AAP Rolling News Bulletin for May 20 at 1900
Oly32 Hotel (BRISBANE)
Mum-and-dad home owners are set to strike 2032 Brisbane Olympic gold, turning spare rooms into Games success because of a major hotel shortage.
Short-term rentals have been backed to fill visitor demand and share the Olympic tourism boom after it was revealed barely a quarter of the hotel rooms required for the 2032 Games were on track to be delivered.
Hotel building across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast has almost stopped despite strong bookings and higher room rates, according to a Property Council of Australia report released on Wednesday.
Queensland is well behind the state government's own hotel targets, with the current pipeline expected to deliver about 24 per cent of the 14,700 extra rooms needed by 2032, according to CBRE, a global real estate and investment firm.
Legal: Caddick (SYDNEY)
Investors defrauded by Melissa Caddick who have recouped losses through a class action will not benefit from a final payout from liquidators of her property.
Caddick was a self-styled financial advisor who conned 55 family and friends out of $23 million between 2012 and 2020 and lived a life of luxury through her investment scam.
The 49-year-old disappeared in November 2020, days after her luxury home in Sydney's affluent east was raided by ASIC agents investigating her Ponzi scheme.
Liquidators retained to claw back the lost funds have completed their task with the Federal Court approving one final repayment to investors.
About $7.3 million had already been sent back in two tranches to victims, ensuring they received 31.4 cents in the dollar back, barrister Nicola Bailey said during a court hearing on Wednesday.
Legal: Gillham (MELBOURNE)
A leading orchestra's directors were caught off guard by a "reputation shredding" decision to cancel a pianist's concert over his onstage comments about the war in Gaza, a court has been told.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra board member Martin Foley, who led Victoria's response to COVID-19 as state health minister before retiring from politics in 2022, gave evidence to Jayson Gillham's unfair dismissal case on Wednesday.
Gillham introduced a composition piece at an August 2024 concert by saying Israel deliberately targeted journalists to prevent the reporting of war crimes.
The orchestra responded by cancelling his next appearance, triggering his unfair dismissal case in the Federal Court on the basis of alleged discrimination due to his political beliefs.
Mr Foley was co-deputy chair of the orchestra's board when the incident occurred and said he was contacted by then-managing director Sophie Galaise two days after Gillham's performance.
Legal: Plane Boy (MELBOURNE)
Prosecutors have claimed a teen accused of trying to hijack a commercial plane was politically motivated as they pushed for his case to be heard in a higher court.
The now-19-year-old is accused of bringing a firearm and fake bomb onto an aircraft at Avalon Airport, southwest of Melbourne, in March 2025.
About 160 passengers were on board the Jetstar plane, which was due to fly to Sydney.
The teen, who was 17 at the time, appeared in a children's court via video link on Wednesday as prosecutors applied for his case to be heard in either the county or supreme courts.
The prosecutor argued the penalties available in the children's court - a maximum sentence of a two-year supervision order - were inadequate to reflect the seriousness of the alleged crime.
Iran (SINGAPORE/WASHINGTON)
Two Chinese tankers laden with oil have left the Strait of Hormuz, brightening hopes that the US-Israeli conflict with Iran may soon be resolved after positive comments from the US president and his deputy.
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the war would be over "very quickly" while Vice President JD Vance talked up progress in talks with Tehran about an agreement to end hostilities.
"We're in a pretty good spot here," Vance told a White House press briefing.
Trump made his comments a day after saying he had paused a planned resumption of hostilities following a new proposal by Tehran to end the conflict.
"I was an hour away from making the decision to go today," Trump told reporters at the White House.
Legal: Killer (SYDNEY)
Australia's youngest murderer has lost a bid to overturn a conviction as his brags about hiding disturbing material on his phone are revealed.
The man, known for legal reasons as SLD, has spent almost two-thirds of his life in jail after the then-13-year-old abducted and fatally stabbed his three-year-old neighbour Courtney Morley-Clarke on the NSW Central Coast in 2001.
Upon his release in April 2023, he was subject to a slew of strict conditions enforced by community corrections officers tasked with supervising the institutionalised man and protecting the community.
He was jailed again for 18 months in October that year after approaching a mother and her partially undressed 10-month old son at a beach in Wollongong.
The now 39-year-old failed to overturn his conviction for that breach on Wednesday.
Housing (CANBERRA)
Changing car parking requirements could shave about $70,000 off the cost of building a typical two-bedroom apartment in Sydney.
A report from the Grattan Institute revealed more than $1 billion is wasted on building off-street car parks that go unused.
Despite rules requiring new housing developments to include off-street parking, about 40 per cent of households in studio or one-bedroom apartments and 19 per cent of households in two-bedroom apartments don't own a car.
"Many people who live in apartments don't want or need car parking, but they are forced to pay for it anyway," Grattan Institute chief executive Aruna Sathanapally said.
Developers would still build parking spaces demanded by the market if parking minimums were removed.
But it would prevent the need to build more than $1 billion in unwanted off-street parking per year, lowering the cost of construction and making an additional 140,000 dwellings feasible in Sydney and Melbourne, the report said.
Mideast (TEL AVIV/GAZA)
Israel's foreign ministry says the latest international flotilla bound for Gaza to deliver aid "has come to an end" and 430 activists on board its vessels are being taken to Israel.
"Another PR flotilla has come to an end. All 430 activists have been transferred to Israeli vessels and are making their way to Israel, where they will be able to meet with their consular representatives," the ministry said on social media platform X.
"This flotilla has once again proved to be nothing more than a PR stunt at the service of Hamas. Israel will continue to act in full accordance with international law and will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza."
At no point was live ammunition fired," the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.
In finance ...
Budget (CANBERRA)
A group of young startup founders claim they have been ambushed by tax changes in the budget amid a growing campaign against the contentious reforms.
In an open letter to the prime minister, 40 business owners aged under 40 say the decision to pare back the 50 per cent discount on capital gains tax will impact every growing company in Australia.
Among the signatories are the co-founders of digital menu platform me&u, satellite imaging company HEO and financial services provider Arbor Group.
"By removing the CGT discount on shares, and replacing it with a cost base indexation scheme, you have clocked us with a massive tax hit and then come up with a replacement that will make things even worse," the open letter says.
Fuel (CANBERRA)
Australia's mining industry is using a quarter more diesel than it did four years ago just to achieve the same output, despite fuel shortages crippling the nation.
Every major Australian coal mining company is using more fuel now than in 2021/22, modelling from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis shows.
But even as the price of diesel skyrockets due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, fuel intensity rates are locked in, due to Australia's mining sector not yet having the ability to move to alternatives.
Workers also have to dig deeper in open-cut mines to reach coal seams than they did in previous years.
With large volumes of dirt and rock having to be removed, more fuel is burned as a result
In entertainment ...
Arts Opera (MELBOURNE)
Opera Australia's latest performance is less Verdi's La Traviata, and more AC/DC's Back in Black.
The national company has posted a major turnaround in its finances, balancing the books in 2025 following 2024's big losses of more than $10 million.
"It's very close to break even, which is fantastic ... the return to good times is not an anomaly," said chief executive Alex Budd, who began his role in November and is part of an overhauled senior management structure.
He said the improvements under acting chief executive Simon Militano had been driven by more disciplined cost controls, a carefully balanced repertoire, and a focus on rebuilding the company's finances.
While total revenue reached $122.8 million in 2025, Opera Australia posted a small deficit of $36,051 prior to the inclusion of the company's capital fund, which took the final result to a profit of $3.6 million, according to its annual results released on Wednesday.
Minogue (LONDON)
Kylie Minogue battled cancer for a second time in secret after being diagnosed in 2021.
The Australian pop star, 57, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 - prompting her to cancel a tour and a headline slot at Glastonbury festival - and she went on to make a full recovery after undergoing treatment, but Minogue has now revealed she suffered another health scare five years ago when she was diagnosed with cancer for a second time.
Minogue finally lifted the lid on her secret cancer battle in her new self-titled Netflix documentary, saying: "My second cancer diagnosis was in early 2021. I was able to keep that to myself ... Not like the first time."
Minogue did not give details about her diagnosis or treatment, but assured fans she was healthy.
In sport ...
Cri Pakistan (SYLHET)
Taijul Islam finished with six wickets as Bangladesh dismissed Pakistan for 358 to complete a 78-run win in the second Test and a 2-0 sweep of the series.
The left-arm spinner took two of the three wickets to fall on the final day and returned figures of 6-120 from 34.2 overs to help clinch the series.
The tourists were 7-316 on day four and added 42 runs on the fifth morning before losing the remaining wickets as Bangladesh rushed to victory.
Bangladesh won the first Test by 104 runs.
The victory marked Bangladesh's second successive series sweep against Pakistan, having previously completed a 2-0 victory in 2024.
The end of Mohammad Rizwan's defiant, 166-ball innings signalled the end of Pakistan's hopes of chasing down an improbable victory target of 437.
Soc WACL City (MELBOURNE)
Melbourne City's hopes of a ground-breaking treble have gone up in smoke with a 3-1 semi-final loss to Tokyo Verdy Beleza in the Women's Asian Champions League.
City sealed a domestic premiership-championship double with Saturday's 2-1 A-League Women grand-final win over Wellington.
But Tokyo scored two goals in the opening 10 minutes to bring City back down to earth and leave Michael Matricciani's charges with an uphill battle to qualify for the final.
City fought their way back into the contest and the excellent Aideen Keane scored in the 37th minute, before Yuzuho Shiokoshi's second goal in the 78th minute snuffed out the comeback.
It could well be the final time some of City's players, headlined by star striker Holly McNamara, play for the club in the forseeable future given expected interest from overseas clubs.
Ends Bulletin
Rolling News Desk inquiries : 02 9322 8611
