As it happened: Brisbane on Wednesday, November 27

An anonymous donor has gifted $3 million to a Brisbane school – setting a Queensland record for the largest donation to a girls’ school by a living alumna.

The St Aidan’s old girl, now in her 80s, attended the Corinda school for only two years. Due to financial pressure on her parents, she left to find paid work at age 15, a scenario she said filled her with sadness and regret.

She went back to high school later in life and then went to university, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.

The anonymous donor made the $3 million contribution in the name of the Creeth family to keep a promise to a family friend to keep the name going after the end of a lineage.

“I would have loved to continue my schooling at St Aidan’s, unfortunately I couldn’t, but due to my husband and my good fortune, we have been able to send our daughters and granddaughters there,” she said.

“As a family we have a philosophy of philanthropy, and through the St Aidan’s Creeth Scholarship I feel a sense of deep satisfaction knowing I can help girls between Year 10 and 12 who are financially disadvantaged, to keep the well-rounded educational experience that we know St Aidan’s offers.”

Principal Toni Riordan said the school community was grateful to the donor for “entrusting to us such a large sum for those that wouldn’t normally be able to attend”.

Earlier this year, we reported St Aidan’s arguably achieved Brisbane’s best Year 12 results. The school’s annual fees are more than $27,000.

The school’s administrators say they are confident it is a record donation based on Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission website research.

Hundreds of building site workers flocked to Queens Gardens this morning to protest the state government’s decision to scrap union-friendly major project procurement policies.

The LNP said it would not consider reinstating the policies that Labor had in place while in power, calling them “sweetheart deals” with the CFMEU.

Protesters from the CFMEU, the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and the Plumbers’ Union gathered at the gardens until just after 10am this morning, before marching down George Street to state parliament.

ETU Queensland branch secretary Peter Ong said the new government had “attacked” the state’s construction workers “using the mantra of ‘productivity’”.

“The LNP has thrown the door open for dodgy builders and developers whose only motive is profit,” he said.

“We will not take a backward step. We have a responsibility as unionists to stand up and
fight back. When health and safety rights are reduced, people die.”

Broncos star recruit Ben Hunt says premiership redemption was a major drawcard in his decision to return to the club with which he made his NRL debut.

The end of the veteran halfback’s six-year stint with the Dragons has coincided with his homecoming to Brisbane, and he is eager to make amends for the 2015 golden point grand final defeat to the North Queensland Cowboys.

While Hunt confirmed there were Sydney-based clubs vying for his services – reportedly the Roosters and Bulldogs – he admits there was an emotional pull which delivered him to the new Red Hill regimen under coach Michael Maguire.

“It definitely wasn’t always [the Broncos]. Having a family down here in Sydney, [we were] weighing up whether it was the right move to come back up to Queensland or stay down here in Sydney where we are,” Hunt told 4BC on Wednesday morning.

“In my heart it always kept taking me back to Brisbane and just the possibility of finishing my career off there where it all started.

“Going back to my beginnings, it was kind of what got us over the line in the end – just the love for the place and what the club gave me in the early part of my career.

“Wouldn’t it be great to come back 10 years later and win a premiership with that great club? That’s obviously the goal for every NRL player, but I do believe they’ve got the troops there to do it.”

Most Australians feel they are poorer now than they were three years ago, as a poll reveals widespread dissatisfaction with the Albanese government’s priorities.

A new Redbridge poll found 52 per cent of those surveyed either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the proposition that the government has the right focus. 40 per cent of voters said Peter Dutton was ready for office, slightly more than the 39 per cent who said he was not.

Asked on Seven’s Sunrise if the polling meant Australia was “in the mood for change”, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said the government was focused on the cost of living, while the Coalition was blocking bills.

Directing her comments to Liberal senator Jane Hume, Rishworth said: “You’ve voted against our housing bills. Blocked our cost of living measures. Fought against our energy price measures. Everything we’ve done, the Liberal Party have fought against it...”

Hume repeatedly interjected Rishworth’s response, asking “Where have you been for 2½ years?”

“You spent a year concentrating on the Voice referendum,” she quipped.

Meanwhile, on Nine’s Today, Nationals senator Matt Canavan also responded to the poll, saying Australians were poorer because “we’ve adopted a lot of stupid policies that deny Australians the use of their own energy resources that load our country with way too much red tape”.

Last month, the Resolve Political Monitor found Australians hold Labor accountable for the financial pain of rising prices and the cost of housing.

Thirty-six per cent believe the federal government is responsible for their rising living costs – far greater than the 13 per cent who blame global factors outside Australia’s control.

Wildlife carers have won a legal bid to prove Queensland’s Environment Department made a mistake in how it handled the case of a magpie made into a social media star by a Gold Coast couple.

Facing criticism from fans of “Molly the Magpie”, and pressure from then-Labor premier Steven Miles, the department in April gave Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen a special licence allowing them to continue caring for the bird.

The magpie – who the couple initially misidentified as female – was deemed to have been too domesticated to return to the wild. Rather than order euthanasia, the department decided the bird could remain with the couple so long as they did not seek to profit from the arrangement.

But emergency wildlife carers were concerned by the precedent that set, prompting Sydney-based firm XD Law and Advocacy to seek a judicial review in the Supreme Court of Queensland.

Read more here.

Cleanaway, the dump operator now handed the state’s largest penalty ($600,000) for an odour nuisance offence near Ipswich, has now had this to say on the matter via a statement from a spokesperson:

Cleanaway pleaded guilty to 7 charges in the Ipswich Magistrates Court and accepts the penalties imposed by the Court.

The charges relate to odour emissions and dealings with impacted stormwater following mass rain events that impacted the site in 2022.

Since the flooding event in 2022 more than $60 million on improvements has been invested to improve the site including storm water management, landfill gas capture and capping.

Cleanaway takes environmental compliance seriously and acknowledges its responsibility to minimise offsite impacts of its facilities. Cleanaway acknowledges the impact the odour emissions had on the local community following the mass rain events in 2022.

An anonymous donor has gifted $3 million to a Brisbane school – setting a Queensland record for the largest donation to a girls’ school by a living alumna.

The St Aidan’s old girl, now in her 80s, attended the Corinda school for only two years. Due to financial pressure on her parents, she left to find paid work at age 15, a scenario she said filled her with sadness and regret.

She went back to high school later in life and then went to university, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.

The anonymous donor made the $3 million contribution in the name of the Creeth family to keep a promise to a family friend to keep the name going after the end of a lineage.

“I would have loved to continue my schooling at St Aidan’s, unfortunately I couldn’t, but due to my husband and my good fortune, we have been able to send our daughters and granddaughters there,” she said.

“As a family we have a philosophy of philanthropy, and through the St Aidan’s Creeth Scholarship I feel a sense of deep satisfaction knowing I can help girls between Year 10 and 12 who are financially disadvantaged, to keep the well-rounded educational experience that we know St Aidan’s offers.”

Principal Toni Riordan said the school community was grateful to the donor for “entrusting to us such a large sum for those that wouldn’t normally be able to attend”.

Earlier this year, we reported St Aidan’s arguably achieved Brisbane’s best Year 12 results. The school’s annual fees are more than $27,000.

The school’s administrators say they are confident it is a record donation based on Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission website research.

The mother of Broncos and New South Wales State of Origin star Payne Haas has been ordered to stand trial over a car crash that killed three people in the Gold Coast hinterland.

Uiatu “Joan” Taufua, 48, on Wednesday was ordered to stand trial for manslaughter almost two years after the fatal two car collision, sparking emotional scenes from the victims’ loved ones outside court.

Taufua is accused of driving into an incoming vehicle on a narrow road in the Gold Coast hinterland on December 30, 2022.

Susan Zimmer, 70, her partner Chris Fawcett, 79, and her daughter Steffanie, 35, died in the collision.

Read more here.