As it happened: Brisbane on Wednesday, May 29

Food writer Dani Valent recently looked at the spate of restaurants and cafes closing across the country.

So dire is the situation in the industry that one in 13 Australian hospitality businesses is predicted to fail in the next 12 months.

With just over 36,000 restaurants in Australia, according to international research agency IBISWorld, the projection would mean nearly 5000 could shut between now and June 2025.

Restaurant owner Billy Wong explained: “Costs have increased a lot: ingredients, rent, wages, everything that goes into running a restaurant, and the prices people are paying at venues haven’t kept up.”

NAB’s Consumer Sentiment Survey for the first quarter of 2024 showed that Australians are reducing overall spending, and eating out is the most common area of cutbacks: 57 per cent of consumers spent less on dining (compared with 54 per cent in the previous quarter), with an average monthly saving of $122 (versus $115 in the last quarter of 2023).

Cuts were most common in the 30 to 49 age group, with 63 per cent reducing dining spend because of cost-of-living pressures. Higher-income diners were more likely to trim their eating-out budget (59 per cent) than those on lower incomes (56 per cent), suggesting that restaurants at every level are feeling the pinch.

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Among the big stories across Brisbane and beyond today, a company owned by one of Brisbane’s most prominent chefs has been placed into voluntary liquidation. Restaurants run by BCN Events Group, owned by award-winning chef Shannon Kellam, have closed their doors.

The date has been announced when teenagers will be banned from buying knives at Coles, Woolworths and other major retailers in Queensland as part of the state’s latest knife-crime prevention strategy.

It’s time for literary buffs to shine, with the Brisbane Writers Festival starting today.

And elsewhere around the country, a phone has been found in farmland near Ballarat during a renewed targeted search for the body of missing woman Samantha Murphy.

Two men convicted of accessory to murder were released from federal detention when Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was the minister in charge of immigration and home affairs, according to government details.

In the US, where the historic Trump hush-money trial is concluding, columnist Bill Wyman writes that: “with closing arguments now under way and the jury expected to be sent off to deliberate, we have a moment to savour some of the overlooked features of this bizarre moment in American political history”.

And an injured State of Origin enforcer has taken some big strides in his rehabilitation, while the fate of a new fan favourite has been revealed.

That’s where we’ll leave the posts for this edition. We’ll return early on Thursday.

Now that the comedy festival has wrapped up, it’s time for literary buffs to shine with the Brisbane Writers Festival starting today.

The line-up boasts more than 150 live events and features acclaimed international, national and local authors including Melissa Lucashenko, Bryan Brown, Trent Dalton, Michael Connelly and Rebecca Yarros.

“We want to bring the festive to the festival,” said Brisbane Writers Festival artistic director Jackie Ryan.

“We’ve got comedy, illustrations, fantasy, literary fiction, international exclusives … we’ve got a broad cross-section of interests covered.”

Brisbane Writers Festival runs from May 30 to June 2.

Looking to sport again, Queensland Maroons captain Ali Brigginshaw will reclaim the halfback duties in a bid to save the women’s State of Origin series, opening the door for a rookie sensation to debut.

Gold Coast Titans youngster Sienna Lofipo will take over at lock, her first Origin appearance, while Emmanita Paki replaces the injured Emily Bass.

Queensland will be out to avenge their opening loss on home soil, as the Blues burst out of the blocks to score twice 10 minutes after kick-off.

New South Wales went on to claim a 22-12 win and have the chance to reclaim the trophy in Newcastle on June 6.

Looking to sports news now: Queensland Reds coach Les Kiss has resisted the temptation to rest a host of stars ahead of the Super Rugby Pacific finals, however young fly-half Tom Lynagh will start on the bench.

The Reds cannot afford to move from their fifth-placed position, and Kiss has sought to ensure Lynagh will be firing come the business end of the campaign.

The 21-year-old will come off the bench against the Waratahs, with Lawson Creighton donning the No.10 jumper.

Wallabies prop Zane Nongorr returns to the starting side in a swap with Jeffrey Toomaga-Allen.

John Brial and Connor Vest will also start in place of John Bryant and Ryan Smith respectively.

“It’s unreal to get this first start in Sydney against the Waratahs,” the 114-kilogram Brial said.

“It’s a great feeling. The games I’ve played off the bench have shown me I’m ready for it at this level.”

This week, we reported on the Brisbane CBD lift that is so unreliable it’s been out of service almost half the days so far in 2024.

At the North Quay ferry terminal, the lift has broken down at least seven times this year – but it’s not the only lift servicing public transport that has issues.

Advocacy group Rail Back on Track has a website that lists reported elevator outages on the south-east Queensland network, including at train stations, using data from Translink’s service updates RSS feed.

“It’s not only people who’ve got mobility issues (who are affected),” says Robert Dow from Rail Back on Track.

“It’s people with prams, people with suitcases – they don’t always think the lifts are going to be out.”

Dow has also compiled the monthly outages into a table, with 48 lift outages reported last month.

Now to Victoria for a moment, where police have renewed their search for missing woman Samantha Murphy, who disappeared from her Ballarat home nearly four months ago.

The 51-year-old mother was last seen leaving her home to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest on the morning of February 4.

“Police are undertaking a targeted search in the Ballarat area today as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Samantha Murphy,” Victoria Police said in a statement today.

“Detectives from the Missing Persons Squad as well as a range of specialist resources from across Victoria Police are involved in the search.

“Police ask that members of the public do not attend the search at this time.

“Since February, police have regularly undertaken a range of inquiries and small-scale searches as part of the current investigation.”

Murphy’s family has been advised of today’s search.

In March, police charged 22-year-old tradesman Patrick Orren Stephenson with the murder of Murphy at Mount Clear on the day she went missing.

He will return to court in August.

Stephenson is the son of Orren Stephenson, who played 15 AFL games for Geelong and Richmond between 2012 and 2014.

Thousands of Australians may have been caught up in a data breach affecting ticketing giant Ticketmaster, with notorious hacker ShinyHunters claiming to have stolen the personal data of 560 million customers globally.

In a dark web forum post seen by this masthead, ShinyHunters claimed to have 1.3 terabytes of customer data including names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and payment details including credit card number, expiration dates and “customer fraud details”.

The hacker is seeking payment of $US500,000 ($752,000) for a one-time sale of the information, and included a sample of the data, which also includes ticket sales, event information and order details. If confirmed, the breach could lead to issues for affected customers including potential identity theft and financial fraud.

Ticketmaster Australia was contacted for comment. The company is thought to have nearly 2 million Australian users.

Read more here.

News Corporation is briefing staff today ahead of a restructure involving job losses to executives, managers and journalists.

Executives are meeting staff this morning at town hall meetings ahead of an announcement expected at lunchtime.

A reported figure of cuts worth $65 million has not been disputed by company sources and involves a flatter management structure.

On Tuesday, News staff pushed through a 12-month extension of their current enterprise bargaining agreement, offering a 3.5 per cent pay rise, in order to focus on the impending job cuts.

“The company came and offered a 12-month roll over deal of full EBA negotiations and members have resolved to accept the 12-month roll over deal,” MEAA director Michelle Rae said.

MEAA members have endorsed the deal which will soon be put to a formal vote of endorsement by all News Corp staff.

The cuts follow a global budget meeting last week attended by News UK boss Rebekah Brooks, chief executive Robert Thomson and chairman Lachlan Murdoch, who have now left the country.

Less than 40 per cent of Palestinians fleeing violence in the Middle East have been granted entry to Australia under the visa class the government has allocated for them.

Last year, the Albanese government began issuing visitor visas to people escaping widespread destruction in Gaza, which allows them to stay in Australia for up to 12 months, allowing them the opportunity to apply for protection once they arrive.

Home Affairs officials revealed during a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday morning that so far 2686 visas had been granted for Palestinians and 4614 had been refused.

Only 1010 people have arrived in Australia from the Occupied Palestinian Territories since the Hamas October 7 attack on Israel, which triggered Israel’s full-scale retaliation on Gaza.

Officials have also conceded no humanitarian visas have been issued to people fleeing Gaza.

Agriculture and Emergency Services Minister Murray Watt, who is representing the ministers in the Home Affairs portfolio, said the government needed to follow health and security checks, while officials said applicants were failing the test of being considered genuine visitors.

Greens immigration spokesman David Shoebridge said people fleeing Gaza were being denied “because they are not ‘genuine tourists’.”

“Of course, people in Gaza are more concerned with escaping a genocide, saving their lives and those of their families, than seeing the Opera House,” he said.

“Only a genuinely cruel government would design a system that refuses protection for people facing genocide because they don’t want to return to the genocide.”

Fruit and vegetables have recorded their largest annual price rises in a year, increasing by 3.5 per cent.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has today released its latest annual inflation data, revealing that increases in food, housing, alcohol and transport costs have driven inflation to 3.6 per cent.

ABS head of prices statistics Michelle Marquardt said inflation rose to 3.6 per cent in the 12 months to April, up from 3.5 per cent in the year to March.

“Inflation has been relatively stable over the past five months, although this is the second month in a row where annual inflation has had a small increase,” she said.

Overall food and non alcoholic beverage inflation rose by 3.8 per cent.

Rents rose by 7.5 per cent over the year as the rental market remains tight.

Electricity prices rose by 4.2 per cent through the year to April, and the ABS said the federal government’s energy bill relief has helped keep those prices rises down.

“Excluding the rebates, electricity prices would have risen 13.9 per cent in the 12 months to April 2024,” Marquardt said.