Australian central bank officials said possible steps to cool the nation’s housing market wouldn’t necessarily be limited to investor lending curbs.

Plunging iron ore prices have dealt their first blow in Australia, sending fledgling miner Western Desert Resources Ltd into administration after it failed to reach a deal with bankers over its debt, Reuters reported. Western Desert was caught out by a move by the world's top four iron ore producers to flood the market with low-cost supply, outpacing Chinese demand growth for the steel-making ingredient and slashing iron ore prices by 38 percent this year.

Australia has stepped up scrutiny of the tax practices of multinationals suspected of using complex accounting arrangements to minimize their liabilities, The Wall Street Journal reported. Tony Abbott's conservative government Thursday ordered aggressive audits and detailed investigations into their accounting, aiming to set an example for other wealthy nations at a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers in Cairns later this month.

Qantas Airways Ltd reported its biggest ever financial loss on Thursday after writing a hefty A$2.6 billion (1.45 billion pounds) off the value of its fleet due to a company restructure, Reuters reported. Australia's national flag carrier attempted to reassure investors after a turbulent few years, saying the worst was now behind it and that it expected a return to underlying profit growth in the first half of the current financial year.

The boss of failed airline Air Australia has returned to the travel sector in a senior management role despite being banned by the corporate regulator over conduct that critics claimed wreaked "havoc" in the industry, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission last year disqualified Michael James from managing corporations for three years for failing to act with care and diligence in the lead-up to the spectacular collapse of the airline in February, 2012.

Australia’s jobless rate has climbed to its highest level in 12 years, underlining the challenges faced by an economy in transition following the end of a decade-long mining investment boom, the Financial Times reported today. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to 6.4 percent in July, from 6 per cent in June, reflecting an increase in the number of people looking for work and a small drop in the number of people employed.

An estimated 114 building and construction-related companies have gone to the wall in Canberra since the start of last year, leaving behind more than $80 million in debts, Australian Securities and Investments Commission data has revealed, The Canberra Times reported. With the downturn in the building, home improvement and renovation sector expected to worsen as public servants remain uncertain about their futures, ACT insolvency specialists say the snowballing "tsunami" of economic pain documented in wind-up notices on the ASIC website won’t end soon.

Junior iron-ore company Sherwin Iron went into a trading halt on Friday as the company entered voluntary administration after failing to secure financing, Mining Weekly reported. Sherwin had previously warned shareholders of the need to secure capital in order to fund its short-term and medium-term obligations, with the junior relying on A$10-million cash being held in escrow under its major debt facility, after a share purchase plan and rights issue failed to raise the necessary funding.

Kathmandu founder Jan Cameron’s chain of discount ­retail stores has fallen into receivership for the third time in five years, putting more than 2500 jobs at risk, The Australian reported. Control of DSG Holdings Australia, the company behind discount retail chains Crazy Clarks and Sam’s Warehouse, was yesterday put into the hands of receivers David Winterbottom and Rahul Goyal of corporate advisory firm KordaMentha Restructuring.

Australia’s insolvency laws, and the question of whether it is time to reconsider a chapter 11 style, have inadvertently been put back on the agenda by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s rogue financial planning scandal, Financial Review reported. It almost looked like an afterthought, but the last of 61 recommendations in last week’s Senate committee report into how the corporate regulator handled the CBA cases touches on an issue that has been the subject of some high-level discussions behind closed doors lately.