Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says the Brisbane City Council will actively seek out local small businesses to contract for the council’s procurement spend.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Cr Schrinner made the promise to invest 80% of the council’s procurement spend in Brisbane and South-East Queensland businesses to support the region’s industry.

Cr Schrinner said the decision was made to support Brisbane’s small businesses to grow into medium and large businesses.

Labor members of Brisbane City Council are calling for smoking to be banned in King George Square.

Cr Kara Cook unsuccessfully moved a motion asking the Council administration to take urgent action, saying “a smoke-free environment is the only way to protect non-smokers from the dangers of secondhand smoke.”

Community Arts and Lifestyle Chairman Peter Matic says the Council has a strong track record of smoking bans in the city, but blamed the Queensland state government for dragging its feet on further bans.

Queensland’s waste dumping rate is seven times the population growth rate, with only 31% of rubbish from Queensland homes being recycled according to a state government report.

The report indicates moving to a circular economy would result in increased recycling rates and waste reuse, tripling the number of local jobs created.

State development minister Cameron Dick says he is striving for 80% of household rubbish to be recycled by 2030, up from the current 31%.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese says he disapproves of the anti-Adani activists who toured Australia during the election campaign.

According to Mr Albanese, Australia needs to act on climate change, but to reduce it to a debate about a single coal mine is unproductive.

Mr Albanese says good policy is about jobs, clean energy, as well as about making sure we take “the community with us.”

Chinese maritime militia vessels are allegedly responsible for a series of laser attacks on Australian Navy pilots during a recent voyage through the South China Sea.

The Australian Defence Department is yet to comment publicly, but similar incidents involving lasers and the Chinese military have also been reported as far as Djibouti, where the US and China have bases.

The UK Labour party is under pressure to ballot all party members on whether to begin campaigning for a second EU referendum, following elections to the European parliament.

Campaigners advocating for a ‘people’s vote’ wrote to the party’s national executive committee, saying in a letter that over 70% of Labour voters want a second referendum and to remain in the EU.

A Brisbane cyclist was spotted in Bardon over the weekend, with a yellow pool noodle sticking out of the right hand side of his bicycle.

The Queensland road cyclist rules state ‘a cyclist must keep at least 2m between themself and the vehicle’.

This innovative noodle design has sparked a conversation towards resolving the continuous vehicle verses cyclist debate, with some people branding it as a 'great idea'

A ruling in the Queensland Court of Appeal has warned massive fines to Queensland landholders over ’exempt’ land clearing.

Many landholders have cleared land without permits from the local council and this offence could lead up to penalties of $600,000 dollars.

This ruling raises the stakes for environmental protection in Queensland where land clearing is already a  contentious political issue as areas being cleared may include habitats for endangered species.

Queensland’s Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has recommited herself to fighting the country wide epidemic that is family and domestic violence.

A report in 2018 by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, said 1 in 6 women and 1 in 16 men had experienced physical or sexual abuse from a partner.

Queensland’s Minister for Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence, Di Farmer, encourages people to stand up to domestic violence, saying “everyone can do something”.