What we learned, 2 February 2025
With that, we’re wrapping up the blog. Before we go, here are the major stories from Sunday:
The Labor government has shelved a plan to overhaul the country’s environmental laws for the second time;
Flood evacuation warnings have been issued for six suburbs around Townsville as monsoon rain has drenched parts of northern Queensland;
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has linked pro-Palestine protests that took place on university campuses to the spate of anti-Jewish graffiti across Sydney in recent weeks;
New South Wales police are investigating another incident of anti-Jewish graffiti scrawled across cars, garages and homes in eastern Sydney;
A community near the Grampians in Victoria have been ordered to evacuate as a fire burns out of control in the national park;
One person was killed in flood waters in Ingham when an SES boat they were travelling on capsized during a rescue operation.
We’ll pick things up again tomorrow.
Updated
Auction activity dips
Auction activity has dropped this weekend with 1,399 auctions held.
This is a sharp increase on the 429 held last week after the holiday break but a fall compared with the 1,712 auctions at the same time last year.
Based on results collected so far, CoreLogic’s summary found that the preliminary clearance rate was 65% across the country, which is higher than the 64.5% preliminary rate recorded last week but below the 68.3% actual rate on final numbers.
Across the capital cities:
Sydney: 289 of 461 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 67.5%
Melbourne: 344 of 479 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 65.4%
Brisbane: 109 of 161 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 58.7%
Adelaide: 94 of 156 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 61.7%
Canberra: 67 of 131 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 68.7%
Tasmania: No auctions held.
Perth: Five of 11 auctions held.
Updated
