As it happened: Brisbane on Tuesday, September 24

A dead humpback whale, 10 to 12 metres in length, has been discovered near K’gari.

After a call from a member of the public, marine rangers found the beached whale and towed it to mangroves near Dream Island in the Great Sandy Straits.

A dead humpback whale has been left to decompose near Dream Island in the Great Sandy Strait of Queensland.Credit: Department of Environment, Science and Innovation

“No necropsy will be performed but samples of the animal have been taken for analysis,” the department said in a statement.

“During the annual migration, whales can strand or die for different reasons including poor health, injury or predation.”

Last week, another dead humpback whale, missing its tail, was seen floating along the coastline near Wellington Point on Brisbane’s bayside.

Thank you for joining us today. We will be back tomorrow with more rolling news coverage.

Here are some of the day’s main stories:

After again leaving interest rates on hold, Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock has warned mortgage holders that cuts are unlikely any time soon.

A Brisbane man who has been charged over a string of alleged child abuse material crimes worked at a school, online records suggest.

The foreign minister has urged thousands of Australians in Lebanon to leave, saying the government won’t be able to help them all escape if a full-blown war breaks out between Israel and Hezbollah.

The man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on his golf course left a note offering $US150,000 to anyone who could “finish the job” if he couldn’t, prosecutors say.

From brunch to beachside dining, these are the best places to eat and drink in Noosa these holidays

Brisbane star Hugh McCluggage explains how the Lions can go one better in this year’s grand final, having learnt a lot from a review of last year’s narrow premiership loss to Collingwood.

Peering into the scandalous life and dark side of fashion icon Coco Chanel has proved a box-office drawcard for Queensland Ballet.

Coco Chanel: The Life of a Fashion Icon – a Queensland Ballet co-production.Credit: Shoccara Marcus

The Department of Resources has asked the Land Court to order the lease on Brisbane’s Dockside Marina be forfeited.

The department will tell the court the existing lessee has failed to address safety issues, particularly surrounding the boardwalk.

“We expect lessees on government property to meet the conditions on their leases,” Resources Minister Scott Stewart said on Tuesday.

“The Department of Resources has worked tirelessly for several years to bring the lessee to compliance with the conditions of its lease, from removing commercial vendors from the site to issues with electrical and boardwalk safety.

“We believe the lessee has failed to maintain improvements within the marina in a good and substantial state of repair, namely the boardwalk.”

Queensland’s “confronting” history has been examined at the state’s truth-telling and healing inquiry, with government representatives acknowledging past policies, practices and the hurt they have caused to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Directors-general of seven Queensland government departments and the state’s police commissioner, Steve Gollschewski faced a truth-telling session on Tuesday in Brisbane.

“It’s pretty confronting some of the stuff that went on,” Gollschewski said outside the hearing.

“What I think it really confronting for us too is to remember they were acting out policies that were set by the governments of the day who believed, for whatever reason, that they were doing something that was in the interest of the state.”

Clare O’Connor, director-general of the Department of Treaty, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Communities and the Arts, spoke about one such confronting past practice - the native mounted police.

Queensland’s native mounted police operated for more than 50 years, consisting of Aboriginal troopers led by non-Indigenous officers. It is estimated to have killed thousands of people.

Inquiry chair Joshua Creamer said it appeared the departments had been working towards “reframing the relationship” with Indigenous communities.

AAP

Families are invited to explore Brisbane’s newest park later this month, which has been transformed from a sewage plant into a four-hectare destination featuring a huge playground with water play.

Once a wastewater treatment plant, the Archerfield Wetlands District Park will also include a youth hub and full-sized basketball court, picnic and barbecue areas, community lawn for public events, bush food garden trail and direct access to the 2.9 kilometre Archerfield Wetlands Discovery Trail for walkers and cyclists to enjoy part of the wider 150 hectares of parkland.

About 67,000 native trees and plants were planted to provide more shade and create new habitat for wildlife.

A free family open day will be held on Saturday, September 28, from 9am with live music, food trucks, tree planting, face painting, bee hotel workshops, a wildlife display, and soccer skills and basketball workshops.

The park is at 455 Bowhill Road, Durack.

Brisbane’s average retail petrol prices were the highest of the five largest Australian cities in the June quarter.

The ACCC’s latest quarterly petrol monitoring report reveals Brisbane’s average price was 204.8 cents per litre.

But it pays to shop around.

From April to early June in Brisbane, the range of retail petrol prices between the highest and lowest was about 19 cents per litre on average.

The difference was as high as 42 cents per litre when retail prices were climbing in the cycle.

ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said it was worth using a fuel price app or website before filling up, and trying to wait for the low point in the cycle.

Brakey said demand for fuel had eased due to consumers switching to hybrid and electric vehicles.

“Other factors would also be influencing demand, such as working from home arrangements, vehicles becoming more fuel efficient, and changes in driving habits, quite possibly due to cost-of-living pressures,” she said.

The Queensland government has called for expressions of interest to trial park ‘n’ ride electric vehicle charging at commuter car parks.

According to tender documents, the chargers will be installed at the Eight Mile Plains bus station and Coomera train station for two years.

The trial will investigate how EV charging can soak up renewable energy generation during the day while cars are parked for several hours, reducing peak demand and strain on the electricity network at night, and also encouraging the uptake of public transport.

When they arrive at, say, 8am, customers would be able to input that they require a certain amount of power by 5pm when they are due to return. User pricing must be competitive against home and fast charging.

While a survey from 2022 showed park ‘n’ rides tended to reach 95 per cent capacity by 9.30am, the Coomera station car park filled up to 85 per cent and Eight Mile Plains just 45 per cent, with the tender documents stating their extra capacity meant existing customers would not be displaced by EVs.

“Learnings from the project will be used to assist TMR in planning more EV charging infrastructure rollouts across further park ‘n’ rides,” the documents say.

In mid-2024, 46,200 EVs were registered in Queensland, up almost 39 per cent in two years.

A dead humpback whale, 10 to 12 metres in length, has been discovered near K’gari.

After a call from a member of the public, marine rangers found the beached whale and towed it to mangroves near Dream Island in the Great Sandy Straits.

A dead humpback whale has been left to decompose near Dream Island in the Great Sandy Strait of Queensland.Credit: Department of Environment, Science and Innovation

“No necropsy will be performed but samples of the animal have been taken for analysis,” the department said in a statement.

“During the annual migration, whales can strand or die for different reasons including poor health, injury or predation.”

Last week, another dead humpback whale, missing its tail, was seen floating along the coastline near Wellington Point on Brisbane’s bayside.

Australia’s largest coal producer has criticised the Queensland government over its “short-sighted” resource tax policies and lack of industry consultation.

BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) Asset President Adam Lancey said the coal mining industry in Queensland was at risk due to the government acting “unpredictably and unreasonably”, driving future investors away.

“The risks of sudden policy and fiscal changes being made without meaningful consultation with the industry ... have made it harder for Queensland to be competitive,” he will tell Queensland’s Resources Media Club on Tuesday.

Queensland has significant progressive coal royalties and some in the resources sector describe them as the highest taxes in the world, which fluctuate during periods of high prices.

The state government recently legislated that the coal royalty rates cannot be changed without parliamentary consideration.

In 2022-23, the coal royalties delivered a $15 billion return to Queensland’s coffers while in 2023-24 it was $9 billion.

AAP

Queensland businesses are suffering the longest period of weak confidence in 30 years, Business Chamber Queensland data shows.

The June 2024 Pulse Report, released today, shows business confidence continues to be weak amid historically high operating costs and a tight labour market.

Economic confidence was weaker only during the global financial crisis and the depths of COVID, but both periods recovered quicker than the current weak confidence trend.

Business Chamber Queensland CEO Heidi Cooper said there was weak sales revenue and businesses were not passing on full cost increases to customers.

“The reality is, it’s really hard to do business in Queensland, and it has been for two years now,” she said.

Young offenders before a court could be judged on their full criminal history, with their offences to carry into adulthood, the LNP has announced as part of its youth crime policy.

The LNP says if elected, it would introduce laws that would allow judges and magistrates to consider the full history before the court, including police cautions, restorative justice agreements, and breaches of supervised release order when sentencing children.

“There’s something fundamentally wrong with our justice system when our courts are forced to turn a blind eye to youth criminals’ past behaviour when sentencing them for crimes,” Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said.

“The slate shouldn’t be wiped clean when an offender turns 18 – under the LNP their criminal history will carry through to adulthood.”

The announcement builds on the LNP’s “adult crime, adult time” policy, which proposes juveniles convicted of serious crimes to be treated as harshly as adult offenders. The proposal has been criticised by experts, saying it would lead to more overcrowding and violence in prisons, and less rehabilitation.