Brisbane News Live: Mother and son killed in house fire; How to bring Brisbane workers back to CBD

Have your woollen blankets at the ready, the temperature is set to fall into the single digits in Brisbane over the coming mornings.

But the glorious, blue skies will continue as consolation, with no rain on the horizon for the next week in Brisbane.

“We’re not going to get any rain for the foreseeable future, and the foreseeable future is typically about seven days,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Livio Regano said.

The temperature is forecast to drop to 8 degrees on Tuesday morning and 9 degrees on Wednesday – slightly below the long-term average June minimum of 11 degrees.

The thermostat will climb into the double digits again on Thursday and Friday, before falling again to 9 degrees on Saturday morning, making for a chilly start to the weekend.

“It’s colder than average, but not by much,” Regano said.

Brisbane’s coldest June temperature on the books (from the city’s former central Wickham Terrace gauge) is 2.4 degrees, which was recorded on June 29, 1908.

However, at Brisbane Airport the coldest June morning was recorded on June 27, 1971, when the temperature plunged to 0.6 degrees.

A deep low over the Tasman Sea, drawing cold air up from the south, is responsible for the crisp winter days, Regano explained.

“This is typical for Queensland in winter. We have our dry season now,” he said.

Regano explained south-westerly winds carry dry, cold air from Australia’s arid centre to south-east Queensland during winter, creating chilly, yet sunny conditions.

“You barely get a cloud, let alone any rainfall,” he said.

“People talk about the winter westerlies, but in truth they’re more south-westerlies.”

Nine furniture removal vans full of ex-restaurant furniture and kitchen equipment from the old Eagle Street Pier complex have been donated to a women’s shelter in Brisbane.

Peggy’s Place received the equipment, allowing the new charity to get up and running sooner than expected.

“We are just in start-up mode at the moment, so it has really helped us get going,” Peggy’s Place founder Peggy Flannery said.

The 1989-built Eagle Street Pier housed restaurants including George’s Paragon, Fatcow Steak & Lobster, City Winery and Mr & Mrs G Riverbar.

It was demolished in 2023 to make way for the $2.5 billion Waterfront Brisbane project, which has been billed by developer Dexus as a “world-class precinct” that will transform the city’s riverfront.

Waterfront Brisbane project director Matt Beasley said the donation “was a unique opportunity to repurpose high-quality kitchen equipment and other goods that would have otherwise become construction waste”.

Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who was imprisoned in Beijing for three years on bogus espionage charges, appears to have been harassed by Chinese officials in Canberra.

Today, as a journalist for Sky News, Cheng was at a ceremony in Canberra where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and visiting Chinese premier Li Qiang witnessed senior members of their governments sign documents regarding free trade agreements, economic dialogue and climate change.

Li is the second most powerful man in China and the first senior Chinese politician to visit Australia in seven years.

During the signing of agreements, Cheng appeared to have her view blocked by Chinese media officials at multiple points.

Footage captured by Nine News, owner of this masthead, shows Cheng sitting with the press pack when Chinese officials move in front of her.

Cheng swapped seats, and then another official tried to block her view.

Australian officials then moved in to be a barricade between Cheng and the Chinese officials.

After the altercation, Cheng said on Sky they “went to great lengths” to block her from the cameras and “flank” her.

“I’m only guessing this is to prevent me from saying something or doing something that they think would be a bad look, but that in itself was a bad look,” she said.

Albanese later refused to give his opinion on whether it was appropriate for Cheng to be blocked from view.

“Well, I didn’t see it, but I saw Cheng Lei and we smiled at each other during … the event,” he said.

“I’m not aware of the issues and it is important that people be allowed to participate fully and that is what should happen in this building or anywhere else in Australia.”

Three people were killed and a fourth person was critically injured in a collision between a ute and a sedan in the Western Downs on Monday morning.

Police said the collision occurred around 11am on the Dalby-Jandowae Road at Jimbour East.

A man and two children died at the scene, while a woman was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition. All were in the sedan at the time of the crash.

The driver of the ute was taken to hospital with injuries police said were not life-threatening.

Have your woollen blankets at the ready, the temperature is set to fall into the single digits in Brisbane over the coming mornings.

But the glorious, blue skies will continue as consolation, with no rain on the horizon for the next week in Brisbane.

“We’re not going to get any rain for the foreseeable future, and the foreseeable future is typically about seven days,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Livio Regano said.

The temperature is forecast to drop to 8 degrees on Tuesday morning and 9 degrees on Wednesday – slightly below the long-term average June minimum of 11 degrees.

The thermostat will climb into the double digits again on Thursday and Friday, before falling again to 9 degrees on Saturday morning, making for a chilly start to the weekend.

“It’s colder than average, but not by much,” Regano said.

Brisbane’s coldest June temperature on the books (from the city’s former central Wickham Terrace gauge) is 2.4 degrees, which was recorded on June 29, 1908.

However, at Brisbane Airport the coldest June morning was recorded on June 27, 1971, when the temperature plunged to 0.6 degrees.

A deep low over the Tasman Sea, drawing cold air up from the south, is responsible for the crisp winter days, Regano explained.

“This is typical for Queensland in winter. We have our dry season now,” he said.

Regano explained south-westerly winds carry dry, cold air from Australia’s arid centre to south-east Queensland during winter, creating chilly, yet sunny conditions.

“You barely get a cloud, let alone any rainfall,” he said.

“People talk about the winter westerlies, but in truth they’re more south-westerlies.”

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has told Robert Irwin to “lighten up, mate”, after the TV personality threatened to sue the producers of her political cartoon series over an episode satirising his involvement in a Queensland tourism campaign.

On Friday, FC Lawyers, representing Irwin, sent a cease and desist letter to Melbourne-based Stepmates Studios alleging an episode of Hanson’s Please Explain series, uploaded on the Queensland senator’s social media, was defamatory and deceptively used Irwin’s image.

But Hanson, during an interview with Radio 6PR in Perth this morning, has refused to take the video down.

“I’ve never met the young man, but I’d say to Robert, lighten up mate, okay, your father was an icon, he actually was a larrikin, he used to have a laugh,” she said.

“I just think it’s ridiculous, it’s not depicting Robert in a terrible way, whatsoever.”

Hanson claimed she had been given until 5pm today to remove Irwin’s image.

“I’m not backing down from it, and I will see it through to court,” she said.

“I’ve got one of the best lawyers in the country who has acted for me in a number of cases and has said this is not defamatory, so I will fight it.

“It’s satirical, have we become so precious that we are actually looking at ourselves all the time without having a joke? Where’s the Australia that I grew up in where you could have a laugh and a joke at yourself?”

Turning to some political news now, Chinese Premier Li Qiang – the first senior Chinese politician to visit Australia in seven years – has been welcomed to Canberra’s Parliament House.

Arriving in a motorcade to the sound of military canons being fired, Li stood in front of Australian soldiers this morning.

The premier – the second most powerful man in China – walked past the line of soldiers as the military band played music for his official ceremonial welcome.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was also in attendance.

Activists calling on China to free Tibet could be heard on the lawns outside, as they stood next to pro-China demonstrators.

The pro-democracy and pro-communist protesters clashed outside Parliament House, as police separated the groups with barricades.

Footage aired on Nine, owner of this masthead, shows two activists getting into a scuffle as police attempt to pull them away from one another.

Albanese and Li are expected to engage in talks at Parliament House through the day before travelling to Perth this evening.

More than 55 posties a week are being attacked by dogs while on the job.

But it is Queensland that records the highest number postie pooch attacks.

There have been 466 dog-related incidents involving posties in the past six months in Queensland, followed by 408 in NSW and 215 in Western Australia.

It equates to an alarming 11 dog-related incidents a day, nationally, over the last six months.

While no single dog breed is more likely to attack than another, Australia Post says it’s smaller dogs that are the most aggressive.

Australia Post General Manager of Safety and Wellbeing, Rod Maule, called on dog owners to take responsibility for their pets.

“Our team members just want to be able to deliver for our customers, without being attacked, harassed, or chased by dogs,” Maule said today.

“Posties will not make a delivery if it is unsafe for them to do so and will cease deliveries to a customer’s home until the danger is fixed.”

Australia Post data has found that half of all incidents are taking place on customers’ properties, with almost a third occurring at the front door.

Of particular concern are dog bites during letter deliveries, with 15 per cent of incidents occurring when a postie puts mail in a letterbox.

Australia Post also reports dog-related incidents to relevant local councils to ensure enforcement is actioned.

As we reported earlier, Selwyn Cobbo has been been ruled out of the Maroons squad for game two with injury.

Cobbo was outstanding coming off the bench in game one after superstar Reece Walsh left the field, having a hand in two tries while running for 167 metres and nine tackle busts.

But Maroons coach Billy Slater said it was best for Cobbo to rest, given his present condition.

“Selwyn’s just not quite 100 per cent at the moment. He’s been playing with injections and that sort of stuff, and collectively with a few things we would like to work on in his game, we just thought it was best for Selwyn to have a rest,” Slater said.

“The Broncos have a bye this week, and I’m pretty sure if the Broncos were playing, Selwyn wouldn’t be playing for the Broncos, so I just felt this was the best thing for him personally and the best thing for the team.

“Selwyn’s just turned 22, and sometimes we forget these guys are still young men developing physically. They’re still developing their game and still building that consistency in their game.

“Everyone’s different, it’s not one size fits all, and I just felt this was the right thing for Selwyn to have a break.”

Read more here.

Reece Walsh has been selected for Queensland in game two of the State of Origin series but J’maine Hopgood and Selwyn Cobbo have been ruled out with injury.

Walsh, the 21-year-old fullback, was concussed in the seventh minute of Queensland’s 38-10 game-one win in Sydney after a high shot by Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii.

As long as he passes final tests in camp, Walsh will take the field against NSW at the MCG on June 26.

Just last year, loyal Maroons servants Felise Kaufusi, Kurt Capewell and Dane Gagai were left on the outer, and with that, their State of Origin careers appeared in tatters.

But the veteran trio have proved there is still life in their battle-hardened legs, as they plot dream swansongs in the Queensland colours.

Dolphins forward Kaufusi – the 18th man in game one – comes onto the bench while Warriors back-rower Capewell, who can also play centre, has earned a Maroons recall – also on the bench.

Kaufusi’s place as the squad’s emergency man will be taken by Gagai.

Read more here.

Singer John Farnham has made a rare appearance since his cancer surgery in a wedding ceremony in Melbourne for his son Rob and new wife Melissa.

In 2022 Farnham, 74, had a tumour removed from his mouth during a 12-hour surgical procedure on his jaw, and his public appearances have been rare since then.

His son Rob, also a singer and actor, posted photos with his father and family to social media on Sunday night, believed to be the first since his surgery for throat cancer in August, 2022.

“Shared the happiest moment with my favourite person in the universe and she said ‘I do’,” Rob Farnham wrote on social media.

Read more here.