Brisbane news live: Games infrastructure review opens consultation | Dutton says he would not use Indigenous flags as PM

A website has been launched to allow community members, business and industry to provide insights to the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority, as part of its 100-day review.

The public consultation period will run for almost five weeks until January 10, 2025.

The authority’s interim CEO, David Hourigan, said he was looking forward to receiving submissions via www.gamesreview.com.au.

“The review is being informed by the public submission process – as well as targeted consultation and relevant advice from stakeholders and experts,” he said.

Last week, reporter Cameron Atfield reported the authority would “imminently” open its doors to public submissions, while Save Victoria Park and other groups questioned why more information about the process was not already available.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has weighed in on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to play tennis in Perth on Saturday, as he faced criticism for taking to the court a day after the Adass Israel synagogue firebombing.

Albanese was in Perth when the terror attack took place on Friday, where he remained through the weekend before returning to Canberra. On Monday, the PM defended the tennis match, saying that after he concluded six appointments on Saturday, including a private visit to a synagogue, he “did some exercise”.

“That’s what people do,” he said.

Dutton came to the PM’s defence when he was asked about the tennis match on radio this morning.

“I think the prime minister deserves some downtime, he’s got a busy job and deserves some time with his family and friends,” Dutton said.

“I don’t begrudge him that.”

But Dutton criticised Albanese for being slow in “calling this out as a terrorist attack”.

“I think the prime minister has been trying to win Green votes in inner-city Melbourne and Sydney, and I think he’s taken a decision, a very deliberate decision, to hedge his bets when it comes to Israel and the Jewish community,” he said.

“I think it’s divided our country.”

A police operation to clamp down on illegal electric motorbike use has been bestowed with what might be the quirkiest name of 2024.

With echoes of Boaty McBoatface, Operation Zappo Stoppie is tasked with reducing the illegal use of unregistered electric bikes in the Noosa area.

A 58-year-old Sunshine Beach man was fined this week for allegedly allowing his teenage children to ride unregistered vehicles after a previous warning.

Under Operation Zappo Stoppie, police have charged 24 people, completed 27 street checks, warned 31 children, issued eight infringements and impounded three bikes.

“The rules around the use of a motorbike doesn’t change, regardless of if it’s powered by petrol or an electric battery,” Noosa Heads Senior Constables Danny Baker said in a statement.

“We will continue with enforcement activities like Operation Zappo Stoppie.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had confirmed he would only display the Australian flag as prime minister, as he has in opposition, opting not to replicate Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s trio of the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.

Speaking to Peta Credlin on Sky News last night, Dutton said he was “very strongly of the belief” that we should be “united under one flag”.

“We’re asking people to identify with different flags, no other country does that,” Dutton said.

“We are dividing our country unnecessarily.”

Dutton concluded that while we should have respect for the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander flags, they are “not our national flags”.

Asked about Dutton’s confirmation on Nine’s Today this morning, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said he was “trying to get a headline”.

“I think we can take a lot of pride in our history and the future of this country,” she said.

“I think this is Peter Dutton just doing what he knows how to do best. Try and get a headline with no substance, no real policies about, for example, tackling cost of living or things that really matter to the Australian people.”

Also speaking to Today, Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie said Australians “want to be united as one”.

“I’m excited to be part of a future Dutton government if we get that great privilege. And to restore the primacy of the Australian flag.”

A trio wanted over the attack on a synagogue remain on the run, as the Joint Counter Terror Team takes over the investigation into Friday’s arson at the Adass Israel Synagogue at Ripponlea in Melbourne’s south-east.

Authorities declared the fire a likely terror attack on Monday and confirmed investigators were looking for three suspects, but would not give details on who the attackers might be.

Monday’s terror declaration opens up a raft of extra powers for investigators including the ability to stop, search and seize people without a warrant as well as detain and question those they believe have knowledge of, or links to, the attack.

The JCTT is made up of state and federal police and ASIO officers.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also declared a federal taskforce to investigate acts of antisemitism in recent months.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan says her government is looking at introducing laws to protect people at places of worship from protesters, similar to the state’s laws for abortion clinics.

The community has vowed to rebuild the synagogue, built by Holocaust survivors, after Torahs, books and papers were destroyed by fire and water, and walls inside the building collapsed.

Read more about the investigation here.

Along with the mugginess in Brisbane since the weekend, we’re expecting a high chance of showers today. The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast a 80 per cent of showers, most likely from late this morning.

The mercury should reach 28 degrees today, a maximum it’s predicted to hit – give or take a few degrees – every day for the rest of the week.

Here’s the seven-day outlook:

Stories making the rounds beyond Brisbane this morning include:

The man suspected of killing a UnitedHealth executive in a brazen shooting outside a Manhattan hotel last week has been arrested. The suspect, identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, was spotted at a McDonald’s by someone who believed he resembled the gunman.

The Coalition is standing by its stated goal of reducing permanent migration after scrapping a separate pledge to cut the number of net arrivals to 160,000 a year, as an exclusive survey shows strong majority support for a lower intake.

A Nevada commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch’s bid to change his family trust to consolidate control of his media empire in the hands of his son Lachlan.

Jews around the world will be warned about the risk of antisemitic attacks when visiting Australia under a travel advisory issued by a US-based Jewish human rights organisation following the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue by suspected terrorists.

Forty Australian women and children trapped in a detention camp in Syria say the conditions on the ground in the war-torn country are deteriorating and they fear the chaos that might follow the overthrow of the central government.