As it happened: Brisbane on Tuesday, May 27

Staff and patients of Toowong Private Hospital have been advised the embattled mental health facility will close in two weeks.

Administrators EY were recently called in to determine the future of the family-run hospital, and held a creditors meeting on Monday.

It is understood EY has decided to close the hospital, one of the few private mental health facilities in Brisbane. An announcement is expected later today.

Comments has been sought from the hospital and EY.

The 58-bed hospital on Milton Road was founded by influential Brisbane builder and philanthropist Noel Austin Kratzmann, who chaired the facility until his death in 1989.

Its closure comes after national private hospital group Healthscope was this week placed into receivership.

Thanks for joining us for our live coverage of the news today in Brisbane and beyond. We’ll be back tomorrow morning with more live coverage. If you’re just catching up, here are some of the stories making headlines today:

Thousands of nurses and midwives have voted to strike for the first time in 20 years, saying promised “nation-leading” wage increases never transpired.

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has retained her Senate seat after speculation she could lose it to One Nation candidate Lee Hanson, who only entered the race in April after urging from her mother and party leader Pauline Hanson.

Back in Brisbane, an art deco-era community landmark has been brought back from the brink of ruin, but its trustees say it needs a large injection of funds if it’s to survive past its 100th birthday in 2026.

An Australian man is accused of accepting a 1.7 kilogram haul of cocaine in Bali for a promised reward of just $4700, an alleged drug deal that could potentially put him at risk of the death penalty if convicted.

Injury-plagued Wallabies centre Josh Flook has cast aside a tumultuous year on the field to ink a contract extension with the Queensland Reds.

And digital devices, social media and a 24/7 news cycle are taking their toll on our ability to concentrate – but you can train yourself out of it.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Blejie has doubled down in his support of Sunshine Coast hinterland wedding venue fighting to bend council building codes.

Maleny Manor – a luxury wedding venue on a 30-acre estate in Maleny – is owned by Geoffrey Thomas, a Queensland businessman and long-time LNP donor who contributed $56,000 to the party’s 2020 campaign.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie.Credit: Joe Ruckli

Speaking to 4BC’s Peter Fegan, Bleijie said his decision to support the development came down to boosting ecotourism across the state and region.

The popular wedding and events venue put in an application for major upgrades in 2023, but was knocked back for exceeding building height limits under Sunshine Coast Council Planning laws.

“Even though the council voted against the submission – it’s in court at the moment, so I’ve got to be careful what I say – the local councillor actually supports the project,” Bleijie said.

“The council wrote to me and asked me to build hotels on the beachside communities on the Sunshine Coast, so I think if it’s OK for the beachside communities, the hinterland should also get some love.”

He said the Sunshine Coast region had a shortage of 2000 beds, and the local community favoured the project.

“What a wonderful opportunity for the hinterland – I’ve seen the plans, and I think it’s going to be beautiful,” Bleijie said.

An earlier incident that saw parts of Eagle Street closed and traffic diverted through the CBD has now been resolved.

About 8am this morning, emergency crews responded to reports that a man had climbed a crane in a construction site next to Riparian Plaza on Eagle Street.

Police confirmed the man was safely retrieved around 11.30am and traffic lanes were reopened just before midday.

The Gold Coast’s economy is growing faster than any capital in Australia, a report commissioned by the city council and has found.

The State of the City Report, prepared by Deloitte, highlighted six priority industries where the council will seek “targeted investment”: health and wellbeing; tourism, sport and major events; building future industries; screen and game production; the knowledge economy and education and future skills.

Health was nominated as one of the priority investment areas for the Gold Coast.Credit: City of Gold Coast

“When you consider the disaster and all the things the city’s gone through, it’s a vote of confidence that investments are flowing in,” Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate told 4BC’s Peter Fegan.

Tate admitted he was nervous about the impact that US tariffs on foreign films might have on the screen industry, given its importance to the Gold Coast economy.

“That came out of left field … I think we’ve got to work that one through,” he said.

“From our point of view, we’re the friendliest city, we’ve been allies, and all those things should be taken into account … they use all our best movie stars because we’re the best good-looking people compared to Americans.”

The report also noted that the Gold Coast’s population is expected to reach 1 million in the next 15 years, with the growth in residents aged under 20 outpacing Brisbane and Queensland overall.

The Queensland government is increasingly confident Brisbane Arena will be built in time for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Sports Minister Tim Mander told media this morning outside Suncorp Stadium.

The Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority’s 100-day report recommended taxpayers foot the bill for a new arena on the former Go Print site at Woolloongabba, currently a Cross River Rail construction site.

The Crisafulli government instead decided to build a National Aquatic Centre at Victoria Park, at the Centenary Pool, and leave the arena for the private sector to build.

Hayes Anderson Lynch Architects’ concept for an arena on the former Go Print site.Credit: Hayes Anderson Lynch

Multinational companies such as Live Nation have already expressed interest in building the arena.

“There’s strong interest from the private sector with regards to the arena, and we’re very hopeful that that investment will come on board and that we’ll be able to have an arena pretty close to 2032,” Mander said.

Mander confirmed there had been about 200 expressions of interest for the arena build.

“That’s great for the state. People see the potential for a commercial return and also for a facility that Queenslanders, and particularly those in Brisbane, really need,” he said.

“So that’s very encouraging news.”

Staff and patients of Toowong Private Hospital have been advised the embattled mental health facility will close in two weeks.

Administrators EY were recently called in to determine the future of the family-run hospital, and held a creditors meeting on Monday.

It is understood EY has decided to close the hospital, one of the few private mental health facilities in Brisbane. An announcement is expected later today.

Comments has been sought from the hospital and EY.

The 58-bed hospital on Milton Road was founded by influential Brisbane builder and philanthropist Noel Austin Kratzmann, who chaired the facility until his death in 1989.

Its closure comes after national private hospital group Healthscope was this week placed into receivership.

Frontline healthcare workers have voted to take strike action after EBA negotiations with Queensland Health stalled last week.

The Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union said the state had threatened to strip workers of up to eight weeks’ backpay if they chose to strike.

More than 95 per cent of members voted in favour of taking the action.

The agreement covers more than 45,000 nurses and midwives who work for Queensland Health.Credit: Justin McManus

The last time Queensland Health workers went on strike was 2002. The union said it had yet to set a date for the upcoming protected action.

It said the new offer from Queensland Health was not “nation leading”, following an election commitment from the LNP government in October that promised to maintain wages for frontline workers in the state health service.

Union secretary Sarah Beaman said the new offer had “too many unanswered questions and missing commitments” to be accepted.

Queensland Health was set to meet with the union again this week.

The number of destroyed homes from last week’s NSW floods has doubled to about 800 but flood-weary communities are sensing some relief with weather conditions set to ease.

SES spokesman Matt Heap says 794 homes in the Mid North Coast region of NSW have been deemed as unfit for living in after more than 5000 damage assessments were conducted.

That figure of uninhabitable dwellings is expected to sharply rise throughout the day.

Residents clean a flood-damaged house in Taree.Credit: Getty Images

At the peak of the flooding, 50,000 people were isolated and delivering critical food supplies became a major priority to areas where roads were cut off.

The natural disaster has cost five lives and kept about 12,000 people isolated.

But weather conditions are set to ease from tomorrow after damaging winds pass through the region first.

“We do have damaging wind warnings ... that includes the high elevated parts of the Mid North Coast and northern Hunter,” senior meteorologist Dean Narramore from the Bureau of Meteorology said today.

Brisbane has just finished a 95-day fuel cycle, within which only three days were considered “cheap”, the RACQ says.

Dr Ian Jeffreys, an economist and affordability specialist at RACQ, said fuel cycles were typically six weeks, or 42 days, long – now six times as long as an average cycle in 2010.

“The longer the cycle, the less opportunities there are for motorists to fill up at a cheaper price throughout the year,” Jeffreys said.

Brisbane’s last fuel cycle lasted more than three months.Credit:

“It means drivers have to wait for an impossibly long time to get cheap fuel.”

The RACQ estimated motorists have about nine opportunities per year to fuel up on bottom-of-the-cycle prices.

Jeffreys said US tariffs and global oil prices had impacted fuel prices, alongside ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, which froze prices for a week in March.

Injury-plagued Wallabies centre Josh Flook has cast aside a tumultuous year on the field to ink a contract extension with the Queensland Reds, as he fixes his gaze on a last-ditch bid for the British and Irish Lions series.

The 23-year-old made his debut in the gold jumper last year against Wales, managing four caps in 2024 as he sought to establish himself in the nation’s No.13 jersey.

Josh Flook is tackled during a Bledisloe Cup match against the New Zealand All Blacks.Credit: Getty Images

Those plans appeared to be gathering steam in the initial rounds of the Super Rugby Pacific campaign, Flook scoring a double in the Reds’ second clash of the campaign against the Western Force, before succumbing to a hamstring injury.

Flook has not played since that encounter, but is in line to make his return against the Fijian Drua on Saturday as Queensland seek to cement their place in the top six on the eve of finals.

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