Brisbane news live: Neuron to replace Beam e-scooters; Car found at Geebung train station after grandmother’s mysterious death; Lord mayor spruiks four ‘parks of the future’

Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd has insisted he and his fellow diplomats in Washington will have strong relations with the incoming Trump administration after a top adviser to the president-elect suggested his days in the US capital were numbered.

In his first detailed public comments since the US election, Rudd told a conference in Sydney that Trump’s election was an important moment for the world and Australia.

Speaking at a forum organised by the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre, Rudd had this to say: “The bottom line is: we’re ready.”

After Trump’s election victory, Rudd scrubbed critical comments about Trump from his online record, including posts in which he excoriated him as “the most destructive president in history” and a “traitor to the West”.

The NRL has revealed the fixtures for May’s Magic Round, including the drastic shake-up of moving Brisbane from playing on Friday night to Sunday.

The Broncos will instead face four-time defending premiers Penrith on the Sunday afternoon, with the rematch of the 2023 grand final giving the weekend a last-day boost.

The marquee Friday night slot has now instead gone to the Sydney Roosters and Dolphins, with the NRL’s 17th franchise getting primetime exposure at the weekend for the first time.

Meanwhile, Manly have gone from Magic Round pioneers to being left right out, with the NRL granting the Sea Eagles their wish of a bye during the Brisbane extravaganza.

NRL MAGIC ROUND 2025 (May 2-4)

The bizarre disappearance and death of a Queensland grandmother found partially buried hundreds of kilometres from her hometown has taken another turn.

Police have revealed they located a car belonging to Wendy Hansen, 63, at a train station in Brisbane’s north.

Hansen’s partially buried remains were found by volunteers clearing vegetation in dunes at Jetty Beach in Coffs Harbour in June.

But authorities still do not know how or why Hansen went to the popular NSW holiday destination, some 800 kilometres away from her home in Monto, a small town west of Bundaberg.

Her car – a 2007 two-door Mitsubishi Pajero – was found by police in the car park of Geebung train station on Brisbane’s northside on September 7, detectives have revealed.

The four-wheel-drive was last seen heading south on the Bruce Highway north of Brisbane on February 29, the day Hansen disappeared.

Earlier that same day, the grandmother was seen withdrawing cash from an ATM in Monto.

Homicide detectives investigating the suspicious death hope to work out how and why Hansen got to Coffs Harbour without her car.

Police are particularly interested in dashcam vision or information about Hansen or her car’s movements between February and June.

“[This is the] highly unusual disappearance of a loving grandmother, who has been found 800 kilometres from home and no one knows why,” Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said in August.

“The trail goes cold from the Sunshine Coast … we’d like to solve that mystery and provide the answers to the family.”

Turning to world news for a moment: Donald Trump says he is nominating Dr Mehmet Oz, who hosted a long-running television talk show, to lead the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

“Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivising Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country,” Trump said in a statement.

“He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”

Oz unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Pennsylvania as a Republican in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump.

Read more here.

AP

Brisbane City Council is spruiking its previously announced upgrades to Victoria Park, Oxley Creek, Kedron Brook and the Wynnum, Manly and Lota foreshores this morning, releasing an update on their transformation.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has dubbed the four park precincts “Brisbane’s parks of the future”.

The plan for Victoria Park includes an all-ages, all-abilities Adventurescape playground, a two-kilometre Parkway Loop boulevard, a high ropes course, a tree house lookout and a cafe.

In Brisbane’s south, hundreds of hectares of old farming land and wetlands are being turned into the 120-hectare Oxley Creek Common. Community consultation on the Oxley Creek project will begin next year.

A new 20-year master plan is also being developed for Kedron Brook, to revitalise the 110 square kilometre catchment that runs through 14 suburbs from Ferny Grove to Nudgee, and boost its flood resilience.

And, the 20-year master plan for the Wynnum, Lota and Manly foreshore is being created, adding to the $1.2 million upgrade to the children’s playground near the Wynnum wading pool.

Meanwhile, Labor and the Greens councillors have accused Schrinner’s LNP council of misplacing priorities over reductions to nursery rhyme sessions at Brisbane City Council libraries.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says Australians should get “a chill down their spines” at the prospect of billionaires managing government efficiency.

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart met tech billionaire Elon Musk privately in the days after the US election, The Australian Financial Review reports, with Musk since appointed to head the Department of Government Efficiency, which will aim to reduce bureaucratic waste.

Rinehart has since suggested Australia needs a similar intervention. Asked about this prospect, O’Neil expressed her concern.

“Australians should get a chill up their spine when we see a couple of billionaires getting together to talk about efficiencies in public services. What that really translates to for your viewers is drastic cuts to health and education and other services that we ordinary Australians rely on,” O’Neil told Seven’s Sunrise.

“Peter Dutton has said that he is going to make $300 billion of cuts to our public services here in Australia, the problem is, he won’t tell us where and why and when.”

Coalition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume hit back at O’Neil, accusing her of being disrespectful to Musk and Rinehart.

“I think that was enormously disrespectful of Clare. You don’t get to be the world’s richest man or woman by accident, you get there because you’ve got some ideas about how to be efficient and effective and how to be profitable,” Hume said.

“There are 36,000 additional public servants that have come on board since this government began … now that is a cost of billions of dollars, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t necessarily feel 36,000 public servants better served than I did just two years ago.”

The big wet across the state’s south-east looks set to continue today, with a high chance of rain forecast for Brisbane, easing to showers later in the morning.

A maximum temperature of 22 degrees is predicted, on what is expected to be the coolest day of the week.