New doubts are being raised over Brisbane’s Cross River Rail, as critics say billions more must be spent to achieve the government’s promises. 

Experts say not only upgrades, but the removal of about 20 level crossings around Brisbane is needed if the project is to deliver on its promised train timetable.

Rebecca Michaels from RACQ says level crossing removals alone would be an additional 2 billion dollars but are needed.

Annastacia Palaszczuk is pushing the National Cabinet to hold a summit to investigate and address economic and social inequalities faced by Australian women. 

In an announcement today, Palaszczuk said that actions to address the gender pay gap, affordable childcare, workplace discrimiation, and sexual harassment both at work and in broader society, should be of high national priority. 

Farmers in the Queensland town of Kingaroy are worried that drought and a shifting rainfall pattern might mean the end for peanut crop production.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology's regional climate guide, from 1989 to 2018, annual rainfall in the region declined by 60 millimetres, or seven per cent.

Peanut farmer Peter Howlett says the “variability is becoming more and more noticeable as years go on”.

A Report released by the Commonwealth Ombudsman yesterday shows that the Government pursued robo-debts even after they knew the program was unlawful.

Services Australia, the government department responsible for robo-debt decided to keep pursuing debts while it checked whether they were legally sound.

Services Australia told the Ombudsman it had not paused debts that were potentially invalid because that would have meant pausing all debts owed by a person.

Scott Morrison says he never blamed the EU for vaccine troubles.

He says any suggestion that he, in any way, made any criticism of the European Union yesterday would be completely incorrect.

He also emphasized the fact that 3.1 million of the contracted vaccines that Australia had been relying upon in early January, when the government set out a series of targets did, not turn up.

Two cyclones detected off the WA coast are predicted to create a rare weather phenomenon known as the Fujiwhara effect. 

The Fujiwhara phenomenon occurs when two cyclonic systems rotate around each other. In tropical cyclones, the effect can happen when cyclones are within 1,400 kilometres of each other. 

There is a risk of one of the systems hitting the far west Pilbara coast by the end of the week. However, the Bureau of Meteorology currently predicts the cyclones will have little onshore impact due to their distance from the coast.

Forbes’ annual world’s billionaires list has broken its previous record by including 500 new billionaires onto the list.

The list has been growing despite the world economic downturn due to the covid-19 pandemic.

This year’s billionaires are worth a combined 13.1 trillion US dollars, up from 8 trillion US dollars last year.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk reported the state’s fourth consecutive day without community transmission of COVID-19. There are six new cases in hotel quarantine.

She has also invited the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, to holiday in Queensland after the recommencement of the trans-Tasman bubble in earnest on 19 April.

Protesters have stopped work on Adani’s Carmichael rail line this morning by blocking vehicles from entering the construction site off the Gregory Highway in central Queensland.

The protest group called “Health On The Frontlines” is made up of healthcare professionals that want to stop Adani from risking our planet and health.

In 2019 The Australian Medical Association declared climate change a health emergency

The International Monetary fund has released its predictions for Australia’s economic future today.

The IMF predicts a stronger economic recovery than previously predicted at the start of this year, with annual economic growth expected to reach 4.5% in 2021.

They have warned, however, that there is still much uncertainty as to how the COVID pandemic will play out; the speed of vaccine roll-outs and the emergence of new COVID strains could impact economic recovery.