What we learned today – Sunday, 21 May
That’s where we’ll leave the blog for today. Thanks so much for joining us. Here is a wrap of the day’s biggest stories:
It’s been one year since the election of Anthony Albanese’s government;
The prime minister has been in Hiroshima Japan for the G7 conference where he has met with other world leaders and held a Quad meeting;
Albanese announced a new climate pact with the US to help accelerate investment;
Tony Bourke has promised a crackdown on loopholes for labor hire firms but a Nationals senator says this will collapse small businesses who can’t afford the wages bill;
Strong winds have battered southern Australia, leading to severe weather warnings across three states;
There has been yet another ruckus among the Victorian Libs as the party has met to present a vision for its future;
Liberal senator Simon Birmingham says his party does not want to see Australia go backwards on climate change, despite voting against legislated emissions targets and the safeguard mechanism.
An information campaign for the Indigenous boice has been launched to help provide a civics lesson in the lead up to the referendum vote;
A protester at the Fremantle-Geelong AFL game invaded the pitch yesterday to draw attention to Woodside’s oil and gas operations on the Burrup peninsula.
Updated
Rural Queensland farm raid sparks $23.1m cannabis bust
More than $20 million of cannabis has been stopped from hitting the streets in the latest bust linked to a nationwide drugs syndicate growing crops on isolated Queensland farms.
Nearly 3000 cannabis plants were discovered on May 15 at a property in Coominya, about 80 kilometres west of Brisbane.
The plants were growing inside 19 greenhouses measuring 70 metres in length.
As well, close to 1600 cannabis seedlings were found in two hydroponic growth rooms, along with more than 32 kilograms of dried cannabis in a house and shipping container.
Detective inspector Brad Phelps said the street value of the drugs was estimated at $23.1m.
What you need to remember with the production of cannabis and particularly the hydroponic of cannabis is it’s a cyclic process.
So this particular crop we can value at over $20 million on the street. But they can produce three of four of these crops in any given year from the same site. So it’s a significant disruption.
No one was found on the property at the time of the raid but a 26-year-old man has since been arrested at a Heathwood home.
He was charged with producing a commercial quantity of cannabis ahead of facing court on June 6.
Police are still searching for others involved.
The bust is connected to an alleged national drug syndicate, facilitating the commercial production and distribution of cannabis across Queensland, Victoria, NSW and the Northern Territory.
Police believe the syndicate is scouting, purchasing and resourcing isolated farms in rural Queensland to grow cannabis on a large scale as part of its nationwide operation.
Det Insp Phelps said Queensland police are working with other jurisdictions to destroy the group, with a total of 12 similarly sized cannabis farms dismantled thus far.
- AAP
