Here's what you need to know this morning.
MP under growing pressure to quit parliament
Independent MP Gareth Ward is under growing pressure to quit parliament, or be forced out, after he was yesterday charged with alleged sex crimes, including against a teenage boy.
After a nearly year-long police investigation, Mr Ward was yesterday charged with indecently assaulting a 17-year-old boy in 2013 and sexually abusing a 27-year-old man in 2015.
In a statement, Mr Ward said he was completely innocent of the charges.
At the time he is accused of committing the crimes, he was a Liberal backbencher but has since moved to the crossbench.
Acting Premier Paul Toole yesterday reiterated his leader Dominic Perrotet's view, "to seek his resignation from the parliament immediately".
If he doesn't go, the opposition will back the Premier's move to have him expelled.
Labor leader Chris Minns agreed with the push.
"The member for Kiama is completely untenable given the serious nature of the charges levelled against him," Mr Minns said.
Gareth Ward is yet to respond to the growing calls to go.
Former federal MP charged with COVID-19 offences overnight
The ABC understands that former federal MP Craig Thomson has been charged with further offences overnight, relating to fraudulent applications against the state government's COVID-19 relief schemes.
The 57-year-old former federal Labor MP was arrested on the NSW Central Coast yesterday afternoon, just hours after he pleaded guilty to four domestic violence-related charges in the Gosford Local Court.
During his court appearance, Mr Thomson was convicted of using a carriage service to harass, relating to emails sent to his estranged partner.
An apprehended violence order was taken out against him last year after he sent 140 emails to his former wife, including two threatening ones.
Mr Thomson has now been charged with "contravening a prohibition or restriction on an AVO " and was last night remanded in custody.
He is due back in Gosford Local Court again today.
Telcos refund thousands of customers
Telecommunications company Optus has paid almost $4.5 million in refunds to thousands of customers for failing to inform them that were not getting the internet speeds they had been promised when they moved to the National Broadband Network.
In July last year, Optus informed the regulator of the breach involving more than 34,000 customers who were not receiving the level of service they had paid for.
Under Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) rules, telcos must verify maximum internet speeds when moving customers to the NBN and notify them when speeds cannot meet those originally advertised.
Service provider TPG Internet has repaid $2.1million to almost 4,500 customers for similar breaches.
"Optus and TPG were charging these people for internet speeds they could not get," ACMA chair Nerida O'Loughlin said.
"These customers were left in the dark and denied the option to move to a cheaper contract or walk away."
Pole protester charged with obstructing traffic
A man has been charged with obstructing traffic during a climate action protest in Port Botany yesterday morning.
Police say the 23-year-old suspended himself from the top of a 10-metre pole, blocking the entrance to Port Botany and causing traffic backlogs and long delays.
Officers managed to remove the man from the pole and arrested him.
He was taken to Maroubra Police Station where he was charged.
The accused has been granted bail and will appear before Waverley Local Court in April.
Ben Robert-Smith's ex-girlfriend back in witness box
Ben Roberts-Smith's former girlfriend — who claims she was punched in the face by the former soldier — will return to the witness box at the war veteran's defamation trial in Sydney.
The Victoria Cross recipient is suing the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Canberra Time newspapers over stories containing what he says are false allegations of unlawful killings overseas, bullying and domestic violence.
Codenamed Person 17, the woman yesterday told the court Mr Roberts-Smith punched her in the face at a Canberra hotel in late March, 2018, after becoming angry that her drunk behaviour at a Parliament House function may have exposed their extramarital affair.
Mr Roberts-Smith denies he struck the woman.
