As it happened: Brisbane on Wednesday, November 13

The weather bureau has updated its warning for severe thunderstorms in the southeast, expecting storms to hit Brisbane before 6.30pm today.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned at 5.45pm that the Brisbane CBD is in an immediate threat zone.Credit: Bureau of Meteorology

Having issued a “severe thunderstorm warning” at about 3pm today, the bureau has now placed the suburbs from the CBD through to Burpengary and Redcliffe in its “immediate threat” zone.

The bureau warned of “damaging winds, large hailstones and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding” for affected areas.

Residents were advised to remain indoors or undercover, to park cars in sheltered locations and away from trees, and to avoid driving until the storm has passed.

The storm was expected to pass into the Moreton Bay region, hitting Bribie Island by 6.45pm.

Thanks for joining us for today’s live coverage of news in Brisbane and further afield. We’ll return tomorrow morning, so please join us then.

If you’re just catching up on today’s news, here are some of the stories that made headlines:

Brisbane Broncos footballer Ezra Mam has been charged after allegedly returning a positive drug test following a crash in Brisbane’s west.

An unfunded lease for a police station in Brisbane’s inner south has been referred to the Crime and Corruption Commission, as the police service faces a multimillion-dollar budget black hole.

Australians have enjoyed their biggest after-inflation wage increase since the depths of the pandemic, but it is unlikely to last, which keeps an interest rate cut early next year firmly on the cards.

SpaceX chief Elon Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have been tapped by Donald Trump to head a new government efficiency department, as the president-elect stacks his cabinet with loyal allies.

And after 18 months in the making, Bluey’s World Brisbane has opened to visitors keen to enter the world of the locally made TV phenomenon.

Visitors can sit on Bluey and Bingo’s beds or play the “watermelon game”.Credit: Bluey's World Brisbane

The weather bureau has updated its warning for severe thunderstorms in the southeast, expecting storms to hit Brisbane before 6.30pm today.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned at 5.45pm that the Brisbane CBD is in an immediate threat zone.Credit: Bureau of Meteorology

Having issued a “severe thunderstorm warning” at about 3pm today, the bureau has now placed the suburbs from the CBD through to Burpengary and Redcliffe in its “immediate threat” zone.

The bureau warned of “damaging winds, large hailstones and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding” for affected areas.

Residents were advised to remain indoors or undercover, to park cars in sheltered locations and away from trees, and to avoid driving until the storm has passed.

The storm was expected to pass into the Moreton Bay region, hitting Bribie Island by 6.45pm.

A man has been charged with the daytime sexual assaults of three women on Sunshine Coast footpaths, with police claiming at least one incident had been filmed on the man’s phone.

Three women reported separate incidents in the suburbs of Mountain Creek, Chancellor Park, and Sippy Downs – all near the University of the Sunshine Coast’s main campus – in September, October, and November.

Police said the women were not known to each other, and did not know the attacker.

Acting detective senior sergeant Chris Duhig said CCTV footage, witness testimony, and items found on the man corroborated evidence from the women.

“There was an incident that was captured on his mobile phone, so that’s assisted us in gathering evidence in relation to what’s happened as well,” said Duhig.

He said the women had all been walking or running on public footpaths in the afternoon when they were approached from behind and assaulted by the man, who then fled the scene on foot.

“This type of random incident and this nature in daylight hours is very rare,” said Duhig. “It was quite alarming for [the women].”

Duhig added that police suspected the man may have committed more assaults, and asked witnesses to any of the three incidents, or anyone with knowledge of similar attacks, to come forward.

Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles is maintaining confidence in Kevin Rudd’s future as Australia’s ambassador to the US despite an online taunt from a key Donald Trump ally.

Speaking on ABC Afternoon Briefing, Marles was resolute in backing Rudd’s continued posting, saying the ambassador has done a “fantastic” job representing Australia in the US across the political spectrum.

“Kevin was there at the Republican National Convention earlier this year, and Kevin has been really important in terms of introducing us to a number of figures who may play a part in the Trump administration going forwards,” Marles said.

“I really have no doubt that once President Trump is sworn in again, that Kevin will be able to play a really important role representing Australia ably to that administration.

“That’s his focus right now and obviously that’s the focus of our country.”

Marles said he did not know whether Rudd specifically had relationships with Trump’s new appointments, but reiterated the ambassador had a “real impact” advancing Australia’s national interests with Republicans.

“I really have no doubts about Kevin’s ability to do that with the Trump Administration going forward,” Marles said.

Liberal Senator Dean Smith broke ranks with his colleagues today to call for the government to recall Rudd from the US capital because he would struggle to advance Australia’s interests under a Trump administration.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a weather warning as a vast storm front moves across southern Queensland towards Greater Brisbane.

Having already forecast storms in Brisbane today, the bureau issued a “severe thunderstorm warning” shortly before 3pm to alert people in the Ipswich, Logan, Scenic Rim, Southern Downs and Toowoomba council areas.

The weather warning issued at 2.54pm.Credit: Bureau of Meteorology

The bureau expected a “very dangerous thunderstorm likely to produce damaging, locally destructive winds, large hailstones and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding”.

The next update was expected before 4pm.

Council has slashed its greenspace target in new amendments to Brisbane’s City Plan, with Greens councillors projecting a long-term impact of 290 hectares less parkland in Brisbane by 2036.

The changes pared back requirements from 4.2 hectares to 4 hectares per 1000 people, in what Greens councillor Seal Chong Wah called a “deeply disappointing” change.

“The city plan amendment passed today will equate to a loss of 290 hectares of greenspace for Brisbane’s projected population in 12 years,” Chong Wah said in a statement after yesterday’s council meeting.

The council’s Environment, Parks and Sustainability chair Tracy Davis maintained the change is a short-term response to the state’s housing crisis.

“Brisbane’s 16,850 hectares of parkland has helped shape our city’s reputation as Australia’s lifestyle capital,” she said.

“However, we made a commitment to Brisbane residents that we wouldn’t resume homes for more parkland in the middle of a housing crisis.”

A truck driver has been charged over a crash that killed a mother and her son, and injured two others, on a notorious Queensland highway.

A family of four were travelling in their ute south along the Bruce Highway at Raglan, near Gladstone, about 11pm last night when they slowed down behind another car with a wide load.

A prime mover truck failed to slow down and crashed into the ute, forcing it into the back of the other car. A 40-year-old mother and her 13-year-old son died at the scene.

The 42-year-old father and a 15-year-old boy were taken to Rockhampton Base Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The 30-year-old truck driver has been charged with one count of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death or grievous bodily harm, and will face court in December.

Broncos star Ezra Mam has been charged after he allegedly returned a positive result for a roadside drug test following a car crash in Brisbane’s west last month.

Mam was driving a Ford Ranger when it struck an Uber carrying three people in Bardon on October 18.

Police and the NRL integrity unit were investigating allegations Mam had allegedly returned a positive result to a roadside drug test but were awaiting official confirmation.

On Wednesday, police said the 21-year-old had been charged after allegedly returning a positive result.

Ezra Mam of the Broncos.Credit: Getty Images

“He was detained for further testing requiring bloods to be taken at hospital which was conducted independently of the QPS,” police said.

“It will be alleged the secondary test returned a positive result on Tuesday, November 12.”

Mam has been charged with one count each of driving while a relevant drug is present in blood, and driving a motor vehicle without a licence.

He has been issued with a notice to appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on December 16, and also issued with a traffic infringement notice for fail to maintain control of his vehicle.

Read the full story.

Queensland’s new LNP administration is keeping with its theme this week of turning over Labor’s rocks to reveal what it claimed were hidden cost increases.

Citing modelling said to have been initiated by Labor while in government, Public Works Minister Sam O’Connor claimed various procurement policies for government projects could harm housing affordability.

This could be to the tune of 22,000 fewer homes across the next five years, and 7 per cent higher rents, O’Connor said.

Dubbed Best Practice Industry Conditions, the policies were pitched as efforts to collate and set prevailing pay and conditions to ensure the state was setting the standard.

However, some of the conditions have been criticised as too union-friendly, driving related and unsubstantiated claims of a “CFMEU tax” lifting construction costs by 30 per cent.

The policies were also causing a “flow-on impact” into the residential construction sector, O’Connor said the modelling showed.

“We are actively looking at what options we have to urgently make sure that productivity returns to job sites across Queensland,” he said, reiterating comments that Queensland was the “strike capital of the country”.

Speaking earlier on ABC Radio Brisbane, deputy opposition leader Cameron Dick claimed the only way the LNP government could save money was by cutting wages and conditions.

Premier David Crisafulli has vowed to re-establish a state productivity commission – with an initial probe into the building sector.

An unfunded lease for a police station in Brisbane’s inner south has been referred to the Crime and Corruption Commission, as the police service faces a multimillion-dollar budget black hole.

But Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski has assured the Queensland Police Service that frontline operations would not be affected, and will not point fingers at individuals until the investigation was done.

Police had employed finance advisory firm KordaMentha to conduct a review of the deal for the Stones Corner building on Logan Road earlier this year, after it was revealed funding for the lease had not been allocated.

The lease for the Stones Corner building was signed without funding allocated for the deal.Credit: Nine News

The QPS signed a $116 million contract for a 15-year lease under the previous Labor state government. It has an option to extend it for $240 million.

Gollschewski told 4BC Radio he had ordered the audit as he tried to understand how the lease had been signed.

Read the full story.