Move comes as police review charges against protesters from Sydney rally made under now-defunct public assembly law

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Police have withdrawn their first charges against a protester from Sydney’s anti-Isaac Herzog rally just hours after confirming any charges laid under a now-defunct law would be dropped.

Eyad Shadid, a 25-year-old Palestinian Australian man, was arrested near where a group of Muslim men were praying when they were grabbed by police officers. A police prosecutor told Downing centre local court on Wednesday they were withdrawing the two charges that were later laid against Shadid, which included refusing to comply with a police direction and resisting or hindering an officer.

Ex-Parramatta council chief executive Gail Connolly and other staff allegedly targeted people for reprisals, while some workers were surveilled

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A New South Wales anti-corruption inquiry is investigating whether three friends in powerful positions at a western Sydney council, who called themselves the “Pink Ops”, subverted recruitment and promotion processes to benefit friends.

The NSW Independent Commission against Corruption (Icac) held its first day of public hearings on Monday into allegations concerning Parramatta council’s former chief executive Gail Connolly, as well as council employees Roxanne Thornton and Angela Jones-Blayney and other staff.

NSW police called to incident in Maroubra amid reports of offensive comments made at under-12s game

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A woman has been charged with using offensive language after alleged antisemitic comments were made at a children’s netball match involving a Jewish-led team in Sydney.

New South Wales police said it was called to netball courts at Heffron Park in Maroubra just after 10am on Saturday, after reports a woman had made offensive comments towards a group of people at an under-12s game between the Maccabi and Saints netball clubs.

Davis, 32, arrested on Wednesday and charged with inciting hatred and causing fear. Arrest comes after police criticised at royal commission into antisemitism

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Prominent neo-Nazi Joel Davis has been charged with alleged hate speech following a protest by the National Socialist Network outside New South Wales parliament.

About 60 members of the now-disbanded group stood in formation on Macquarie Street on 8 November last year, allegedly holding a large banner that read: “Abolish the Jewish lobby.”

Chris Minns’ chief of staff launched legal action to avoid giving evidence. Since the court ruled in his favour, others are doing the same

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Witnesses are refusing to appear before New South Wales parliamentary inquiries due to a recent court ruling, in a move labelled as having a “completely unacceptable” impact on public interest investigations.

In December, the NSW court of appeal ruled that provisions of the Parliamentary Evidence Act allowing for arrest warrants were invalid on the basis that they impaired the court’s institutional integrity.

Chris Minns says technology has been ‘weaponised against women, and our laws have not kept pace’

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

After their marriage of 25 years deteriorated and his wife expressed a desire to leave, a man in regional New South Wales bought a GPS tracking device from an auto parts retailer.

He used it to monitor her movements for the month, and up to at least the day before he shot and killed her, and then turned the gun on himself.

State’s police minister says buyback ‘doesn’t focus on keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists and criminals’, leaving NSW only clear supporter of plan

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Queensland has rejected key recommendations from the Bondi royal commission’s interim report, insisting plans for a national gun buyback will not keep weapons “out of the hands of terrorists and criminals”.

The report, handed down by commissioner Virginia Bell on Thursday, raised doubts about whether efforts to establish a national gun register after the 2022 police killings at Wieambilla in Queensland had been “unduly leisurely”. Bell recommended the federal government and the states speed up a jointly funded weapons buyback scheme.

Transition and legal handover of hospital from private operator Healthscope to NSW Health occurs at 7am on Wednesday

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Sydney’s Northern Beaches hospital is officially entering the public system, ending a troubled eight-year public-private partnership, although uncertainty about the future of private services remains.

The transition and legal handover of the hospital from private operator Healthscope to New South Wales Health will occur at 7am on Wednesday. The New South Wales health minister, Ryan Park, said it was a “historic day”.