A memorial honouring Afghanistan war veterans has opened in Brisbane

Veterans’ not-for-profit organisation 42 For 42 raised the funds to design and build the memorial for the Australian soldiers. 

President Sean Mulqueen said “We did a challenge at [Lang Park] where we walked 42 hours with 42 kilos to represent the 41 that were killed in Afghanistan and the 42nd we lost to suicide.”

The garden is now used as a place of reflection and aims to educate the community.

Poseidon Sea Pilots will begin an expansion of two marinas north of Brisbane. 

Three newly built pilot boats will be stationed out off the Mooloolaba and Scarborough marinas. 

These boats worth $2.5 million each are used to guide large shipping vessels into the port of Brisbane.

The expansion aims to inject more than $5 million in the economy and 40 jobs for the region.

Dorinda Cox has become the fifth indigenous woman in Australian Parliament. 

The new Greens member is the first indigenous woman to serve as a senator for Western Australia and plans to be a “Beacon” for others.

The 44-year-old delivered on a promise she made to herself when she went to Canberra with her mother in 1994 and noticed the lack of indigenous representatives.

She believes she will give her people a new voice for indigenous women and mothers and says, “I'm in the driver’s seat to make real change.”

An Australian politician battles with an American senator over the vaccine mandate on Twitter. 

Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner addressed Senator Ted Cruz’s claims of Covid tyranny and Australia’s government’s approach to the pandemic is disgraceful and sad. 

Mr Gunner highlighted how the Northern Territory experienced no Covid deaths during the pandemic in comparison to the 70,000 deaths in the US state of Texas. 

Senator Cruz’s claim comes as protests for Australia’s freedom in the US continue. 

Nasa is launching a new mission to explore never-before-seen asteroids. 

The Lucy mission will set off on a 12 year exploration to discover Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids swarms. 

To date, artist renderings and animations have been our only glimpses into the swarms. Lucy will provide the first ever high resolution images of the asteroids. 

The mission will help researchers learn more about how the solar system formed.

A group of students from St Edmunds College rode their bikes from Woodend to surfers paradise, leaving school at 9:45am and arriving at Cavill Avenue between 3:30 and 4pm, with breaks along the way. 

The school raised over $40,000 for Ipswich Hospice and the St Vincent de Paul society with its first time reaching this goal.

Queensland Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk announced in a press conference yesterday, fully vaccinated travellers will be allowed to enter the state without the need to quarantine from December 17th.

This comes as Queensland recorded zero new cases today and yesterday. 8,000 people remain interstate having applied for border passes.

Premier Palaszczuk says modelling shows the state is on track to reach the 80% vaccination target by December 17th, however this date is “locked in” whether the target is reached or not.

A Brisbane nurse is waging a war on unused medical supplies going to landfill. 

Claire Lane was shocked by the sight of packs filled with new medical supplies being thrown away because they were unfit for surgery.

She asked if there was a way to recycle the packs of drapes, gowns and masks but was told to throw them out.

This prompted her to start “Save Our Supplies”, a non-profit organisation collecting clean unused medical supplies to redistribute them overseas.

New report backs prohibition of unnecessary medical interventions on intersex people.

The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has called for legislation which prohibits unnecessary medical interventions without consent on people born with variations in sex characteristics. The AHRC report released yesterday made several recommendations to protect the human rights of intersex Australians when it comes to decision making.