Brisbane news live: Man wanted by police after State of Origin assault on Caxton Street | Woman gored by boar in the middle of the night | 2025 flu season hits high

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is speaking in Sydney ahead of his visit to China tomorrow.

A woman gored by a boar near Bundaberg last night has woken up in hospital in stable condition.

Paramedics were called shortly after 1am to a rural property on Sullivan Road in Berajondo, a small community about 55 kilometres north-west of Bundaberg with a population of about 110 people.

They arrived to find a woman in her 50s suffering a leg injury from a boar tusk, and transferred her by ambulance to Bundaberg Hospital.

In Queensland, boars can be hunted on privately owned land both recreationally and to reduce the damage they cause on agriculture and the environment.

They are nocturnal, and known to prey on small animals, including native species and livestock such as lambs, eat crops, and spread diseases.

Watchhouses are dangerous, degrading and unfit for people – especially children – a child safety advocate said in response to the findings of an internal review by the Queensland Police Service.

Sisters Inside chief executive Debbie Kilroy added that the review confirmed what advocates had known for years.

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Kilroy called for an immediate ban on the detention of children in police watchhouses, and the redirection of resources away from police and into community-led support services.

“This is not a failure of policy – it is an intentional act of harm,” she said.

“Right now, even as this report is being circulated, children are sitting in concrete boxes under fluorescent lights, with no schooling, no privacy, and no access to fresh air. This is not a question of capacity – it is a question of cruelty.”

Youth Advocacy Centre’s Katherine Hayes told ABC Radio a large number of children in watchhouses could have been diverted in the first place.

“If they are diverted, they need to have proper services wrapped around them so they don’t end up in the watchhouse again.

“You see the same young kids cycle in and out of the watchhouse all summer long. Summer is the peak period for youth crime.”

You can read about the internal review here.

Police have arrested a 21-year-old man over the alleged armed robbery of nitrous oxide cans from a delivery driver in Browns Plains.

Officers were called to a Banksia Street address on the night of June 15 after reports the driver had been robbed by two men who fled in a ute.

“This was a calculated and co-ordinated attack on an unsuspecting delivery driver who was simply doing his job,” Detective Acting Inspector Adam Bennett said.

This week officers searched two properties in Flagstone, along Creekside Crescent, finding empty nitrous oxide canisters, cannabis and mobile phones.

They arrested the 21-year-old following the searches, charging him with armed robbery and drug-possession offences.

He was expected to reappear at Beenleigh Magistrates Court on August 22, as investigations continued.

Details of a previously unknown meeting between Australia’s US ambassador Kevin Rudd and US President Donald Trump has been revealed.

An answer to an official Senate estimates question from Liberal frontbencher James Paterson was released last night.

“Ambassador Rudd met President Trump in the dining room of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 11 January 2025,” the answer from the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Ambassador to the US and former prime minister Kevin Rudd.Credit: AP

“A diplomatic cable was produced. Ambassador Rudd has professional relationships with and has met with a range of senior Administration officials.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has faced scrutiny for not having met Trump since his inauguration.

The Coalition is seeking more details about the meeting.

“I don’t understand why there’s such secrecy around this,” shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien said on Nine’s Today program.

“We don’t know if it was a matter of Kevin Rudd just waving at the president.”

Health authorities are warning parents to prepare as students return to school next week amid a surge in flu cases, with the season peak expected before the end of the month.

Queensland Health recorded more than 3000 cases in the past week, including 210 hospitalisations, marking the highest number of flu cases recorded in a single week this year.

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Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Heidi Carroll said about 130 beds a day were occupied by patients suffering from the flu across last week.

“We are expecting flu hospitalisations to overtake COVID-19 hospitalisations in coming weeks,” Carroll said.

“While more than 32,600 lab-confirmed flu cases have been recorded in Queensland this year – we know the actual number of flu cases in the community are much higher – and flu is spreading.”

Carroll said a spike was also likely next week, as the school students returned for a second semester, and urged parents to vaccinate their kids, prioritise good hygiene habits, and keep children with symptoms home.

“Children are more likely to catch and spread influenza contributing to transmission in the community, but also young children are vulnerable to serious illness from the flu,” she said.

Almost 26,000 Queenslanders were vaccinated for the flu last week, with about 1.6 million people now vaccinated across the state.

The future of the AUKUS submarine deal remains uncertain following a review into the deal by the Trump administration.

This masthead revealed earlier this week the Pentagon official leading the AUKUS review believed Australia should give a guarantee that any submarines supplied by America would be used in any conflict with China.

As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prepares to fly to China tomorrow for his second official visit, he told a private audience Australia must not be “subservient” to its allies.

In comments that went beyond his prepared remarks at a private question-and-answer session at the John Curtin Research Centre, he said he was a supporter of AUKUS, but “that doesn’t mean that we are subservient to any other country”.

At the same time, the top British adviser on the AUKUS pact has countered the idea that US President Donald Trump can expect pledges from Australia on how to deploy the submarines in times of war, amid reports of new US demands for the deal.

The special adviser, Sir Stephen Lovegrove, also declared the US Navy was “completely committed” to the pact despite fears the Pentagon would rethink the plan after a snap review that began last month.

The Pentagon review, which took some US officials by surprise when it was revealed on June 11, has fuelled talk that Trump will demand more money from Australia or place new conditions on the agreement within weeks.

But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio played down the significance of the Pentagon’s review, saying it was routine for a new administration to re-examine policies.

“Just because you’re reviewing something doesn’t mean you’re going to necessarily act on it,” Rubio told reporters at the ASEAN summit in Malaysia.

Bega Australia will wind down the Peanut Company of Australia after a review found it was haemorrhaging up to $10 million a year, leaving up to 150 workers and 90 growers in the lurch.

Australia’s largest peanut company will undergo a phased shutdown of processing facilities at Kingaroy and Tolga in Queensland over the next 18 months.

Bega Group chief executive Pete Findlay said he understood the impact the closure would have on staff and growers.

“Employees will be offered redundancies, support services and redeployment incentives and opportunities where possible,” he said.

The decision comes after a 12-month strategic review, prompted by continued financial losses and industry challenges.

The review concluded that the Peanut Company of Australia was incurring operating losses between $5 million and $10 million each year. It tried to find a local and focused buyer who might better serve the company, but failed to do so.

Nine News

It was a great State of Origin on Caxton Street for most – but not all – on Wednesday night.

A fight in a packed-out pub left one man in hospital, and police were still hunting another.

Crowds at a Caxton Street pub watch the State of Origin decider. The venue where the assault happened has not been confirmed.Credit: The Caxton Hotel/TikTok

The fight allegedly broke out minutes before Harry Grant would score a decisive try under the posts to send Queensland into half-time with a 20-point lead.

A 31-year-old Morningside man who was hit on the head was taken to Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital.

Another man believed to be his attacker fled.