Brisbane news live: Accused carjacker and shooter to front court | Woman ‘killed partner hours after palliative care meeting’

Donald Trump’s global tariff war and the uncertainty he has unleashed on the world will cost the Australian economy more than $13 billion this year and put upward pressure on inflation, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

In a wake-up call to Albanese and Dutton about the economic headwinds fanned by Trump’s policy agenda, the IMF said yesterday the global economy had entered a new era, with America and China to bear the brunt of a substantial slowdown in growth over the next 18 months.

Read more here.

The man accused of killing a woman in a multi-car crash, shooting a driver and committing carjackings on the Sunshine Coast will appear in court today.

Police allege Bradley Donald Towle was behind the wheel of a Porsche Macan SUV involved in a six-vehicle crash on the Bruce Highway at Palmview about 12.10pm on Easter Monday.

Jocelyn Grace Mollee, 22, was a passenger in another car involved in the pile-up, and died.

The 41-year-old Towle is accused of then shooting the driver of a four-wheel-drive in the arm and stealing his vehicle, before crashing that and leaving it upside-down on Steve Irwin Way at Landsborough.

He then allegedly approached a grey Mazda 3 with a gun, prompting the 16-year-old learner driver and her parents to run away.

Towle was arrested minutes later at the intersection of Steve Irwin Way and Forestry Road.

He was taken to Sunshine Coast University Hospital under police guard, and was later charged with 15 offences.

He is set to appear in Maroochydore Magistrates Court after 9am today.

Defence Minister Richard Marles has been asked this morning whether he was cautious about sharing information with his US counterpart Pete Hegseth, after it was revealed the Trump administration’s defence secretary shared sensitive military information on a group chat that included members of his family.

Hegseth last month also shared sensitive details about an imminent military operation in Yemen with a group chat on the consumer encrypted messaging app Signal, to which the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic had been accidentally added.

Marles said he remained confident in his engagement with the US on defence and the sharing of classified information.

“We have a very close relationship with the United States when it comes to defence,” Marles said on ABC News. “It is deep, it is organic, and it is trusted, and we do share information, and that information is treated in an appropriate way, and I’ve got complete confidence that that will be the case going forward.

“I am absolutely confident about the way in which we engage with the United States and the way in which I’ve been engaging with Secretary Hegseth.”

The Crisafulli government is under pressure to allow an independent evaluation of Queensland’s wanding laws before it gives police greater power to search people in public places.

The LNP this month introduced legislative amendments that would make wanding, under Jack’s Law, permanent.

But after parliament sent the amendments to a committee for consideration, several statutory authorities and other stakeholders criticised the LNP’s bid to entrench and expand wanding powers without the independent evaluation recommended by a previous committee.

Crime and Corruption Commission chairman Bruce Barbour – who has raised concern about an increase in complaints about police – told the committee the bill should include “an independent, contemporary review of the expanded wanding trial” as was expected before late 2026.

And Victims Commissioner Beck O’Connor supported Jack’s Law being made permanent, but also called for a review and the retention of existing safeguards.

Here’s more on this story.

The Coalition has moved to outflank Labor on national security by vowing to inject an extra $21 billion into defence by the end of the decade in one of its major election commitments.

The Coalition will promise to significantly outspend Labor by increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product by 2030 and to 3 per cent over the next 10 years, matching the ambitious target called for by the Trump administration.

Peter Dutton and opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie will announce the spending pledge in Perth today as the Coalition seeks to arrest drooping poll numbers and re-energise its election campaign.

Defence spending is projected to rise from 2.02 per cent of GDP this year to 2.3 per cent by 2034 under Labor, making the Coalition’s 3 per cent long-term pledge significantly more ambitious.

Read the full story.

Peter Dutton branded Anthony Albanese loose with the truth, while the prime minister accused the opposition leader of desperation, as they traded sharp personal barbs last night while sparring over health funding and nuclear energy costs during the third leaders’ debate of the election campaign.

Dutton took the first step to call out what he said were “a lot of lies told by Labor over the course of this campaign”, defending the Coalition as it comes under a sustained political attack in Labor’s paid advertising for plotting mystery cuts to Medicare to pay for his nuclear energy plan.

Dutton disputed Labor’s $600 billion costing on the Coalition’s energy policy as a number whipped up by an interest group, while rejecting the government’s claims that he would cut healthcare.

“Your best description of him [Albanese] could be that he’s loose with the truth and he says it with a straight face, which is the most remarkable thing,” Dutton said.

The prime minister sought to draw focus to Labor’s Medicare plans by saying he would “absolutely” stake his leadership on bulk-billing rates going up, but this only added fuel to a protracted dispute over the Coalition’s record on health spending from Dutton’s tenure as minister in 2014.

Read the full dispatch by Natassia Chrysanthos.

A woman allegedly murdered her terminally ill partner shortly after he delayed making a decision on legal assisted dying at a palliative care meeting, a judge has heard.

Kylie Ellina Truswell-Mobbs was arrested on April 3, more than a year after the death of David Ronald Mobbs at Alexandra Hills in December 2023.

During a bail application in Queensland Supreme Court yesterday, Justice Glenn Martin heard Mobbs suffered from motor neurone disease, which rapidly damages a person’s ability to walk, talk and eat over time.

Crown prosecutor Sarah Dennis said Truswell-Mobbs was accused of making three attempts to administer a combination of drugs to Mobbs via his feeding tube.

She alleged Truswell-Mobbs took “matters into her own hands” after a meeting earlier that day concerning Mobbs’ palliative care.

“[Mobbs] indicated in the presence of a number of people that he wished to go on or at least have a further week before he considered his end-of-life options,” Dennis said.

Here’s the full report by reporter Rex Martinich.