Joe Hockey has called on Australians to embrace a new spirit of austerity, saying families and businesses should pay off debt to prepare for up to two decades of economic turmoil, The Australian reported. The opposition treasury spokesman said it critical for the government to pay off debt, but similar policies should be pursued in households and boardrooms. "The bottom line is that we are going to have a very volatile period, economic period, for the next 10-20 years, " he told ABC radio.

Cracks are starting to appear in Australia's housing market, The Wall Street Journal reported. The value of homes in Australia's capital cities has fallen 4% in the first 10 months of this year. By June, Merrill Lynch predicts, house prices will be 10% below the June 2010 peak. Those numbers might not look too alarming given the depth of recent housing crises in other parts of the world. But weakness in Australia's property sector could be especially acute because of a boom in investment-property ownership.

Rogue liquidators have been put on notice after the government announced new laws to protect creditors from misconduct by corporate undertakers, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Under the changes revealed yesterday, creditors such as banks and small businesses will have the power to pass resolutions dismissing liquidators without court permission and to cap fees charged by insolvency firms.

The federal government is providing the corporate watchdog with $11.4 million in additional funding to help strengthen scrutiny of the insolvency industry, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Outgoing Attorney-General Robert McClelland released a suite of new proposals for the industry on Wednesday. They include new money for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to reform the way insolvency professionals are registered, disciplined and regulated.

Residential property builder National Builders Group is the latest company to be issued with an ultimatum from its bank: either refinance its loan with another bank or sell the business, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The group, which generates revenue of between $25 million and $30 million selling home building services ranging from drafting, engineering, selecting fixtures then outsourcing construction to a builder, is in talks with Malaysian company MAE Synergy to buy the business by December 30. But National Builders Group is still very much a going concern.

Data released by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission showed that Queensland's small business owners continue to bear the brunt of uneven economic conditions, making up more than 80 percent of the state's initial insolvency reports, the Courier-Mail reported today. Queensland's small business insolvency is higher than the national average of 78 percent. Of the 1468 initial external administration reports filed for Queensland businesses, 1192 involved companies that employed fewer than 20 people.

The board of Proserpine Cooperative Sugar Milling Association Ltd. has refused to accept a A$120 million takeover offer by Chinese state-owned Cofco Group's local unit Tully Sugar Ltd., Tully said Sunday. The Proserpine board has chosen to enter administration despite Tully tabling a binding and unconditional asset sale and loan agreement, Tully said in a statement.

Mortgage broking group Refund Home Loans has been placed in administration, but several buyers are considering acquiring the business which has more than 350 franchisees and a substantial stake in the growing alternative home loan market, SmartCompany.com.au reported. The announcement comes just 18 months after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission slammed the company and Ormond, after he admitted making false and misleading statements to franchisees about an agreement with the ACCC itself.

A Goldman Sachs-led consortium continues to be frustrated in its attempts to secure control of the hotels group Redcape Property Fund, The Australian reported in a commentary. The consortium can get events of default under the fund's banking facilities, but it just cannot get a default notice served, which would trigger a requirement for the default to be remedied or the fund would face almost certain administration and receivership, a possibility that may give the consortium more leverage in negotiating with Redcape's bankers, in particular ANZ.

Pub owner National Leisure & Gaming, which operates 35 hotels in New South Wales and Queensland, has blamed "onerous leases" for its collapse and handed receivers the daunting prospect of trying to recover more than $150 million in debt, SmartCompany.com.au reported. NLG, which operated well-known venues including The Brewhouse at Belmore, Bridgeview Hotel at Willoughby, Bankstown Club Hotel and Hermit Park in Townsville, has been teetering on the brink of collapse for the best part of 12 months, and called Ian England and Guy Edwards of PricewaterhouseCoopers as administrators on Friday.