A new Productivity Commission report published this week has revealed one-third of mentally ill patients in waiting rooms are forced to wait unreasonably long times to receive care.

The report showed timely access to mental healthcare was at just 68 percent nationally in 2016-17, and in ‘semi-urgent’ and ‘non-urgent’ cases a patient could expect to wait more than two hours to receive the care they needed.

The families of former prime ministers Joseph Lyons and Robert Menzies have slammed Clive Palmer for claiming the pair as being former leaders of his political party, the United Australia Party.

The original UAP was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945, and Palmer has claimed the two men as alumni of his party after renaming the Palmer United Party as the United Australia Party in 2018.

Health professionals are continuing to warn the state government that patients will be seriously harmed with the rollout of Queensland Health’s multi-million dollar integrated electronic medical record project.

Documented examples of the project damaging patient health include blood tests being labelled with the wrong data, patients being administered double doses of medications and cervical screening tests going missing.

Deloitte Access Economics latest business outlook reveals things are looking up for Queensland, with Sydney’s “stupid housing prices” seeing more people making the move up North.

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad says the report has highlighted the wave of interstate migration, especially from New South Wales.

Additionally, tourists are flocking to Queensland's beaches, cities and regions, with the longest period of sustained tourism since the 1990s.  

The Queensland Government has pledged to open eight more schools in 2020 as 830 000 Queensland students returned to school this week.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said this year the government are investing more than $400 million to build eight more schools in some of the fastest growing communities across the state; the construction of which will support up to 1240 jobs.

54 offenders implicated with drug possession and trafficking were arrested at Rainbow Serpent Festival, with Inspector Dan Davidson stating police have not seen illicit behaviour so blatantly displayed at the event before.

Police have raised suspicions the regional Victoria festival has been ‘hijacked’ by organised drug syndicates, with festival organiser Tim Harvey saying it is obviously a concerning situation however, this is not unique to this specific festival.

Scott Morrison has announced a $243 million package to reduce congestion in South East Queensland, which includes upgrades to Gympie Arterial Road and the Ipswich Motorway.

The Prime Minister plans to announce new funding for Queensland infrastructure everyday this week, and says these newest investments will allow families to get around the table at night for their evening meal.

Corporate Australia has fallen marginally short of proposed 2015 targets to have women on ASX200 boards, with females accounting for 29.7% of board members.

Angus Armour, from the Australian Institute of Company Directors, said companies have heard the message about the value of gender diversity in boardrooms, and this was proof that boards are looking beyond the existing talent pool.

There is still work to be done however, with four companies yet to have any women on boards, and cultural diversity still a major issue.

Belgian authorities are calling for DNA samples of children adopted from the Democratic Republic of Congo, in order to establish if their parents are still alive.

Authorities believe the children may have been kidnapped and falsely declared as orphans while their biological parents thought they were sending them to a Kinshasa holiday camp.

Though fears of child smuggling in the Democratic Republic of Congo prompted the country to halt exit permits for adopted children in 2013, some cases continued to be processed as they had already begun.