Drivers caught using their mobile phone behind the wheel in Queensland will face $1,000 fines and if caught a second time could lose their licence.

Statistics show that in 2017, 38 people were killed and 1224 people were hospitalised as a result of distracted drivers on Queensland’s roads.

The RACQ’s head of Technical and Safety Policy Steve Spalding tells Mark it is a good start but there is more than can and should be done.

One of the biggest challenges getting a good deal on electricity has been the baffling array of offers from dozens of retailers, but things are about to become far less confusing.

From today all retailers must use the same Direct Market Offer (DMO) as a baseline for offering discounts and deals.

In the southeast Queensland market there are 25 different retailers.

Ian Jarratt from the Queensland Consumers Association tells Mark getting a better deal could save the average household hundreds of dollars a year.

What's On With Olympia Kwitowski.

Actor John Waters earned an international reputation as a musician with his critically acclaimed one man show Through The Glass Onion in which he channeled John Lennon.

Now he is turning his immense talents to the music of Bob Dylan with his show Dylan Revisited which plays the Tivoli in Brisbane in September.

John explains to Mark that his introduction to Dylan came not from the Bobfather himself, but via a British pop star.

A local council in Queensland is to allow funeral services in public parks under a 12 month trial.

The Fraser Coast Council has identified nine parks for use under strict conditions including that there are no open caskets and services can’t be held near a busy thoroughfare.

None of the parks are home to a children’s playground.

Rowan Steer, the incoming president of the Queensland division of the Australian Funeral Directors Association, tells Mark that as the community becomes less religious people are looking for alternatives to churches.

There are few more challenging destinations than Antarctica, let alone for tourists but a journey to the bottom of the world needn’t require a major expedition.

In fact, the frozen continent can be experienced sensibly dressed, from a comfy seat with a drink in hand.

Wietske Hattingh from Journeys Worldwide tells Mark Antarctica can be done in a day and all that may be asked of you is to occasionally swap seats.

The growing demand for avocados, and not just among millennials, prompted growers a few years ago to plant more trees, many more.

Those trees are now bearing fruit to such an extent that Australia is set for a record harvest this season with 8,000 tonnes of avocados more this year than last year.

Avocado Australia CEO John Tyas tells Mark while there will be plenty of fruit it is unlikely to mean that prices will plummet.

A juvenile humpback whale is finally free after running foul of shark nets off Main Beach on the Gold Coast.

It took teams from the Department of Fisheries and Seaworld around two and a half hours to release the whale’s tail from the tangle.

It’s the first rescue of the whale season and 52nd in the area since 2001.

Trevor Long from the Seaworld Research And Rescue Foundation tells Mark given the condition of the whale he suspects it had spent the night trapped.

Spartacus, the epic tale of a Roman slave’s fight for freedom, is considered the world renowned Bolshoi’s Ballet’s signature performance.

It’s been part of the company’s repertoire for 60 years and is considered the ultimate balletic tour de force.

It opens tomorrow at the Lyric Theatre for a strictly limited season.

QPAC Chief Executive John Kotzas tells Mark that it’s a major coup for Brisbane that the Bolshoi now makes the city a regular stop on its touring calendar.

The Brisbane City Council has awarded a tender for a second e-scooter company to compete with Lime Scooters in the city.

Singapore based Neuron Mobility has been given permission for 600 scooters, while the US based Lime has had its current numbers cut from 750 to 400.

BCC Active Transport Committee chair Krista Adams tells Mark the permits are for 12 months and things will be reassessed after that.