Queenslanders will pay an average of almost $3,000 each in state taxes this financial year, with the Palaszczuk government expecting to increase taxation revenue by 8.3 per cent to $15 billion in 2019-20. 

A spokesman for Treasurer Jackie Trad says Queenslanders pay $643 less in tax compared to the average taxpayer in other states and territories and are $100 better off under Labor than they were under the previous LNP government. 

The Queensland government has lost an appeal to uphold its solar regulations after Queensland’s Court of Appeal ruled the laws, which require licensed electricians to install panels in solar farms, invalid. 

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace says the regulations were important to protect the safety of electrical workers and denied regional jobs had been threatened by the laws. 

Aged care facility owner Japara Healthcare Limited has dismissed the Aged Care Royal Commission’s findings suggesting there is a systemic problem with staff assaulting residents in their 49 nursing homes. 

The commission's senior counsel Peter Rozen claims almost 300 reports of suspected assaults on residents were made at Japara facilities between September 2015 and May 2019.

Japara Healthcare Limited CEO Andrew Sudholz says fewer than 100 of those were substantiated, also adding the company is soon to trial CCTV cameras in one facility.

Conservation group BirdLife Tasmania is calling on state and federal governments to implement a strategic approach to wind farms that considers all environmental effects. 

BirdLife spokesman Dr Eric Woehler says wind farms have an unintended impact on critically endangered birds, with 29 cwedge-tailed eagles flying into overhead power-lines on Tasmanian wind farms just last year alone.

A Manus Island asylum seeker who set himself on fire will be charged with attempted suicide and arson by Papua New Guinea police.

Under the PNG criminal code, attempting suicide is considered a misdemeanour which carries a penalty of up to one year in prison, whilst arson can result in a sentence of up to life in prison.

The chief of Manus police, Inspector David Yapu, says the incident was the fourth deliberately lit fire at the refugee centre and says incidents of suicide and self-harm were beyond the control of police.

More than 400 schools in the Malaysian state of Johor have been closed after 75 students experienced breathing difficulties and vomiting. 

Johor’s Chief Minister Dr Sahruddin Jamal says the exact cause of the ailments are not clear but it may be linked to a previous pollution case in March which left over 100 schools closed and thousands ill after inhaling toxic fumes from an illegal chemical waste river dump. 

Transport Minister Mark Bailey has announced Queensland Rail will add 430 services and 200,000 seats across the network from July 29.

A Queensland public transport crisis began in October 2016 following the opening of the Redcliffe Peninsula Line, which caused the sudden cancellation of train services and an unsustainable reliance on overtime due to a shortage of drivers. 

The Indigenous community of Yulga Jinna in Western Australia is using music and song to engage at-risk youth and prevent suicide, with the self-managed community recording zero suicides since it was established in 1992.  

Youth Focus coordinator Robert Binsiar, who helps run the program, says art and music are foundations of Aboriginal culture which can help young people express themselves and address issues relating to intergenerational trauma.