Morning all.

1. The federal government is looking to states and territories to set up mass vaccination centres as part of a (once again) revamped vaccine rollout plan. Scott Morrison conceded on Wednesday that the vaccine rollout had experienced difficulties – possibly an understatement – and said he still had an ambition to vaccinate everyone by the end of the year, supply pending.

2. Health Minister Greg Hunt warned that international borders might not reopen even if the entire population is vaccinated at a news conference on Tuesday. “If the whole country were vaccinated, you couldn’t just open the borders,” Hunt said. Indefinitely-closed borders could have major ramifications for Australian businesses and the economy, experts say, as other advanced economies open their borders and resume cross-border commerce more quickly.

3. Melbourne is now the second most affordable capital city in Australia to rent. Domain data published on Thursday shows that it is almost the only state capital where rents aren’t rising or holding steady. “Inner Melbourne units have felt the brunt, rents are now at 2010 levels after tumbling by $110 a week annually,” Domain senior analyst Nicola Powell said. Outside of Melbourne, Sydney units are the only part of the market to have fallen at all, dropping almost 10% in the last 12 months.

4. A NSW service connecting women to emergency accommodation is facing “nonstop” calls after government support measures and renter protections came to an end. Annabelle Daniel, CEO of Women’s Community Shelters, said it’s “absolutely no surprise” calls have increased now that JobKeeper, the JobSeeker supplement, and renter protections have broadly ended. Many women escaping domestic violence are “much more financially vulnerable straight away,” Daniel said.

5. Here’s one for you. Aussie cryptocurrency platform Coinstash wants to let users spend, earn interest on, and borrow against their crypto holdings. It’s that third proposal which will likely raise the most eyebrows from both the public and the regulator. “By allowing you to borrow against it, it enables you to do something with the asset rather than having it sit there stagnant,” co-founder and chief technology officer Mena Theodorou told Business Insider Australia.

6. Jack Dorsey’s payment platform Square is bringing interest-free business loans to Australia in the coming months. The loans can be issued to customers with a Square terminal, with card sales determining repayments and loan size. Instead of incurring interest, borrowers will pay a one-off fee.

7. Facebook let dictators generate fake support despite employees’ warnings, The Guardian reported. A loophole in Facebook’s policies allowed government officials around the world to create unlimited amounts of fake “pages” which, unlike user profiles, don’t have to correspond to an actual person – but could still like, comment on, react to, and share content. Whistleblower Sophie Zhang repeatedly raised concerns to integrity chief Guy Rosen and other execs, but was reportedly told the amount of disinfo on the platform meant “job security” for her.

8. Also from the world of Facebook: a European regulator announced that it’s investigating the company over a leak of 533 million people’s data. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission will probe whether Facebook broke EU privacy laws. It could face a fine of up to 4% of its $86 billion global revenue if found responsible.

9. Coinbase, the first major cryptocurrency exchange to go public, tumbled as much as 19% in its trading debut on the Nasdaq. The direct listing had a $250-per-share reference price, and opened at $381 before hitting an intraday high of $429.54. It then reversed gains, trading as low as $310. The $381-per-share opening price put Coinbase’s valuation at $99.5 billion, giving it a bigger market capitalisation than such established US companies as General Motors and FedEx.

10. Bernie Madoff, Wall Street financier and infamous fraudster, has died at age 82. He died from apparent natural causes, a source told the AP. Madoff carried out the biggest Ponzi scheme in US history before going to prison in 2009. The US government announced in November 2017 it would begin paying out $772.5 million to more than 24,000 victims of Madoff’s scheme.

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What do we reckon? Something for Australia to emulate?

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