Kevin Rudd is ditching the optimism of his predecessor and selling himself as the best leader to steer Australia through a downturn as Chinese demand wanes, Bloomberg reported. The new prime minister, who ousted Julia Gillard last week as the ruling Labor party headed toward a landslide election loss, is channeling his ex-boss Ross Garnaut in flagging that the end of a China-led mining boom could lead to a recession.

Creditors are expected to support a rescue plan for Spring Gully Foods that will hand back control of the 60-year-old company to the Webb family, News.com.au reported. About 300 creditors will meet tomorrow to consider an offer for full payment of debts, saving the company from collapse and lifting it out of administration. The company will put forward a Deed of Company Agreement that would see all creditors paid 100c in the dollar with an initial down payment and regular quarterly payments until the debt is finalised.

Creditors of Apex Minerals have finally called time on Ed Eshuys' attempt to revive the struggling gold producer, with receivers appointed to the company overnight, The West Australian reported. A last ditch attempt to borrow more money to keep the company afloat appears to have failed, with one of the company's major secured creditor - RF Capital, the family company of Multiplex heir Andrew Roberts - last night appointing Pitcher Partners as administrators and Ferrier Hodgson as receivers.

Early investigations into the collapse of fashion brand Lisa Ho have found that a combination of questionable operating decisions, bad market conditions and "accounting irregularities" affected the viability and the cashflow of the retailer, which has imploded with debts of nearly $11 million, The Australian reported. Lisa Ho Designs and Lisa Ho Retail went into voluntary administration on May 8, less than a month after the company abandoned a listing on the National Stock Exchange, where funds raised were to have been be used to expand the fashion brand offshore and online.

Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan will eschew European-style austerity as a stronger currency slows growth, wagering the government can win a Sept. 14 election fought on jobs and absorb the pain of a broken surplus promise, Bloomberg reported. The underlying cash deficit will be A$18 billion ($17.9 billion) in the 12 months to June 30, 2014, Swan said in Canberra yesterday as he released the federal budget.

After all the promises by the federal government to clean up the insolvency industry, a report released on Wednesday by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission indicates that things are getting worse, not better, The Age reported in a commentary. There are 682 liquidators in Australia and a report by ASIC into the supervision of the profession reveals that it received 437 reports of alleged misconduct involving registered liquidators in the past year, which is up slightly on last year's 426 complaints.

Liquidators of Nathan Tinkler's Mulsanne Resources were given the go-ahead by the court to sue the struggling Australian tycoon for allegedly letting Mulsanne trade while insolvent, said one of Tinkler's creditors, Blackwood Corp., Reuters reported. Blackwood is trying to recover A$28.4 million ($29.5 million) that Tinkler's private company Mulsanne agreed to pay last year for a one-third stake in the coal explorer. As a result of the claim, a court late last year appointed liquidators to wind up Mulsanne.

An Australian Federal Court Justice has ordered an inquiry into the fees and expenses incurred by PPB Advisory while the insolvency group investigated the 2010 collapse of Burrup Fertilisers, SmartCompany.com.au reported. But PPB has defended its handling of the case, claiming the inquiry is narrow in scope and the court threw out nine of the 10 claims brought against the firm by Burrup founder Pankaj Oswal. The collapse of Burrup Fertilisers has dragged on for years. The business was originally placed in receivership in 2010, amid a dispute between Burrup and Norwegian part-owner Yara.

A US bankruptcy judge has approved a $US45 million ($43.3m) settlement between Lehman Brothers Holdings' Australian unit and a group of insurers over claims the bank misled a group of councils, charities and churches into buying risky securities backed by US mortgages, The Australian reported. Judge James Peck, of the US Bankruptcy Court in New York, yesterday signed off the settlement between 10 US insurance companies and the liquidators of Lehman Brothers Australia to settle the matter over collateralised debt obligations, or CDOs.

Voluntary administrators have been called in by the Australian fund manager in charge of a giant mortgage fund frozen since 2009 with the savings of many New Zealand investors trapped in it, Stuff.co.nz reported. The directors of LM Investment Management appointed John Park and Ginette Muller of FTI Consulting as voluntary administrators, saying the move was forced on it as a result of a smear campaign against it. LM was set up by Kiwi ex-pat businessman Peter Drake but after growing rapidly it hit trouble following the Global Financial Crisis as many of its property loans defaulted.