u/fluffy_101994

And we believe this data? Lmao.

Queensland barristers have urged the state government to pause its proposed bail crackdown until a High Court challenge against similar elements of Northern Territory laws is decided.

The Queensland Bar Association’s submission is one of more than 250 lodged for committee consideration of the Crisafulli LNP’s controversial “breach bail, go to jail” laws introduced last month.

Several key organisations have raised concerns about the bill, its justification, the consequences of increased pressure on youth detention, prisons and police watchhouses, and further delays to court processes.

Aimed at making it harder for people charged with specific offences while on bail to be released into the community, a mandatory 12-month minimum jail sentence will also apply to those guilty of the new offence.

The government has been gradually revealing parts of the proposed laws since it was first raised by LNP candidate – and now MP – for the Townsville seat of Hinchinbrook, Wade Chiesa, in November’s byelection.

Public sentiment of the government’s hardline crime response has soured across the past year, despite the LNP’s suggestions its election promises to fix a crime crisis are starting to work.

ABS data has shown victim numbers, a metric to which Premier David Crisafulli has tied his leadership, were already falling across the election year – and fell further across 2025.

Bar association president Cate Heyworth-Smith KC, writing in the group’s submission to the parliamentary committee considering the bill, raised a series of concerns about the removal of judicial discretion and rules against double jeopardy.

Heyworth-Smith also said that the laws would provide less incentive for people to plead guilty, which would lead to more trials and more delays across the entire court system, and overcrowding issues in the detention system which would be “difficult to correct once they have begun”.

While the government has insisted the laws are about deterring and punishing serious repeat offenders, she also laid out a hypothetical situation where a P-plate driver given bail for drink-driving was then caught up in the new bail regime for being only a passenger in a stolen car.

“The resulting punishment would be seriously disproportionate to the offending behaviour,” Heyworth-Smith wrote.

“These provisions do not merely create a risk of unjust outcomes, they ensure that unjust outcomes will occur.”

The association president also raised the High Court challenge against Northern Territory bail laws she said would appear to “transpose directly” to the new tougher bail test, a legal argument for which “the answer is not obvious, and the committee should not be told otherwise”.

“The Association submits that the question is a real one, as is demonstrated by the referral of the matter to the Full Court of the High Court of Australia, and that the constitutional validity of such provisions will be illuminated by the decision,” Heyworth-Smith wrote.

“The Association submits that the Committee should not report on the Bill before the High Court has delivered judgment.”

Other submissions from the Crime and Corruption Commission warn about the risk of increased police misconduct through the treatment of people in overcrowded facilities, which the agency would actively monitor, and human rights overrides appeared to be inconsistent with the law.

The Australian Workers Union and Queensland Police Union raised fears the laws would increase pressure on already crowded youth detention centres. The Queensland Law Society and National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Young People also urged the bill be rejected.

The Voice for Victims group said while supporting the government’s objective of strengthening community safety, success for victims was “measured by whether reforms reduce repeat offending”.

Several submitters called for a review of the laws after a set period of time, or urged the release of government modelling around impacts on jails and watchhouses.

The Queensland Human Rights Commission, in its first major foray into parliamentary process under leader Debbie Platz, called for the removal of mandatory minimum sentences and the new bail test from the bill.

“While all offending is serious, the data does not indicate this form of offending is so prevalent, or increasing at such a rate, that it warrants an emergency response that overrides human rights,” she said.

The abandonment of Queensland’s clean energy target and delayed closure of coal-fired power is driving away investment in renewable energy, the industry peak body will warn in a speech revealing of the increasingly hostile relationship between the sector and the Crisafulli government.

Smart Energy Council chief executive David McElrea’s keynote address to the body’s conference on Tuesday will accuse the LNP administration’s energy policy of contradicting the shift towards solar, batteries and clean energy in the business sector and households.

“The Queensland government is moving in the opposite direction,” his speech will say.

“The Crisafulli government has repealed the legislated renewable energy targets, abandoned a firm coal timetable, committed to running state-owned stations to their technical lives and left open further extensions.”

Last year, Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki scrapped the former Labor government’s plan to end the state’s reliance on coal-fired power by 2035, delaying the closure of the publicly owned assets to at least 2046.

The LNP’s energy plan included a five-year spend of $1.8 billion to upgrade the state-owned coal-powered assets.

The government retained the net zero emissions by 2050 goal but repealed the renewable energy target, while the state’s energy policy shift included new laws to seek greater community consultation to approve major clean energy projects.

Last month, Premier David Crisafulli successfully secured an exemption from national cabinet to enable Queensland to power AI data centres with coal and gas, despite the Albanese government’s insistence they be exclusively fuelled by new renewable energy sources.

McElrea’s wide-ranging critique claimed the “most damaging” impact of the state’s energy policy was a deterioration in investment certainty.

“Without firm closure dates, renewable investors cannot confidently price future output or reach financial close,” he will say.

“The overall strategy of the LNP government is clear: remove targets, erase closure dates, protect coal, make renewable investment harder and let the project pipeline thin – then point to the shortage you created as proof renewables cannot do the job.

“That is a self-fulfilling strategy to make renewable energy uninvestable. It is ideology, not economics or engineering.”

But Janetzki refuted the claims, noting the Clean Energy Council’s latest quarterly investment report which showed Queensland has the largest volume of large-scale renewable generation financially committed or under construction.

The treasurer also pointed to last week’s green light of a $1.7 billion Gawara Baya wind farm in North Queensland by Danish investment giant Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners – the eastern seaboard’s largest wind farm in more than two years.

“Queensland leads all states in large-scale wind and solar projects financially committed or under construction and the Crisafulli government continues to encourage private sector investment in new generation and storage under our open for business approach [until Sir Jarrod cans them unilaterally],” Janetzki told this masthead in response to questions.

Grattan Institute energy policy expert Tony Wood said there were broader market and political sentiment issues that had contributed to an investment drought in the sector.

But he said the state government’s suite of policies “certainly created a significant barrier” to investments.

“All these announcements that have happened [since forming government in 2024] – keeping coal running longer, having less aggressive renewable projects and effectively, from a planning perspective, throwing a lot of the renewable projects into at least doubt.

“The end result is it creates significant unpredictability for investment.”

The industry body will also use the Smart Energy Queensland Conference to call for coal-fired power stations to be brought properly into the Safeguard Mechanism, which would impose costly carbon credit demands on assets operating beyond previously proposed closure dates.

This would apply to previously announced closures of Queensland assets, including Callide B (2028), Tarong (phased from 2032), Tarong North (2033), and Stanwell (2033).

“Renewable energy, storage and transmission projects require billions of dollars of long-term investment,” McElrea said.

“Investors and lenders need to know when replacement power will be required. Every time a coal closure date is pushed back, that investment becomes harder to finance.

“That delays new generation, delays jobs and creates worker uncertainty, and leaves consumers exposed to the cost and unreliability risks of ageing coal.”

One Nation publicly reported racking up $400,000 in debts to its leader and financial backer Pauline Hanson over the past decade without corresponding records to show she had lent the money in the first place.

A tally of known payments by Hanson plus the debt figures suggest the party founder has offered loans totalling nearly $1 million since her campaign to re-enter parliament in 2016.

But the Queensland senator, who is asking voters to trust her right-wing reactionary party with the national economy, has avoided questions about the commercial arrangements, including the interest she has charged.

Both Hanson and One Nation have refused to answer detailed inquiries from this masthead about the apparent record gaps and the opaque business structure of the party, which reported raking in $5 million in a matter of days this year as part of its “Fire the Liar” campaign.

“All loans by Senator Hanson have been appropriately recorded,” a party spokesman said in a brief statement.

“Past campaigns have required loans provided by Senator Hanson to bolster federal campaign budgets when banks would not consider lending to the party.”

One Nation’s books are overseen by Alex Jones, who became the party’s national treasurer at 18 years old and later pleaded guilty to electoral fraud in 2022 for backdating funding claims, with no conviction recorded.

Hanson, who used party funds to pay for luxury accommodation on a recent trip to Europe, remains an official representative dealing with Queensland and Australian electoral watchdogs, an uncommon position for a party leader.

“I put my money where my mouth is and back my party and my candidates,” she said in 2019 when questioned about her lending.

That year, the party reported owing Hanson $100,003 as at June 30. It had earlier received two lots of $50,000 from her.

But Australian Electoral Commission records show an additional $353,503 debt to Hanson arose the same year, with no incoming payments that would appear to explain the sum.

A similar situation arose in 2018. This time, a One Nation entity filed accounts to Queensland’s Office of Fair Trading showing a $48,300 “Loan - Pauline Hanson”.

But the party reported no transactions to Queensland or federal electoral authorities that would indicate Hanson had first transferred money across. The same electoral records make no mention of a debt to the founder.

University of Queensland emeritus professor Graeme Orr said loans had to be reported, according to two sections of the Commonwealth Electoral Act, and that “parties are to declare the amount of a loan as a receipt”.

Hanson, who famously ran a fish and chip shop before becoming a politician, has repeatedly reached into her own pocket before elections, according to party accounts.

One Nation declared $190,000 in loans from Hanson in the first half of 2016. It later told Queensland’s electoral commission this money was a commercial loan used to fund that year’s federal election campaign, and Hanson had received $3810 in interest.

However, other records show she received $213,000 as a “loan repayment” – $23,000 more than she had lent. The party then paid Hanson another $23,600 for a “Hyundai Imax Wagon purchase”.

One Nation and Hanson declined to answer questions about the loan repayment, the rate of interest and whether the senator should have declared any interest income publicly. Senate guidelines suggest senators should declare income above $5000 a year.

Even as One Nation has grown in prominence, taking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise sales and donations each year, it has continued to borrow from Hanson.

In 2024-25, it told the AEC it had borrowed $245,000, a figure that was in the vicinity of the senator’s salary that year. But it is unclear which of One Nation’s various business entities was transacting with Hanson.

Years of overdue financial accounts filed by an entity called One Nation Queensland Division Inc last month suggest it operates far beyond the borders of the Sunshine State. It has received millions of dollars in merchandise sales, donations and electoral funding, including federal funding.

Despite the “Queensland” in its name, the party calls it “the national division”. It has recorded previous loans from Hanson.

But David Gilchrist, a professor of accounting at the University of Western Australia, said he could see no proper record of a $245,000 loan in the entity’s newly filed accounts.

“Anyone that knows how to read a cashflow statement would assume that there were no financing activities during the year,” Gilchrist said. “They’d assume there were no loans from anybody and there were no loans to anybody.”

Gilchrist said a $245,000 loan would be a material transaction, both because of its size and the fact it came from a senior party official. “It does seem to be a breakdown in transparency,” he said.

A party spokesman said “One Nation undertakes annual compliance and financial checks through third-party audits”.

Hanson has previously defended her lending. In 2019, she said the $100,000 she had lent was to cover a federal party shortfall after it transferred money to the NSW wing for a state election. “It wasn’t in an Aldi bag, it wasn’t in a brown paper bag, it was all registered,” Hanson told Nine’s Today program.

But the party’s frequent loans between different branches or divisions have produced their own record gaps.

In 2022, One Nation told the electoral commission in Queensland that it had paid off a loan to its national division with a $666,709 transfer. The party disclosed no such payment when it filed its return to the AEC.

The electoral commission is examining whether a number of business entities, either directed or part-owned by Hanson, should have been registered as official associated entities of the party.

These include a film production business as well as Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Limited, a public company run by Hanson and two party officials.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Limited rents the national headquarters near Brisbane airport and took ownership of the $1.5 million plane donated by billionaire backer Gina Rinehart.

The company’s constitution, filed with the corporate regulator ASIC, identifies itself as One Nation’s national constitution.

Billionaire Clive Palmer has met three times with Queensland’s conservative premier in just over a year, most recently after renaming his Waratah Coal company, whose plan for a major mine and power station was knocked back by the former Labor government.

The company has also tapped lobbyists with ties to Palmer and paid to access a Queensland Labor fundraising event last month. Another of Palmer’s companies, Mineralogy, also tipped money into LNP coffers to attend a fundraising event in May.

Neither Palmer nor Premier David Crisafulli’s office responded to questions about the nature of the meetings, which come as the state’s richest man and serial election contender rekindles ties with his former National Party, which is at risk from One Nation.

The resource-industry-friendly Crisafulli government has taken an unapologetically pro-coal stance to electricity, vowing to keep its fossil-fuel power stations running longer and putting roadblocks in the way of renewables projects – or scrapping them entirely.

Palmer’s Waratah Coal had previously sought to build a $3.5 billion, 1.4GW coal-fired power station near the mining town of Alpha in the Galilee Basin, 450 kilometres west of Rockhampton. It was called in by the former government and then rejected. 

Waratah’s plans for the state’s largest coal mine were also knocked back by the government in 2023, after a ruling by the Land Court that it would unjustifiably limit human rights.

Crisafulli’s most recent published ministerial diary entries show a July 24 meeting with Palmer – representing a group called Energy A – along with other representatives and ministerial staff. Corporate records show Waratah Coal was renamed Energy A on July 10.

Mineralogy filed a trademark application with IP Australia for the name in early July, with a related logo application this month featuring the tagline “Australia’s long-term energy security”.

Further analysis by this masthead of Crisafulli’s cabinet diaries show he is the only government figure to have met with Palmer, something he has done twice before – on October 4 and August 12 last year. Both times he was alone.

In April, Energy A engaged former National Party president Larry Anthony’s SAS Group as – so far inactive – lobbyists in the state. The group, which also counts fellow former LNP executive figure Malcolm Cole as a managing director, has previously advised Palmer.

State donation records show Palmer’s Mineralogy then gave $3800 to the LNP for an “event ticket” on May 15 – the only donation attributed to the company in the Electoral Commission of Queensland’s online portal.

The date aligns with a fundraiser at the Brisbane Convention Centre dubbed the “Delivering for Queensland Industry Update”, at which one property developer paid $50,000 for a lunch with Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie.

Energy A also handed Queensland Labor $5000 on August 10 for tickets to a “fundraising event”, which Palmer was said to have not attended. Crisafulli’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Attempts were made to reach Palmer and SAS Group.

The premier’s Gold Coast electorate of Broadwater includes several properties from Palmer’s extensive portfolio on the ritzy Sovereign Islands, including one bought for $20 million in 2021.

Palmer ranked fifth on this year’s AFR Rich List with wealth of $19.55 billion. After a fallout with Campbell Newman’s government, the billionaire quit the LNP, but his own big-spending political party pursuits have yielded few long-lasting results.

He revived his United Australia Party brand this year and vowed to contest the federal Liberal-held seat of Fadden – which overlaps Crisafulli’s state seat – at the 2028 election.

While Palmer remains critical of the Liberal Party, Nationals figures are hopeful he will help them in their efforts to see off One Nation. The ascendant minor party is backed by fellow billionaire Gina Rinehart, who has been meeting with Crisafulli’s deputy, Bleijie.

Several then-senior LNP figures and former presidents were photographed on Palmer’s yacht on the night of the party’s 2020 state election loss, leading to internal party ructions and criticism from Crisafulli shortly after he became opposition leader.

Palmer’s 56-metre, $40 million superyacht “Australia” pulled into a prime position on the Brisbane River on Thursday ahead of the city’s Riverfire weekend.

>In a statement, a spokesperson for [Tim Nicholls] said: "The Crisafulli government has made its position clear: there is no safe way to take drugs."

Nicholls can go fuck himself. Utter garbage excuse for a human.

Langbroek is a Gold Coast MP, who clearly doesn't give a damn about a big part of his own city's economy.

The identity of a high-profile married man linked to an extortion case involving an alleged affair will stay secret after a ruling by a Supreme Court judge.

Several media organisations fought to reveal the man’s identity after months of secrecy over the case in the north Queensland city of Cairns.

But the challenge, brought to the Supreme Court, was ultimately unsuccessful, with Justice James Henry ruling on Friday to keep the man’s identity suppressed.

The man, who can only be referred to as ‘MM’, is not facing any charges himself and is not accused of any wrongdoing. But his name was aired in the local court earlier this year as part of another man’s extortion case.

The press were initially unable to report the allegations after Acting Magistrate Gelma Meoli ruled to uphold a police order to suppress the identities and the facts of the case.

She told the court that non-publication orders were made in blackmail and extortion cases, and if threats were not suppressed, victims of this type of offending would not come forward with their complaints.

Andrew O’Brien KC, representing several media outlets including this masthead, applied for a judicial review of the decision, arguing for the non-publication order to be lifted.

He previously told the court the law did not provide the principle for MM to have the protection of anonymity. The only way MM could be protected would be if he was a victim, or a witness in the case, O’Brien said.

After four weeks of deliberation, Justice Henry ruled to keep the suppression order in place.

At lunchtime on Wednesday, a first-term backbencher from Queensland’s regional town of Maryborough shared a local win – he’d successfully pushed for the removal of a public bench from a city street.

“I am taking action to improve safety in our CBD, and I will not give up,” the LNP’s John Barounis posted on Facebook and Instagram, explaining businesses and community members had raised concerns about anti-social behaviour.

Some people applauded the move, including a local who said people had been harassed by people sitting on the bench, which was outside a bottle shop.

However, the posts quickly attracted a flurry of condemnations, particularly on Facebook, where people suggested it was like an episode of Utopia or Parks and Recreation.

One quipped speeding had been eliminated by removing roads, while another joked he felt much safer with one less chair on the streets.

Griffith University urban planning expert Dr Natalie Osborne said many people relied on benches, particularly those with shade, and they were part of making public spaces accessible, welcoming and practical.

“Lots of people, including many older people, children and people with disabilities, find that they need spaces to rest along their walks, while waiting for public transport, or between errands,” she said.

“And, of course, there are people in our communities who spend a lot of time in public space because they are unhoused, and those people also deserve places to sit and rest.”

Osborne said the term “anti-social behaviour” was a bit vague, but removing a bench signalled that certain people were not welcome in a public space.

And she said it could have the opposite effect by discouraging people from spending much time shopping and enjoying an area.

Labor’s housing spokeswoman Meaghan Scanlon said the answer to homelessness was not removing a bench, but was about funding and delivering support services.

Barounis was contacted, but declined to comment.

Anti-social behaviour is a hot political issue in Maryborough, where police regularly run targeted operations to crack down on crimes such as wilful damage, drug driving, public nuisance, stealing and possession of drugs and weapons.

Last month, the city’s CBD became a designated business and community precinct, after a series of community forums where residents and local businesses voiced their anger.

The designation is similar to existing safe night precincts in other parts of Queensland, and gives police stronger move-on and wanding powers.

The symbolic heart of Brisbane could be completely reimagined under a plan floated by the Schrinner LNP council.

Proposals to “revitalise” King George Square will be accepted through a public tender process, with the Pig ‘N’ Whistle pub lease expiring at the end of this year.

A revamp could be as limited as just replacing the venue and upgrading its direct surroundings, or comprise a complete overhaul of the entire space through private investment.

Council documents says King George Square may be enhanced to support a 24-hour economy, with upgraded dining and new event and broadcast infrastructure.

“[It’s] one of our city’s most prominent public spaces and we want to keep partnering with the private sector to create more to see and do without ratepayers footing the bill,” arts chair Vicki Howard said in a statement.

“City Hall and King George Square will remain in public hands while experienced operators will continue to bring hospitality, entertainment, events and experiences to the precinct.”

Council documents say a tenancy of 20 years or longer would likely be offered to allow private groups to justify significant investment in the space.

The Labor opposition on council said King George Square needed to be upgraded, but was scathing of the decision to invite for-profit companies to draw up plans.

It said council should have first gone to residents for their views on what the square needed.

“They’ve put the cart before the horse by asking the private market for their ideas before asking the community what they want to see in our civic heart first,” leader Jared Cassidy said in a statement.

“This will be another massive, missed opportunity for Brisbane.”

Cassidy called for greenery, shade and water features to be reinstalled in the square. All three were removed as part of a major 2009 redevelopment.

Independent Nicole Johnston was similarly critical.

“The Lord Mayor’s latest proposal to commercialise valuable CBD public space is a cynical money grab,” she said.

“What’s next ... more giant screens pumping out costly ads and neon billboards hanging off City Hall?”

Greens councillor Trina Massey added to the opposition, saying the LNP was wrong to go to private businesses for ideas first instead of ratepayers.

“King George Square is a public square, not just an asset on a balance sheet and it wasn’t always a grey space,” she said.

“Before we talk about monetising more of our public spaces, we should be talking to Brisbane residents about what they want King George Square to be.

“Is there an appetite for more trees, greenery, shade, seating and places to gather? I think we should ask the people of Brisbane first.”

Councillor Seal Chong Wah, who also represents the Greens, said The LNP was prioritising profit over its constituents.

“This space is used by rough sleepers with no other safe option, now the LNP might kick them out for commercial redevelopment,” she said.

“The LNP have turned their back on real solutions to solve the housing crisis.”

The LNP questioned how an alternative administration would fund a revamp.

“A major renovation of King George Square would cost ratepayers tens of millions of dollars and we’re not prepared to spend that money when there are more important priorities across the suburbs,” Howard added.

“While Labor wants ratepayers to fund another major renovation of King George Square, we would rather invest that money in better roads, parks, public transport and community facilities.

“It’s a choice between spending tens of millions of ratepayer dollars renovating King George Square or continuing to harness private investment while investing in the suburbs.”

Depending on the tender, the upgraded precinct could also take in City Hall.

King George Square was built in 1930. It has undergone multiple overhauls over its nearly 100-year history.