Hello and good morning to you all.

1. Victoria’s COVID-19 lockdown will continue for at least another week, Acting Premier James Merlino announced Wednesday. Stay-at-home measures and business closures are continuing in the Greater Melbourne area, while restrictions will be amended across regional Victoria. The State Government also announced a new $209 million financial support package to support hard-hit industries through the extension. Today’s numbers:

2. The Victorian and Federal Government are locked in a public battle over new emergency funding for the state. Merlino called for a federally-funded “JobKeeper-style support program for Victorian workers” to get them through the extended lockdown. Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg rebuffed that suggestion, saying that JobKeeper did what it set out to do within its original promised timeline.

3. But that doesn’t mean nothing is coming from the feds – which would probably be electoral poison. Some kind of federal disaster relief payment is in the works, with Frydenberg priming the pump for such a move in the media this morning. “All along, our supports have been guided by our principles and our principles are that any support, any measures we undertake will be targeted, they’ll be temporary, they’ll be using existing systems and be proportionate as well,” the treasurer said.

4. NSW Health has identified further venues of concern on the South Coast. A Victorian family visited the state’s south on a holiday before testing positive to COVID-19. “The original timeframe has been expanded [between May 19 and 24] as three household contacts of the original case have now tested positive,” NSW Health said.

5. Over the last 12 months, Australians have piled into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as they begin trading in record numbers. The increasingly popular investment product broke $100 billion for the first time, up from less than $57 billion last year. While some of that growth can be put down to market movements, the majority has been chalked up to new investment as Australians look for somewhere to park their cash.

6. With the acquisition of local jobs marketplace Zaarly, Australian company Airtasker is poised to expand to the US. As the industry sees real pushback and growing regulatory efforts, founder and CEO Tim Fung told Business Insider Australia he’s not concerned about threats to his company’s business model. “People talk about things like a race to the bottom, we want the opposite of that,” Fung said, arguing the company benefits the more workers on their platform are paid.

7. Etsy is buying social shopping app Depop for $1.6 billion, in an effort to woo Gen Z shoppers. Depop, which launched in 2011, has been described as a mix of eBay and Instagram. “Depop is a vibrant, two-sided marketplace with a passionate community, a highly-differentiated offering of unique items, and we believe significant potential to further scale,” Etsy CEO Josh Silverman said in a statement Wednesday.

8. Analysis from Protos suggests the NFT market has “imploded over the past month”. Just $19.4 million in NFT sales were processed in the past week, a big drop compared to early May, when $102 million worth were sold in a single day. Business Insider reported at the end of last month that it was all looking a bit shaky.

9. Facebook workers have asked for a review of moderation systems around pro-Palestinian content. Nearly 200 workers signed an anonymous letter to Facebook executives, viewed by the Financial Times. The letter calls for a task force to investigate potential bias, and for the company to hire more Palestinians. “As highlighted by employees, the press and members of Congress, and as reflected in our declining app store rating, our users and community at large feel that we are falling short on our promise to protect open expression around the situation in Palestine,” the letter said, per the FT.

10. While Australia struggles with its own vaccination program, the US has announced aggressive new targets. And the dispatch from the White House includes benefits for the vaccinated – such as the chance to win free flights for a year and discounts on NFL merchandise. Booze giant Anheuser-Busch has also agreed to give free beer to all adults older than 21 if the country hits its 70% vaccine target by July 4. Not sure how that will roll out, but good luck.

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