10 things you need to know this morning in Australia

Greetings and TGIF to you all.

1. Victoria reported 43 new cases of COVID-19 today, and 9 deaths. It comes amid reports that Victorian health bureaucrats stopped Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton from taking control of the state’s coronavirus response – against both his wishes and also the state’s own coronavirus plan.

2. NSW reported seven new cases yesterday, of which two were in hotel quarantine. A growing cluster at Concord Hospital in Sydney has led to restrictions to control an outbreak, including coronavirus testing every two days for staff in high-risk wards and a ban on face-to-face meetings.
3. Yesterday’s big political news: the NSW Nationals announced they would no longer support the government over a koala protection policy passed in December. However, despite this move disrupting the long-held coalition agreement, the Nationals suggested they would still sit in Gladys Berejiklian’s ministry. Yes, this is all about koalas for some reason.

4. $934 million worth of JobKeeper payments have flowed to ASX 300 companies since the wage subsidy program was announced. New analysis from governance advisory group Ownership Matters has scrutinised companies paying large executive bonuses at the same time they receive taxpayer money. Being only required to show a one-off fall in turnover to qualify for six months of JobKeeper payments has allowed some companies to take advantage.

5. Queensland has made wage theft a crime. Employers caught committing wage theft – which includes underpaying staff or withholding entitlements – face up to 10 years in jail. According to Queensland’s Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace, wage theft affects one in four Queensland employees.

6. In an Australian-first, NAB has launched an interest-free credit card allowing customers to accumulate balances of up to $3,000. It comes as credit card use is in rapid decline, particularly amongst young people. The move is seen as an attempt to claw back some customers from buy now, pay later platforms, which have boomed in recent years.

7. Entrepreneurial Australian students and ex-students are making thousands of dollars selling their final year course notes in online Facebook groups. The sellers say the size of the groups have helped them sell more more than they expected – but it also means they have increased competition. People selling notes are posting their academic results, sharing samples and creating slick, well-produced guides to try and entice students to purchase their notes.

8. Virgin is withdrawing from some regional flight routes in Australia. These include flights to Uluru, Tamworth and Mildura. It comes as the airline simplifies its fleet amid low customer demand on these routes.

9. Facebook took an unusually aggressive stance against Apple in a filing to the EU on Tuesday. The company told Europe’s competition watchdog that Apple has made “policy and enforcement decisions that privilege its own services and revenue streams to the detriment of others.” It specifically named two high-profile fights with Apple over the Facebook Gaming app and Apple’s plan to make it harder for ad trackers to track users without their explicit consent.

10. A TikTok executive said the company’s birth during an age of increasing distrust of big tech has made it a bigger target for criticism, per an Axios report. Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s head of US public policy, said the firm “didn’t have the opportunity to grow up in the golden years of the internet, when tech companies could do no wrong.”

BONUS ITEM

We haven’t seen the designs yet, but there are reports Apple has designed its own face masks for use by its retail employees. The mask has a “unique” look, with large nose and chin coverage, according to Bloomberg, which first reported on its development.