Queensland teachers have been offered a 2.5 per cent pay rise, potentially averting a strike planned for later this month.

Education Minister Grace Grace and Queensland Teachers’ Union president Kevin Bates announced the offer to teachers at the Union delegates conference on Monday.

Among various monetary bonuses and incentives, the raise would improve gender pay equity for part- time teachers for the first time.

The Cross River Rail project is guaranteed to go ahead as the state government has signed the key construction contract.

There will be tunnel stations at Boggo Road, Woolloongabba, Albert Street and Roma Street after the deal has recently been sealed with Consortium group, Pulse.

The project promises to deliver 18 thousand extra seats on Brisbane trains and take 14 thousand drivers off the roads, cutting travel time on South-East Queensland train lines.

One of Australia’s leading defence analysts has warned the nation must rapidly increase military spending as we may no longer be able to rely on the US for aid in an attack.

To have a more self-reliant military, Hugh White says Australia must massively reorganise its planned defence structure by selling off most of its surface ships, replacing them with a fleet of submarines and more strike aircraft.

Agricultural thinktank, the Australian Farm Institute gathered farmers and their advocacy groups this week to talk about the impacts of global warming on the already hazardous business of farming.

Despite popular opinion after the federal election, the meeting revealed regional business’ increasing concern with environmental risk and their attempts to find new income streams.

Hong Kong police have evicted the protestors who stormed and damaged the parliament building earlier today.

Police used tear gas to expel protesters after political leader Carrie Lam held a press conference in which she condemned the "extreme use of violence" from those who broke into the legislature.

It follows weeks of unrest in the city over a controversial extradition law.

A new study has found that for every 25,000 retweets that a known Russian troll account received during the 2016 US elections Donald Trump’s poll numbers jumped one percent.

The study was conducted by a team headed at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville who analysed seven hundred and seventy thousand (770,000) tweets from known Russian troll accounts as well as corresponding poll data.

A total of 900 million single-use plastic bags do not exist thanks to the statewide plastic bag ban, which came into effect a year ago on Monday, according to the National Retail Association.

Despite early criticisms and consumer backlash, the eco-friendly policy appears to have swept across Queensland as the number of plastic bags given out by retailers has plummeted.

Queensland Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch says there has been at least a 70 per cent drop in plastic bag litter since the introduction of the ban.

Southern Cross University Doctoral Researcher Kay Davis has found an island near Gladstone experienced remarkable coral growth after Cyclone Hamish destroyed much of the island’s coral in 2009.

Calcification of the coral declined by 75 percent in the first five years following the cyclone, but things changed dramatically in 2017 when Ms Davis and her team found the coral system increased four-fold.

Queensland and New South Wales are set to fall short of their greenhouse gas reduction targets according to the Green Energy Markets advisory group but research found Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania are on track to hit their goals.

The Queensland government wants renewables to make up 50 per cent of the electricity mix by 2030 but based on existing wind and solar commitments, are currently tracking towards 29 per cent, a figure rejected by the Queensland energy minister.