As it happened: Brisbane on Monday, December 9

More than one million Australians will soon receive a hip-pocket bump as their support payments increase.

From January 1, payments for young people, students, carers and others will be indexed to keep up with inflation.

Jobseekers, students, apprentices and other young Australians who get Youth Allowance will take home between $17.30 to $24.30 more every fortnight.

Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth says the government wants people to have more money in their pockets amid the cost-of-living crisis.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Those who support someone with aged care, disability or medical needs will see their carer allowance increase by $5.80 to $159.30 each payment.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students or apprentices are set to have their ABSTUDY payments grow as well, with allowances growing by up to $54 per fortnight for those undertaking masters and doctorates.

Meanwhile, young people living with disabilities will see their payments increase by about $30.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth says this will help Australians manage the cost of living.

“We want to reduce disadvantage and maintain Australia’s strong and sustainable social safety net by providing relief to those most in need,” she said.

AAP

Thanks for joining us for our live updates today. We’ll be back tomorrow morning.

Here were some of the day’s biggest headlines:

So far, this summer has been much stickier than usual. Escaping the heat and humidity has not been easy, with many relying on running their air-conditioners day and night. So what’s causing it?

Underground blasts in the heart of Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast that sparked chaos and shut down part of the tourist hotspot yesterday afternoon were caused by an electrical fault, Energex has revealed.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls has directed his department to investigate a historical breach of biosecurity measures at Queensland’s virology lab after vials of infectious diseases were unaccounted for.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has rubbished the Coalition’s advisers on nuclear power despite his own department paying $1.2 million to a consulting firm for analysis, as Peter Dutton accused the CSIRO of bias in its findings that nuclear is the most expensive energy source.

In property news, a young Brisbane couple with a toddler at their feet and a baby on the way outmuscled two other bidders to splash $3.62 million on one of the city’s most iconic heritage homes.

When the parents of Australia’s newest sporting star Gout Gout fled Sudan for Egypt, officials reportedly made an error when translating the family name from Arabic – and so technically, his name should be something else.

And for decades, the Myer store Christmas window display captured the essence of the holiday season. The store has left the CBD, but did the spirit of Christmas go with it?

A man has been charged after arriving in the middle of police efforts to free a sausage dog from his vehicle in Coolangatta yesterday.

The miniature dachshund, Duppy, was reportedly left unattended for at least an hour in the backseat of a Volkswagen Jetta yesterday afternoon on Marine Parade.

Around 2.30pm a concerned passerby contacted police, and officers arrived to find the car parked in the sun in 27-degree weather, with “the windows only slightly ajar” and Duppy in the back seat without water.

Police returned Duppy safely to his owner. Credit: Queensland Pollice

Police used the gap in the window to remove the dog and provided him water once freed.

While police attended Duppy a 38-year-old Tweed Heads man, suspected to be the vehicle’s driver, arrived on the scene.

The man was reportedly looking after the sausage dog, but wasn’t Duppy’s owner.

He was charged with failure to take reasonable care and precautions in respect of a syringe or needle, after police reported an uncapped syringe was also inside the vehicle.

The 38-year-old was expected to appear at Coolangatta Magistrates Court on January 20.

Duppy was cared for by Coolangatta police before being returned to his owner.

This muggy, sticky start to summer could be the new norm for Brisbane as sea temperatures rise, the weather bureau says.

Brisbane’s humidity has reached 80 per cent in the past fortnight, conditions more akin to Cairns and Darwin than the River City. Today, the dew point temperature (a more accurate measure of the humidity) is above 23 degrees.

It has been a humid start to summer.Credit: William Davis

We asked Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Livio Regano what is driving this humid start to summer.

In short, it is hot air blowing in from the Coral Sea, he said.

“The Coral Sea is hotter than it should be and this may well be the new normal,” Regano said.

Read more here.

Underground blasts in the heart of Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast that sparked chaos and shut down part of the tourist hotspot yesterday were caused by an electrical fault, Energex has revealed.

The specific nature of the fault was still under investigation this afternoon, but Energex spokesman Danny Donald confirmed an electrical issue in a services pit caused the explosions.

“Something electrically has happened,” Donald said. “Exactly why, that’s what we’re looking at.”

A woman in her 20s suffered lower leg injuries when she fell into the services pit, or manhole, seconds after the first explosion outside a 7-Eleven store on the corner of Cavill Avenue and Orchid Avenue at about 5pm.

She was pulled from the manhole by bystanders before paramedics arrived to take her to Gold Coast University Hospital.

Read the full story.

More than one million Australians will soon receive a hip-pocket bump as their support payments increase.

From January 1, payments for young people, students, carers and others will be indexed to keep up with inflation.

Jobseekers, students, apprentices and other young Australians who get Youth Allowance will take home between $17.30 to $24.30 more every fortnight.

Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth says the government wants people to have more money in their pockets amid the cost-of-living crisis.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Those who support someone with aged care, disability or medical needs will see their carer allowance increase by $5.80 to $159.30 each payment.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students or apprentices are set to have their ABSTUDY payments grow as well, with allowances growing by up to $54 per fortnight for those undertaking masters and doctorates.

Meanwhile, young people living with disabilities will see their payments increase by about $30.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth says this will help Australians manage the cost of living.

“We want to reduce disadvantage and maintain Australia’s strong and sustainable social safety net by providing relief to those most in need,” she said.

AAP

A grieving community will say their final farewells today to a second teenager who tragically died overseas after consuming drinks laced with methanol.

Holly Bowles and her best friend Bianca Jones had been holidaying in Laos when they became unwell after consuming the drinks in the tourist town of Vang Vieng.

Bianca Jones (left) and Holly Bowles died after a suspected mass drink poisoning.

Bowles died in a Bangkok hospital on November 22, a day after Jones died in another hospital in the Thai capital.

A funeral service for the 19-year-old will be held at Beaumaris Secondary College on Melbourne’s bayside today.

Jones was farewelled in an emotional service attended by more than 1000 community members at Mentone Girls Grammar on Friday.

An American man, two Danish women and a British woman were among the six foreign nationals who died and at least eight people, believed to be hotel staff and management, have been detained.

AAP

Premier David Crisafulli has defended his government’s new youth crime laws after his own attorney-general conceded they would be a violation of human rights.

In documents tabled to Queensland parliament, and seized on by the United Nations, Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said the laws were “incompatible with human rights” but the state’s youth crime situation was “exceptional”.

As a result, the Queensland Human Rights Act would be overridden to pass the legislation this week.

Yesterday, as he released new police youth crime data in Ipswich, Crisafulli was asked how he was able to push through the laws, despite the admitted human rights issues.

“The knowledge that if we do early intervention and rehabilitation and purpose, we can turn the young lives around,” he said.

“Because of a failure to have consequences for actions, it’s caused an absolute sea of carnage for victims across the state, and they are first and foremost our priority – so, too, is making sure that we can turn the tide on those repeat offenders numbers.”

Read more here.

Nick Kyrgios is making his comeback at the Brisbane International this month before returning to the grand slam stage at the Australian Open in January.

Intrigued as anyone about how Kyrgios’ comeback goes, tennis great Pat Rafter says he won’t be surprised if the enigmatic former Wimbledon finalist makes the Australian Open semi-finals.

Nor will Rafter be shocked if Kyrgios flops and crashes out in the first round, after more than two years off tour with career-threatening wrist and knee injuries.

Nick Kyrgios will play in the Brisbane International this month.Credit: AP

“You’d never write anyone off with the talent that Nick has. It’s pretty amazing,” Rafter said.

“I really don’t know what he’s done, though. A year and a half off the game ... so it’s going to be interesting. I have no expectations or no understanding about how he is going to go.”

Rafter added:

“He’s got a massive game. But then can he keep it together? Can his body hold up? Can his mind hold together?

They’re probably his really big hurdles, especially his body. If you don’t play competitively, God, it’s a completely different thing than to training. So I really don’t know what to expect from him. I think it’s all up in the air. If you go there to see him play, it will be interesting to see. I don’t know quite what the expectation is from the pundits but my expectation is there is none.

When I say there is no expectation, if he gets to the quarters, the semis, it wouldn’t surprise me. If he loses the first round, it wouldn’t surprise me. I don’t know.”

AAP

The official temperature might be 29 degrees right now, but it feels more like 34.5 degrees, according to the weather bureau.

The humidity in Brisbane is sitting at 70 per cent and the dew point temperature (a more accurate measure of the humidity) is 23.4 degrees, making for a sticky start to the week after a scorching hot Sunday.

Summer returned with a vengeance yesterday, following last week’s big wet. Crowds flocked to beaches and pools to get some reprieve from the searing temperatures, as Brisbane reached 34.7 degrees, Amberley hit 37.3 degrees, Archerfield 36.4 degrees and Coolangatta 33.3 degrees.

In Brisbane this morning, the temperature climbed to 30.1 degrees at 10.30am today, before dropping slightly, although that brought little relief from the humid conditions.

A universal experience for teenage girls, Brisbane sisters Daniella Dionyssiou and Natalia Suesskow couldn’t find anything in their closets they wanted to wear.

It was at that moment, at just 17 and 19 years of age, they decided to create their own dream clothing store.

Now VRG GRL (pronounced Verge Girl) has a combined following across Instagram and TikTok exceeding 1.2 million, and the likes of Ariana Grande, Kendall Jenner and Taylor Swift wearing their designs.

VRG GRL founders Daniella and Natalia started their brand 16 years ago.

Read more here.