A housemate of missing Bundaberg teenager Pheobe Bishop has been taken into custody, a week after police suspended searches of bushland near her home.
Police confirmed a 34-year-old man had been taken into custody today, and was assisting police with inquiries this afternoon.
Pheobe had been living in a home in Gin Gin – about 45 kilometres southwest of Bundaberg – with two adults, including 34-year-old James Wood.
Police said as of 2pm, no charges had been laid.
Thanks for joining us for today’s news in Brisbane and beyond. We’ll be back tomorrow morning with more live news coverage. If you’re just catching up, here are some of the stories that have been making headlines:
Controversial Queensland laws to fast track 2032 Olympic projects have come under fire, with the Crisafulli government told to “go back to the drawing board”.
A mixed-use development next to Brisbane’s notorious Boggo Road Gaol will open by the end of the year, its developer says, but the future use of the heritage-listed prison remains up in the air.
Australia has been spared a letter from the Trump administration demanding countries cut trade barriers to US goods as the White House prepares to reinstate its “liberation day” tariffs, but has not secured a UK-style exemption to increased steel and aluminium import taxes.
Thousands of babies are heading into winter without full protection against RSV despite mounting evidence that free immunisations have led to fewer children ending up in hospital with the common but occasionally severe illness.
Erin Patterson felt nostalgic and was thinking about her mum before a family meal, so she picked a dish that she thought would be special. Follow our live coverage of the accused murderer’s trial.
And by the end of next year, it should be possible to fly direct from Australia’s east coast to London in about 20 hours. But there are a few things you need to know.
A housemate of missing Bundaberg teenager Pheobe Bishop has been taken into custody, a week after police suspended searches of bushland near her home.
Police confirmed a 34-year-old man had been taken into custody today, and was assisting police with inquiries this afternoon.
Pheobe had been living in a home in Gin Gin – about 45 kilometres southwest of Bundaberg – with two adults, including 34-year-old James Wood.
Police said as of 2pm, no charges had been laid.
The state government has defended its commitment to transport safety after a cyclist was fatally struck by a train on Monday.
Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg said the state already had plans to remove five railway level crossings in the south-east, as part of its Logan-Gold Coast fast rail service.
He added the state was also working with Queensland Rail and local councils to remove “a number of level crossings” through other projects.
A 69-year-old male cyclist died from significant head injuries after being hit by a train at Nathan Road level crossing – next to Runcorn station – about 4.30am on Monday morning.
The Rail Tram and Bus Union said tragedies could become more common as train services increased in the region if the state government did nothing to remove level crossings.
The RTBU Queensland division secretary Peter Allen said the union had previously flagged 38 level crossings it considered dangerous and in need of “some sort of treatment”.
In August last year, the then state government announced $10 million worth of planning studies focusing on 14 high-risk rail crossings in the south-east.
The decision came after the state failed to remove any crossings in a nine-year period.
Virgin Australia has kicked off its return to the Australian sharemarket after an absence of more than four years, with bankers offering shares in the airline to investors at $2.90 apiece for its much-anticipated listing on the ASX.
Private equity owner Bain Capital will sell close to 30 per cent of Qantas Airways’ biggest rival, expecting to raise $685 million via the initial public offering. The $2.90 price tag for the stock represents a multiple of seven times the airline’s expected earnings this financial year, the firm said in its pitch to sharemarket investors.
Virgin Australia’s IPO is ready to take off.Credit: Bloomberg
Market sources said the joint lead managers of the offering believed demand from domestic and global anchor investors was “well in excess of the offer size prior to opening of the bookbuild”. It’s unclear when the stock will start trading on the ASX.
The IPO represents the culmination of years of waiting for the listing of the airline. Bain Capital bought the then struggling airline in 2020, taking it off the sharemarket after it had been placed in administration, facing soaring costs and the impact of the COVID-19 shutdown on travel.
West End-based arts organisation Metro Arts has announced the appointment of Kieran Swann as its new chief executive officer.
Swann served as program manager for Metro Arts in 2012-16 and will relocate from Britain, where he has worked in arts organisations including public art providers Create London.
New Metro Arts chief Kieran Swann.Credit: Jimmy Lee
He takes up the role following the departure of former executive director Genevieve Trace.
Metro Arts board chair Tara Hastings said she was looking forward to Swann strengthening Metro Arts as Brisbane’s home for experimental and contemporary art.
She said Swann’s appointment would “undoubtedly propel us to the next level”.
Metro Arts, which has existed for 45 years, nurtures performers and visual artists and is supported by Brisbane City Council and the Queensland government.
It enjoyed federal funding through Creative Australia for eight years but failed to attract four-year funding in late 2023.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan has slammed the government’s handling of former Greens senator Dorinda Cox’s shock defection to the Labor Party, and said the prime minister had “some questions to answer”.
Appearing alongside Greens leader Larissa Waters on Nine’s Today show, Canavan said: “Seriously, I think the prime minister has some questions to answer here.”
Dorinda Cox and Anthony Albanese at the press confrence where she announced her defection.Credit: Nine News
“These bullying allegations that you’ve referred to have been well known. Some of the allegations have come from people that are public, that have been publicly in the media.
“The question for the prime minister is, did the Labor Party contact these people and speak to them? Because they are allegations, but they’re serious ones.
“And what sort of due diligence did the Labor Party do before taking someone into their ranks?”
Canavan’s comments come after this masthead revealed last year that 20 staff had left Cox’s office in about three years, with several lodging formal complaints alleging a hostile culture where employees felt unsafe.
Cox has consistently denied the claims and argued they lacked context, though she apologised for any distress felt by her staff.
In a statewide tour spruiking Queensland’s new 20-year tourism plan, the state government has thrown its weight behind a controversial cableway in the Gold Coast hinterland.
Premier David Crisafulli said the state had plans to deliver 45 ecotourism projects across Queensland in the next 20 years, and that he hoped a cableway in the Gold Coast hinterland would be one of them.
“I think we do have to be ambitious about those kinds of projects,” he said.
“I know [the] council is keen for it to occur and the local member has spent a lot of time speaking to the community about it.
“I do think they… are the kinds of projects that increasingly in Queensland we haven’t found a way to do and we need to have that attitude [that we can achieve them].”
A cableway in the Gold Coast hinterland has been considered several times, with projects buried under local backlash, design constraints, and concerns for the Springbrook National Park’s delicate ecosystem.
The state reignited hope for a project last year, when Environment Minister Andrew Powell said the project had been considered in the ecotourism run-up to the 2032 Games.
Welcoming this week’s announcement, Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said he hoped the government’s ecotourism investment would help clear state-level “green tape” and smooth out approval processes.
The lord mayor has criticised protesters who picketed a religious gathering in Brisbane on the weekend.
A celebration of the Shavuot Jewish holiday was organised at The Wickham in Fortitude Valley on Saturday night by the State Zionist Council of Queensland.
About 150 people protested outside, including some staff members who walked off the job.
“A group booked a private party in a pub to celebrate a religious and cultural holiday, and they were picketed,” Schrinner told council yesterday afternoon.
“It’s OK for people to protest what’s happening in the Middle East … it’s OK to object to war and death and destruction, but to target a group of people here is a different thing. We must as a city and a community push back on that.”
Former Greens councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan was at the protest, and at the weekend described the criticism as “disingenuous, offensive and ridiculous”.
“We need to stop with this nonsense of conflating criticism of Zionism with criticism of Jewish people,” he said. “There were quite a few – I’d say there were at least a dozen – anti-Zionist Jewish Australians who were also participating in the protest.”
Nationals senator Matt Canavan has weighed in on the government’s controversial plan to increase tax on super balances over $3 million, saying there was “no way in hell” the Nationals would throw its support behind the policy.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ super tax changes are one of Labor’s key policy offerings, and will be put to the parliament in coming months, affecting thousands with contributions to Australia’s $3.9 trillion superannuation sector.
Matt Canavan, deputy leader of the Nationals in the Senate, has been vocal in his opposition to Labor’s proposed super tax.Credit: Rhett Wyman
“There’s no way in hell we’ll support a tax on people who don’t have the means to pay for it. This so-called tax on unrealised gains is incredibly unfair,” Canavan told Nine’s Today this morning.
“We should only tax people when you’ve got some sort of income to be able to pay the tax man. The problem with unrealised gains is that a lot of people out there like farmers who have assets in superannuation – they may be asset rich, but they’re cash poor, and they don’t have the cash flow to pay a tax bill on an annual basis,” he said.
“There’s no way in hell we’ll support that, we’ll fight that to the death”.
Exclusion zones and detours are in place in parts of Howard Smith Wharves for the next two weeks as workers install protective netting underneath the Story Bridge’s footpaths.
The Story Bridge footpaths – used by about 4000 walkers, bike and scooter riders daily – were closed on March 5, with reports later revealing parts of the bridge were an “extreme risk” to the public and suffering from concrete cancer.
An exclusion zone has been set up behind the Crystalbrook Vincent hotel at Howard Smith Wharves and will move south over the main span as work progresses.
The Story Bridge footpaths have already been closed for three months.Credit: Felicity Caldwell
At times, there will be exclusion zones and detours in place between 7am to 4pm Monday to Friday.
“The detours and locations will differ depending on where the works above are taking place at that time,” a council spokesman said.
“Signage, bollards, traffic control and Queensland Police Service will be in place to ensure people know where to go.”
The council spokesman said access in Howard Smith Wharves would be maintained, with detours to be on paths within the precinct.
The Howard Smith Wharves exclusion zones will be in place until June 13, and the contractor plans to have netting installed, including over the main span, by late July, weather permitting.
Council plans to investigate adding a temporary structure to the paths, so people can walk and ride across the bridge, before both footpaths are restored.
Before the footpaths can be reopened, additional temporary work will be needed on the footpaths after the netting is installed, a council works notice advises, indicating a temporary footpath reopening is still at least several months away.