the Labor Party, and Labor former ministers, in terms of their result.”

The LNP is on track to claim at least 48 seats, ahead of Labor’s 30, with 10 seats still in doubt. Forty-seven seats are needed for a majority.

Bleijie also extolled his party’s success in inner Brisbane, pointing to the result in the electorate of Maiwar where there was a swing of at least 4.7 per cent towards the LNP’s Natasha Winters from Greens MP Michael Berkman – although Berkman is still expected to retain his seat.

“Everybody was saying it was going to be a contest between Labor and the Greens … in the inner-city Brisbane, [and it was] between the Greens and, not the Labor Party, but the Greens and the Liberal National Party,” Bleijie said.

“[This] shows that no matter whether you’re in the city or rural and regional Queensland, Queensland voted for change … We want to be a government for all Queensland, and we want to govern for all Queenslanders. That’s our intention, and we intend to stick to it.”

Maiwar, a new electorate first contested in 2017, was notionally an LNP seat, but won by Berkman in a contest against the LNP’s then-shadow treasurer Scott Emerson. The 2020 result was also a contest between Berkman and the LNP candidate.

Mosaic Brands, the retailer that owns clothing brands such as Katies, Millers and Noni B, has been placed into administration, putting the jobs of almost 4000 employees at risk.

In the past few months, Mosaic Brands’ board and chief executive Erica Berchtold were trying to renegotiate deals with suppliers and landlords to keep the business afloat, and had axed a handful of its brands including Rockmans, Autograph, Crossroads, W.Lane and BeMe.

The parent company of budget fashion labels Katies, Millers and Noni B, has been placed into administration.

The retailer on Monday announced it had appointed FTI as voluntary administrators and KPMG as receivers and managers.

“The appointment of the external administrators by the board follows what has been a difficult period for the business which has faced a number of structural challenges and disruptions relating to suppliers and inventory management,” the company said.

“The Mosaic group and the management team, led by CEO Erica Berchtold, see this as a necessary process to reset and a pathway to accelerate its plans to focus on its core brands (Katies, Millers, Noni B and Rivers), resolve legacy issues and right size the store network to ensure the ongoing success of the business.”

More young Australians could be at risk of drowning as 40 per cent of children fail to meet national swimming benchmarks by the time they leave primary school.

That’s the finding from Royal Life Saving Australia, whose chief executive Justin Scarr says swimming schools are reporting children’s swimming competency is getting worse.

Children are doing too few swimming lessons, or dropping out entirely.Credit: Paul Jeffers

More than one in four children leaving primary school have not achieved the benchmarks for 12-year-olds, and are unable to swim 50 metres and float for more than two minutes, the organisation found.

The risk of drowning increases tenfold for children and young adults aged between 10 and 20 because of a “clear decline” in swimming, water safety and lifesaving skills, along with an increase in risk-taking activities, Scarr said.

“Many young adults are quite simply being left unprepared for the dangers they may encounter in and around the water as they grow older,” he said.

“Without immediate action to address this skills gap, more lives could certainly be at risk.”

Parents and carers should enrol children in swimming lessons or programs that adhere to the National Swimming and Water Safety Framework, which sets out the minimum skills for young people in different age groups, Scarr said.

Many children are missing out on swimming lessons, receiving too few lessons, or dropping out of learning to swim programs entirely, he said.

Turning away from politics for a moment: A woman missing for nearly two weeks in Kosciuszko National Park in NSW is lucky to be alive after surviving freezing nights and a potentially deadly snake bite she sustained four days before being found.

Lovisa Sjoberg, a 48-year-old photographer who frequents the Snowy Mountains, was found dazed and injured by a NSW Parks and Wildlife officer late yesterday afternoon, six days after a multi-agency search was launched to find her.

Images of Lovisa Sjoberg shared by friends and NSW Police during the week-long search.

She hadn’t been seen for almost a fortnight.

“We really had significant concerns for her welfare, which were obviously justified by the condition she was found in,” Superintendent Toby Lindsay from the Monaro Police District said at a press conference today.

Authorities believe the woman, known as “Kiki”, was bitten by a copperhead snake.

The species is one of the few that thrive in alpine areas, and the Australian Museum describes copperhead venom as “powerfully neurotoxic, haemolytic and cytotoxic”. It is potentially fatal without treatment.

Sjoberg also rolled her ankle and suffered dehydration.

A detective who spoke to Sjoberg in Cooma hospital last night said she was in “a reasonable condition” and “happy to be alive”.

She was found on a trail in the northern part of the national park, which had just reopened after winter.

It’s believed Sjoberg may have been tracking feral horses, or brumbies, to photograph.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has continued to prosecute his theory about Labor’s election loss in Queensland, saying it proves what happens when Labor focuses on taking on his party.

“It opens the door for the Liberals,” Bandt said.

He said Labor politicians in Canberra were making the same mistake, about six months ahead of a federal election.

Federal Greens leader Adam Bandt, state MP for Maiwar, Michael Berkman, and federal MP for Griffith, Max Chandler-Mather, at a press conference in New Farm. Credit: Matt Dennien

“Right now, what’s happening is federal Labor [is] making the same mistakes that Queensland Labor made in fighting the Greens, rather than much earlier, coming to the table on proposing and working with the Greens to introduce cost-of-living and housing policies that could fundamentally change people’s lives.

“To the Prime Minister, and to the Housing Minister: my door is open.

“We do not expect to get everything, but I hope now we have proven that our policies are popular. You have a Queensland Labor Party who adopted many of them, and we could be doing the same at a federal level ...

“If federal Labor continue on this path, they will hand the keys to Peter Dutton.”

Federal Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has vowed to save the Gabba and East Brisbane Primary School from demolition to make way for a new Olympic stadium.

The new LNP government has promised a 100-day review of potential Olympic venues and is expected to revisit the option of rebuilding the Gabba as the main stadium for the 2032 Games.

“If the LNP think that they can come back into this community and decide to demolish a public school and a public park ... well, they should look back to what happened to the last premier that tried out,” Chandler-Mather said, referring to former Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk who was ousted by her party last year.

Federal Greens leader Adam Bandt, state MP for Maiwar, Michael Berkman, and federal MP for Griffith, Max Chandler-Mather, at a press conference in New Farm park.Credit: Matt Dennien

“If the LNP want to ... remind people of the [Campbell] Newman years by coming out here and one of their first actions being announcing demolishing a public school, well then they are going to have a massive campaign on their hands.

“And my message to Crisafulli: do not make the same mistake that the Palaszczuk Labor government did. Do not spend the next two years running on an Olympics platform where one of your first actions is demolishing a public school and a public park. The Greens will do everything to save that school and park and that community.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt has vowed to fight “tooth and nail” against Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s push for nuclear energy, saying Queensland’s election result has brought nuclear power “one step closer”.

Bandt, speaking at a press conference in in the inner-city suburb of New Farm, said Australia and Queensland were already seeing the negative consequences of the LNP in power.

“Australia is now one step closer to having nuclear power. Peter Dutton has made it clear that [he will] now use this result to push Australia a step closer to having nuclear power,” Bandt told reporters.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he will negotiate with state premiers in pursuit of his nuclear energy plans.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

“The Greens will fight Peter [Dutton’s] nuclear push tooth and nail.”

Earlier today, Dutton said the state premiers’ opposition to nuclear energy, including that of David Crisafulli, would not stand in the way of his energy policy and he would negotiate for the states’ support.