The ABC has made a confidential settlement and published a clarification, over UK gender critical feminist Kellie-Jay Keen's portrayal in a 7.30 interview with Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto. The media channel conceded that some viewers of a 7.30 interview Mr Pesutto "may have understood the interview to suggest" that Kellie-Jay Keen "has associations with neo-Nazis". The Australian's media writer Sophie Elsworth joined Sky News host Andrew Bolt to discuss the matter. “This is a warning to journalists that they need to be awfully careful when there smearing people and saying they have far-right associations with neo-Nazis,” Ms Elsworth told Sky News host Andrew Bolt. “It’s a very serious thing to accuse someone of and as Kellie-Jay Keen has said this is false.”

Sky News host Chris Kenny says the Northern Territory government has been forced to take “dramatic action” following a violent mob attacking cars and businesses. “The youth crime crisis is creating concern around the country but nowhere more than Alice Springs,” he said. “Parts of the Alice were in lockdown yesterday after a mob attacked local businesses and cars. “It forced dramatic action now from the Northern Territory government. “They have imposed a youth curfew.”

A youth curfew enforced in Alice Springs as the crime crisis plagues the town, 'clueless' Clare O'Neil flees from questions as Labor's detainee legislation fails to pass the Senate. Plus, Megyn Kelly on NBC's firing of Ronna McDaniel. See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.

Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood says businesses are “scrambling” to find a new place to send and ship from as the Port of Baltimore closes following the collapse of Francis Scott Key Bridge. “You will by now have seen the harrowing vision of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsing into the Patapsco River near Baltimore,” he said. “Well, the Port of Baltimore, now closed, is land locked.” The port handles an estimated $122 billion in goods each year. Mr Greenwood said businesses are “scrambling” to find an alternative place to send or ship their goods.

Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash has branded the Albanese government the "most secret" Australia has even seen, despite pre-election pledges of transparency. Ms Cash’s comments come as Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil was unable to directly answer questions about the immediacy of new legislation surrounding immigration detainees after initial legislation from Labor was voted down on Wednesday. “This government is without a doubt the most secret of governments Australia has ever seen,” Ms Cash told Sky News host Peta Credlin. “And I mean has ever seen. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Sky News host Paul Murray says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spent more time flying to and from Alice Springs than “on the ground” with locals over the rising youth crime crisis. “The two peaks of violence happen in the late afternoon and the beginnings of dusk,” he said. “That is not affected by the curfew that was announced today. “Now the prime minister we know has no interest in what is happening in Alice Springs. “The prime minster spent more time in the air, to and from Alice Springs than he spent on the ground.”

Sky News host Peta Credlin says there is an allegation that Home Affairs Secretary Stephanie Foster left Clare O’Neil’s office in tears. The Home Affairs Minister summoned the department’s secretary to her office over the release of a document that detailed the criminal records of the immigration detainees. Ms Credlin said it was a “big feature” in Question Time today. “Pushed very hard by Susan Ley the Deputy Liberal Leader. “This is not a good look if you’re reducing public servants to a blubbering mess.”

Sky News host James Morrow says Labor is “trying to blame the Opposition” for “playing politics” after rejecting the rushed detainee bill. The Albanese government was seeking support on amendments which would impose a minimum one-year sentence for detainees who refuse to cooperate with authorities. The Opposition and Greens in the Senate rejected the government’s urgency with the bill and referred the laws to a parliamentary inquiry for scrutiny. Mr Morrow told Sky News host Peta Credlin that it is a “huge embarrassment” for Labor to have the Coalition team up with the Greens and crossbenchers. “There are so many questions that are left unanswered about this legislation.”

One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson says Labor is the “most useless, incompetent government”. The Albanese government was seeking support on amendments which would impose a minimum one-year sentence for detainees who refuse to cooperate with authorities. The Opposition and Greens in the Senate rejected the government’s urgency with the bill and referred the laws to a parliamentary inquiry for scrutiny. Ms Hanson told Sky News host Chris Kenny that Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles should be “thrown out of their portfolios”. “They don’t know what they’re doing.”

Menzies Research Centre Senior Fellow Nick Cater says Labor “has to fix” the NDIS scheme within this term of government. “It is provider capture on an enormous scale,” he said. “You have got these provider groups; some are very good. “A lot of them have just learnt very well how to get the most money out of the system. “Presumably on behalf of their client but so much of it of course is self-serving.”

Sky News host Peta Credlin says she has stopped being shocked by the lack of NDIS reform as some providers are now offering clients “pub crawls”. “Let’s start with the NDIS, all the rorts,” she said. “I have stopped being shocked by them. “That’s a $42 billion scheme. “You have now got providers offering to take clients on pub crawls.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has slammed Opposition leader Peter Dutton for his “incapacity to stand up” to his backbench. “The leader of the Opposition shows his weakness with his incapacity to stand up on any difficult issue to his backbench,” Mr Albanese said during Question Time on Wednesday. “We saw again today. “A group whose lesson they took from the last election was that they weren’t right-wing enough and they weren’t conservative enough, and they weren’t reactionary enough. “A group that has gone from being reactionaries to nuclear reactionaries with their one policy that they have come out with, but then they won’t come out with any detail.”

Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler says Labor has no higher priority than ensuring every Australian is able to access “high quality affordable healthcare”. Mr Butler said Labor wants Australians to have access to high quality healthcare “no matter where they live, no matter what their income”. “Our first budget contained the biggest ever investment in bulk billing in history. “Tripling the bulk billing incentive. “Stronger medicines, cheaper medicines, that’s what you get under this government.”

Resources Minister Madeleine King has slammed Greens leader Adam Bandt for being “ridiculous” on carbon dioxide and for “going too far”. “Carbon dioxide in low amounts … isn’t noxious – like it absolutely is not,” Ms King said during Question Time on Wednesday. “Of course, dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide throughout the climate is, of course, dangerous. “This government is taking action from the moment we got elected, as a party of government, not a party of protest like the Greens political party, to take action to address dangerous climate change. “The leader of the Greens political party comes in here and has a little chitchat about SodaStream and bubbles that might be in Coca-Cola and other soft drinks as if it’s the same thing as dangerous climate change caused by carbon dioxide. “The Greens political party and its leader have gone too far. “You’re ridiculous, and you should just stop it.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers welcomed the CPI figures released today which show inflation staying steady in February. The latest monthly CPI indicator from the ABS reveals inflation rose 3.4 per cent in the 12 months to February this year. This means inflation remains unchanged from January and is below forecasts of 3.5 per cent. “Monthly inflation is now almost half of what we inherited when we came to office,” Mr Chalmers said during Question Time. “The direction of travel when it comes to inflation is welcome, it’s encouraging, and it’s clear. “We do acknowledge we've also got a slowing economy; we’ve also got global uncertainty, and people are still under pressure. “We will find the best balance of relief, repair and reform.”

NSW Education Minister Prue Car is pushing for public schools in her state to be fully funded. Mr Car says NSW needs to aim for the “minimum” of 100 percent needs-based funding. “People will remember we’ve been talking about Gonski for years and years, and your public schools and I can certainly speak for New South Wales,” she told Sky News Australia. “We haven’t reached that 100 per cent. “The Commonwealth government have offered us an amount, we don’t believe it’s enough to get there.”

Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli warns the state is living through a “youth crime crisis”. Mr Crisafulli says the only people who won’t admit to a youth crime crisis are the “people who watered down the laws in 2015”. The Queensland Opposition Leader said the watered-down laws have created a generation of "untouchables”. “On the announcement of so-called more police – 3 and a half years ago, the government said they would add an additional 1,450 full-time equivalent front-line police officers. “Since that commitment has been made the numbers have gone backwards, police are leaving quicker than they are being replaced. “The reason why is the laws are watered down and they don’t feel empowered to do their job.”

Queensland Premier Steven Miles has acknowledged the removal of "detention as a last result" is not his government’s intention. Mr Miles says experts and evidence “tell us that could make this worse”. “Criminalising low-level offenders, putting them in with higher-level offenders, more violent offenders, older offenders, offenders who might already be in gangs – leads to more crimes. “Our focus is on this prevention and intervention work and using the intelligence that people have to intervene as early as possible to stop offending from escalating, to stop as many crimes from occurring as possible. “I know what advice I have right now, we always take the advice of our police and the advice of the evidence and that’s what we’re basing our decisions on – we have evidence that this high-intensity visible policing works and so we’re doing more on it.”

Queensland Premier Steven Miles says the trialling of ‘Operation Whiskey Legion’ has proven effective and therefore the government will be “massively expanding it”. Mr Miles says Queensland police have assured him that they “have the numbers and the resources to deliver on a big ramp-up of this operation”. “We’ve been trialling this high intensity, high visibility policing and it has proven effective and so we’re expanding it,” Mr Miles told Sky News Australia. “We’re massively expanding it with Operation Whiskey Legion, it’s about getting police into regions using intelligence to predict future Operation hotspots, intervening early, identifying risky offending and getting in there with those offenders before their offending escalates. “It’s proven effective already, we’ve seen a turning of crime statistics in twelve of our fourteen regions, but we have a long way to go.”

Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood says the latest inflation figures are “good news” in terms of the cost of living and are “under control”. The latest monthly CPI indicator reveals inflation rose 3.4 per cent in the 12 months to February this year. This means inflation remains unchanged from January and is below forecasts of 3.5 per cent. “What you can really see is that inflation is trending down over a period of time,” Mr Greenwood said. “We can actually see this in the price of some of the goods and services that are there.”