Good morning.
1. Nationals Senator Matt Canavan yesterday called on Australia to suspend its AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine rollout, citing the decision of several European nations. But it was dismissed by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. "Those governments will take their own decisions [and] we'll take ours," he said. The European Medicines Agency, the World Health Organization, and AstraZeneca have insisted that there is no evidence for such a connection.
2. Some Sydney and Melbourne houses have been selling for more than a million dollars above the reserve price as auctions continue to attract crowds. With property prices on the rise and sales moving quickly, the trend of sale prices coming in well above reserve appears to have become a more common one. According to Louis Christopher, founder of SQM Research, the surge is being driven by pent-up demand as well as instances of underquoting - for both legitimate and illegitimate reasons.
3. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has revealed it is keeping a close eye on Australia's property markets as prices rise and lending soars to new records. While it concluded that there were "greater benefits for financial stability from a stronger economy", forecasted growth could compel intervention in the market. Unless JobKeeper helps suppress price growth, regulators could be forced to act, Louis Christopher told Business Insider Australia.
4. Facebook has struck a deal with News Corp for use of its content, following protracted negotiations after the passage of the news media bargaining code into law. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Nine Entertainment Co - owner of Pedestrian Group, the publisher of this masthead - has also signed a letter of intent with the tech giant, though no formal announcement has landed yet. The value of these deals is not known.
5. And it seems big Australian news publishers won't be alone in getting Facebook bucks. The tech giant will begin testing partnerships for a new publishing platform, sources told Axios. The platform will be free for users and integrated into Facebook. Eventually, the social media site plans to allow writers to monetise their sites.
6. Australians filed some 31,000 complaints about lending products after the banking royal commission, according to new CHOICE analysis. The consumer advocacy group issued those findings in a last-ditch effort to defend responsible lending regulation, which could be repealed within days. A report from the Senate Standing Committee on Economics, released Friday, broadly supported the rollback.
7. More than a quarter of Australian adults say they want to engage in further study over the next 6 months, according to ABS data. 19% of women and 14% of men said they want to invest in further education or training. The survey figures suggest Australians remain uneasy about employment as the pandemic recovery favours some industries and ignores others.
8. Ever wondered who those people were who actually fell for thatElon Musk bitcoin scam on Twitter? Well, the BBC apparently found one. A man in Germany told the British broadcaster that he fell for a Twitter account posing as Elon Musk offering to double his money, losing half a million dollars in the process.
9. Netflix, the long reigning king of streaming, is set to be dethroned by Disney. Disney Plus, combined with Disney-owned ESPN+ and Hulu, collectively put Disney on top. Disney is expected to overtake Netflix in overall global subscribers by 2024 at the latest.
10. Here's a vision of the future. A new app named 1v1Me will allow video gamers to place bets on "Call of Duty" and "Fortnite" in one-on-ones. The players must link to their bank accounts and agree on a wager before starting the game. The founders said the COVID-19 pandemic pushed them to create their idea for a betting app. Probably won't be available in Australia, but that's where the winds are blowing.
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Seems like Hollywood is really pulling out all stops for the post-COVID cinematic future.