Mortgage holders across the country are waiting anxiously to see whether the other Big Four banks will follow Westpac’s lead as raise variable rates.

Westpac raised rates 0.14% on all of its variable mortgages even though the Reserve Bank kept official rates at a historic low of 1.5% earlier this month.

Leading housing economist Brendan Coates from the Grattan Institute tells Mark sooner or later mortgage rates will rise giving many lenders mortgage stress.

A Brisbane based app developer has taken out a prestigious Eureka Prize awarded by the Australian Museum.

QuestaGame was named the winner of the Innovation in Citizen Science for a game that asks player to find and identify native flora and fauna.

QuestaGame co-founder David Haynes says people in 40 countries play the game.

A major public survey by the Brisbane City Council has found many people would like to see more street closures to make the CBD more pedestrian friendly.

Motoring group The RACQ says the pedestrianisation of the CBD is virtually inevitable.

RACQ Head of Public Policy Dr Rebecca Michael tells Mark the CBD will undergo a dramatic transformation over the next 20 years and there’s no place for cars.

The Palaszczuk Government has announced that from next year all children in Queensland state schools will take part in learn to swim or swim safety courses.

It will cost taxpayers almost $3.7 million a year.

State Education Minister Grace Grace tells Mark she wishes there had been a similar program when she was a child.

Tanya takes on Tommy to tip Round 25 of the NRL.

Everything will hinge on the results from Saturday’s Titans / Cowboys and Sunday’s Bulldogs / Sharks clashes.

A new report has warned that 870,000 jobs in Queensland will simply disappear in the next 20 years thanks to automation and artificial intelligence.

The warning is being sounded by a group within the CSIRO called Data61 which has released its The Innovation Imperative report.

Dr Stefan Hajkowicz from Data61 tells Mark we need to start planning now for the jobs of the future.

The book is about to be closed on the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games with the last board meeting held and Chairman Peter Beattie’s role to end on Friday.

Mr Beattie says there is no doubt mistakes were made but he still defends the $300,000 payout for CEO Mark Peters.

He tells Mark the games have left a valuable legacy for the Gold Coast and the whole of southeast Queensland.

For the fifth year in a row Black Hide by Gambaro at the Treasury Casino has been named the best steak restaurant in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Owner John Gambaro tells Mark the key to the restaurant's continuing success is sourcing the best beef and having the best staff.

The number of people dying in Queensland from accidental drug overdoses has more than doubled in the past decade.

The Australian Annual Overdose Report by the not-for-profit Penington Institute warns it is not illicit drugs but sleeping tablets and anxiety tablets that are the most concern.

Report author John Ryan tells Mark Australia could be sleepwalking towards a U-S style opioid crisis and it is people in middle age who are most at risk.

More than 80 girls at a Brisbane high school have lopped off their beloved ponytails all in the name of fighting cancer.

The girls from St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School were following a tradition begun by just four students in 2015 when a school parent was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Student Jordan Small tells Mark the students small sacrifice has raised almost $90,000 for the Cancer Council Queensland.