What we learned: Wednesday 14 December
With that, we will wrap up the blog for this evening. We’ll be back first thing tomorrow, with the Senate primed to return for one afternoon only.
Here were today’s major developments:
Chris Bowen has confirmed Labor’s energy bill will be passed tomorrow with support from the Greens, Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock. Adam Bandt confirmed the minor party secured a “significant” package to help homes and business transition from gas to electric to vote in favour. The Senate will be recalled tomorrow afternoon to vote on the legislation.
It comes as the minister for international development and the Pacific, Pat Conroy, is cutting short his trip to the region to return for the parliamentary debate on energy tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has urged China to navigate differences with Australia “wisely”. She repeated the government’s calls for China to remove sanctions and other trade restrictions on a range of Australian exports, including wine and barley.
In the courts, Melbourne Cup-winning horse trainer Darren Weir has admitted to three charges of animal cruelty after using an electric prod on horses in 2018.
And telecommunications giant TPG has reported an email hosting service used by 15,000 iiNet and Westnet customers was hacked yesterday.
Updated
The National Tertiary Education Union has been appointed to a reference group established by Labor to conduct a review into Australian universities.
NTEU president Dr Alison Barnes will represent the union on the ministerial panel. She said:
After almost a decade of relentless cuts and attacks on higher education, we now have a government that is showing it is willing to listen to the major issues affecting university staff.
It’s absolutely crucial this review ends with a commitment to tackle insecure work, wage theft and a fairer funding model.
Under the previous government, 35,000 jobs at public universities were lost while degrees became more expensive for students and funding cuts damaged our sector.
This review should be a critical step in addressing major challenges facing our sector after the appalling stewardship of the previous government.
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