3 weeks ago
People rescued from Sea World ride after 90 minutes
The people stuck on the SeaWorld ride have now been rescued.
Bikash Randhawa, the COO of Village Roadshow Theme Parks, said:
Earlier today, the Vortex at Sea World received a ride stoppage due to a sensor communication fault.
Our team were in constant communication with the 13 guests on-board who were safe at all times, and our on-site nurse provided welfare checks in an abundance of caution with them upon exiting the ride. Our engineering team manually lowered the ride to its home position where the guests exited in just over 90 minutes of the ride stoppage.
Due to location of the ride stoppage, QFES was engaged to assist our team exit the guests from the ride, should the manual process not work, however this was not required. Our team regularly train for these exercises and we have a strong working relationship with the QFES team.
The safety and wellbeing of our guests is our highest priority and ride stoppages are proof rides systems and operators are doing as they are designed and trained to do to keep our guests safe.
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A developer who destroyed an 80-year-old oak tree in NSW and appealed his initial $3000 fine has seen that increase to $45,000.
Unhappy with the initial fine, the developer lodged an appeal and the matter was dealt with at the Bankstown Local Court earlier this month.
The Court heard that a Council inspection showed excavation work was occurring within a required Tree Protection Zone without the supervision of a certified arborist. The developer was handed a $45,000 fine.
A City of Canterbury Bankstown spokesperson said the Council recognises the importance of protecting valuable tree resources:
Council takes environmental enforcement seriously and we will not tolerate those who want to cut corners.
May this act as a warning that if you are doing the wrong thing, you will be caught and you will be fined.
Second stuck ride in a fortnight at Sea World
This is the second time in a fortnight passengers at SeaWorld have been stuck on a ride after the Leviathan rollercoaster stopped on 22 August due to a “ride sensor activation” error, according to the company.
People on board were stuck on the ride for around an hour.
Staff then helped them disembark from the emergency access points.
People rescued from Sea World ride after 90 minutes
The people stuck on the SeaWorld ride have now been rescued.
Bikash Randhawa, the COO of Village Roadshow Theme Parks, said:
Earlier today, the Vortex at Sea World received a ride stoppage due to a sensor communication fault.
Our team were in constant communication with the 13 guests on-board who were safe at all times, and our on-site nurse provided welfare checks in an abundance of caution with them upon exiting the ride. Our engineering team manually lowered the ride to its home position where the guests exited in just over 90 minutes of the ride stoppage.
Due to location of the ride stoppage, QFES was engaged to assist our team exit the guests from the ride, should the manual process not work, however this was not required. Our team regularly train for these exercises and we have a strong working relationship with the QFES team.
The safety and wellbeing of our guests is our highest priority and ride stoppages are proof rides systems and operators are doing as they are designed and trained to do to keep our guests safe.
SeaWorld says 13 people stuck on Vortex ride are ‘safe’
SeaWorld has put out a statement after 13 people have been trapped on the Vortex ride this afternoon.
A spokesperson said:
The Vortex at Sea World is currently experiencing a standard ride stoppage.
All 13 guests on-board are safe and our team are communicating with them as we prepare to exit them from the ride.
Multiple people trapped midair on Sea World ride
Ben Smee
More than 10 people are understood to be trapped midair on a ride at Sea World on the Gold Coast.
The Queensland Ambulance Service has confirmed it is at the scene while a rescue takes place.
Top universities criticise Labor’s ‘ill-conceived’ international student cap
Paul Karp
The Group of Eight has responded to the government’s announcement on its plan to cap new international student enrolments at 270,000.
Chief executive Vicki Thomson said:
The Group of Eight (Go8) remains implacably opposed to international student caps for the damage they will do to the sector and the nation.
We saw yesterday at the Senate inquiry that there is no economic modelling on the impact of caps, and this has not changed with today’s announcement of a Planning Level target of 270,000 for international education. This policy was bad yesterday and it is bad today – the unexplained number gives us no comfort.
What has changed is the Government today trying to steamroll the sector into accepting detailed caps before a clearly sceptical Senate has passed judgement on the ill-conceived legislation that enables these enrolment limits.
In doing so, the Government has confused the issues even further and increased the distrust of the sector in its capability to manage this vital $48 billion export industry.
Guzman y Gomez earnings result gives investors food for thought
The Mexican-inspired fast food chain Guzman y Gomez has failed to impress investors despite beating its own sales forecast.
In its first earnings result since its $335m ASX float in June, the Sydney-based burrito business said global sales grew 26.4% to $959.7m in the year ended 30 June, ahead of predictions published in its IPO prospectus.
The company’s founder and co-CEO Steven Marks was typically ambitious in his earnings call.
“Our vision is to reinvent fast food and change the way the masses eat,” he said.
But the sales beat was not enough to placate the market, which expects robust results to back up GYG’s bold claims.
Its share price was down 1% to $35.48 on the ASX, still well above its $22 issue price.
– via AAP
Emily Wind
Many thanks for joining me on the blog today. Handing over to Cait Kelly, who will bring you the rest of our coverage into this evening! Take care.
Two charged with murder after death of 12-year-old girl in 2022
Queensland police have charged two people with murder after the death of a 12-year-old girl in April 2022.
It will be alleged that emergency services were called to a Coomera residence after reports a 12-year-old girl was unresponsive, and was later declared deceased, police said in a statement.
Investigations into the circumstances of the girl’s death have led detectives to arrest and charge a 37-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman, both known to the child, with murder. They are both due to appear in Southport magistrates court today.
Det Insp Paul Fletcher from the Gold Coast district vulnerable persons unit praised the dedication of the officers who worked on this difficult case.
The investigation into the death of this young girl has been one of the most heart-wrenching and complex we’ve had to conduct. From the moment the investigation commenced, our priority has been to seek justice for this innocent child.
It is deeply distressing to investigate the death of any child, but the circumstances surrounding this case have been particularly confronting for our officers. Our detectives have worked diligently, using every resource available to ensure we could bring this investigation to a close.
Fletcher acknowledged the “grief and pain this has caused the community” and said police hope the arrests “bring some level of comfort to those who knew and loved this young girl”.
Andrew Wilkie says move to exclude question about sexuality and gender diversity in census ‘shameful’
The independent MP for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, has described the government’s move to exclude a question about sexuality and gender diversity in the upcoming census as “shameful.”
In a post to X, Wilkie wrote:
The census is supposed to tell us who we are as a country, but the [government’s] decision to back away from including questions on sexuality [and] gender diversity is a shameful move that, as Rodney Croome says, pushes LGBTIQA+ Australians back into the statistical closet.
Extra 22m bags of IV fluids secured, health minister says
Natasha May
An extra 22m bags of IV fluids will ensure Australian hospitals have more than enough of the vital medical supplies after an unprecedented shortage, the government says.
The health minister, Mark Butler, released a statement this afternoon saying the government has worked with local producers and suppliers to secure the supply of more than 22m additional IV fluid bags over the next six months, which will exceed the forecast demand over this period. The extra bags will come from both local production and overseas imports.
Earlier this month the government said it was stepping in to coordinate the distribution of the product with a cross-jurisdictional response group convened by all states and territories and the commonwealth. The group, which met yesterday, indicated the situation had stabilised in most jurisdictions.
The only onshore manufacturer of IV fluids, Baxter, advised the response group it is manufacturing IV fluids at its Sydney site at record levels and that, in coming weeks, it will expand its local manufacturing plant so that more IV fluid bags can be made locally.
In his statement, Butler said the medicines regulator, the TGA, was aware state and territory health departments were alerting staff of the situation and instructing all staff to use IV stock judiciously.
Man dies after parachuting incident in Queensland
A man has died after a parachuting incident west of Brisbane this morning.
As we flagged earlier, emergency services had responded to a parachuting incident in Tarawera, just off Meandarra Talwood Road, after 8am.
Paramedics had treated a patient for life-threatening injuries, however police have now confirmed the man was declared deceased at the scene.
The forensic crash unit was also on the scene this morning.
Sarah Basford Canales
NDIS minister says ‘naysayers’ should ‘stop catastrophising’ about changes to scheme
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, has urged “naysayers” to “stop catastrophising” about changes to the $40bn scheme that passed in parliament last week.
The former Labor leader has been on the attack after the Greens and some disability advocacy groups warned the changes could leave some participants worse off.
There have also been fears some of the changes could amount to a robodebt 2.0, which Shorten has previously dismissed as “complete rubbish”.
The Australian newspaper reported more than $65m in debts had been raised against NDIS participants and providers in the most recent year.
The figures showed 336 participants had been sent debt collection notices in the 12 months to July 2024, totalling $9m. Another $21m on debt notices was sent to 118 providers with a further $25m initiated by providers and participants to self correct or cancel claims.
Shorten has told Adelaide radio station 5AA the debts were “not exactly ruthless”, representing $65m of the $40bn scheme.
We’re not exactly the ruthless sort of debt police here and in our budgets, we don’t budget for recovering debt, but there’s probably a few hundred people who spend it on the wrong thing or are given wrong advice.
If someone’s got a serious psychosocial condition and they make a mistake, we haven’t been allowed to take into account their disability. Now we can. So, some of the naysayers really need to stop catastrophising and recognising the biggest catastrophe for the NDIS is if we don’t stop the rorts, if we don’t stop the people having a lend of it, demand better outcomes for the money that we’re paying. We want better quality outcomes for people.
Significant storm system to move through Tasmania and parts of Victoria
Tasmania and parts of Victoria have been warned to batten down the hatches and brace for power outages as one of winter’s most significant storm systems moves through, AAP reports.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued severe weather warnings for damaging winds across Victoria, Tasmania, and parts of New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, along with flood watches for Tasmania’s major rivers and parts of the north-west coast.
Victoria’s State Emergency Service has urged the community to prepare for winds of up to 100km/h from this afternoon and into tomorrow, with gusts of up to 130km/h near the state’s alpine peaks.
Western, southern and eastern Tasmania can expect average winds of about 60km/h to 70km/h, with peak gusts of up to 125km/h in parts of the east coast between Swansea and Orford until tonight.
Community members were encouraged to secure loose items such as outdoor furniture and trampolines and to park away from trees.
Meanwhile, Ausnet urged Victorian customers to prepare for potential power outages, and said life support customers should be ready to activate their emergency plan.
