As it happened: Brisbane on Thursday, May 8

Defeated Brisbane MP Stephen Bates says he’s “not going anywhere” in a thank-you message to supporters.

The 32-year-old Greens representative lost his seat to Labor in the May 3 election, joining party colleagues Max Chandler-Mather and Adam Bandt in leaving Parliament.

“Being your MP is a huge privilege and I couldn’t have wished for a better team, a better community and a better time to have done that,” he said in a statement.

Stephen Bates moments after conceding defeat in front of party faithful at Echo and Bounce in Woolloongabba late on election night.Credit: William Davis

“I’m proudest about being able to have touched so many thousand lives in the work my team and I did. It’s an honour that basically no other job gives you.

“It’s intimate and special and something you can’t even explain until you’ve experienced it.

“I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not going to stop helping people just because I’m not their MP any more.”

A representative for Bates said he was not giving interviews at the moment.

Ryan MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown could be the last Greens member in the federal lower house, with the seat yet to be called amid a tight contest with Labor.

Thanks for joining us for our live coverage of the news today. We will have more for you in our next coverage. In the meantime, take a look back at some of the stories making headlines today:

Despite many bosses ordering workers back to the office, Queensland’s public servants are logging on from home in increasing numbers. The latest workforce survey shows 54 per cent of the state’s public servants worked from home in 2024, up from 51 per cent a year earlier.

Ousted Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has taken to social media to respond to Albanese’s claim that he should “have a good look” at his conduct during his term in parliament after losing the Brisbane seat of Griffith. Follow our national politics live blog for all today’s developments.

Three children are dead, and their 36-year-old mother is under police guard in hospital, following a house fire in Toowoomba yesterday morning.

Medical staff at Leongatha Hospital say accused triple murderer Erin Patterson reported gastro symptoms, asked after her lunch guests and appeared reluctant to stay.

The much anticipated Mondrian Gold Coast is finally about to open – two years after its target date. But anticipation can be a double-edged sword.

Finally, a robotic Soviet spacecraft that has been adrift in space for 53 years will return to Earth later this week. And there’s a good chance it will survive its dive, making it to the surface at least partly intact.

The Gabba’s famous wicket could survive the stadium’s demolition and be moved to the new Brisbane Stadium at Victoria Park, Queensland Sports Minister Tim Mander said today following a suggestion from an Australian Test cricket star.

Helping launch the state government’s discussion paper Queensland’s sports strategy ahead of Brisbane 2032, Test cricketer Marnus Labuschagne said there was some sadness around the impending Gabba demolition.

“The stadium has been a part of the history, but the wicket is what makes it special,” he said.

Marnus Labuschagne on the famous wicket at November’s Gabba Test against India.Credit: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

“I think if we can keep the wicket and keep the characteristics of the Gabba pitch, which has made Australia so successful in Brisbane for a long period of time, that’ll then transcend [to] the new era of Brisbane cricket and Test matches.”

Kevin Rudd has ridiculed President Donald Trump’s proposed movie tariffs at a high-powered executive conference in Los Angeles, despite being Australia’s ambassador to the US.

“I don’t think we want to see a tax on Bluey,” Rudd said, referring to the ABC children’s program that became a worldwide hit.

Kevin Rudd at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.Credit: Milken Institute

“What happens if we all lock down our countries with competitive, punitive arrangements against each other’s movies? Movies are the way in which we kind of understand each other more. So I’d be all for opening this up.”

Trump announced this week he was planning to impose a 100 per cent tariff on all films made overseas.

Rudd went on to mock the Trump administration’s imposition of 10 per cent tariffs on the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands as part of his “Liberation Day” tariff announcement.

“If you’ve seen the other great Australian movie, Happy Feet – you know, the penguins – those penguins of ours have just been tariffed down in Heard and Macquarie [sic] Island in Antarctica,” he said.

“They’re producing a sequel, it’s called Unhappy Feet. There’ll be a march of penguins on Washington.”

Read on for the full story.

Queensland MP Nick Dametto, from the Katter’s Australian Party, has evoked youth crime as reason to “let parents be parents” and allow corporal punishment.

While various child welfare groups have backed a Queensland Law Reform Commission bid to rewrite the laws, Dametto said he opposed any move to “criminalise parenting”.

“Reasonable discipline is not abuse,” the Member for Hinchinbrook said in a statement.

“Parents who give their child a smack on the backside for lying, swearing, or running onto a busy road aren’t criminals. They’re doing their job by raising kids to understand boundaries, consequences, and respect. Without these lessons at home, we’re only pushing the responsibility onto teachers, police officers, and courts at a stage when it is far too late to have a meaningful impact.”

Dametto said “this growing idea that children should be shielded from every form of discomfort or consequence is nothing more than neglect dressed up as progress”.

Despite many bosses ordering workers back to the office, Queensland’s public servants are logging on from home in increasing numbers.

The latest workforce survey shows 54 per cent of the state’s public servants worked from home in 2024, up from 51 per cent a year earlier, and 49 per cent in 2022.

In comparison, about 36 per cent of all working Australians regularly did so from home in 2024, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Premier David Crisafulli confirmed there were no plans to change work from home arrangements in Queensland.Credit: Matt Dennien

Across the Queensland public sector, almost one-in-three remote workers said they did so one day a week on average, 49 per cent did two days at home, and just 3 per cent did five days.

But which department has most staff working remotely? Read on for all the details.

A tourist flight with seven passengers on board was travelling too fast when it landed at a North Queensland airport in November and overshot the runway, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has found.

The ATSB found Wave Air GA8 Airvan, which was operating a scenic flight before its high-speed landing at Shute Harbour’s Whitsunday Airport, should have initiated a go-around instead of attempting a landing on November 2 last year.

“The aircraft’s approach was above profile with a high airspeed,” ATSB transport safety director Stuart Macleod said.

The Wave Air GA8 Airvan overran the runway at Whitsunday Airport on November 2 last year.Credit: ATSB

“Subsequently, the landing was beyond the planned touchdown point.”

After overrunning the runway, the Airvan rolled on its wheels across grass before it reached marshy ground and came to a stop in a ditch.

While the aircraft was substantially damaged, the pilot and passengers were uninjured.

“While landing beyond the planned touchdown point, there was adequate landing distance remaining, however the pilot did not apply sufficient braking to stop the aircraft departing the runway,” Macleod said.

The ATSB said, since the accident, Wave Air has updated its training and checking manual, appointed a new head of training and checking, updated pilot training, reviewed procedures and errors in the weight and balance system, and revised its stabilised approach criteria.

Nationals MP Michael McCormack said David Littleproud will remain party leader and urged Coalition colleagues to find unity as they rebuild from a disastrous election.

McCormack told ABC Radio National he expects Littleproud – who holds the Queensland seat of Maranoa – to be the sole candidate for the Nationals leadership when the party room convenes in Canberra next week.

He also confirmed he wouldn’t run for the deputy leadership, which is expected to be vacated as incumbent Perin Davey faces an uphill battle for re-election in the Senate.

Nationals Leader David Littleproud at the Coalition campaign launch in April.Credit: James Brickwood

“Both Coalition parties will go away and have legit wounds … this has been a devastating result,” McCormack said.

“The important thing now is not to get bitter, it’s to get better [and] to put in place people who we will get behind, to be united, both within our own parties and as a Coalition, and go forward from here and come back in three years’ time and provide a credible alternative.”

McCormack was tight-lipped about the future of the Coalition’s nuclear policy, saying all policies “would be on the table” in both parties’ election reviews.

Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf admits star hooker Jeremy Marshall-King was on an indefinite comeback timeline, after a nasty gash he suffered against the Penrith Panthers last month reopened.

Kurt Donoghoe will instead don the No.9 jumper against the Parramatta Eels tonight, as the Kiwi Test rake remains on ice to ensure he does not risk any infection to the leg wound.

Dolphin Jeremy Marshall-King during the match against Penrith earlier this month.Credit: Getty Images

“I spoke with Jeremy and unfortunately he got a direct blow there again that’s reopened up. He obviously can’t play this week, and we need to be really careful with it,” Woolf said.

“He had a pretty major infection there, it’s certainly a major gash. We need to make sure it’s healed probably before he runs out.

“I don’t have a timeline, I know it’s not a really lengthy one, but we have to see how it goes and make sure it heals.”

Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTin Eats has won for illustrated book of the year at the Australian Book Industry Awards, beating fellow cook Brooke Bellamy a week after accusing Bellamy of copying two of her recipes.

Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTin Eats arrives at the Australian Book Industry Awards.Credit: Joe Armao

It’s the second year in a row that Maehashi has won the award, this time for her cookbook Tonight. Bellamy’s Bake with Brooki was on the shortlist in the same category.

Maehashi accused Bellamy last week of plagiarism, arguing she was forced to go public after six months of unsuccessfully trying to reach an agreement with Bellamy’s publisher Penguin.

Both Penguin and Bellamy, who owns Brooki Bakehouse in Fortitude Valley, denied the allegations, and the dispute is unresolved.

Penguin, meanwhile, won the title of best publisher for the fourth time in five years.

A former adviser to the Queensland Academy of Sport has taken extraordinary steps to make clear she was not consulted on a shakeup of the body.

In a parliamentary committee hearing last year, top sport bureaucrat Andrew Hopper was asked about the QAS governance structure, the departure of CEO Chelsea Warr, and whether the QAS advisory board was consulted on changes.

Hopper told the committee he “had a conversation with the then chair of the advisory board,” former hockey player Renita Garard, who had also left.

Renita Garard won gold at Atlanta and Sydney with the Hockeyroos.Credit: Rick Stevens

But Garard has since demanded a rare right of reply, with the ethics committee this week agreeing to put her response on the public record.

“I was not consulted at all prior to the decision being made by Mr Hopper on the changes to the governance structure of the QAS, nor was I consulted on the decision made by Mr Hopper relevant to the employment status of the then QAS CEO,” Garard said in response.

“Mr Hopper informed me of the changes following his decisions having already been made, and after the decisions had been actioned by him.”

The Crisafulli government today announced a new advisory board, headed by former businessman and diver David Lyons and including former Olympic swimmer Cate Campbell and rugby league administrator Ben Ikin.