Many new service stations are being opened in South East Queensland replacing corner stores as the fuel industry expands. Almost 50 development applications for new or upgraded service stations were accepted across twenty nineteen to twenty twenty. Since twenty seventeen, around one hundred and fifteen new service stations have opened according to data by property group. Land supply is becoming short due to the high private investor demand for new service stations.

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is calling for Qantas’ Japan to Cairns air route to be reopened as COVID-19 travel restrictions ease. Frydenberg says the reintroduction of the lucrative Japanese tourist market would be a major boost to North Queensland’s struggling tourism industry. Japanese tourists spent $2 billion in Australia in twenty nineteen.

A hospitality worked in Melbourne has spoken out about sexual harassment in the workplace and says there is a culture in Victorian workplaces leaving people feeling unsafe. During her ten year hospitality career the victim says she has had sexual innuendos, physical violence and inappropriate gestures thrown at her. A ministerial taskforce for sexual harassment in the workplace was launched on Monday by the Victorian Government to prevent and improve workplaces.

A series of explosions in Equatorial Guinea has left 98 people dead and over 600 injured in the city of Bata. The blasts were caused by a fire at Nkoa Ntoma military base and levelled several buildings both inside and around the base. The Spanish government says it will immediately dispatch humanitarian aid to its former colony, which is in the grips of a COVID-19 economic downturn.

Confrontations between police and protestors continue to escalate in Myanmar as 2 people were killed in Kachin state and hundreds were surrounded in Yangon last night. The protests, which are in response to the February first military (koo) coup, are becoming increasingly deadly as the police and military crack down on opposition. While the international community is widely condemning the military’s seizure of power and detention of democratically elected officials, tensions show no signs of abating as protests continue.

The state government says it will subsidise school excursions to the Great Barrier Reef as part of its COVID-19 recovery program. Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk says more than 6500 Queensland students will be eligible for the $150 grants to explore North Queensland. On her Twitter, Palaszczuk said the scheme will give students the opportunity to experience the beauty of their own backyard.

Queensland Pacific Metals (QPM) say they may have found a way to make their planned Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub a net negative CO2 producer.

The nickel refinery is set to produce 36 per cent less CO2 than the industry average, with QPM saying it could take this into net negative territory if it can find a way to use methane from Queensland’s coal mines for extra CO2 credits.

North Queensland cane growers say the state government’s new environmental regulations on farming near the Great Barrier Reef will in fact hinder Queensland’s biofutures industry.

Canegrowers chief executive Dan Galligan says cane is the best converter of biomass energy in the world and will therefore form a large part of the emerging biofuels industry.

He says further restrictions on the farming sector will only slow this progress.

The Palaszczuk government loan has provided support to hundreds of local Queensland tourism operators and suppliers. 

Cameron Dick, Treasurer and Minister for Investment, says a conditional loan was given to Imperium Tourism Holdings and has enabled over 540 payments to Queensland tourism businesses and Queensland based suppliers.

The tourism sector faced challenges due to COVID-19 last year and is now trying to rebuild.