As it happened: Brisbane on Tuesday, April 23

A woman has been taken to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in a serious condition after a crash involving an e-scooter at Woolloongabba.

The incident, which reportedly also involved a bus, occurred at the intersection of Main and Stanley streets just after 4pm. Traffic diversions were required, causing delays to the afternoon commute.

In a separate incident, closer to 5pm, an ambulance was called to Ann Street in the CBD where police had closed one lane to traffic. Details were not immediately available, but it is believed a person was injured in a collision between a pedestrian and a scooter rider near King George Square.

That where we’ll leave the live updates today. Thanks for joining us.

Dominating the news was our PM, Anthony Albanese, calling out the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, over his social media company’s refusal to stop displaying video of the stabbing attack of a bishop. Albanese slammed Musk for choosing “ego and showing violence” over common sense.

Speaking of the prime minister, he has set up camp for the night on the Kokoda Track.

Closer to home, a man shot dead by police on the Bruce Highway had pulled over and got out of a car, aiming a rifle at officers.

And police will close streets this weekend to re-enact the fatal bus collision between a Brisbane council bus and 18-year-old Tia Cameron.

Also today, we checked out a new bistro at West End, and recommended 20 things to do this Anzac Day in Brisbane.

Comedian Arj Barker won’t be laughing over the furore caused after he asked a breastfeeding mum to leave his show. Can babies and live comedy ever mix? We asked a bunch of comedians.

Our live coverage of Brisbane and beyond returns Wednesday morning.

A woman has been taken to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in a serious condition after a crash involving an e-scooter at Woolloongabba.

The incident, which reportedly also involved a bus, occurred at the intersection of Main and Stanley streets just after 4pm. Traffic diversions were required, causing delays to the afternoon commute.

In a separate incident, closer to 5pm, an ambulance was called to Ann Street in the CBD where police had closed one lane to traffic. Details were not immediately available, but it is believed a person was injured in a collision between a pedestrian and a scooter rider near King George Square.

The state LNP’s support for legislating Labor’s new emissions reduction targets last week (but not its renewables ones) sure ruffled the feathers of their federal Coalition counterparts.

But leader David Crisafulli has now said the move to back an interim target of a 75 per cent reduction on 2005 levels by 2035 should come as no surprise.

Speaking to journalists in Bundaberg today, Crisafulli said the goal of hitting net zero emissions by 2050 was a position held by his Canberra-bound colleagues “and indeed the last three Coalition governments”.

“So I’ll always respect the different ways and different views on how to get there, but I think we struck the right balance,” he said.

The other side of that balancing act was a refusal to back laws enshrining targets for 70 per cent of the state’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2032, and 80 per cent by 2035, based on scepticism about Labor’s plans to lean on hydro to help transition from coal.

Brisbane-based Liberal leader Peter Dutton has been pushing plans for nuclear power to instead bear the brunt, despite growing internal Coalition opposition. Crisafulli, for his part, has rejected the idea until there is bipartisan federal support.

Premier Steven Miles and newly minted Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski have wasted no time getting on with their regional blitz since the latter’s sign-off by cabinet yesterday.

The pair were holding a media conference in Townsville within three hours of wrapping up at 1 William Street yesterday, and have remained there today spruiking funding to help victims of crime and the city’s new police helicopter.

In tow were two Cairns-based Labor MPs, talking up the need for their own chopper in their patch further north. (And there’s suggestions the Sunshine Coast might get one too.)

Quizzed about it today, Miles would only say the government was looking at what was being described as early success in Townsville and “considering what other regions” should get one.

Miles brushed off some of the increase in crime rates laid out in the new government statistician’s report as “nearly a year old”, repeating comments from yesterday that more recent police data appeared to show things may be “turning around”.

The government also used today to announce the youth crime taskforce headed by Acting Assistant Commissioner Andrew Massingham would be made permanent, and joint police-youth justice teams would be expanded to the Sunshine Coast and state’s south-west.

Local history enthusiasts would be familiar with Mephisto, the German tank on display in the Anzac Gallery on the lower level of the Queensland Museum building at South Bank.

Commandeered by Australians in a battlefield near Villers-Bretonneux in 1918, it’s the only surviving “Sturmpanzerwagen” tank left in the world and is considered an icon of the museum’s collection.

Tom Lamin, the grandson of Horace Lynch, reunites the compass with the German tank Mephisto.Credit: Queensland Museum

For more than 100 years, though, it was missing its compass. Historians now believe this was “souvenired” by Lieutenant Horace Warner Lynch, who brought it home after the war and gave it to his grandson, telling him it came from “the German tank at the museum”.

The compass was donated to the museum last year, and goes on public display alongside Mephisto this week as part of the museum’s commemoration of Anzac Day.

Read about more things to do in Brisbane this Thursday.

The Queensland Government Statistician’s Office has released its updated crunching of crime data, this time for the 2022-23 financial year, and figures are flying thick and fast.

The rates of unique adult and child offenders have increased slightly – 1.9 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively – after a seven-year slide. The rates for offence against people is up 17.7 per cent, and against property, up 17.1 per cent.

But the report comes with important words of warning. The period covered by the report is the first free of pandemic restrictions, which largely saw crime drop.

Increased recording and awareness of domestic violence has driven large spikes in some offences, and political focus on youth crime has pushed greater police attention.

“Given the heightened police presence, higher than usual recorded numbers of youth offenders and offences typically committed by those age groups may not necessarily be indicative of an increased number of youths committing crime but rather a result of increased detection,” the report notes on page two.

The report also makes clear that using the raw counts of statistics, rather than rates per 100,000 estimated residents, is “problematic”, as it doesn’t factor in different population size across different areas, or changes in population over time.

The release of these statistics comes less than a week after the collapse of the cross-party youth justice committee – which I’ve written more about here.

Even after producing his most accomplished performance of the season, Ezra Mam has declared he is still searching for his best form, and says his Las Vegas ordeal was well and truly behind him.

Brisbane’s star five-eighth was at the centre of a racism scandal for the historic season-opener in the United States that resulted in Sydney Roosters enforcer Spencer Leniu being hit with an eight-week suspension after he pleaded guilty to calling the proud Indigenous man a “monkey”.

Brisbane five-eighth Ezra Mam has revealed he will speak with Spencer Leniu “when the time is right”.Credit: AP

Upon their return to Australia, Leniu attempted to come to Queensland to meet Mam and apologise in person, but Mam refused at the time.

But now, addressing the media for the first time since the incident – which drew widespread support to his corner from the likes of Latrell Mitchell – Mam revealed he intended to speak to Leniu “when the time is right” to bury the hatchet and cast aside the issue.

“I think when the time is right we will have a chat, and I appreciate that he wanted to come up and reach out to me,” Mam said.

Read more.

A man shot dead by police on a Queensland highway had pulled over and got out of a car, aiming a rifle at officers, leaving them with “no option”, authorities say.

The 36-year-old died after the shooting on the Bruce Highway at Colosseum, about an hour’s drive south of Gladstone, yesterday morning.

Regional Crime Coordinator Detective Superintendent Darrin Shadlow told media today that police had received reports that a vehicle was stolen with a long-arm rifle inside.

Shadlow said the man, armed with the rifle, went to the home of a 61-year-old woman in Colosseum, where he demanded her keys and stole a second vehicle, destroying a gate on the way out.

Read the full story.

A woman is in a serious condition following a reported dog attack this morning in Burpengary.

Paramedics were called to the private address before 7am to assess a woman – believed to be in her 60s – for multiple wounds on her arm and hand.

She was transferred to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital for further treatment.

Last week, Queensland passed tough new laws to crack down on irresponsible dog owners following a spate of attacks, including a fatal dog attack on a meter reader.

Owners of dogs that attack and cause serious injury or death can now face up to three years’ jail.

The maximum fines for failing to take reasonable steps to ensure a dog does not attack have doubled to more than $92,000.

Police will close streets in inner-city Brisbane this weekend to re-enact the fatal bus collision between a Brisbane City Council bus and 18-year-old Tia Cameron.

The young woman died shortly after 5pm on Friday, March 8, just after leaving a beauty salon and being hit by a bus that had turned down Edward Street.

Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner told ABC Radio Brisbane that the council bus had been tested thoroughly, and police examiners had reviewed CCTV footage.

“It was not a mechanical failure; there was no technical failure,” Schrinner said this morning.

“They are now crossing every ‘t’ and dotting every ‘i’ to make sure they understand exactly what happened.”

Schrinner said he understood the re-enactment opened a wound for the community, “but Tia’s family deserve to know what happened”.

Authorities have declined to speculate on the cause until the incident is fully investigated.