Residents of South Brisbane have planned a protest in support of greater pedestrian safety for residents with impaired mobility and vision on the 28th of April.

Residents say that the Brisbane City Council has continued to dismiss or ignore their requests for a zebra crossing to be installed in the vicinity of Hope Street, South Brisbane.

They’re planning to block the intersection of Peel and Hope Streets from 8:00am to 8:30am in order to apply pressure on the Council to meaningfully consider their request for a crossing.

Refugees being held at the Kangaroo Point Hotel were removed by police and transferred to the Brisbane Immigration Detention Centre late on Friday afternoon.

Ian Rintoule of Refugee Action Coalition reports that around 50 to 60 protestors gathered in less than an hour in response to what they say were forcible removals of the refugees.

Mr Rintoule says that 17 of the men who were moved to the Brisbane Immigration Detention Centre have been transferred to Melbourne this morning, with no confirmation of where they will be held once there.

Bi-weekly National Cabinet meetings will begin again today, with aims to get Australia’s contentious COVID-19 vaccine rollout back on track. 

The reinstalment of the regular meetings comes as the federal government overhauls its existing plans as a result of updated medical advice that the preferred vaccine for people under the age of 50 is now Pfizer due to concerns of very rare blood clots.

The National Cabinet has not met this regularly since the peak of COVID-19 in the first half of 2020.

Haiti has not received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine to date despite being one of 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that will receive the COVAX vaccines free of charge.

The COVAX initiative, a program backed by the World Health Organization, was to supply vaccines for middle and low-income countries.

Countries must submit detailed readiness and delivery plans to show that they are able to begin rolling out vaccines effectively, which the government has failed to do as a result of the current political chaos situation in Haiti.

There are reports that over 217 boats joined a search for missing Brisbane man Trent Riley in Moreton Bay over the weekend.

The 26-year-old went missing while finishing alone in the Bay on Wednesday of last week.

Friends, relatives and community members have launched kayaks, jet skis and boats to assist in the search efforts, which continue today. Members of the Let’s find Trent Riley Facebook page have made calls for licensed drivers and life jackets after more boats and jet skis were donated to the efforts.

Data from the Queensland Government shows more than 22,390 businesses have started using the Queensland Check In app since it went live in February.

From 1 May, it will be compulsory for all hospitality businesses to be using the app to register patrons in their venue. 

For those without smartphones, Minister for Digital Economy Leeanne Enoch says businesses can check you in themselves using their own app or you can be checked in as a guest if you are with someone who has access to the app.

The Australian-New Zealand travel bubble opens today, with the first unrestricted international flight since early 2020 leaving Sydney airport at 6:15am this morning. 

More than 30 flights will depart from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne today, with flights from Adelaide beginning in early May.

Passengers flying to and from New Zealand will no longer have to enter into hotel quarantine as a part of the new arrangements.