Brisbane news live: Coalition attacks Albanese over $4.3m house

Parents at Brisbane State High School fear its merit-based entry system is at risk from the surging population and families they claim are gaming the system by buying properties within the school’s sought-after West End catchment area.

Nearly 1800 people have signed a petition to preserve the school’s merit-entry system, which selects students based on academic and sporting performance.

“A lack of planning and reluctance to invest in infrastructure has seen the school’s population reach breaking point, and Education Queensland’s solution is to scrap merit entry,” the petition reads.

Nearly 1800 people have signed a petition to preserve State High’s merit-entry system.Credit: Dan Peled

BSHS school council member Bryce Corbett, whose son is in the school’s rugby program, said the Education Department had slowly reduced the percentage of merit-entry students to accommodate the growing number of children in the school’s catchment area.

“It’s a public school, it’s obliged to take any children from any catchment and that is the problem, because ... people buy properties in the area to get their kids into the school,” Corbett told ABC Radio Brisbane this morning.

“The Department of Education plans to let catchment enrolments grow, potentially leading to the school’s decline ... As a result, the most successful public education school in the state will wither on the vine and die.”

Comment is being sought from the Education Department.

Parts of Victoria and Queensland are leading the charge for new jobs being created, figures show.

Analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics labour data show Melbourne and south-east Queensland had the greatest increase in employment in the year to August.

The statistical area of West Melbourne had the largest growth in the 12-month period at 5.5 per cent, followed by inner Melbourne at 5.4 per cent.

Melbourne and South East Queensland recorded the greatest increases in employment.

Ipswich, west of Brisbane, was next on the list, growing by 5.2 per cent, followed by Queensland’s Logan-Beaudesert region at 5.2 per cent and the Gold Coast at 5 per cent.

Sydney’s northern beaches and Sutherland Shire had the lowest unemployment rates for the same year to August, coming in at 2.3 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively.

The areas had an unemployment rate nearly two percentage points lower than the national figure of 4.1 per cent for August.

Warrnambool in Victoria, inner Perth and Sydney’s eastern suburbs rounded out the top five for the lowest unemployment rate, all at 2.7 per cent.

Economists are tipping for the unemployment rate to rise in coming months, which has been driven by supply, before stabilising to about 4.5 per cent in 2025.

Labour market figures for September 2024 are due to be released tomorrow.

Brisbane State High School council member and parent Byrce Corbett says the school could be classed an academy under the Education Act to preserve its merit-based entry system, much like Kelvin Grove’s Queensland Academies Creative Industries Campus (QACI) and Toowong’s Queensland Academy for Science Mathematics and Technology (QASMT).

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“It’s a very simple solution, whereby State High could be designated as an academy and it could potentially have 50/50 enrolments: 50 per cent catchment, 50 per cent meritocracy,” Corbett told ABC Radio Brisbane this morning.

He argued this would “preserve the very essence of what it is that makes State High great”.

Brisbane’s two academy schools are for year 10, 11 and 12 students completing the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB), rather than the QCE (Queensland Certificate of Education).

Here is more from Bryce Corbett, the parent behind the “save Brisbane State High School” petition that attracted more than 1800 signatures in 30 hours, speaking on ABC Radio Brisbane this morning:

The entire idea of State High is that it would be a public education institution that would allow the best kids from all over Brisbane … to go to a school where their talents would be nurtured, where their talents would be incubated, and they would go on to achieve all of the incredible things that Brisbane State High alumni have achieved throughout its history.

Here is the flagship public education institution in Queensland. It is the ultimate meritocracy. If you’re good at what you do, whether it’s a sport, whether it’s academics, whether it’s a cultural pursuit, State High is the place where you can go and have that talent recognised … no matter how much money your parents make.”

Parents at Brisbane State High School fear its merit-based entry system is at risk from the surging population and families they claim are gaming the system by buying properties within the school’s sought-after West End catchment area.

Nearly 1800 people have signed a petition to preserve the school’s merit-entry system, which selects students based on academic and sporting performance.

“A lack of planning and reluctance to invest in infrastructure has seen the school’s population reach breaking point, and Education Queensland’s solution is to scrap merit entry,” the petition reads.

Nearly 1800 people have signed a petition to preserve State High’s merit-entry system.Credit: Dan Peled

BSHS school council member Bryce Corbett, whose son is in the school’s rugby program, said the Education Department had slowly reduced the percentage of merit-entry students to accommodate the growing number of children in the school’s catchment area.

“It’s a public school, it’s obliged to take any children from any catchment and that is the problem, because ... people buy properties in the area to get their kids into the school,” Corbett told ABC Radio Brisbane this morning.

“The Department of Education plans to let catchment enrolments grow, potentially leading to the school’s decline ... As a result, the most successful public education school in the state will wither on the vine and die.”

Comment is being sought from the Education Department.

Premier Steven Miles has sought to allay fears that his election commitments will jeopardise Queensland’s credit rating, saying his pledges were “within range” to keep the rating stable.

Yesterday Miles rejected the suggestion Labor had given up on debt control, after warnings from credit agency S&P that Queensland’s AA+ rating would be at risk if commitments were funded through borrowing.

The premier’s signature $1.4 billion commitment to give state primary school students free lunches, for example, would be funded through borrowing.

All up, Labor has made $8.9 billion in election commitments, but it claims the LNP’s come in at $17 billion, a figure the LNP disputes.

Miles said his government engaged closely with credit rating agencies.

You have to remember that, compared to other comparable states like New South Wales and Victoria, we are in a much, much better position. On general government debt, for example, Queensland is currently at $27.4 billion. That’s compared to Victoria on $156 billion, and New South Wales on $103 billion.”

And in the final stretch to polling day, with more than one in three voters likely to cast their ballot before October 26, we’ve summarised the major parties’ plans.

The Coalition’s responses to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s purchase of a $4.3 million home on NSW’s Central Coast have continued to vary, as Nationals Leader David Littleproud defends the PM’s move.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Littleproud said Albanese has “every right to buy a house to set himself up for retirement”.

Of course, Littleproud wasn’t entirely complimentary, saying he hopes that “through popular demand” the PM gets to use the house in six months’ time.

“He will be retired by the Australian people,” Littleproud said, referring to the 2025 election.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones says the prime minister’s purchase of a $4.3 million home on the NSW Central Coast is a “private matter”.

“The PM and his fiancee are getting married next year. They’ve sold a couple of properties and are intending to buy a new one. That’s a private matter,” Jones said.

The ocean view from the property Anthony Albanese has purchased at Copacabana on the NSW Central Coast.Credit: Domain

Questioned on ABC RN Breakfast whether it was an optics issue, Jones said he was focused on the housing policy sitting in the Senate, calling the saga a “distraction from the real issue”.

“The real issue is how we build more homes and get more Australians into their first home.”

Asked if he wished the PM had waited until after the election, Jones said he “didn’t know all the circumstances behind all of this”.

He continued:

Frankly, the other stuff, however much it might grab a headline, is not going to move the issue of housing affordability one iota.

The policies that we’ve got before the Senate at the moment will and that’s why we’re pressing on the Greens and the Coalition to get out of the way and allow the government to implement its policies to help Australians get into the housing.”

In a change in tune from the Coalition, Liberal senator Jane Hume has attacked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for his decision to purchase a $4.3 million ocean-view home on NSW’s Central Coast.

In a press conference yesterday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton wouldn’t criticise the PM, only saying he wished him and his fiancee Jodie Haydon well, and that it was a private matter.

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But speaking on Seven’s Sunrise this morning, Hume said she had a problem with the timing.

After fellow panellist Housing Minister Clare O’Neil confidently called on Hume to share her view, saying she didn’t think the Liberals would disagree that the PM was entitled to make the purchase, the Liberal senator was not so generous.

“This is tone-deaf during a housing crisis,” Hume said.

“Clare as the housing minister is the one being sent out to clean up this mess.”

Hume said the PM was entitled to a personal life and to make retirement plans, then quipped: “I think there are plenty of Australians and probably some of his colleagues that would like to see [his retirement] happen sooner rather than later.”

Meanwhile, O’Neil defended the decision, saying Albanese was entitled to a personal life and was about to embark on a “new life with his incredible fiancee”.

“This man leads an Australian government that is more bold and ambitious on addressing the housing needs in Australia than we have in many decades.”