Good morning all.

1. Australia’s COVID-19 vaccination booking system came online yesterday, allowing people in Phase 1B of the rollout to secure an appointment from Monday. But listed clinics have reported issues with the system, saying they don’t have enough vaccine stock on hand to accept further bookings. Others reported issues making bookings at all. The number of vaccine providers is projected to grow to more than 4,000 by the end of April.

2. The Commonwealth Bank is diving into the frothy buy now, pay later sector with its own offering. Eligible customers will be able to split purchases between $100 and $1,000 into four equal repayments, with a new digital wallet to be issued for use in-store. If you’re thinking, “Hang on, doesn’t CBA quite famously own a stake in Klarna, which this would be in direct competition with?” You would be correct.

3. Uber is reclassifying its UK-based drivers as “workers,” it said in a regulatory filing Tuesday. The move requires Uber to follow minimum wage, paid vacation, and other labour laws. Uber strongly opposes efforts to reclassify its drivers, but pivoted in the UK after a legal defeat. The company said the UK minimum wage, which is slightly above AU$15, will serve as an “earnings floor, not an earnings ceiling”.

4. With a similar push happening in Spain, attention turns to Australian gig economy workers and their fight for better pay and conditions. “Rights for gig economy workers are already in the spotlight in Australia,” Zana Bytheway, executive director of employment law non-profit JobWatch, said. “We saw five food delivery riders lose their lives on the road last year in a two-month period, and other delivery drivers have recently been dismissed after publicly protesting changes to their pay.” It comes as the Senate debates the Morrison government’s IR omnibus bill, and worker advocates campaign for greater protections for those in insecure work.

5. ASIC has explicitly warned first-time stock traders to be wary of investment advice gleaned on forums like Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn. In a new statement, the regulator said it held concerns for new investors with an “inflated” appetite for risk following the GameStop saga. Research suggests some 435,000 Australians placed their first trade in the 2020 calendar year. Notably, however, ASIC made clear that it doesn’t believe a Gamestop-style short squeeze could happen here due to a number of factors.

6. Following the March 4 Justice and allegations of the sexual harassment and assault of women in Australia’s corridors of power, the conversation turns to solutions. Perhaps not this one though. Mick Fuller, NSW’s top cop, has taken to the Daily Telegraph this morning to propose a ‘sexual consent app’. The response has been decidedly mixed.

7. Scribd announced it will enter the Australian e-book market with a subscription service, competing with Amazon and Audible. The platform will offer a $13.99 monthly subscription for Australian readers that will give them access to Scribd’s stable of two million local and international e-books.

8. The WHO recommends countries continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine. 18 countries stopped using AstraZeneca’s vaccine as investigators look into reports of blood clots. In a statement released Wednesday morning, WHO said COVID-19 vaccine will not “reduce illness or death from other causes.” The organisation stated venous thromboembolism, or blood clots in the veins, is the third most common cardiovascular disease globally.

9. Many nations in Europe are entering into new nationwide lockdowns as COVID-19 cases rise. Italy, the first country to enter into a nationwide lockdown in Europe back in March 2020, imposed new restrictions on March 15, 2021, to slow the third wave. Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, told reporters the third COVID-19 wave in Germany had “already begun” in early March.

10. In an interview with The Verge in the US, Atlassian co-CEO Scott Farquhar spoke about Australia’s media bargaining code. He argued that tech companies and governments internationally should be watching Australia closely, as he believes we could be a ‘test bed’ for how regulation works elsewhere.

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