Brisbane news live: Dutton office vandalised again, teen arrested | Bluey’s World to stay open longer | One million trips on Brisbane Metro

The Brisbane City Council is celebrating one million trips taken on Brisbane Metro since it started permanent services in January after a trial last year.

In figures released on Thursday, it said numbers on the route between the University of Queensland at St Lucia and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital at Herston were up 12 per cent compared to the former 66 route.

“We’re so pleased to see Brisbane residents voting with their feet and embracing our leap from public transport to mass transit,” Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said.

More major changes are expected for Brisbane’s bus network this year. The metro is due to be expanded mid-year with the M1 route, which will run from Eight Mile Plains to Roma Street.

Construction on the Adelaide Street tunnel is still ongoing, and upgrades to both platforms at Buranda, platform 3 on Melbourne Street at the Cultural Centre, and shelters along Adelaide Street are yet to be completed.

Dutton has given a hesitant answer on whether there should be a royal commission for domestic violence, steering back from a previous pledge.

In May last year, the opposition leader pledged a royal commission if one is required to unearth the evidence to end men’s violence against women, particularly in Indigenous communities.

At the time, Dutton said there was a “strong argument” for a federal inquiry.

Speaking this morning on 4BC, Dutton was asked if he would still commit to a royal commission into domestic violence, as the interviewer referred to his pledge when he last spoke to the station.

“I probably said during that interview, whatever it takes to reduce domestic violence in our country,” he said.

Asked again if he would commit to a royal commission, Dutton said: “I think change is certainly required and I think we need to do more and I think we need to identify where good programs are making a difference and identify what’s working and put more money into those programs.”

Dutton repeats that he believes change is required, before saying: “If a royal commission is required, then yes, but whatever we can do to reduce violence against women and children and make our community safer.”

About 140 kilograms of cocaine has allegedly been smuggled into Queensland inside boat engines from the USA.

Australian Border Force found the plastic-wrapped drug bricks when they were delivered from California in October last year.

Federal Police swapped out the cocaine for another substance, and tracked the delivery to a semi-rural property in Mount Nathan on the Gold Coast.

Investigators allege it was transported to a property in Wongawallan the next day, where a man tried unsuccessfully to extract the contraband.

The man’s home of the properties at Mount Nathan and Wongawallan were raided by the AFP on November 17, 2024. Phones and other material were seized.

A string of charges have been laid against the alleged offender, and he is due to appear at Southport Magistrates Court today.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has said Welcome to Country ceremonies have become “a political statement”, likening them to the wearing of masks during the COVID pandemic.

Speaking on Ben Fordham’s 2GB program, Abbott said: “Wearing masks became a political statement during the pandemic. If you weren’t an enthusiast for masks, you weren’t taking the pandemic seriously enough.

“I think now [Welcome to Country ceremonies have] become something that is, is forced on people as a way of trying to persuade them that the fundamental Australian project is illegitimate because it was based on this act of injustice, the original dispossession of the Indigenous people.”

The former Liberal leader said he had a “fundamental problem” with the ceremonies, saying he felt they elevated one group’s contribution to the country over another’s.

“I think that Peter Dutton has done us all a favour by admitting and acknowledging that these things are overdone,” Abbott said.

He went on to say that “what happened on the 26th of January 1788 was wonderful”, and was a day in which “the rule of law, notions of freedom, notions of equality, came to a country that previously didn’t have anything like the same thing”.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has criticised the prime minister for “attacking” S&P Global following the release of a report yesterday that suggested Australia’s AAA rating was at risk from both major parties’ election spending commitments.

In a post on X last night, Taylor said it was “extraordinary to see the PM attacking S&P Global because he can’t manage the budget. Mocking the ratings agency shows he’s not fit to lead – and Australia can’t afford another three years of Labor”.

In a statement yesterday, S&P said sound budget management had underpinned Australia’s AAA rating for years. But the agency believes growing risks to the global economy, plus the use by both parties of off-budget commitments to meet their spending pledges, was putting the budget at risk.

“The budget is already regressing to moderate deficits as public spending hits postwar highs, global trade tensions intensify and growth slows,” it said, “how the elected government funds its campaign pledges and rising spending will be crucial for maintaining the rating.”

On last night’s 7.30 on the ABC, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said off-budget commitments were used because they “can only be off-budget if essentially it’s going to produce a profit for the government”.

When asked why the Whyalla Steelworks and the NBN were marked as off-budget despite not being profitable, Albanese said “they will be, and Finance has to make that assessment that you get a return in order for it to be off-budget”.

Albanese used questions on the warning from S&P to swing back at the opposition, saying: “the AAA credit rating is there … [S&P] must have been beside themselves, whoever wrote that particular report, when the Coalition left us with a $78 billion deficit. We turned that into a $22 billion surplus. We followed that up with a $15 billion surplus.”

The prime minister went on to criticise the Coalition’s spending proposals before host Sarah Ferguson said those claims could be put to the opposition leader. Albanese replied: “Good luck getting Peter Dutton on the show, given that yesterday he described the ABC as the ‘hate media’.”

With Shane Wright

Brisbane’s visitor attraction dedicated to the world’s favourite blue heeler puppy has officially extended its season.

Bluey’s World in Hamilton, which recently welcomed its 200,000th visitor, has been extended through to February 2026, with the next ticket pre-release set for next Tuesday, May 6.

Andrew Powell MP, Queensland’s Minister for Environment and Tourism, says Bluey’s World has attracted visitors from across Australia as well as New Zealand, North America, the United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore.

“We anticipate that Bluey’s World will help to generate as much as $18 million for our state economy, as visitors make the most of our hotels, restaurants and other hospitality in their time here,” he says.

The 200,000th visitor to Bluey’s World was Ben Armstrong, who was visiting with his partner and two daughters from Perth.

Armstrong received an exclusive VIP Blue Card granting unlimited access to Bluey’s World, putting him in the company of Eva Mendes, Chris Hemsworth and Kylie Minogue.

Expect another mostly sunny day in Brisbane today, although it might feel much, much cooler than the maximum temperature would suggest.

Although the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast a top of 28 degrees, the “feels like” temperature could be almost 10 degrees cooler. From late tomorrow, the weather is predicted to turn, with the possibility of showers increasing into the weekend.

Here’s a glance at what the next seven days could bring, weatherwise.