Debt-laden Australian steel maker Arrium Ltd will get a new administrator after the company's major lenders and workers union filed an application in a federal court seeking to have Grant Thornton replaced, Reuters reported. The application seeks to appoint KordaMentha as replacement voluntary administrators of Arrium and 93 of its Australian subsidiaries. Grant Thornton said in a statement that it supported the application. The decision comes a week ahead of the first creditors' meeting. Arrium went into administration last week with debts exceeding A$2.8 billion ($2.14 billion).

Australia’s government has been dealt a political blow ahead of a knife-edge election, with thousands of jobs plunged into doubt after the country’s second-biggest steelmaker went into administration, the Financial Times reported. The troubles at Arrium have helped push the ruling Liberal-National coalition behind the opposition Labor party in the polls for the first time since Malcolm Turnbull became prime minister in September.

McAleese has started exclusive negotiations with Hong Kong-based hedge fund SC Lowy over a financial restructuring and extended its trading suspension for another month, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The troubled transport group received three indicative proposals from financial groups prepared to help fund a debt restructure, but has given SC Lowy exclusive negotiating rights until April 15. McAleese' net debt rose to $188 million in the six months to December compared with $170.5 million a year earlier and the company has a "current asset deficiency" of $163.2 million.

Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer said on Sunday his nickel refinery in Queensland will be idle for at least eight weeks, due to a lack of ore and because government authorities have not yet fully approved its operation, Reuters reported. Speaking on Australian Broadcasting Corporation television, Palmer said the refinery is offline because there is "no ore" for it to process. "It will take at least eight weeks to get ore on the ground so the refinery could operate," Palmer said.

The proposed sale of a state-owned iron-ore port in Australia illustrates how quickly the slump in commodity prices has ground down the hopes that once accompanied the country’s resources boom, The Wall Street Journal reported. The lower house of Western Australia’s legislature last week approved plans to sell a long-term lease over the Utah Point port in the state’s Pilbara iron-ore mining region.

Bankrupt consumer electronics retailer Dick Smith Holdings Ltd will close down its remaining 363 stores in Australia and New Zealand after failing to find a buyer, receivers and managers of the company said on Thursday, Reuters reported. "Unfortunately the sale process has not resulted in any acceptable offers for the group as a whole or for Australia or New Zealand as standalone businesses," receiver James Stewart said in a statement.

Administrators have moved to sell assets owned by companies belonging to federal MP Clive Palmer, including a Bombardier Global Express aircraft that is the property of Palmer Aviation, which owes $26 million, ABC News reported. Creditors of Mr Palmer's aviation company met yesterday in Sydney and decided to put it into liquidation. Liquidators FTI Consulting said the process would start in March. "At that meeting, creditors resolved to place the company into liquidation, with FTI Consulting to act as liquidators," an FTI statement confirmed.

Australia’s government is considering a multibillion-dollar privatization of public health and welfare payments, as conservatives look for new ways to refill budget coffers emptied by an economic slowdown and collapsing prices of the country’s resource exports, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Australian law firm that snapped up the bulk of scandal-hit insurance claims company Quindell has been forced into restructuring talks amid concerns over the deteriorating state of its finances, The Telegraph reported. Lenders to Slater & Gordon, Australia’s largest class-action law firm, have hired turnaround experts FTI Consulting in the UK as its problems mount following the company’s shock takeover of Quindell’s legal arm last year.

Dick Smith chief executive Nick Abboud has resigned a week after the failed Australian electronics retailer went into receivership with debt of A$390 million ($272.61 million), its receivers said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Don Grover has been appointed interim CEO, receivers Ferrier Hodgson said in a statement. Gover was formerly CEO of Retail Fusion brands and has more than 30 years experience in the industry. The receivers also launched advertisements on Tuesday seeking expressions of interest for the sale of the Dick Smith and Move businesses.