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Have you enjoyed the rain so far this week? We could be in for some more today. Today's weather forecast: A very reasonable maximum of 26 degrees, with a 30 per cent chance of up to 0.4mm of rain. Fire danger is low to moderate. That's set to change tomorrow with some scorching weather returning.
If you want to know what's making news this morning, read on.
Centre plans halted
The ACT government has put a planned new convention centre for Canberra on the backburner, saying there was a lack of interest from the federal government. There were plans to build an $8 million centre to stand at the head of Commonwealth Avenue linked to the city and to the lake. The business and tourism centre has long called for it. But the government removed it from the budget in this week's mid-year update.
The decision came as the ACT's planned return to surplus narrowed to just $5 million in 2018-19. Kirsten Lawson has the full story here.
Robot surgery
The National Capital Private Hospital is using its new $3.5 million da Vinci Xi Surgical System for procedures. It's being credited for the fast recovery of Jim Alexander, the first person to have an operation using the technology in Canberra.
The machine is two metres high, made up of a console where the surgeon sits while the patient is positioned nearby in a cart. The surgeon controls four interactive robot arms to perform complex and delicate operations through tiny cuts and a 3D HD vision system.
Right now, the hospital uses the robot for nephrectomy and prostatectomy surgery but will soon extend it to urology and gynaecology. Read the full story from Clare Sibthorpe.
Taxing times
There might be a delay to tax time, as the Tax Office tries to save this year's tax return program from the fall-out of its disastrous pre-Christmas online meltdown.
It cannot guarantee it will begin on July 1. In fact, the agency has abandoned much of its IT program for this year and can only say it is "confident" that businesses and taxpayers will be able to lodge and receive tax returns on the day after the end of the financial year.
ATO insiders say it should be able, just, to avoid having to postpone tax time 2017. But it will come at the price of much of its technological program for the year. Noel Towell has the full report.
Taxi drivers already face upheaval with the arrival of Uber. Now they're unhappy with the ACT government, which they say has gone back on an agreement with its decision this week to release 50 extra taxi plates to the market this year.
Drivers say the move would hit the viability of taxi owners, and that they weren't consulted. The industry had expected a review this year.
Plate owners have leased them to operators for about $20,000 a year, but now it's much cheaper for operators to lease directly from the government at $5000 a year, putting pressure on the amount owners can charge. Kirsten Lawson explains here.
Parents' relief
A 15-year-old boy came to the rescue when nine-year-old Alvin Zhao became lost after his school bus to Higgins crashed on Monday afternoon.
Alvin's relieved father has thanked the boy, Jordan King, after a bus driver left his son to walk five kilometres home through unfamiliar territory.
Alvin Zhao had been wandering the streets of Macquarie but Jordan noticed him and called his parents immediately. Father Joseph Zhao said it was only the second time his son had caught the bus back from Brindabella Christian College and with no mobile phone he had little idea of how to get home. Steven Trask has the story.