The Brisbane City Council is being accused of making political appointments to key council positions over the summer recess, including a former LNP councillor.

Former Councillor Michael Caltabiano accepted a contract to be on the board of Transport for Brisbane after being approved by the council for a 2-year appointment in October last year.

Greens councillor for the Gabba Ward, Jonathan Sri, is reprimanded for ‘inappropriate conduct’ over social media comments on renters’ issues. 

Councillor Sri offered council resources to put renters in touch with landlords to negotiate rental reductions last year.

Councillor Sri says the Brisbane City Council’s councillor ethics committee process was not “fair or independent” and says a complaint made so close to a council election is “almost certainly politically motivated”.

The Queensland Government is considering tracking youth offenders with tracking devices to eliminate crime. 

Commissioner Bob Atkinson recommended trackers as an alternative to youth detention back in 2018 but the state government has since renewed calls for the tracker. 

The ankle devices would track individuals via GPS and provide local authorities with location information.

Queensland Police said the device would allow them to intercept and act if a threat is identified. 

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian (Barra-jik-lian) plans to ease COVID restrictions from next Friday February 12th unless there are unexpected outbreaks. The decision has come as the state recorded no new local infections overnight.

The new restrictions will replace the 4 square metre rule with the 2 square metre rule for venues such as restaurants, bars and places of worship.  Singing and dancing at nightclubs are still considered high risk and will not be allowed. 

Braille building bricks are coming to Australia to help vision-impaired children learn literacy and numeracy skills.

Vision Australia says the bricks help to normalise learning braille in a fun and accessible way, the bricks feature letters, numbers, and punctuation in braille.

The braille Lego bricks are not available in stores and will be gifted free of charge across the country to schools that have students with vision impairment.

The electoral commission of Queensland has announced Fran O’Callaghan will be elected as the Townsville councillor. 

The Townsville council by-election was held on January 23 this year. Ms O’Callaghan won her place today after postal votes were counted. 

Around 1600 Townsville residents chose to vote via mail this by-election. The popularity of postal votes has increased since the COVID pandemic began.

A new Space-X starship rocket has exploded after attempting to land during an experimental launch in Texas.

This follows another rocket explosion late last year during flight tests, the rocket system is partially funded by NASA and could end up being offered to the US military.

Space-X has planned its first orbital flight for the end of the year and expects manned missions to take place in 2023.

The High Court has ordered fresh hearings on the coal mine project at Queensland's Darling Downs, led by the New Acland.

After the back and forth discussion between the Oakey Coal Action Alliance, the case is now sent back to the Land Court.

The Queensland Greens says they are warning the Labor State government not to meddle with the Queensland Land Court as it hears the case again.
 

Human rights groups are again urging the Australian government to cut defence force ties with the Myanmar military after they seized power from the democratically elected government yesterday.

The greens and human rights groups say Australia must end all cooperation with Myanmar's army and impose sanctions on top generals who engineered the coup.

The Australian Defence Force has provided assistance to the Myanmar military, including training and English lessons for several years.