Australia news live: AFL grand final could spread Queensland measles outbreak; Albanese heads for UK talks | Australia news

A leading doctor has warned that a measles outbreak in Queensland could spread nationally after this weekend’s AFL grand final because of potential transmission by Brisbane Lions fans travelling to Melbourne, Australian Associated Press reports.

There are currently around 20 active cases of measles in Queensland, with the largest cluster in the Cairns area of the state’s far north.

There are also smaller clusters in central Queensland and the Gold Coast, with a single case confirmed in Brisbane yesterday.

With up to 30,000 Brisbane Lions fans predicted to travel from Queensland to Melbourne for the match against Geelong on Saturday, epidemiologists warn of the highly contagious virus spreading.

The director of infectious diseases at Brisbane’s Mater hospital, Paul Griffin, was once the No 1 Lions ticketholder and will be at the MCG among 100,000 others for the big match on Saturday.

“Fleeting contact, or even being in the same room as someone two hours after they were there infectious with measles is enough to get infected,” Griffin said.

While he admits it unlikely a person with measles will attend, he said that for every known case of the disease there are likely to be 16 to 20 unknown cases.

Measles was eradicated from Australia in 2014, but has made a comeback as vaccination rates declined.

More than 120 cases have been logged so far in 2025.

Griffin described the return of the virus as a “terrible tragedy”.

“This is our biggest [outbreak] since 2019, and with our current trajectory we could continue to break other records,” he said.

Vaccination rates against measles in Queensland have slid to 90.35%, well below the target of 95%.

Griffin put the decline down to misinformation about vaccines in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and complacency about the severity of the illness.