Week ending 2nd July

A New South Wales police officer has warned his Queensland counterparts a ban on hoodies at late-night businesses could fail as it did at a suburban shopping centre on his side of the border. Police on Brisbane's bayside intend to introduce a ban on hoodies in businesses regularly targeted by armed thieves next month. Offenders wore hoodies to conceal their faces in almost half of 14 armed robberies that have occurred in the district since January. Under an initiative to cut the crime rate, Wynnum, Cleveland and Lota shopkeepers will be encouraged to ask customers wearing hoods to remove them when entering a store. If successful, the one-month trial will be extended across the South Brisbane and Oxley police districts.

A second case of the potentially deadly Hendra virus has been confirmed in Queensland. A horse became ill at a property at Mount Alford on Friday, south of Brisbane, and was euthanased. A second horse fell ill ill on June 20 and was euthanased, but it is not clear yet if it too had Hendra. Officers from Biosecurity Queensland and Queensland Health will speak with people who treated the animal to determination whether anyone may have been exposed. The incident is about 70 kilometres away from where another horse died of the virus last Sunday. Two properties where that horse stayed, in Kerry and Biddaddaba, also south of Brisbane, are under quarantine. Biosecurity Queensland said there are no links between the Beaudesert and Mount Alford cases.

Bob Irwin has refused to confirm if he will run for the crucial Brisbane seat of Ashgrove at the next state election, but says if he does it will be under a Queensland Party banner. The environmental campaigner and father of the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin was expected to announce on Friday whether he would take on Labor party’s Kate Jones and Liberal National Party leader Campbell Newman in the seat. Mr Irwin and Queensland Party Leader Aidan McLindon said they would jointly campaign to amend the Animal Cruelty Act of 2003 to prohibit inhumane methods of killing sea turtles and other marine life.