Brisbane News Live: Nuclear issue at Crisafulli’s doorstep; What to expect from the Carlson-Palmer roadshow

The man who allegedly shot and killed a woman while she sat in a car with two teenagers in South Mackay has been charged.

The 31-year-old South Mackay man was not known to the woman before he allegedly shot her, police say; however, they lived on the same street.

The woman suffered critical injuries and died at the Robb Place address, while the two children fled the scene on foot.

“It will be further alleged a nearby resident, a 66-year-old man, approached the man a short time later and was also shot,” police said in a statement, adding that the man suffered non-life-threatening wounds to the hand and sternum.

The alleged shooter has been charged with one count each of murder and attempted murder, and is scheduled to appear in the Mackay Magistrates Court today.

A man who allegedly shot dead a Queensland woman in front of two children, and later shot a man who came to help, had previously held a weapons licence, but was not registered at the time.

Detectives are working to determine the motive for shooting, with police saying the man did not know the woman, or anyone else involved, but simply lived on the same street in South Mackay.

The 34-year-old woman was sitting in her driveway with two girls, aged 11 and 12, yesterday afternoon when police believe a single shot was fired at her, killing her.

Detective Acting Superintendent Emma Novosel said the girls then ran to a neighbour’s house on Robb Place who rushed to help.

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It’s hard to believe, but as of this weekend, school is out again for two whole weeks.

To help you fill in the time, we’ve compiled a list of family-friendly things to do, from Saturday, June 22 through to Sunday, July 7.

Some are free, some are cheap, and some, frankly, are going to cost you, but they’re all good, rewarding pastimes for the youngsters, from shows and movies to workshops and tours.

Read Nick Dent’s roundup of what to do over the winter school holidays.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has defended his decision not to provide costing alongside the Coalition’s nuclear plan, after announcing yesterday its energy modelling will be released ahead of the federal election.

Dutton has hit back at critics who say there is no detail in the nuclear policy, telling ABC News Breakfast the Coalition had “taken a deliberate step not to be held hostage by the Labor Party”.

“We want the information out there in bite-sized bits, if you like, so that people can consume exactly what it is that we’re proposing and understand what it’s not proposing,” he said.

Dutton said the nuclear plan only involved coal-fired power stations that were at the end of life.

“That’s because there’s an existing transmission network, so the poles and wires [are] already there, so we don’t need Labor’s new 28,000 kilometres of poles and wires through national parks and pristine farming land, etc. and it provides the opportunity to talk about that aspect of our proposal and we’ll release the next stage in due course,” he said.

“There’s been months and months and months of work put into this policy. I believe it’s in our country’s best interests.”

Dutton said Australia was an outlier in the world’s biggest economies in its rejection of nuclear power.

“I understand the sectional interests and people who are invested into green technologies and the rest of it, but my job is not to make rich people richer. My job is to provide an environment where electricity is cheaper, it’s consistent, it’s cleaner,” he said.

“We can do that through nuclear power, as 19 of the world’s top 20 economies have done. Australia’s the only outlier in that regard.”

Premier Steven Miles has reiterated his opposition to the federal Coalition’s nuclear plan, telling ABC News Breakfast his Labor state government would continue to pursue a renewables lead future.

Under Peter Dutton’s proposal, announced on Wednesday, seven nuclear facilities would be built in five states – including Tarong and Callide in Queensland.

Miles said the cost of nuclear energy did not stack up and Queensland just “didn’t need it” given a solar, wind and pumped-hydro plan was underway.

He said the two big problems with Dutton’s nuclear plan were the cost and how the waste would be managed.

“We know this will cost hundreds of billions of dollars and that will mean people’s electricity bills will be higher and I’m concerned about the future generations of Queenslanders who will need to manage this dangerous radioactive waste forever,” he said.

“We just don’t need it. We have a detailed, costed plan to get to net-zero emissions in our energy system through renewable, through solar and wind and pumped hydro storage in particular, and that’s the plan we’re pursuing here.”

Miles said the other issue was that Dutton had selected sites owned by the state.

“We still own those generators and we own that land and we own the transmission network from there and so without our cooperation it’s very hard to see how he can do it. You got to assume he’s counting on an LNP state government cooperating with him,” he said, despite state LNP leader David Crisafulli publicly voicing his opposition.

“I tell you what – if Labor is in government we will do everything that we can to block his plan to build expensive nuclear reactors on sites we own here in Queensland.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called the Coalition’s nuclear plan a “fantasy”, telling ABC Radio National that a policy more than a decade from fruition is unlikely to get backing from business.

Albanese said Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s nuclear policy had fallen apart within 24 hours.

“There’s no costings, there’s no serious timeframe, there’s no proportion of how much nuclear will be as part of their energy system, there’s no details on what type of reactor,” he said.

Albanese said the opposition had not been clear on whether communities in the seven regions chosen for nuclear power plants would have a say in whether the plan went ahead under a Coalition government.

“Is the consultation process just going through the motions? They can’t say whether they have provided a real one or not,” he said.

Asked whether Labor could be trusted when it came to energy costs, given their pre-election promise of a $275 reduction on energy bills, Albanese blamed external impacts.

“What happened was there was a Russian invasion of Ukraine and there was a global increase in energy costs that affected every single western economy and that saw inflation in some countries like the UK hit double digits. That’s just something that happened. That is a fact,” he said.

“But what you have here is something that I’ve never seen before. I mean, this is just a fantasy. Instead of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, this is Peter Dutton and the seven nuclear reactors. This is just absurd to have a big build-up for an announcement and then say, ‘Oh well, we’ll give you the details [later]’.”

The man who allegedly shot and killed a woman while she sat in a car with two teenagers in South Mackay has been charged.

The 31-year-old South Mackay man was not known to the woman before he allegedly shot her, police say; however, they lived on the same street.

The woman suffered critical injuries and died at the Robb Place address, while the two children fled the scene on foot.

“It will be further alleged a nearby resident, a 66-year-old man, approached the man a short time later and was also shot,” police said in a statement, adding that the man suffered non-life-threatening wounds to the hand and sternum.

The alleged shooter has been charged with one count each of murder and attempted murder, and is scheduled to appear in the Mackay Magistrates Court today.

Police have arrested a 31-year-old man after a woman was shot dead yesterday afternoon in South Mackay, sparking a three-hour manhunt.

Officers were called to a Robb Place address just after 4.30pm after reports a woman had been shot.
When they arrived, a woman was found dead and a man with injuries to his hand.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said the woman had head and chest wounds, while a male patient with a wound to his chest and hand was taken by critical care paramedics to Mackay Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Police arrested a 31-year-old man about 7.45pm outside a fast food restaurant along the Bruce Highway, near Hinton Street in Mackay.

He was not physically injured and was assisting police with investigations.

Police are expected to provide an update on Thursday morning.

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Five separate house fires in just one week in Queensland have prompted warnings from authorities to be vigilant with household appliances.

Three people have died in the Sunshine State in the past seven days in house fires, including a woman in her 80s and her son in his 60s on Sunday.

The string of blazes has prompted Queensland Fire and Emergency Services to remind residents that cooler weather leads to a spike in house fires.

Mark Halverson from the fire service said residents should check their smoke alarms are working correctly and remain vigilant about appliances.

“People need to be fully aware that what may appear to be a small insignificant fire has the potential to develop into an uncontrolled life-threatening fire in just a couple of minutes,” he told the ABC.

“People do need to be vigilant and act upon seeing or having any indication that a fire may have occurred.”

AAP

The forecast is for a cloudy day in Brisbane.

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