McDonalds to ban plastic straws, David Jones builds Disney mini-park, and more top news

The news Australian professionals are talking about now, curated by LinkedIn’s editors. Join the conversation in the comments below.

McDonalds will phase out plastic straws across Australia in the next two years. The fast food restaurant announced it would replace all plastic straws (paywall) with paper alternatives starting with a trial at two stores in August. The chain has 970 restaurants nationwide and has committed to phasing out all plastic straws by 2020. Straws and all single-use plastic products contribute to marine plastics and landfill.

David Jones is creating a Disney in-store ‘theme park’ in its $200m Sydney flagship store but there won’t be any rides. It’s the department store’s latest attempt to fight the tide of Australian shoppers increasingly buying online (paywall). Chief Executive David Thomas said the park would fill an entire level and feature Winnie the Pooh, Star Wars and Marvel characters, saying: “We are creating something our online competition cannot do.”

Newcastle will get its first international flight in 16 years as Virgin starts flying to NZ. The regional Williamtown airport will now service a Virgin flight to Auckland three times a week, with one-way tickets costing $350. The last international flight from Newcastle was by the now defunct Norfolk Air which briefly had a route in 2007. Airport chief executive officer Peter Cock the move was “a huge step forward in becoming a second international gateway into NSW.”

Coke Zero will be discontinued in Australia as consumers prefer Coke No Sugar. The Soft drink giant said a study last year showed half of Australian consumers didn’t know Coke Zero had no sugar in it but Coke No Sugar isn’t a rebrand, it’s a new formulation. The announcement comes amid discussions in Australia to follow other countries in introducing a sugar tax. Coke Zero launched in Australian in 2006 and will be gone by September.

Google has been hit with a $5bn fine from the EU for breaching antitrust laws. The European Commission, which claims the internet giant abused its dominant position by imposing restrictions on Android manufacturers, could have fined it up to 10% of its annual revenue, or $11.1 billion. Google’s latest penalty follows a $2.7 billion fine last year for promoting its own shopping comparison service at the top of its search results.

Idea of the Day: Rent the Runway CEO and co-founder Jennifer Hyman believes that policy makers and business leaders should recognise the “hidden costs” of depriving employees of paid leave.

“To deny [workers] time to celebrate the birth of a newborn, to grieve the death of a loved one or to care for a sick family member is to rob them of their humanity.”

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— Cayla Dengate