The National Guarantee Fund, a compensation vehicle for investors, has admitted it does not currently have the resources to handle a jump in claims from the collapse of BBY, and is seeking to rectify the situation, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The Securities Exchanges Guarantee Corporation, the fund's administrator, is considering setting up a panel of law firms to assist with, and expedite potential claims.

The Canberra Eye Hospital is in voluntary administration and its owners, who include pioneering eye surgeons, appear to be in a dispute over the sale of the business with shareholders, The Canberra Times reported. One of the founders, Dr Leo Shanahan, said the company had $2.3 million in the bank 15 months before it went into voluntary administration in about January.

A Melbourne-based clothing manufacturer and wholesaler founded in 1996 has entered voluntary administration, SmartCompany.com.au reported. LM Australasia started out producing and wholesale women’s lingerie before growing into a fashion house that specialised in seamless garments, including knitwear, tops, leggings and shapewear. The business is based in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood and, in 2010, employed 20 staff in Australia. At the time it also had an office in China, with a staff of 10.

Australia’s corporate regulator is to launch a crackdown on the country’s banking culture, which it claims is encouraging misconduct and the “fleecing” of consumers, the Financial Times reported. The intervention by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission follows a series of banking scandals and new research showing that a poor risk culture at financial institutions is allowing misconduct and “Machiavellian” tendencies to flourish.

Australia is raising its minimum wage by an above-inflation 2.5 per cent, providing a boost to low-paid workers amid sluggish economic growth, the Financial Times reported. From next month about 1.86m workers must be paid a weekly wage of at least A$656.90 ($501.50), Australia’s workplace regulator ruled on Tuesday. On an hourly basis the rate rises to A$17.29 an hour, one of the highest minimum wage levels in the world.

The corporate regulator sounded a warning on Thursday about stockbroking firms moving into higher-risk operations in the wake of the failure of Sydney-based BBY, noting it would have more to say next week on its inquiries into the collapse, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has been delving into what went wrong at BBY, particularly after the stockbroking and advisory firm was placed into voluntary administration on May 18.

Mid-tier stockbroker BBY has been placed in administration after the board could not secure enough capital, the firm said in a statement this morning. KPMG has been appointed voluntary administrator and BBY suspended by the ASX as a market participant. Financier St George Bank has sent in PPB as receivers to protect the bank’s interests. “I regret to inform staff that despite exhaustive efforts by the BBY board to secure investors to inject additional capital into BBY we have been unsuccessful,” said BBY executive chairman Glenn Rosewall, in a note to staff.

A year after declaring the days of “borrow and spend” were over for Australia, treasurer Joe Hockey on Tuesday shifted the government’s strategy to boosting the economy by ruling out fresh austerity measures, the Financial Times reported. Delivering his second budget against the backdrop of a collapse in commodity prices and lacklustre growth, Mr Hockey cut taxes for small businesses and increased spending on childcare and infrastructure in a bid to create jobs.

The Australian government announced a world-leading crackdown on Monday on alleged tax avoidance by 30 multinational companies that will likely force them to restructure their businesses before next year, the Irish Times reported. “These companies are diverting profits earned in Australia away from Australia to no-tax or low-tax jurisdictions,” treasurer Joe Hockey told reporters in Canberra. He declined to identify the targets, but said “it’s pretty evident which companies are involved”.

The state government of Western Australia has broken widely held conventions with the introduction of legislation to seize and distribute A$1.7bn (US$1.3bn) owed to the remaining creditors of the Bell Group of companies, Reuters reported. A government authority has been appointed to prevent further litigation over the liquidation of Bell Group in 1991, a legal case that has dragged on for two decades.