Australian privatisation

This page highlights government asset sales in Australia, offering a point of reference for telecommunication privatisations.

It covers -

• introduction
• landmarks

     introduction

Selling off the family silver - or merely yesterday's bling - in Australia and New Zealand was not confined to telecommunications but extended across financial services (retail banks, home loans, funds management and insurance), infrastructure (eg pipelines and airports), transport (rail, shipping, airlines), energy (gas, electricity generation and distribution), manufacturing and other sectors.

It typically involves a trade sale (by way of tender, such as disposal of Sydney Airports Corporation and National Transmission Network) and public float (one off or successive sale of tranches in enterprises such as the Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and Bank of New Zealand through offering shares on the stock exchange to institutional and retail investors).

It is estimated that the . In Australia estimates of privatisation proceeds are put at US$70 billion by the end of 2001. (The corresponding figure for sale of New Zealand state owned enterprises and other assets was approximately US$7 billion, with the New Zealand privatisation programme bringing in US$4 billion from 1987 to 1992). The Australian government boasts that the nation's privatisation program was one of the largest in the OECD, second only to the UK (in value) and second to New Zealand (relative to GDP) between 1990 and 2001.

Introductions are provided in Privatisation: Sell off or sell out? (Sydney: ABC Books 2000) by Bob Walker & Betty Walker, Privatisation: An International Review of Performance (Boulder: Westview 2000) by Graeme Hodge, Privatisation, Globalisation & Labour: Studies from Australia (Federation Press 2002) edited by Peter Fairbrother, Michael Paddon & Julian Teicher and Privatisation in New Zealand and Australia: An Empirical Analysis (PDF) by Jarrod Kerr, Mei Qiu & Lawrence Rose, Corporatization & privatization: lessons from New Zealand (Oxford: Oxford Uni Press 1992) by Ian Duncan & Alan Bollard and Privatisation, Globalisation and Labour: Studies from Australia (Federation Press 2002) edited by Peter Fairbrother, Michael Paddon & Julian Teicher.

For a provincial government perspective see the 2002 Partnerships, privatisation and the public interest: Public private partnerships and the financing of infrastructure development in South Australia (PDF) by John Spoehr, Dexter Whitfield, John Quiggin, Christopher Sheil & Kathryn Davidson.

     Australia

Landmarks include -

1988 Commonwealth Accommodation & Catering Services ($14.9m)

1988 Defence Service House Corporation loan portfolio - trade sale ($1,515m)

1989 AMDEL ($0.92m)

1991 Australian Defence Force Home Loan Franchise - trade sale ($42m)

1991 first tranche of Commonwealth Bank - float ($1,292m)

1991 Aussat - trade sale ($504)

1991 Commonwealth Housing Loan Assistance Schemes in ACT ($47.3m)

1992 Australian Airlines - trade sale ($400m)

1992 NSW GIO - float ($1,260m)

1992 Victorian State Insurance Office - trade sale ($125m)

1993 Hilmer Report

1993 25% of Qantas - trade sale ($665m)

1993 second tranche of Commonwealth Bank - float ($1,686m)

1993 WA State Govt Insurance Office - float ($165m)

1993 Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation - MBO ($1.5m)

1993 SAGASCO - trade sale ($427m)

1993 Gladstone power station - trade sale ($750m)

1993 NSW Grain Corporation - trade sale ($96m)

1994 Moomba-Sydney Pipeline system - trade sale ($534m)

1994 Pipeline Authority SA - trade sale ($304m)

1995 Victorian TABCORP - float ($609m)

1994 State Bank of NSW - trade sale ($574m)

1994 CSL Ltd (Commonwealth Serum Laboratories) - float ($299m)

1995 WA State Printing Division - trade sale

1995 Aerospace Technologies of Australia ($40m)

1993 remainder of Qantas - float ($1,450m)

1994 Vic BASS - trade sale ($3m)

1994 SA Austrust Trustees - trade sale ($44m)

1994 Vic Grain Elevators Board - trade sale ($52m)

1995 Citipower - trade sale ($1,575m)

1995 SA State Govt Insurance Commission - trade sale ($175m)

1995 Eastern Energy - trade sale ($2,080m)

1995 BankWest - trade sale ($900m)

1995 Powercor - trade sale ($2,150m)

1995 SA Forwood Products - trade sale ($123m)

1996 Axion Funds Management - trade sale ($240m)

1996 third tranche of Commonwealth Bank - float ($3,390m)

1996 Loy Yang A - trade sale ($4,746m)

1996 Commonwealth Funds Management - trade sale ($62.5m)

1997 Avalon Airport Geelong ($1.5m)

1997 PowerNet - trade sale ($2,555m)

1997 first tranche of Telstra - float ($14,330m)

1997 fourth tranche of Commonwealth Bank - float ($1,770m)

1997 Melbourne Airport - trade sale ($1,307m)

1997 Brisbane Airport - trade sale ($1,387m)

1997 Perth Airport - trade sale ($643m)

1997 DASFLEET ($408m)

1997 Australian Industry Development Corporation - trade sale ($155m)

1997 Australian National Railways Commission ($95.4m)

1997 Suncorp-Metway - float

1997 Department of Administrative Services units (eg Asset Services, Australian Property Group, DAS Centre for Environmental Management, DAS Interiors) ($28.9m)

1997 Housing Loans Insurance Corporation ($108m)

1998 Macleod Repatriation Hospital site - trade sale ($1.75m)

1998 NSW Totalizator Agency Board - float ($1,000m)

1998 Adelaide and Parafield airports - trade sale ($362m)

1998 Canberra and Coolangatta airports - trade sales ($171m)

1998 Darwin, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek airports - trade sale ($110m)

1998 Hobart and Launceston airports - trade sale ($53m)

1998 Mt Isa, Townsville, Moorabbin airports - trade sale ($24m)

1998 Archerfield and Jandakot airports - trade sale ($10m)

1998 Auscript ($1.1m)

1998 Victorian Plantations Corporation - trade sale ($550m)

1998 Aluvic - trade sale ($502m)

1998 Dampier-Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline - trade sale ($2,303m)

1999 National Transmission Network - trade sale ($650m)

1999 Australian River Co. (formerly ANL) ($20.6m)

1999 Melbourne urban rail and tram systems - concession system

1999 ADI ($346.78m)

2000 Removals Australia ($10.4m)

2001 Essendon Airport - trade sale ($22m)

2002 National Rail Corporation and NSW Freight Rail Corporation ($1,172m)

2002 Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport ($5,588m)

2003 Bankstown, Camden and Hoxton Park Airports ($211m)

2004 ComLand Ltd - trade sale ($165m)

2007 Queensland Government's electricity retailer Powerdirect Australia ($1.2bn)

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