Pauline Hanson may have made the term "please explain" part of her political brand but is yet to attend a single Senate estimates hearing.

They came a very long way to ignite a conversation with dance.

Company directors would be assigned special ID numbers under a new Labor policy designed to prevent them deliberately tanking their companies to avoid paying workers, creditors and the Tax Office.

Scrawled on a small note, buried deep in an archive, was the first plan to change the constitution of Australia: this is how a few dedicated activists made Australia a fairer country.

American officials have commenced "extreme vetting" of refugees at Australia's offshore detention centres, with lengthy interrogations about their associates and any links to Islamic State.

Representatives of the US Department of Homeland Security left Manus Island having conducted 48 second-stage interviews, with two refugees divulging details of the process to Reuters.

They said the interviews began with an oath to God to tell the truth and proceeded for as long as six hours, with in-depth questions on associates, family, friends and any interactions with the IS terror group.

The immigration department has declined to investigate how sensitive CCTV footage from Manus Island became known to conservative commentator Andrew Bolt despite the department's refusal to release it publicly.

"Surely there is no crime more reprehensible than the murder of children," a visibly moved Prime Minister said at Parliament.

The government has poured cold water on a push for a revamped national anthem that would delete words considered offensive by some Aboriginal Australians and introduce a third verse paying tribute to the Dreamtime and Indigenous history before colonisation.

The proposed anthem, the brainchild of Victorian Supreme Court judge and poet Peter Vickery, would replace "for we are young and free" with "in peace and harmony", to acknowledge the occupation of Australia by Indigenous people for more than 50,000 years.

One Nation's James Ashby denies he saw the upcoming Queensland election as a money-making opportunity.

Former prime minister John Howard has thrown cold water on the idea that Tony Abbott might soon return as Coalition leader, saying there is "no appetite for change" within the Liberal Party.

Catholic education authorities are shortchanging needy schools by up to $1.5 million a year to help keep fees low at schools in wealthy areas in Sydney and Melbourne, government data reveals.

The release of the previously secret Department of Education data comes as the peak body representing independent Christian schools called on the Catholic sector to stop campaigning against the government and support its school funding "breakthrough".

The federal government funds Catholic schools on a needs basis but distributes the money to state and territory education commissions in a lump sum, which they distribute among schools as they see fit.

Of the Forrest family's record $400 million charity donation, $75 million of seed funding will go towards wiping out cancer.

Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest is on to something.

One of the best things you can do with money is to give it away.

"It is a poor choice of words and I think the honesty is reflected in the transparency of the party," Mr Ashby said.