With that, we’ll wrap up our coverage of the day’s news.

Here’s a summary of the main developments:

Thanks for tuning in. We’ll be back tomorrow to do it all over again.

A 10-year-old boy has died after being hit by a school bus in Sydney’s south-west.

The accident occurred about 3pm on Wednesday outside Macarthur Anglican school in Cobbitty and left the boy with critical injuries, police said.

He was treated by paramedics at the scene and taken to Liverpool hospital but died soon after.

The bus driver, a 60-year-old woman, has been taken for mandatory testing and is assisting police with their inquiries.

Specialist crash investigators have examined the crash scene.

–AAP

Heatwaves on the way for much of Australia

Large parts of Australia are set to swelter through another heatwave in the coming days with hot weather warnings in place across the country.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting heatwaves around Australia from Thursday, with warnings already in place in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.

Melbourne is projected to hit 40C over the weekend and extreme fire warnings are expected to be put in place for SA, NSW and the NT amid the hot conditions.

Read more:

Review into government agency stopped after allegations referred to police

An independent investigation into the workplace culture of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) was stopped by the agriculture minister, Murray Watt, after serious allegations were referred to the police and the public service commissioner, a Senate committee has heard.

The inquiry was instituted in November last year after allegations regarding a “private urination matter” by an APVMA staff member were raised at previous Senate estimates hearings. An interim report showed additional allegations had come to light.

On Tuesday night Watt told the Senate’s rural and regional affairs committee he made the decision to “wind up” the review based on legal advice. Watt said:

It was clear to me that there were more appropriate authorities to then properly investigate them.

The other reason was that [the police and public service commissioner] would have more extensive powers to investigate, ask questions, require documents, than the reviewer who I appointed.

Watt privately briefed the Senate committee on the matter last week and said he did not intend to release the interim report or to make any further comments about it.

The APVMA is the federal government agency responsible for approving registration of pesticides and other agricultural and veterinary chemicals.

The APVMA chair, Dr Carmel Hillyard, confirmed reports in the New England Times that the agency’s chief executive, Lisa Croft, had taken a period of leave while the review was carried out and that Nicola Hinder has been appointed an interim chief executive.

Hillyard acknowledged the additional serious allegations of misconduct included “potential breaches of public service code of conduct and potential breaches of law”.

“The board takes these issues extremely seriously,” Hillyard said.

The board is also committed to supporting all of the processes that allow the allegations to be examined, including actions already taken by minister Watt and to refer them to the appropriate authorities.

Hinder said she had every confidence that the regulatory operations of the APVMA will be able to continue.

Large python removed from Sydney home

A 2-metre diamond python has been removed from a home in Sydney’s south after residents spotted it slithering on their balcony.

The Bundeena residents had suspected something was wrong when they noticed their local ringtail possums had gone missing.

“We used to have ringies in the roof, but something’s been flushing them out,” the homeowner said in a video of the serpent’s capture.

On Wednesday morning, they saw the large snake on their terrace and immediately called local firefighters.

By the time the reptile retrieval unit arrived, the snake had wriggled into the front garden.

Armed with a pair of snake tongs, specially trained firefighters plucked the python from the grass and placed it into a catching bag before releasing it at the nearby Royal national park.

Diamond pythons live in coastal areas of New South Wales and are frequently spotted in the rafters of Sydney homes that border on bush.

At two to three metres long, they can look imposing, but diamond pythons are non-venomous and generally prey on small mammals and lizards.

– AAP

The government’s bill amending the Public Interest Disclosure Act has passed the House of Representatives, with Coalition support.

The bill was introduced in November in a bid to improve whistleblower protections before the national anti-corruption commission opens its doors in June.

The Greens had said they have some concerns with the bill that the exclusion of personal work-related conduct was too broad, signalling they might seek amendments.

It was sent to a Senate committee, to report in late March. But on Tuesday the Coalition resolved to support it, easing its passage considerably.

On Tuesday the shadow attorney general, Julian Leeser, explained the problem with the current act.

He told the House:

The kinds of disclosable conduct are too broad, rather than being targeted at the most serious integrity risks, such as fraud, serious misconduct or corrupt conduct. The [Moss] review found that while the PID Act is helping to bring to light allegations of serious wrongdoing, these disclosures are in the minority. Most PIDs concern matters that are better understood as personal employment-related grievances, for which the PID Act framework is not well suited.

In short, the act is being used for the wrong purposes, and it is doing so badly. It needs to be tightened and focused in order to achieve its purpose.

This bill is an attempt to correct some of the act’s shortcomings. In particular, it will remove ‘personal work related conduct’ from the PID scheme unless it relates to systemic wrongdoing or reprisal action. It will provide increased flexibility around the handling of disclosures and provide clearer time frames. It will extend protection from reprisals to witnesses and those who may have made, propose to or could make a disclosure, and it will improve information sharing between agencies.

NAB joins Westpac in measures to reduce spoofing scams

NAB has announced it will work with telcos to help reduce spoofing scams that impersonate phone calls from the bank and messages that appear in legitimate NAB text message threads.

NAB is now placing bank phone numbers on the “Do Not Originate” list that prevents numbers being duplicated to help reduce scam calls impersonating NAB numbers. It will also add protections to reduce scam messages appearing in legitimate bank text message threads.

The bank is the second out of the Big Four to announce it will put its phone numbers on the “Do Not Originate” list, with Westpac adding more than 94,000 phone numbers last September.

Australians are expected to lose billions of dollars to scams this year, with a reported $53,470,587 already stolen in January. Scamwatch estimates that’s just 13% of the total loss.

NAB executive for group investigations and fraud, Chris Sheehan:

Scams impersonating NAB and other recognised brands have continued to rise, and it’s clear we need more collaboration across business sectors to stop this occurring.

This is not just a problem for banks and telcos, this is an issue for every public and private organisation, and we urgently need a more coordinated national response to the issue.

It comes as there is building pressure on the banks to implement blanket protections across the industry to help keep Australians safe from scams.

Two mining contractors are missing after a collapse at an underground zinc mine in northern Queensland.

Paramedics say they’re assisting other emergency services after the “ground collapse” at the Dugald River Mine near Cloncurry just after 1pm on Wednesday.

The mine’s operator MMG has suspended work while they search for two Barminco contractors who are “unaccounted for” after the incident.

“Two Barminco employees working at MMG’s Dugald River mine in Queensland were this morning involved in an incident and currently remain unaccounted for,” the ASX-listed company said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.

“The site’s emergency response has been activated and is working closely with Barminco and authorities to assist in search and rescue efforts. Operations at Dugald River have been halted while the search is underway.

“MMG has extended all available resources and support to Barminco and the Dugald River mine.”

Local state MP Robbie Katter said the event was “obviously the worst nightmare” for a mining community and there was a lot of anxiety about the situation.

“We know emergency services are on the ground and we are praying for a good outcome,” he said in a statement.

“My major concern is the wellbeing of these two employees and the task at hand to get them back safely to their families.”

– AAP

NDIS $500m above forecast

The national disability insurance scheme is approximately $500m above forecasts for the 2022-23 financial year, Senate estimates has heard.

Coalition senator Linda Reynolds has been probing officials at the national disability insurance agency. Reynolds was previously the NDIS minister, and had a torrid time in the portfolio has she faced sustained pressure from disability advocates and Labor over the Coalition’s handling of the scheme.

In a long exchange with the acting scheme actuary, David Gifford, Reynolds adduced that the scheme was about $500m above its forecast for the 2022-23 financial year, as at 31 January 2023.

Compared to the October budget, the real figures were above those forecasts by $300m for the first six months of 2022-23, and $200m above for the month of January alone. In total, estimates heard spending on NDIS supports hit $19.7bn to the end of January.

She said:

It’s already 300m over budget for the first six months. But now we’ve got an extra 200 million over for January alone.”

Gifford said that the figures could fluctuate month by month He said he couldn’t provide the latest forecasts for 2022-23 as they hadn’t been finalised.

The projection in the October budget for the scheme was $34bn.

The Labor government has ordered a wide-ranging review into the NDIS which is expected to consider scheme sustainability among a range of other issues. The government, and disability advocates, have noted, however, that scheme costs should be viewed in their broader context, including the economic and social benefits provided by the scheme. One report estimates for every $1 spent on the scheme, $2.25 in economic activity was generated.

For example, the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, told question time on Wednesday the government had slashed the hospital “bed block” waiting time from 160 to 33 days, which the AMA calculated had already saved the health system between $205m and $584m.

Michaelia Cash targets Fair Work president for Labor run in 1990

In employment estimates, Liberal senator Michaelia Cash has been probing the appointment of Adam Hatcher to the position of president of the Fair Work Commission.

While nobody doubts Hatcher’s qualifications (he was vice president before the appointment), Cash noted he is a “former Labor party candidate”. He contested Mackellar in 1990.

The employment department secretary, Natalie James, said that the minister, Tony Burke, wanted an appointment of someone from within the commission, a field of candidates that was “quite small and well known”.

Labor’s Murray Watt, representing the minister, brushed off the implied criticism of the appointment by noting even employer groups like the Australian Industry Group had praised his credentials.

Cash defended the line of questioning, noting that Labor had criticised her appointments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on the implicit premise that “any link to political party means [the appointment] must not be merit based”.

Cash also said that Hatcher’s brother used to work for Burke.

Watt said:

I’ve been advised, and minister Burke has previously put some of this information on the public record about Mr Hatcher. Since senator Cash has queried it and suggested there might be some kind of conflict of interest here, I’m advised he’s the brother of a former staff member of Burke. That staff member no longer works for Burke. [Burke and Hatcher] hadn’t had a conversation prior to him becoming minister, although they could’ve met at some point.

[If the Coalition had been re-elected] the vacancy would’ve gone to the employer side given the were they only people the Coalition ever appointed. When Burke consulted employer groups, they said if the new appointee were to come from an employee background then Hatcher was the pre-eminent candidate.”

The Albanese government has just announced it will contribute an additional $8m to Australia’s response to the earthquakes that devastated Turkey and Syria last week.

The extra funding brings Australia’s total aid contribution for the tragedy to $18m.

The announcement was made as Anthony Albanese visited the Turkish embassy in Canberra to sign a condolence book on Wednesday afternoon.

In a statement from foreign minister Penny Wong and international development minister Pat Conroy, the government has said:

This funding will provide lifesaving assistance, with a focus on protecting those made most vulnerable by the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria. It will also support ongoing search and rescue efforts.

In Türkiye, we will contribute an additional $4.5 million. This includes $2 million to Australian NGOs through the Australian Humanitarian Partnership to deliver lifesaving assistance, with a focus on protecting those made most vulnerable by the earthquakes. Remaining funds will support ongoing search and rescue efforts and other emerging needs arising from this crisis.

In Syria, $3.5 million will be provided to the United Nations Population Fund to deliver maternal and child health services and protect women and girls without safe housing. This is in addition to the $3 million that Australia has committed to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).

We extend Australia’s deepest sympathies to families and communities that have lost loved ones in the earthquakes, including families here in Australia.”

Aston Liberal preselection update

Nicole Ta-Ei Werner, who recently ran for the Liberal party in the Victorian seat of Box Hill, has confirmed she will not be contesting the preselection for the seat of Aston.

Werner told Guardian Australia while she had been encouraged to stand for the federal seat in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, her focus was on state issues.

Amy Bach, a healthcare executive and physiotherapist, is also unlikely to run, after some consideration.

With nominations closing on Thursday evening, Roshena Campbell has emerged as a frontrunner.

The barrister and Melbourne city councillor is being backed by former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who will provide a character reference for Campbell, as well as key powerbrokers from the moderate and conservative wings of the party.

Alan Tudge, the outgoing MP for Aston, announced his retirement last week, just nine months after he retained the eastern Melbourne seat despite a 7.3% swing to Labor at the 2022 election, reducing his margin in the seat to a slender 2.8%.

The byelection is considered a crucial early test for the Liberals – after the party’s election review called on it to boost women’s participation – and the leader, Peter Dutton, who claimed in January that the opposition was at a “low watermark” in Victoria.

Dutton has “strongly” encouraged members of the Liberal party’s Victorian division to preselect a woman to replace Tudge.

Migration agent and former state upper house MP Cathrine Burnett-Wake has announced she will contest the preselection, while oncologist, Fulbright scholar and Guardian Australia columnist Ranjana Srivastava is considering a tilt.

Elias Visontay is stepping up to the blog plate to take you through what is left in today – a very big thank you to him.

Murph and the team have lots more coming for you, so make sure you check back in for those stories as well.

I will be back with you for one last sitting day (this month) early tomorrow morning – until then, take care of you.

I think Bob Katter was trying to make the point that some of the Coalition senators who are now fighting against regional bank closures were part of the government which sacked former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate (she technically resigned, but after the then prime minister Scott Morrison all but ordered her to go on the floor of parliament) who had fought to allow Australia Post outlets to also act as the community bank.

AAP has a little more on what Bob Katter was talking about in question time today:

Major banks have been labelled “bloody-minded” and “lazy” for shutting regional branches as a Senate committee ramps up pressure to halt closures for the rest of the year.

A Senate inquiry into why banks are increasingly shutting shop in regional towns was launched last week after the closure of almost 100 branches since September.

Nationals Senator Matt Canavan, chair of the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, wrote to banks on Friday urging them to halt closures in an act of good faith to the inquiry.

The Commonwealth Bank said it would not shut any branches during the inquiry, which is due to report by December, and postponed planned closures in Junee, NSW, and Bright, Victoria.

National Australia Bank retail executive Krissie Jones said 93 per cent of transactions occurred online and reshaping the branch network required difficult decisions, including closures.

“We will be continuing our branch reshaping process during the committee’s deliberations in 2023, which will include closures, consolidations and new investments to meet our customers’ needs,” Ms Jones said in a statement.

Westpac Group will shut 20 regional and suburban branches across Queensland, Victoria, NSW and South Australia but has not said whether it will pause further closures.

A spokesman for ANZ said it was considering the inquiry’s terms of reference.

During a press conference with eight other Nationals MPs and senators on Wednesday, Senator Canavan again urged the banks to halt closures.

“I welcome the news that the Commonwealth Bank has heeded that call … now the challenge is for those other banks to come up to the plate and listen to regional Australia,” he told reporters in Canberra.

“Don’t close these branches before those people get a chance to have their voice heard.”

The inquiry follows the Coalition government’s Regional Banking Taskforce, which recommended the Australian Banking Association strengthen community consultation and banks introduce closure impact assessments by mid-2023.

Victorian MP Darren Chester accused banks of fast-tracking closures before that deadline, including in his electorate which is due to lose a Westpac branch in Sale.

“Enough is enough. Stop being so bloody-minded, stop being so bloody lazy and start working with regional communities on solutions that will allow face-to-face banking to continue in our communities,” he said.

Mr Chester said while banking was changing and more people were moving online, rural people continued to rely on face-to-face transactions and access to cash.

The inquiry will hold its first hearing in Sale on March 2 and accept submissions until March 31.

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk is speaking at the Path to Treaty lunch in Brisbane, where she has made a fairly major announcement – her government will introduce legislation to establish a Truth Telling and Hearing inquiry and a First Nations Treaty Institute, next week.

Treaties have been established over centuries and provide people of those nations, like New Zealand, a shared sense of identity and pride that we should have too.

But all efforts to establish one in this country have died in a desert of ignorance and indifference where they have stayed for more than 200 years.

Well I am here to tell you, friends – that ends now.

The inquiry will have similar powers to a commission of inquiry, although cultural sensitivities will be observed, while the Treaty Institute will help guide form that the treaty will take.

This is what Allegra Spender wants to see happen:

The government’s budget package:

Must include direct incentives for households to electrify – either in the form of concessionary finance or tax incentives;

It must broaden the remit of its existing Solar Banks programme – so that strata managers and owners’ corporations can access zero-interest loans to install shared solar on apartment rooftops;

And it must kick-off a process of regulatory reform to break the barriers facing renters who can’t access rooftop solar – including by developing a national framework to share power bill savings between landlords and renters.

Renters and apartment dwellers most exposed to fossil fuel price crisis, crossbench MP says

Independent Wentworth MP, Allegra Spender, is speaking on the matter of public importance debate (That the house recognise that faster action on climate change is one of the most effective way of insulating households against rising costs of living) and makes this point about renters:

Supporting household electrification, we need more than a one-size-fits-all policy that works for detached houses in the suburbs – but doesn’t provide support for those living in high-density urban areas.

Because it’s people living in apartments; people who are renting; often young people – who are most exposed to this fossil fuel price crisis.

Finder’s latest consumer sentiment tracker shows that those in Gen Z and Gen Y face electricity bills that are up to 26% higher than those aged 60 plus. That’s partly because if you’re a young person in an apartment, you probably don’t have access to cheap rooftop solar.

If you’re renting, you’re reliant on your landlord to install it for you.

If you’re fortunate enough to own your flat, perhaps you can’t afford it.

And if you can, you’re faced with a dizzying array of regulations when you try and get together with the strata committee to make the change.

That’s a situation facing many people in Wentworth – where over 60% of homes are apartments; 45% are rented; and nearly 40% are adults under 40.9

And that same situation is facing nearly 3m Australian households across the country who live in rental properties.

So the government needs to be ambitious in pursuing the electrification opportunity – and it needs to ensure this is an opportunity available for all.

Tony Burke also claims to have been misrepresented on arts funding, but it is mostly a chance for him to troll the member for Flinders, Zoe McKenzie, who he says claimed Labor’s art funding policy, Revive, “is lower than the record funding of the previous government of $1m”.

Now, I thought while yesterday’s figure where it was stated that I had delivered $60bn a year was untrue, I can assure the house the number is larger than what they claimed was their record of $1m.