Former Labor leaders Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard have landed the party in dangerous new financial territory, with individual members warned ahead of this year's election that they would be held personally responsible if the party traded while insolvent, Business Spectator reported on an Australian Financial Review story. The newspaper said the warning was handed down in June by the party’s long-time legal advisor, Tony Lang, after Mr Rudd’s no-holes-barred 2007 campaign saw the party sell most of its assets.

Japanese restaurant chain Wagamama has gone into voluntary administration, and its Southbank venue in Melbourne has been shut down, The Age reported. Administrator KPMG took control of the business on Tuesday. Staff at the restaurant chain received news that the company behind Wagamama had gone into administration on Thursday and Friday. KPMG partner and administrator Ian Hall said the Southbank restaurant had been closed soon after the business was taken over. "The reason being was that it was not profitable," he said.

Adventurewear retailer Snowgum have lurched into voluntary administration following a dispute over rent with a landlord of one of its shops in the face of a general downturn in consumer confidence and tough times in the retail sector, BusinessDay reported. In business since 1926, and selling a range of outdoor clothing with a focus on functional performance fabrics, it operates out of 20 stores.

Small and medium-sized companies continue to dominate insolvency statistics, with 80 per cent of failed businesses having fewer than 20 employees and less than $100,000 in assets, the Herald Sun reported. Creditors to these companies were also big losers, receiving a maximum of just 11c for every dollar they were owed, according to a new report by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission released yesterday.

The number of people seeking work in Australia fell to a seven-year low, signaling disillusionment with the shrinking opportunities in a resource-rich economy strained by a sharp slowdown in mining investment, The Wall Street Journal reported. Declining participation in the job market helped drive a surprise fall in the unemployment rate to 5.6% in September from 5.8% a month earlier—mirroring a trend in other major developed economies like the U.S., where the jobless rate has fallen as people choose to leave the work force.

Redbank Power Station, the 151-megawatt coal-fired power station in New South Wales' Hunter Valley, has gone into receivership after negotiations on restructuring its $192.7 million of debt broke down as Redbank’s cash flow couldn’t meet its creditors' repayment schedule, the Business Spectator reported. Creditors have been in discussion with Redbank since 2010. “The operation of the power station will continue as normal,” a statement said.

An international study of retirees shows Australians have been the hardest hit by the global financial crisis. The report by HSBC shows the crisis has caused the biggest drop in incomes for Australians entering retirement among the 15 countries surveyed. The reason is the big exposure that superannuation funds have to shares, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The owners of Sydney's Cross City Tunnel are blaming the New South Wales Government for the company having to be placed in voluntary administration, ABC News reported. Cross City Motorway, which is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, EISER Infrastructure and Leighton Contractors, was placed in voluntary administration on Friday. It could soon be the second time owners of the two-kilometre tunnel linking the western and eastern fringes of Sydney's CBD have gone into receivership.

Australian employers unexpectedly cut payrolls in August as weaker demand discouraged hiring, underscoring the challenge for Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott to boost the nation’s economy. The local currency declined. The number of people employed fell by 10,800 from the previous month, when it declined by a revised 11,400, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. That compares with the median estimate for a 10,000 increase in a Bloomberg News survey of 28 economists. The jobless rate rose to 5.8 percent from 5.7 percent.

For more than two decades, Australia's economy has avoided recession, fed by a mining boom that forged one of the world's richest societies. Now, that once-in-a-generation expansion—stoked by China's demand for Australia's natural resources—could be coming to a close, The Wall Street Journal reported. As China's economic engine slows, sending prices for iron ore and coal sharply lower, Australia is facing an economic dislocation, with unemployment rising to a 12-year high and growth slowing rapidly.