Brisbane News Live: Investigators allege Haas’ father has cartel links; Almost 1000 long-stay patients in Qld hospitals

Sophie Jones Bradshaw is another Brisbane woman stranded in New Caledonia following deadly riots that have forced the closure of the airport.

Jones Bradshaw travelled to Noumea, the capital of the French-ruled Pacific island territory, for work on May 11.

She said her husband and three-year-old son were meant to come to meet her several days later, but the riots broke out.

Supermarkets are bare and leaving home to get rations is a life-threatening endeavour amid periodic explosions and fires.

“There’s a few corner stores I’ve tried yesterday and today and they are empty – maybe a few shampoos and deodorants left, but there’s no food,” Jones Bradshaw said.

“You have to go further and further out to find a shop that hasn’t been burned or is not closed.

“In the middle of all that, you can still hear explosions every now and then.”

Finding a loaf of bread is near impossible, Jones Bradshaw said, with supplies to grocers blocked by road barricades.

Read more here.

A man who accused his stepfather of murdering Sharron Phillips more than three decades ago had a commercial motive to lie to benefit his podcast about the notorious Queensland cold case, the state’s coroner has found.

Sharron Phillips, 20, vanished on May 8, 1986, while waiting for her boyfriend after running out of petrol in Wacol, in south-west Brisbane.

State Coroner Terry Ryan reopened the inquest into her disappearance after taxi driver Raymond Peter Mulvihill was identified as the number one suspect by police.

Mulvihill’s stepson Ian Seeley told a former detective in 2016 that his father was responsible for abducting and killing her.

However, Ryan found Seeley had a commercial motive to lie to benefit his podcast about the case and had made unsupported claims, such as his stepfather having murdered at least 10 other women and hidden the bodies in a drain alongside Phillips.

“It is possible that both Mr Mulvihill and Mr Seeley had some involvement in Sharron’s disappearance,” Ryan said on Monday.

Ryan said Seeley was an unreliable witness and his evidence was not enough to support his allegations against his stepfather.

We will bring you more from the inquest findings today, so do stay with us.

AAP

Brisbane ultra-marathon runner Jacqui Bell is among about 300 Australians stranded in New Caledonia due to ongoing riots in the French-ruled territory.

Bell said she and other Australians were in lockdown in their hotels after rioters burnt businesses, torched cars and looted shops, killing five people.

“It’s been about a week in lockdown,” Bell told ABC Radio Brisbane this morning.

“I got moved from a hotel in the city centre … to this one right on the water. The food situation is quite low … and we’re getting a little bit restless now.”

Bell was due to compete in a 100-kilometre race on Sunday.

She said there was talk of a P&O cruise ship being sent to retrieve Australians. “But I think we might just be here until the end of the week,” she said.

Noumea’s airport has been shuttered – stranding tourists –because of deadly unrest wracking the French Pacific archipelago where indigenous people have long sought independence from France.

The riots have been sparked by anger among indigenous Kanak people over a new bill, adopted by MPs in Paris, that gives French people who have lived in New Caledonia for at least 10 years the right to vote.

Read more here.

Broncos star forward Pat Carrigan has rallied behind his teammate Payne Haas whose father has been arrested in the Philippines and accused of running enough drugs in Indonesia to qualify for the death penalty.

Gregor Haas was arrested in the Philippines on Wednesday and is being held in Manila while Indonesia prepares its attempt to have him extradited.

Carrigan described his teammate as resilient when asked about Haas’ ability to perform following his father’s arrest.

“Everyone knows what Payne Haas can do as a football player. Me and him are really close – we’re probably like family now the two of us,” Carrigan said.

“He’s caring, he’s the first one to check on all the boys and then the load he carries willingly for us as a club, but also his family is pretty special.

“If there were more Payne Haas’ in the world I think it would be a better place.”

The Star has entered a trading halt after responding to speculation its close to a takeover.

The struggling casino giant, after shedding more than one billion from its market capitalisation over the past year, is ripe for a takeover and has been watched by a number of local and US parties since it was disgraced by two state inquiries into its operations in 2022.

The Australian Financial Review reported over the weekend that US hospitality group Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos has engaged KPMG and pitched a buyout.

The Star said on Monday in response to the report that it has been approached by multiple external companies regarding a potential transaction but none have progressed.

“At this stage, none of the approaches has resulted in substantive discussions,” The ASX release said.

The Star was then forced to enter a trading halt after being asked for further clarification about the identities of the other parties by the Australian Securities Exchange, according to multiple sources close to the company who were not authorised to speak publicly.

Star’s Brisbane and Gold Coast casinos have a special manager, under related regulatory requirements, until December 8.

The group is preparing to move its Treasury casino into the new Queen’s Wharf Brisbane complex and welcome gamblers as soon as it opens.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed his government is expecting two new Boeing jets, as they were told some time ago the jets would arrive but have been delayed.

Reports in The Australian this morning say taxpayers will pay $450 million for two new Boeing 737 business jets to ferry Albanese, the Governor-General and key government ministers.

Asked whether the government had purchased two new Boeing jets on ABC Brisbane this morning, Albanese confirmed it had been a project under way for some time.

“The former government purchased some Boeing jets some time ago, when they were in government. I think actually it goes back to the Turnbull government and they are yet to be delivered,” he said.

Asked again if the government was expecting the two new Boeing jets, Albanese confirmed they were waiting.

“We are, we’ve been expecting them and we were told they’d be delivered some time ago – they haven’t been,” he said.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has accused Labor of having a “cult-like desire” for Australia to run on windmills.

During a panel discussion on Seven’s Sunrise with Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, the pair took questions on how well the budget was received by voters.

Plibersek spruiked stage 3 tax cut reforms, the $300 energy rebate, wiping $3 billion off student debt and increasing rent assistance.

“We are absolutely focused on bringing down inflation and helping with the cost of living. This budget does both of those things,” Plibersek said.

Joyce argued back, accusing Plibersek and the government of failing to effectively tackle the cost-of-living crisis.

“Tanya says, ‘oh we’re dealing with the cost of living’ and that really just annoys people because they say ‘well you’re not dealing with it when I pay the groceries’,” he said.

Interrupting Joyce’s argument, Plibersek asks “well what’s your plan for the cost of living?”

Joyce responds: “straightaway [we’re] not going to have this insane desire, cultish desire, a cult-like desire to turn the whole world, have Australia running on windmills, it’s just insane and while you’re stuck [on that] coal is going to continue to go through the roof.”

Australia’s two major airlines have backflipped and given conditional approval to an industry-wide aviation ombudsman who would deal with passenger complaints and refunds.

An Aircraft Noise Ombudsman already exists to regulate and deal with complaints, but the aviation green paper prepared for federal Transport Minister Catherine King and released last September examined the need for either a passenger bill of rights or a strong ombudsman to oversee the sector and deal with complaints about airlines from customers.

King has previously said the aviation white paper, due to be released mid-2024, would “include consideration of how we can better protect the interests of consumers, whether that be a stronger ombudsman model or other measures implemented in overseas jurisdictions”.

Australia’s airlines have endured sustained criticism for their performance in recent years, with Qantas recently admitting it had advertised and sold tickets on already cancelled flights to tens of thousands of consumers. It recently reached a $120 million settlement, comprising both penalties and compensation, with the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission.

Two businesses have been destroyed in a massive inferno in Coorparoo, in Brisbane’s inner-south east.

The blaze engulfed Cambridge Collision Centre at the corner of Cambridge Street and Cavendish Road, opposite Coorparoo train station, shortly before 5am today.

The Cav Road Canteen was also ripped apart by flames.

Fifteen fire crews battled the blaze.

“Multiple crews are currently on scene at a commercial structure fire on Cambridge Street in Coorparoo,” Queensland Fire and Rescue Service said in a statement earlier this morning.

“The fire is under control and crews are working to extinguish it. Smoke is affecting buildings south west of the fire.”

Two people were assessed at the scene by paramedics.

The spectacular autumn weather we enjoyed over the weekend will continue today, with bluebird skies in Brisbane …