🗞️ Uber cash

Good morning. If you were thinking about somewhere to go during the next long weekend, Kangaroo Island turns out to be home to the world's largest chlamydia-free koala population.

While up to 88% of koalas in some mainland colonies are infected, the island's population has stayed pristine, held back only by a century of extreme inbreeding.

This is very good news though, with researchers now hoping these koalas can help repopulate the mainland and give the species a proper shot.

All the headlines and more below...

UBER JUST KILLED ITS LAST ADVANTAGE OVER TAXIS

Uber is introducing optional cash payments for Australian rides from July 16 after successful trials in Launceston and Bunbury, targeting cash-preferring users while excluding airports, teen accounts and low-rated riders.

Passengers pay in notes and coins. No change? App credits. Short on cash? Split the payment. Fare still set upfront, disputes still through the app.

15% of Australian transactions are cash, per the Reserve Bank. Half the population uses it weekly. Uber already does this in 70+ countries. Here, it's blocked for teen accounts, low-rated riders and some airport runs. Drivers see payment method before accepting.


The Transport Workers Union says drivers fear being treated like mobile ATMs. Fair Work is reviewing minimum standards that would force Uber to consult workers before unilateral contract changes.

Uber avoided taxi payment scandals because fares were locked digitally, not run on meters that drivers can manipulate.

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

• Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has rejected nuclear power as a solution for Australia’s AI-driven data centre boom, citing strong investor interest and cheap abundant renewables. LINK

• Australia’s housing market is entering a downturn as higher interest rates and Labor’s tax changes hit prices and sentiment, with AMP forecasting a national 7% and Sydney 11% fall. LINK

• The NSW government has unveiled a $12B, 15-year plan to build the next generation of Tangara replacement trains in the Hunter Region, targeting 780 construction and 550 ongoing jobs. LINK

• A Federal Circuit Court judge has warned that a worker’s use of generative AI to fabricate 38 key pieces of evidence in an unfair dismissal case against Sterling Parts was perilously close to contempt. LINK

• Australia’s tech industry is warning that the government’s 1.2 million tech worker target by 2030 is at risk as women comprise only 20% of highly technical roles and leave after 40 at nearly twice the rate of men. LINK

CANCELLING A GYM MEMBERSHIP IS ABOUT TO GET A LOT EASIER

The federal Parliament has passed the Competition and Consumer Amendment Unfair Trading Practices Bill 2026, which from 1 July 2027 will ban subscription traps and impose hefty penalties on non-compliant businesses.

Businesses must make cancelling a subscription as easy as signing up. The law applies to gyms, streaming services, SaaS platforms and any recurring membership model.

The same bill bans drip pricing. Transaction fees and add-ons must be shown upfront next to the base price, not buried three clicks deep or revealed at checkout.

It also bans "unfair trading practices" - anything likely to manipulate a consumer or distort how they make a decision. That includes dark patterns - interface design tricks that nudge people into choices they wouldn't otherwise make.

COMPANY NEWS

• ANZ has lost deposit market share as UBS analysis shows its total share fell to 14.1% in the year to May, driven by weaker household deposits. LINK

• A US administrative law judge has ruled Atlassian unlawfully fired an an engineer over her critical Slack comments about restructuring, ordering the company to reinstate her with back pay. LINK

• Endeavour and Treasury Wine Estates are appointing agents to sell major vineyard assets as they seek to cut costs and lift profitability amid a struggling $5B wine industry. LINK

• Australian Retirement Trust has delivered a 10% average annual return over 10 years as it manages more than $370B and boosts private market investments that underpin its high growth option. LINK

• Anthropic has rapidly expanded the capabilities of its Claude Code software-engineering agent so it now writes over 80% of the firm’s code while the company publicly urges slowing frontier AI development. LINK

• Airservices Australia caused fresh delays of about 30 minutes at Sydney Airport during the school holiday peak as sick air traffic controllers forced departures to be spaced 4 minutes apart. LINK

• Microsoft has agreed a landmark deal with Nine allowing Copilot to use snippets, headlines and summaries from its Australian mastheads. LINK

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CHART OF THE DAY

The other cost of AI: Data centre power demand surges

ONE MORE SCROLL

Editor’s Pick: A team of students in Pisa has set a Guinness World Record with ICARUS, a 7 metre-long paper plane with a 20.04 metre wingspan that flew 59 metres after extensive aeronautical-style engineering. LINK

Draft Pick: Lewis Hamilton has secured Sprint pole at the British Grand Prix with a 1m 28.376s lap, beating Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli by 0.011s as Max Verstappen starts 3rd. LINK

Doctor’s Pick: Smartwatch-based blood sugar tracking is evolving through continuous glucose monitors, AI and regulated health tech integrations. LINK

TRIVIA

1. Honey is the only natural food that never spoils, meaning you could safely eat 3,000-year-old honey.

2. The Coriolis effect dictates that water in sinks and toilets drains in opposite directions depending on whether you are in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere.

3. Octopuses have three hearts and blue blood.

Answers below

OUR SOCIALS

ANSWERS

1. True. Archaeologists have found pots of honey in ancient Egyptian tombs that are over 3,000 years old and still perfectly edible. Honey's incredibly low moisture content and highly acidic environment prevent bacteria and microorganisms from surviving in it.
2. False. While the Coriolis effect is a real phenomenon that dictates the rotation of massive weather systems like hurricanes, it is far too weak to influence the small amount of water in a household sink or toilet. The direction the water drains is actually determined by the shape of the basin and the angle at which the water enters it.
3. True. Octopuses have one systemic heart that pumps blood through their entire body, plus two branchial hearts that pump blood specifically through their gills. Their blood is blue because it relies on a copper-rich protein called hemocyanin to transport oxygen, rather than the iron-rich hemoglobin found in humans.

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