Key posts
It’s 26 degrees, but feels like 30
By Dominique Tassell
Do not be fooled by the patches of blue sky this morning, Brisbane is in for another muggy and stormy day.
Brisbane avoided the worst of the storms this weekend and today’s storms are also expected to be less severe.
It is expected to begin raining across the city from 10am, with thunderstorms to roll in from 4pm.
The humidity level is currently at 79 per cent, making the temperature of 26 degrees feel more like 30 degrees.
While it is hot and humid, at least it’s not a repeat of last Monday when Brisbane sweltered through its hottest October day in 21 years.
Coalition ‘headed for electoral oblivion’, says independent MP
By Emily Kaine
Independent MP Monique Ryan has this morning slammed the Coalition for its division over net zero, claiming they are “headed for electoral oblivion”.
Speaking to Nine’s Today show following the National Party’s announcement yesterday that it was abandoning net zero, Ryan said, “[The Coalition] don’t know what they believe. They’re trying to look at, I think polls or the popularity contest. This is an important issue, and Australians, they know that climate change is real. They know that we need to do something about it. They’re looking to political leaders for leadership.
Independent MP Monique Ryan.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“They are not getting it. And I think they’re just basically driving themselves off a cliff in terms of both their electoral prospects, but also what that means for these political parties. It’s a critical time for the Coalition. They need to, you know, really look to themselves and look to what their guiding principles are, if there are any at all, and get back to those. If they don’t, they are headed for electoral oblivion.”
The Nats’ new policy will focus on climate adaptation and mitigation of carbon emissions, party leader David Littleproud said yesterday.
The decision poses a significant problem for Opposition Leader Sussan Ley as MPs return to parliament today. Three sources, who spoke to this masthead on the condition of anonymity, said moderates would prefer to split the Coalition than drop net zero aspirations altogether, and some were willing to quit the frontbench over the issue.
Hail bigger than tennis balls: The weekend of wild weather
By Kat Wong and Melissa Meehan
Hailstones bigger than tennis balls punched through windscreens and skylights as destructive storms hit Queensland over the weekend.
A major band of high-end hazardous conditions pushed towards Queensland and northern NSW on Saturday, wreaking havoc on homes and local businesses, and ripping the roof from one wedding venue while terrified guests sought shelter under tables and in a cool room.
Giant hail fell in parts of south-east Queensland on Saturday.Credit: Nine News
About 20 to 40 locals hoping to celebrate the re-opening of MJ’s Cafe and Bar were forced to take shelter as hail pelted the venue in Pratten, about 200 kilometres southwest of Brisbane.
“It basically started the size of a pea, maybe up to marble size, and then it really started to ramp up, getting to golf ball and nearly tennis-ball,” owner Richard Manley said.
“We’re in the bush, so we know about rifles and it sounded louder than a .223 going off.”
By the time the storm began to die down, almost every car in the parking lot had suffered windscreen damage, the outdoor furniture was destroyed and hail had smashed through the venue’s skylights, Manley said.
The Bureau of Meteorology recorded hail stones as large as nine centimetres in Pratten, with five-centimetre and two-centimetre stones recorded elsewhere in the state.
Meanwhile, nine people attending a school fair were pelted with giant hailstones.
Paramedics rushed to Esk State School, about an hour from Brisbane, on Saturday afternoon to treat people with hail-related injuries. The school had been celebrating its 150th anniversary.
Isabelle Drake barely escaped the line of fire at Esk State School’s fair.Credit: Nine News
One woman was taken to Ipswich Hospital with neck and head injuries, a man in his 20s was taken to Gatton Hospital with minor burns, and two women – one in her 20s and another in her 30s, were taken to hospitals privately, also with minor injuries.
Competition winners accuse photo studio of ‘emotional blackmail’
By Julius Dennis
Also this morning, Julius Dennis investigates some of the predatory sales tactics and emotional blackmail used by at least one photography studio.
Bellizzi Studios, which has businesses in Sydney and Brisbane, frequently run competitions for family and pet portraiture prizes on Instagram and Facebook, offering an “experience and a fine artwork for your home”.
Julien Berthold and Lina Guarino said they were shocked to be quoted more than $5000 for a book of photos taken at the studio’s facility in Hendra on Brisbane’s northside.
The Bellizzi photo of Lina Guarino and Julien Berthold.
The couple had won a $750 photo package for a shoot with their dog Waffle, and enjoyed the process. “It seemed very professional,” Berthold said.
A couple of weeks later, a Bellizzi employee was flipping through images on a Zoom call. The couple said they were willing to spend some of their own money, but were blown away by the price they were told.
How many hours do you work?
Let’s take a closer look at one of our top stories today: How many hours do you work?
Our resident data guru Craig Butt has looked at the last Census to calculate how many hours Australians are working on average each week.
Nationwide, the average weekly hours for full-time workers is 43.7 hours.
But for half of all 941 job types tracked by the Bureau of Statistics, the average was between 40 hours and 42.9 hours.
How many hours a week do people in your occupation work on average? Type your job into the interactive tool below to find out.
Storm rips roof off wedding venue
By Dominique Tassell
Brisbane was spared the worst of the weekend’s storms, but the same could not be said for other parts of Queensland.
Wedding guests near Bundaberg were forced to take cover in the venue’s cold room on Saturday night as storms tore across the region.
It “went from zero to 100 really, really quickly”, wedding guest Maddison Hogarth told Nine News.
It felt like a tornado inside the shed at Camboon in the shire of Banana, inland from Bundaberg, Hogarth said.
“There was a lot of fear, a lot of crying, a lot of screaming,” she said.
“One of my girlfriends, she had her little baby with her, she made the call to bunker under a steel table because she was so scared. We had people in cold rooms, we had to put kids in cold rooms. I’ve got goosebumps, it was pretty hard. It was insane, very, very chaotic and very scary.”
The building was destroyed, with people still inside, although none of the 200 guests suffered serious injuries.
Brisbane to get Beetlejuice musical
By Nick Dent
The ghost with the most is coming to Brisbane with the announcement that Beetlejuice the Musical will play the Lyric Theatre, QPAC from June 2026.
Based on the 1988 Tim Burton film starring Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, Beetlejuice is the story of a house of ghosts that enlists a volatile supernatural being to exorcise its troublesome living inhabitants.
Eddie Perfect starring in Beetlejuice in Melbourne. Andy Karl will play the role in Brisbane.Credit: Joe Armao
The musical’s Australian composer and lyricist, Eddie Perfect, played the title role in this production in Melbourne, which The Age awarded five stars.
US Broadway performer Andy Karl will take over the role for the Brisbane season, as well as a season opening in Singapore in January.
Brisbane local Angelique Cassimatis will return as afterlife receptionist Miss Argentina.
Tickets go on sale later this year and fans are encouraged to sign up for the waitlist.
Take the Brisbane Times quiz
In case you missed it, take the weekly Brisbane Times quiz, written by our resident quizmaster Nick Dent …
Today’s cartoon
Trump and Halloween.Credit: Badiucao
‘Change is coming’: Premier promises e-bike crackdown
By William Davis
The premier has promised new electric bike rules, days after two boys were killed in separate crashes.
An eight-year-old died on the Sunshine Coast on Thursday, and a 15-year-old boy died two days later on the Gold Coast.
“I’m genuinely sad for what’s happened,” Premier David Crisafulli said from Townsville yesterday. “We are taking this so seriously … change is coming.”
He confirmed his government would act on recommendations handed down by the parliamentary inquiry into e-bikes and e-scooters, which was due to make its findings public by March.
“We are going to have laws that deal with this,” Crisafulli said.
“When we get that report we are going to act on it and we are going to make the changes that have been put in the too-hard-basket for the last 10 years.
“We owe it to families, we owe it to people who just want to go about their business and be safe.”
He added the state would work with federal authorities on new import rules, to limit the sale of overpowered or otherwise unsafe vehicles.
Most Viewed in National
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
