As it happened: Brisbane on Wednesday, June 19

The smoke haze over Brisbane this afternoon is the result of controlled hazard-reduction burns around south-east Queensland, as emergency services take advantage of dry, cool conditions.

The two largest hazard reduction burns are taking place near Point Lookout on South Stradbroke Island and at Mt Nebo in the D’Aguilar National Park, where the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service is burning 2000 hectares of land.

“These burns are strategically happening this week in the lead-up to the holidays next week, so there’s more burning happening this week than normal,” said Marty McLaughlin, from QPWS.

Map of south-east Queensland areas where hazard reduction burns are being carried out on Wednesday.Credit: Queensland Fire and Rescue Service

The Brisbane City Council is also carrying out a planned burn in Belmont Hills Bushland in the city’s south-east, between Old Cleveland Road, Scrub Road and Ewer Street.

The Belmont hazard-reduction burn started at 10am and is due to continue into the early evening.

“Smoke may impact the Gateway Motorway and Old Cleveland Road and settle in low-lying areas in surrounding suburbs, particularly overnight,” the council said.

The burns are designed to reduce the risk and intensity of potential bushfires during the summer fire season.

“Planned burns are highly weather-dependent, generally requiring milder conditions and minimal wind,” a QPWS spokeswoman said.

“These same weather conditions can also allow smoke to accumulate and linger until weather conditions change and winds assist in dispersing the smoke.”

If the smoke affects you, stay inside, close windows and doors, and keep respiratory medication close by.

This is where we will leave our live news coverage today. Thank you for joining us on a day that has been dominated by debate about nuclear power and the future of our state’s energy supply.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton confirmed the two Queensland-based sites where the Coalition intends to build nuclear reactors and says an Australian government led by him could acquire the land if needed.

The federal Coalition would replace ageing coal-fired power facilities at Tarong, about 140 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, and Callide, inland from Gladstone, with Commonwealth-owned nuclear power stations.

Today Opposition leader Peter Dutton released a plan to build seven nuclear reactors across the country on the sites of old coal-fired power stations.Credit: James Brickwood

LNP leader David Crisafulli was almost as quick to distance himself from Dutton’s proposal, as Premier Steven Miles was to slam the idea.

We fact check the key claims of the opposition’s nuclear plans, here.

In other news, at least three large controlled hazard-reduction burns across south-east Queensland brought smoke haze to much of the city in the afternoon.

A Gold Coast teenager was charged by police over online posts that ranked female students into offensive categories including: “abduction material”, “one night stand”, “average”, “preorder” and “unrapeable”.

Multiple people and a baby were at a home north of Brisbane where police shot a wanted man armed with a knife.

And, Queensland mining billionaire Clive Palmer and former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson launched their speaking event series in Brisbane at one of Palmer’s homes.

There is poor air quality in the northern suburbs of Upper Kedron and Petrie due to the ongoing hazard-reduction burns in bushland around Brisbane.

The air quality has also decreased slightly in South Brisbane, where the rating is fair.

If smoke affects you stay indoors and close windows and doors, and keep respiratory medication close by.

Areas with “poor” air quality are highlighted orange, while the area with “fair” air quality is in yellow. Credit: Department of Environment

You can check the air quality in your area on the Department of Environment and Science’s live site.

The smoke haze over Brisbane this afternoon is the result of controlled hazard-reduction burns around south-east Queensland, as emergency services take advantage of dry, cool conditions.

The two largest hazard reduction burns are taking place near Point Lookout on South Stradbroke Island and at Mt Nebo in the D’Aguilar National Park, where the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service is burning 2000 hectares of land.

“These burns are strategically happening this week in the lead-up to the holidays next week, so there’s more burning happening this week than normal,” said Marty McLaughlin, from QPWS.

Map of south-east Queensland areas where hazard reduction burns are being carried out on Wednesday.Credit: Queensland Fire and Rescue Service

The Brisbane City Council is also carrying out a planned burn in Belmont Hills Bushland in the city’s south-east, between Old Cleveland Road, Scrub Road and Ewer Street.

The Belmont hazard-reduction burn started at 10am and is due to continue into the early evening.

“Smoke may impact the Gateway Motorway and Old Cleveland Road and settle in low-lying areas in surrounding suburbs, particularly overnight,” the council said.

The burns are designed to reduce the risk and intensity of potential bushfires during the summer fire season.

“Planned burns are highly weather-dependent, generally requiring milder conditions and minimal wind,” a QPWS spokeswoman said.

“These same weather conditions can also allow smoke to accumulate and linger until weather conditions change and winds assist in dispersing the smoke.”

If the smoke affects you, stay inside, close windows and doors, and keep respiratory medication close by.

District Detective Inspector Joe Zitny spoke to the media earlier today about the police shooting in Caboolture. You can watch the press conference below:

Australian journalist Cheng Lei has reported she was blocked from entering a second major government press event after Chinese officials blocked her during the diplomatic signing ceremony between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese premier Li Qiang.

On Monday, Chinese embassy officials attempted to block Cheng from being captured by television cameras. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday he complained directly to Li about the embassy officials’ disrespectful treatment of Cheng.

Chinese officials try to block cameras from filming Chinese-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei (covered).Credit: AAPIMAGE

In a report published by Sky News this morning, Cheng said she was also prevented from entering a second press event at the Hyatt Hotel attended by Li on Monday afternoon despite being registered.

Cheng – who was detained in China for three years – said after the story broke about her being blocked by a Chinese official, she went to the Hyatt and was waiting to be let into the scheduled event.

“The Chinese … were talking to the prime minister’s media staff, I then heard the words among themselves in Chinese: ‘This is our turf, we can veto it’,” she told Sky.

“The Prime Minister and Cabinet media staff came to tell me I wouldn’t be allowed to go in because I wasn’t confirmed on the list, but the cameraman could.

“‘But I’ve been registered since last week,’ I said, remembering our bureau chief had put me on the list.”

Cheng claims PM&C staff said the list she signed up to was only an expression of interest list and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s team got to decide who came in, and she was not on the list.

Later, a member of Dutton’s team came over to her and said he would get Cheng into the event.

Cheng then says she observed the Chinese delegate walking past her and when Premier Li arrived “many people [were] shielding him away from me”.

After, Cheng says Dutton and Coalition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham arrived and did not make eye contact with her.

“I was still confident I could go in, because the man from Dutton’s media team had assured me he could get me in,” she said.

“But when people started to go in and I followed, calling his name loudly several times, he didn’t turn around,” Lei continued.

“I was then tapped on the shoulder by the PM&C media staffer, motioning that I can’t go in.”

Cheng says she tried many times to get in and waited until 5pm, but PM&C and Dutton’s staff would not let her inside the event.

“Why could I not turn up? I had served my sentence and was deported. I am employed by an Australian news organisation. I got a media pass for Parliament House. I don’t act out of turn, why do they?” she said.

Queensland mining billionaire Clive Palmer has spoken in favour of the opposition’s plan to build nuclear power plants, saying that “nuclear power makes sense”.

“There’s no emissions with nuclear power whatsover, and of course Australia has got unprecedented resources in uranium so this makes common sense,” he said, noting that nuclear power stations were “very safe”.

The billionaire businessman and sometime politician was speaking in Brisbane today at the launch of his Australian Freedom Conference speaking tour alongside conservative US political commentator Tucker Carlson.

Clive Palmer and Tucker Carlson (left): Palmer has previously said he is looking forward to reaping a profit from his national Freedom Conference tour starring right-wing journalist Carlson.Credit: Nick Dent

Carlson, who has been called “the most influential voice in right-wing media”, agreed that cheap energy was a good thing but added that those concerned about climate change should be more worried about Ukraine.

“We are on the cusp of nuclear war, right now,” he said.

“That’s also a form of climate change, nuclear war. It heightens the temperature pretty intensely.”

The Australian Freedom Conference tour begins in Cairns on Friday before travelling to Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. Tickets start at $80 a head.

Carlson, a former Fox News commentator who continues to argue that the 2020 US presidential election was rigged, now runs his own media outlet and broadcasts on X, formerly known as Twitter.

He recently became the first western journalist to interview Russian president Vladimir Putin since the Ukraine war started, but was roundly criticised for his soft line of questioning.

Now heading closer to Brisbane at Wivenhoe Dam, where Queensland’s Deputy Premier Cameron Dick has made Labor’s attack lines clear.

“Peter Dutton and David Crisafulli’s nuclear plan for Queensland is now as bright and as clear as a nuclear power plant in full-on meltdown,” Dick said at a media conference to mark the 40th anniversary of the dam’s pumped hydro plant.

Queensland’s Deputy Premier and Treasurer Cameron Dick.Credit: AFR

“Make no mistake, this is a nuclear attack by Peter Dutton and David Crisafulli on Queensland’s clean renewable energy future.

“David Crisafulli knows that federal law overrides state law. He’s been a minister in the [state government] … he knows that Peter Dutton’s plan to implement federal law to override state law will work. He knows that he hasn’t been telling the truth about that.

“But what all this means … is that Queenslanders will pay more for power.”

Queensland’s state Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has sought to distance himself again from the federal Coalition’s energy plans, saying nuclear is “not part of our plan” ahead of the October election.

In Townsville this morning, Crisafulli was asked a total of eight times about his view on Coalition leader Peter Dutton’s proposal to replace two ageing coal-fired power stations in Queensland with nuclear reactors.

He was also quizzed on whether he had spoken to Dutton, whether the Coalition’s plan would hurt the LNP’s electoral chances, and whether the party had misread the mood of the community.

In response to almost all questions, Crisafulli said: “It’s not part of our plan.”

Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli.Credit: Matt Dennien

“Peter knows my position on it [nuclear],” he said.

Crisfulli said his state LNP party room had been consistent in opposing plans for nuclear technology.

“That’s a discussion for Canberra. My focus is on making sure that Queenslanders know that we’re focused on bringing them good government in Queensland, and I spoke about those issues and that’s not part of our plan,” he said.

The opposition leader repeated a similar response when asked if he was under pressure from his federal LNP colleagues to change his stance.

“​Queenslanders need to know that we’re focused on the issues they’re talking to us about,” he said.

Asked why nuclear was not part of his plan for the state, Crisafulli said: “Because we’ve mapped out a plan for affordable, reliable, sustainable energy … and right now, our number one priority is to get the Callide [coal-fired] power plants back up and running.”

Extra police will be deployed in Brisbane’s north as part of the state’s crackdown on crime to coincide with the June school holidays.

Operation Whiskey Legion will move to the city’s northern suburbs to provide local police with additional resources, with a focus on anti-social behaviour. Police will also be scanning people travelling on public transport for weapons.

Ben Marcus, the Assistant Commissioner for the Brisbane region, said there would be a lot of high-visibility police in the area, as well as undercover officers.

“We will be riding buses, we will be at bus interchanges, we will be in supermarkets, we will be in skate parks, we will be in parks, we will be everywhere,” he said.

“All of the forces that we have brought in here are over and above our normal, business-as-usual police.”

So far, Operation Whiskey, which deploys police to various regions around the state as a short-term measure to boost local resources, has charged more than 1300 people with 3126 offences collectively.