As it happened: Qld minister to quit politics; Minister taps off early over call for free public transport; Matt Okine has plans for Brisbane

That’s where we’ll leave our live updates. Until we return tomorrow morning, here are all the headlines you might have missed today:

• The Australian Electoral Commission has been forced to clarify the dress code for voting after an Indigenous man was reportedly turned away from a pre-poll venue for wearing a Yes T-shirt.
• Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has backed the call from the RACQ on Thursday morning for more ambitious transport planning to prevent increasing congestion problems as the population grows by 2.2 million people in south-east Queensland.
• Police announced a $500,000 reward for information relating to the suspected murder of a young man from Perth who went missing in Queensland more than 40 years ago.

Further afield, Israel’s energy minister says food and electricity will not be restored to the Gaza Strip until Hamas releases the hostages it took. Australian reservists called up in Israel have joined the fight, and the White House has walked back President Joe Biden’s claims over Hamas baby beheadings.

An Australian woman strip-searched at Doha airport has branded a parliamentary inquiry into the government’s decision to reject more Qatar Airways flights as a wasted chance to interrogate the country’s human rights record.

And a rare cancer has been revealed as comedian Cal Wilson’s cause of death.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman has apologised to a 17-year-old alleged rape victim who came forward this week with her story of a humiliating and traumatic experience at a central Queensland hospital.

The opposition continued a third day of questioning Health Minister Shannon Fentiman and the government over commitments around the availability of the new rape examination kit.Credit: Matt Dennien

The year 11 student, named Tilly by Guardian Australia, which first reported her story, waited hours to be told no one at the hospital had the training to examine her, and ultimately left before filing an official complaint.

“It is clear that she did not receive the timely, compassionate, trauma-informed care that she was entitled to and expected,” Fentiman told parliament.

“The hospital and health service has apologised to the young woman and I would like to also unreservedly apologise to her for the ongoing impact that this incident has had on her.”

The opposition continued a third day of questioning Fentiman and the government over commitments around availability of rape examination kits, and the training for doctors to use them, after the issue emerged as part of the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce.

A Sherwood subdivision that stalled in 2009 – first due to the global financial crisis, then the 2011 flood – is back on the drawing board because of Brisbane’s housing shortage.

In documents submitted to Brisbane City Council, the final stages of Pradella’s Parklands development have been revised to favour larger units and two-level townhouses.

Pradella’s Parklands at Sherwood development.

“Habitable floor levels will exceed flood level requirements,” the documents state.

“Fewer units will be located in proximity to the cemetery and vehicle workshop on adjoining properties.”

The documents argue the project has only recently become feasible again, and “given the current housing crisis in the region, delivery of additional housing supply under existing approvals should be facilitated”.

Forty oyster baskets have been installed in the upper estuarine reaches of the Pine River, downstream of the Murrumba Downs water treatment plant.

The baskets, pre-seeded and transferred from Moreton Bay, will become a man-made reef and help determine the impact oysters have on water quality.

Oyster baskets being installed in the Pine River, near Brisbane.

“It will paint a bigger picture about how important shellfish reefs are to our ecosystem and give real data to showcase the work they do in filtering nutrients,” said Robbie Porter, OzFish senior project officer for shellfish reef restoration.

The project is an Australian first, delivered by Unitywater, OzFish, the University of Sunshine Coast and Healthy Land and Water.

Tourism Minister and Sandgate Labor MP Stirling Hinchliffe has made the announcement in parliament we knew was coming after last night’s news, with his wife Megan and three children embracing in the public gallery above.

Stirling Hinchliffe says he is stepping down “to repay the person who has sacrificed the most for me”.Credit: Glenn Hunt

“I rise,17 years to the day after delivering my first speech in this place, to advise the house and my community of Sandgate that I will not be seeking pre-selection as a candidate in the October 2024 election,” he said.

“Serving this house and serving the people of Queensland has been the greatest honour of my life. And I continue to enjoy the privilege it allows me.

“I’ve come to this decision, not because I no longer want to serve, or because I’m tired of that privilege, but in order to repay the person who has sacrificed the most for me.

“My wife Megan has put my pursuit of my political life and this parliamentary and ministerial service ahead of things she may want to have done for long enough. After October next year, it will be her turn to make the call.”

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has backed the call from the RACQ on Thursday morning for more ambitious transport planning to prevent increasing congestion problems as the population grows by 2.2 million people in south-east Queensland.

“I agree with the RACQ on this,” said Mayor Schrinner at the Asia Pacific Cities Summit and Mayors’ Forum in Brisbane.

Mayor Adrian Schrinner, right, with Andrew Liveris, the president of the Brisbane Organising Committee for the 2032 Olympic Games, at the summit.Credit: Brisbane Times

“If we don’t have a correction in course, we risk becoming like other places that are absolutely gridlocked.”

He said authorities need to decide whether to place temporary or permanent transport changes for the 2032 Games.

“Are they temporary and just cobbled together for the Games to make the Games run smoothly and then disappear at the end of the Games?

“At the moment, there is talk of exactly that! Temporary transit lanes, temporary park and rides.

“Why not have permanent transit lanes and permanent park and rides?”

The Australian Electoral Commission has been forced to clarify the dress code for voting after an Indigenous man was reportedly turned away from a pre-poll venue for wearing a Yes T-shirt.

The ABC has reported that an Indigenous man, Yagara and Bundjalung elder Uncle Valentine Brown, was told to return home and change his clothing after he turned up to an early voting venue near Ipswich west of Brisbane wearing a Yes T-shirt.

The 73-year-old told the ABC the electoral commission later told him this was incorrect, and he returned to the same venue to successfully cast his vote.

The electoral commission, the independent entity that runs federal elections and referendums, issued a statement this morning reminding voters that campaigning is not allowed inside the polling place or within six metres of the entrance.

They clarified that simply wearing campaign clothing to vote was probably OK, but advised voters to avoid any potential problem by not wearing campaign material in the polling place, or bringing additional clothing to cover up.

“If a voter wears a pin, shirt or hat with a campaign slogan into the polling place, casts their vote and leaves then it may not be considered as campaigning,” the statement says. “However, when inside a polling venue a problem could arise if a voter is seen talking about the material or gesturing towards it.”

The electoral commission said its staff would take a “commonsense approach” and asked voters to “be kind” to its temporary workforce of 100,000 people who were “everyday members of the community doing their best”.

Queensland is polling as Australia’s most ardent “No” state for the Indigenous Voice. But, Zach Hope writes in today’s Perspective, we probably shouldn’t be surprised.

For all the “Greensliding” in the capital’s inner suburbs at the last federal election, Queensland remains a peculiar, vast and multi-headed beast that’s apparently more comfortable erring on the side of the status quo.

The Sunshine State had no time for the most recent referendum in 1999, either. The 62.5 per cent vote to remain monarchist was almost three points clear of the next most sceptical state, Tasmania.

Other than the unanimously carried referenda of 1977 and 1967, the last time Queensland voted Yes in a disputed poll was for the failed question of 1951, which essentially asked Australians to ban communists.

But does that make Queensland an inherently conservative state? As one expert tells us, “it’s very nuanced”.

Visy recycling entrepreneur Anthony Pratt is urging ratepayers to take recycling seriously as a major effort to tackle climate change.

He’s speaking this morning at the Asia Pacific Cities Summit in Brisbane. Here’s what he had to say:

“We think halving Australia’s landfill will, firstly, save councils and businesses $10 billion a year in landfill costs; secondly, it would create 20,000 sustainable manufacturing jobs; and thirdly, save 150 million tonnes in greenhouse gas emissions, which is one third of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

He said Visy Recycling would spend an additional $2 million to help double the proportion of recycled glass in glass bottles from 30 per cent to 70 per cent.

“Glass, by the way, is infinitely recyclable.”

Anthony Pratt giving a keynote speech at the Asia Pacific Cities Summit in Brisbane.Credit: Tony Moore

Police are expected to announce a $500,000 reward today for information relating to the suspected murder of a young man from Perth who went missing in Queensland more than 40 years ago.

Anthony “Tony” Jones disappeared while backpacking in North Queensland in November 1982. 

Anthony “Tony” Jones, 20, went missing in November 1982 while hitchhiking from Townsville to Mount Isa.

In 2018, his family claimed they knew who had murdered him, but said police were refusing to act on compelling evidence gathered in a lengthy private investigation.

An inquest in 2002 found the backpacker had probably been murdered, and a later inquest in 2010 also heard Jones’ body may have been burned in slaughter yards in the outback town of Hughenden.

Jones’ body has never been found.