What we learned: Thursday, 15 December
With that, we will wrap the blog for the evening.
You won’t see Amy Remeikis until the new year but we’ll be back first thing tomorrow to bring you all the latest. Here were the major developments of the day:
The Senate has passed Labor’s energy legislation with 28 ayes and 22 noes during a special sitting of federal parliament. It will now adjourn until 6 February. The bill, capping gas prices and funding consumer rebates to deliver power price relief made it through despite the Coalition voting against the proposal.
Still in Canberra, Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton offered an emotional tribute to the Queensland shooting victims. There was absolute silence in the house for the condolence motion.
The president of Palau has signalled that his country is not likely to switch its diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China, despite several Pacific leaders making the switch in recent years.
The ACT can claim bragging rights as the jurisdiction with the lowest unemployment rate. Last month it sank to 2.9% in trend terms from 3.1% in October, the ABS has confirmed.
And the opposition’s Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, has conceded during a visit to the Pacific that Australia should have strengthened its 2030 emissions reduction target sooner than it did.
Updated
Peta has released a statement following the Melbourne Cup-winning horse trainer Darren Weir admitting to three charges of animal cruelty yesterday, including using an electric prod on horses in 2018.
Darren Weir’s admission that he used an electric cattle prod on three horses should shock racegoers into staying far away from the track. Horse racing encourages cruelty because it’s a profit-dominated industry in which the horses’ needs are too often an afterthought.
During the last racing year, 139 horses died on tracks, in addition to those who were sent to slaughterhouses because they weren’t fast enough.
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