As it happened: Brisbane on Monday, March 17

Thanks for joining us today for our live coverage of news in Brisbane. If you’re just catching up, here are a few of the stories that have made headlines today.

Brisbane commuters will be able to tap their bank card, smartwatch, or phone to pay for bus fares from as early as next Monday with Translink set to roll out the final leg of its smart ticketing trial, three years later than promised.

A second man has been arrested after a father was slashed with a machete during a failed carjacking in Brisbane’s inner-south on the weekend.

A man has pleaded guilty to killing a baby and harming another after neglecting their basic needs for at least a day.

A plan to disaster-proof critical state infrastructure has been floated after a Brisbane electrical substation came within inches of being inundated during ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

A crumbling 1940s cottage turned million-dollar “Hamplander” (or Hamptons-esque Queenslander) with a luxe dog wash fetched $2.125 million at auction on Saturday after four families went head-to-head in a bidding war.

The moment a firework ignited the ceiling of a crowded nightclub in North Macedonia, triggering a horrific blaze that killed 59 people, has been caught on camera, showing the fire take hold as musicians on stage play on, oblivious to what is happening above them.

St Patrick’s Day in Brisbane was not always a fun-filled, merry affair.

We dug up photos of the “St Patrick’s Day Bash” of March 17, 1948.

John Grayson, a member of the ARU and casualty of the St Patrick’s Day bash, waits for an ambulance to arrive.

Thousands of demonstrators marched through Brisbane’s CBD to protest the state government’s Industrial Law Amendment Act, which gave police extraordinary powers to arrest people without a warrant.

Police descended on the rally, attacking protesters with batons. Two men were hospitalised, including MP Fred Paterson, who was Australia’s only elected Communist Party representative.

Fred Paterson (with pen and paper in hand) moments before he was bashed a police detective on St Patrick’s Day in 1948. Credit: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Paterson suffered a concussion and lacerations to his head.

The incident later became known as the “St Patrick’s Day Bash”.

Huge protests continued in the following days, with thousands descending on King George Square. The controversial law was repealed later that year.

The streets around King George Square were blocked as demonstrators converged in the city on March 19, 1948, following the ‘St Patrick’s Day Bash’.

The new $5 note will not have a portrait on it. Instead, the Reserve Bank announced today the note would be designed to recognise First Nations peoples’ enduring connection to Country.

“We want to try something new,” the bank said, inviting artists to recognise First Nations communities’ contribution to the restoration and conservation of the environment.

“As times change, so do our banknotes.”

Australia’s $5 note.

In 2023, the RBA said King Charles would not feature on the $5 note redesign following Queen Elizabeth II’s death, prompting outrage from the opposition. The portrait of Queen Elizabeth II first appeared on the $5 polymer note in July 1992 when the Queen celebrated the 40th anniversary of her accession.

The theme for the new design, “Connection to Country”, was selected by the Imagery Selection Panel from more than 2000 submissions from the Australian public. The panel is made up of senior representatives from the Reserve Bank of Australia and Note Printing Australia, along with prominent First Nations business and community members.

The RBA said the theme should be represented in a way that recognises the diversity of First Nations peoples, across Australia and the Torres Strait – and that the artwork should avoid being tokenistic or stereotypical.

“The tone for the banknote is of a hopeful future, where First Nation peoples’ connection to Country is celebrated and respected,” it said.

Australia’s business council and the Victorian opposition have both called for a royal commission into the CFMEU after this masthead revealed allegations of violence against women, organised crime infiltration and corruption.

In a statement issued today, Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black said it was clear the appointment of a CFMEU administrator was inadequate as alleged criminal conduct continued, including “standover payments to underworld figures being employed on taxpayer-funded infrastructure sites and the shocking treatment of women”.

Read more here.

US President Donald Trump said he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday as he pushes to end the war in Ukraine.

Trump disclosed the coming conversation to reporters while flying from Florida to Washington on Air Force One on Sunday evening (Monday AEST).

President Donald Trump waves from his limousine as he leaves Trump International Golf Club last weekend.Credit: AP

“We will see if we have something to announce maybe by Tuesday. I will be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday,” Trump said. “A lot of work’s been done over the weekend. We want to see if we can bring that war to an end.”

Trump said land and power plants are part of the conversation around bringing the war to a close.

“We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants,” he said.

Trump described it as “dividing up certain assets”.

AP

A second man has been arrested after a man was slashed with a machete during a failed carjacking on Brisbane’s southside.

A 48-year-old father told Nine News he had returned home from the gym about 6am on Saturday and was sitting in his BMW on Audrey Street in Camp Hill when he was approached by two men who demanded his keys.

The alleged attackers were captured on home security cameras, one wearing a black Tommy Hilfiger hoodie and the other in a navy-blue hoodie, carrying a machete.

When the 48-year-old man said he did not have the keys, he was attacked with the machete, leaving him with lacerations to his chest and arm.

Early this morning, police on patrol in Margate, north of Brisbane, spotted one of the alleged attackers in a stolen BMW.

The officers gave chase but had to abandon their pursuit as the driver sped away.

They later found the stolen BMW about two kilometres away, crashed into a fence with the 23-year-old driver still inside. He was arrested at the scene.

His alleged 21-year-old accomplice was arrested in Redcliffe yesterday.

Read more about the alleged crime spree here.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has given the Queensland government little reason to be hopeful the annual GST carve-up will be overhauled.

Speaking in Brisbane this morning, Chalmers described as a “story as old as federation” complaints from the Crisafulli government that the latest allocation should be ditched.

Last week, the independent Commonwealth Grants Commission issued its annual recommendations on how the $95 billion GST pool is shared among the states and territories.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Queensland took a $1.2 billion hit to its GST share, prompting the state to demand Chalmers take the unprecedented step to overturn the grants commission’s proposals.

But Chalmers said one of the reasons Queensland had lost GST was because it had benefited from an extra $8.8 billion in coal royalties. The state was also getting extra assistance from the federal government, such as a $7.2 billion promise to upgrade the Bruce Highway.

“It’s not unusual for state treasurers to want more money from the Commonwealth. It is not unprecedented for state treasurers to try and blame Commonwealth treasurers for pressure on their own budgets,” he told reporters.

“The Commonwealth Grants Commission process is an independent process, a process which takes place at arms length from the government of the day.

“The state government should not be blaming the Commonwealth government. We’ve all got pressures on our budget.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers held a press conference in Brisbane earlier today to announce support for those affected by ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

He was joined by Emergency Management Minister Jenny McAllister to announce the extension of disaster recovery allowance to an additional two council areas in Queensland, Bundaberg and Toowoomba.

You can watch his press conference below:

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has flagged an uptick in fruit prices and construction costs in the aftermath of Cyclone Alfred.

At a press conference in Brisbane earlier today, Chalmers said the government was still getting a handle on the economic costs, but that there would be an “impact on fruit and vegetable costs”, depending on how much farmland had been hit, as well as possible increases in building costs.

”We made a heap of progress on inflation numbers in the building [sector], but we can anticipate some upward pressure on building costs as a consequence [of the cyclone],” he said.

It comes as Chalmers revealed over the weekend that Cyclone Alfred would punch a $1.2 billion hole in the federal budget, shaving about a quarter of a percentage point off the country’s GDP.

Chalmers said he would provision an extra $1.2 billion in next week’s budget to cover new payments and help rebuild local communities. “That new $1.2 billion will be part of $13.5 billion total in the budget to respond to and rebuild after natural disasters,” he said.

Australia’s scandal-riddled construction union, the CFMEU, is under scrutiny again today after footage emerged of a woman at a job site being bashed by a bikie-linked health and safety representative on his lunch break.

The woman was employed on a government-funded construction project when she was attacked by the CFMEU representative.

Federal Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher says the footage, which was revealed by this masthead and aired on 60 Minutes last night, is “horrifying”.

“We all understand that violence against women in this country is at a crisis level,” the senator told reporters in Canberra this morning.

“But to see it play out on prime-time TV like that in footage like that is extremely distressing for everybody involved and for people who have suffered violence, either domestic, family or sexual violence.”

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has confirmed he will refer the CFMEU to police for investigation.

The CFMEU’s construction division was forced into administration by the Albanese government last year following claims of bikie and organised crime figures infiltrating the union and other serious criminal activity.

Elected leaders of the union’s construction division branches in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory were sacked and replaced by administrator Mark Irving KC.