Australia

Australian home prices stayed strong in September, driven by soaring demand and outweighing the impact of the central bank’s aggressive policy tightening campaign, Bloomberg News reported. Sydney prices, the national bellwether, advanced 1%, down slightly from the previous month, property consultancy CoreLogic Inc. said in a report Monday. Adelaide led September’s gains — climbing 1.7%. In the more expensive cities — Sydney and Melbourne — the broad middle of the market is recording the highest growth rate after previously being led by the upper quartile, CoreLogic said.

Employers hired almost 65,000 more workers in August, many more than expected, improving the prospects that the economy will avoid a hard landing but also raising the possibility the Reserve Bank may hike interest rates again, the Guardian reported. The unemployment rate last month was 3.7%, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Economists had forecast the economy would add 25,000 jobs in August, which would have left the jobless rate at July’s reported level of 3.7%. Of the 64,900 extra jobs recorded in August, all but 2,800 of them were part-time roles.

Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes on Thursday stood by the economics of a plan to ship energy from a giant solar farm in the country's north to Singapore via undersea cable as he took possession of the A$20 billion ($12.73 billion) project, Reuters reported. Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of tech firm Atlassian turned environmental activist, said he continued to believe outside investors would be drawn to the Sun Cable project, adding it already had demand for more energy than it could produce.

Australia's corporate regulator said on Tuesday it was taking Westpac Banking Corp to court over its alleged failure to respond to customers' financial hardship notices between 2015 and 2022 within the required administrative time frame, Reuters reported. Under Section 72 of Australia's National Credit Code, an individual with overdue payments can request a change to the terms of their credit contract on the grounds of financial hardship, and creditors are expected to provide a response in writing within 21 days of being informed.

Perth builder Western Luxury Homes Pty Ltd was placed into liquidation on Friday, according to a notice published by ASIC, The Australian reported. The failing business has now been handed over to RSM liquidators Travis Kukura and Jerome Hall Mohen who will take charge of finding a solution to the company’s financial woes. It is understood 12 homes were left incomplete when the building company folded, with signed contracts dating back to mid-2020. Clients are being urged to contact their home indemnity insurance provider, QBE Insurance, following the shock collapse.

A “surge” of businesses will collapse across the country as the ATO goes after mounting legacy debt, experts have warned, The Australian reported. The ATO and other creditors currently pose the greatest ‘threat’ to cash-strapped small and medium-sized businesses, says Insolvency Australia, which has just released its latest Corporate Insolvency Index. It comes as a popular West Australian business Barretts Bakery, this week was put into administration after it owed the ATO $2 million.

The wage law enforcement agency of the Australian state of Victoria on Wednesday said it has filed more than 1,000 charges against top grocer Woolworths Group (WOW.AX), alleging failure to pay A$1 million ($659,000) in long-service leave to over 1,200 former employees, Reuters reported. The Wage Inspectorate Victoria (WIV) said that between 2018 and 2021, Woolworths did not pay more than A$960,000 in long-service leave entitlements to 1,199 former employees.

Australia and Luxembourg-registered Kleos Space, which uses small satellites to detect and locate radio frequency signals to uncover illegal activity on land and sea, has filed for bankruptcy in Luxembourg, Advanced-Television.com reported. Trading in its shares in Australia had already been suspended on May 3. It already has 16 satellites in orbit (although there are problems with two) and numerous contracts in place. The business was formed in 2017 but suffered launch delays and problems with satellites. Kleos made a statement on July 26th that it had been unable to source fresh financing.

Australia’s two biggest states will struggle to return their budgets to surplus as the economy sags under central bank rate hikes that also sent government borrowing costs soaring, according to ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service, Bloomberg News reported.