What we learned, 16 February 2025
With that we’re wrapping up the blog. Before we go, here are the major stories from Sunday:
The Labor government will ban foreign home buyers from purchasing Australian houses for two years in a move that gives bipartisan support to Coalition policy;
WA residents are picking up the pieces in the wake of a tropical cyclone making landfall on the state’s far north coast.
Home affairs minister Tony Burke says three men in immigration detention will be resettled in Nauru.
New South Wales will continue efforts to end industrial action by rail unions after losing its latest bid in the Fair Work Commission.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton says the Teal crossbench will “never” deal with the Coalition in negotiations on minority government.
Independent MP Allegra Spender has flagged that electoral spending reform would feature in any negotiations in the event of a hung parliament.
We’ll pick things up again tomorrow.
Updated
Expectations RBA will cut interest rates but economists uncertain
Expectations the Reserve Bank of Australia will cut interest rates have ratcheted up in recent weeks, following a softer-than-expected December quarter CPI print that brought annual underlying inflation close to the RBA’s target band.
Traders are pricing in a 90 per cent chance of a cut, but many economists believe it will be a much closer-run thing than the market expects, with 22 per cent of economists surveyed expecting no change.
Following the RBA rates decision and Statement on Monetary Policy update on Tuesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is due to release wage price index data on Wednesday and labour force statistics on Thursday.
RBA governor Michele Bullock will face a parliamentary grilling over her rates decision in Canberra on Friday, rounding out a monumental week on the economic front.
- AAP
