The Palaszczuk Labor government has replaced the number of public servants sacked under former premier Campbell Newman more than twice over.

The latest workforce figures show there are over 30,000 more full-time equivalent employees in the Queensland public sector than the Newman government had in December 2014. 

A new report by the Australia Institute reveals Queensland’s mining royalties regime is essentially giving subsidies to exporters of low-quality thermal coal.

The new report details how the staggered system in Queensland has low-value coal taxed at a lower rate, which acts to incentivise thermal coal mines such as Adani’s Carmichael project.

The Queensland government has spent more than $155,000 on legal experts over the sacking of the Ipswich and Logan councils.

Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchcliffe says they were obtaining legal advice over the sacking of 15 people from the Ipswich City Council who were charged with a combined total of 86 criminal offences. 

A further $10,000 was spent on advice relating to Logan City Council, where Logan mayor Luke Smith and seven councillors were charged over the dismissal of the council's chief executive officer Sharon Kelsey.

A circus in Adelaide has been shut down following two performers suffering serious injuries in separate incidents within a week.

Stunt bike rider Bentang Sejarah broke his back in three places and suffered serious facial injuries performing a jump, while earlier in the week aerial performer Gabby Souza fell 8.5m from a hoop to break her wrist and dislocate both elbows.

Australian mining giant BHP will spend $571 million to reduce carbon emissions in its own and their customer’s  operations in plans announced on Tuesday.

BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie says the need for climate action is indisputable and carbon pricing is not enough, with a ‘coordinated global response’ required. 

Customers of BHP’s products produced 580 million tonnes of carbon between 2017 and 2018, with the company maintaining long-term goal of achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century.

Kenya’s Finance Minister Henry Rotich has pleaded not guilty to 10 charges of corruption over the awarding of $640 million worth of contracts to an Italian company for the construction of two dams in the country. 

Mr Rotich is among 28 officials charged by the country’s chief prosecutor over the scandal, with more than $300 million spent on two dams that are yet to begin construction. 

A study has found malaria parasites resistant to key drugs are spreading rapidly in South East Asia, with half of patients in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam not responding to first-choice treatment. 

Professor Olivo Miotto, from the University of Oxford, says the “resistant parasite strain is capable of invading new territories and acquiring new genetic properties.

A similar resistance to a long-time front-line malaria drug, chloroquine, contributed to millions of deaths across Africa in the 1980s.

Scissors, box cutters and a knife in a holster were among the dozens of weapons seized from visitors to the Queensland Parliament. 

In the past year at Parliament House, over 95,000 people were screened with 186 visitors surrendering banned items and seven security incidents requiring police to be called. 

Speaker of the Queensland Parliament Curtis Pitt says the quantity and nature of last year’s incidents is not abnormal.