You made it. A parliamentary sitting week like no other, sure, but we have a great basketball spectacle to watch this weekend and some decent weather to enjoy our days off with. Starting with Saturday, when it's forecast to reach a maximum of 30 degrees while staying partly cloudy. Then Sunday, a top of 33 degrees predicted with sun and light winds. Today is expected to reach 29 and stay partly cloudy.

Here's what is making news this morning.

There may be an unexpected result from proposed new animal welfare laws under ACT government consideration. The bill would ban using dogs to hunt, but the way it's worded could mean a sport with no live ammunition or game may also be illegal.

It may create a problem for the ACT Gundog Society, which despite the name is not a hunting club but runs trials for dog breeds that have historically been used in hunting.

Katie Burgess with this story on the proposed legislation and the impacts it could have.

If you ask ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry, she denies an opposition suggestion she had stopped politicians from visiting Canberra schools. Go to opposition education spokeswoman Elizabeth Lee, and she'll tell you different.

As an inquiry begins into the education directorate's visitation policies, the war of words is rising.

Daniel Burdon reports on the debate at the Legislative Assembly.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr will exempt the University of Canberra from paying stamp duty on planned new sub-leases of its land, as the university continues a massive $1.7 billion development in Bruce.

The boon was included in reforms to tax laws introduced in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday. Mr Barr said it had been an omission in other changes to allow the university's development to go ahead in 2015.

Daniel Burdon with this story.

Noticed fewer wasp nests recently? Hearing fewer stories of people getting stung? Well, there's been a drop in the number of nests of non-native European wasps uncovered in the ACT over the summer.

Aside from an active program of eradication by the territory government, another reason is that the exceptional heat has displeased wasps, putting them off breeding so pest nest numbers dwindled. According to Jim Bariesheff, the city's wasp expert who deals with nests, there were 450 nests of European wasps found up to the end of last summer compared with 131 so far this summer.

Steve Evans looks at what might be a case of inadvertent pest control.

If you were at the Adani coal mine protest on the lawns of Parliament House on Tuesday, you might have recognised Wallabies star David Pocock with fellow protesters.

He squeezed the rally between ACT Brumbies training sessions and it's all a part of what he says is a responsibility to use his platform for social change. Pocock is one of the world's best openside flankers and earns plenty of praise for what he can do on-field, but it's often his work off it which really gets tongues wagging.

He told Eamonn Tiernan he is determined to use his profile to make a difference in society.