SELLING OUR FUTURE
I have written about the sale of our farms, real-estate and
water, so here is an ideal of what else is being sold off at bargain basement prices
to fund election promises.
In South Australia we all know the basic list, but maybe not
the huge long term costs of short sighted easy money, sought by governments who
ideal of the long term future, is the term between elections.
SGIC, AIDC, TAB, Forestry, Our Ports, Public transport,
TAFE, Travel centre, Jails, Torrens Island, Hospitals, electricity, State bank,
Work cover, SA Gas company, ETSA, Power connectors, SA Water, Adelaide airport
and many more, all sold, attempted sale with what little that is left on the
agenda of supposed privatisation.
Every one of these sales, has meant we the people have to make up for the loss of profits these State
owned organisations used to bring in, on top of the uncontrolled increases in
the supply of essential services.
Here is a brief Federal list of privatisations, Water, Farms
and Manufacturing that have been sold off, is hard to attain, for instance
sales of Australian farming land received no scrutiny unless the sale exceeds
244 million, allowing the ability for
whole states to be brought up by foreign investment, while no one is
watching, along with it our food security.
“Here is a list of some of the privatisation deals in
Australia over the past 20 years”.
1990
Australian Industry Development Corporation: public float that raised
$25 million for the Hawke Government.
NSW Investment Corporation: trade sale that raised $60 million for the
Greiner Government.
1991
State Bank of Victoria: sold to the Commonwealth Bank for $1.3 billion
after taxpayers absorbed about $1.7 billion in loan losses.
Commonwealth bank: Keating government floated the first 30% at the
bargain basement price of $5.40 a share, collecting just $1.3 billion for
taxpayers. (Check the values now)
1992
Loy Yang B power station: the Kennett government picks up the Kirner
Government's tortuous privatisation process of the Loy Yang B power station and
sells 49 per cent to Mission Energy for $1.3 billion with an over-priced power
purchase contract under-pinning the sale price.
Portland Smelter Unit Trust: trade sale that raised $171 million for the
Victorian Government with Alcoa and the Chinese Government major investors.
AUSSAT: trade sale to telecommunications provider Optus that raised $504
million for the Federal Government.
QANTAS: trade sale that raised $665 million from British Airways with a
further $1.3 billion collected in a public float two years later.
GIO: raised $1.26 billion in a public float at $2.40 a share for the NSW
Government and was then disastrously taken over by AMP before being sold to
Suncorp.
State Insurance Office: one of the few assets sold by the Kirner
Government in Victoria which fetched $125 million from GIO.
1993
Heatane Gas: the bottled gas division of Victoria's Gas & Fuel
Corporation which was sold to Elgas for a big price of $129.5 million.
NSW Grain Corporation: trade sale that raised $96 million for the NSW
Liberal Government.
SAGASCO: trade sale to Boral that raised $417 million for the South
Australian government, and established Boral as one of the major players in
Australia's gas industry.
1994
Gladstone Power Station: Queensland's biggest, was sold by
the Goss government to Comalco, NRG and a group of aluminium traders. At the
time it was the largest private power acquisition in the world but had the
safety of a long-term power supply deal back to the government.
NSW State bank: sold to Colonial for a net price of about $250 million in
1994 in what then Colonial CEO Paul Batchelor described privately as "the
greatest bank robbery in history". The bank was valued at $2 billion when
CBA took over Colonial in 2000.
Moomba to Sydney gas pipeline: Keating government collected $500 million
from the sale of the Moomba to Sydney gas pipeline to AGL with 51 per cent and
Gasinvest with 49 per cent.
CSL: floated for $2.30 a share or $300 million. Now worth more than $20
billion as the original investors enjoy making 50-fold returns in 15 years.
Tabcorp: floated for $2.25 a share or $675 million. Shares are now
around $12, the company is worth $6 billion and more than $10 has been returned
to shareholders through dividends.
Grain Elevators Board: trade sale to Vicgrain Operations that raised $52
million for the Kennett Government.
1995
Collinsville power station: the Queensland Government awarded a $130
million contract to NRG and Transfield to refurbish and recommission the
Collinsville coal-fired power station.
Pipelines Authority of South Australia: Texas-based Tenneco joined with
Santos to buy the Pipelines Authority of South Australia from the SA government
for $304 million.
United Energy: Kansas City-based Utilicorp, AMP and NSW State Super buy
Victorian electricity distributor and retailer United Energy for $1.553 billion
from the Kennett Government.
GFE Resources: Kennett Government sold gas exploration division GFE
Resources for $56.2 million to Cultus Petroleum. Most of the territory is now
owned by Origin Energy.
Solaris Power: AGL and US company GPU pay $950 million for Solaris
Power, the smallest of the five Victorian electricity distributors based in
Melbourne's western suburbs.
Powercor: the largest Victorian electricity distributor covering the
western half of the state, sold to US utility PacifiCorp for $2.15 billion.
Eastern Energy: Texas Utilities pays the Victorian Government $2.08 billion
for the electricity distributor covering the east of the state.
Citipower: the geographically smallest of Victoria's five electricity
distributors was bought by New Orleans-based utility Entergy for $1.57 billion.
Aerospace Technologies of Australia: trade sale to Boeing that raised
$40 million for the Keating Government.
Port of Geelong: trade sale that raised $51 million for the Kennett
Government with TNT leading the purchase.
Port of Portland: trade sale to an Australian consortium that holds
equal interests - 50% each holding for the Australian Infrastructure Fund and
the Utilities Trust of Australia. This sale raised $30 million for the Kennett
Government.
State Government Insurance Commission: trade sale to the NRMA that
raised $175 million for the South Australian government.
1996
Transurban: Kennett Government awards Transurban the contract to build own
and operate the $1.3 billion City Link project connecting Melbourne's major
freeways.
Bank West: $900 million trade sale by the WA Government to British bank
HBOS ahead of a public float.
Commonwealth Bank: Howard government floats remaining 51% at $10.40
a share.
Commonwealth Funds Management: trade sale that raised $63 million.
Suncorp-Metway: with the merger of 100% owned Suncorp and QIDC entities
with the publicly listed Metway Bank, this gave the Queensland Government a
majority shareholding of 68%. They indicated a sell-down to more than 15% but
by 2000 they had relinquished all holdings through a public float. The business
is now worth more than $12 billion.
Yallourn power station: PowerGen of Britain leads a consortium including
Itochu, AMP, Hastings and NSW State Super which paid $2.43 billion to the
Kennett Government for the 1800mW Yallourn power station in the Latrobe Valley.
Hazelwood Power station: Britain's National Power and its US partners
Destec and Pacific Corp paid the Kennett Government a ridiculous $2.3 billion
for the 30-year old Hazelwood Power station in the Latrobe Valley.
Bank SA: the good part of the old State Bank of South Australia was
sold to Advance for $720 million and now sits inside St George Bank.
Axiom Funds Management: trade sale to Deutsche Bank that raised $240
million for the Carr Government.
Forwood Products: trade sale that raised $123 million for the South
Australian government.
World Trade Centre: trade sale to a Malaysian Syndicate that raised $103
million. They on-sold it to a joint-venture Asset for $112 million.
Victorian Plantations Corp: trade sale to Hancock Victorian Plantations
that raised $550 million.
1997
Loy Yang B power station: Edison Mission Energy renegotiates long term
power sale deal done with Kirner and Kennett governments and takes over a $1.1
billion liability and 100% ownership of the 1000mW Loy Yang B power station in
the Latrobe Valley.
Powernet Victoria: US utility GPU pays an excessive $2.55 billion to the
Kennett Government for the monopoly electricity transmission company.
Airports: with the sale of separate long-term leasehold interests in
Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth airports generating gross proceeds of $3.31
billion.
Australian National Rail: trade sale that raised $95 million.
Brisbane Airport: trade sale that raised nearly $1.4 billion for the
Howard Government.
Melbourne Airport: trade sale that raised $1.3 billion for the Howard
Government with AMP, NSW State Super and BAA leading the buyout group.
Perth Airport: trade sale that raised $643 million.
Telstra: initial public float that raised $14.3 billion at the knockdown
price of $3.30 a share.
State Gas Pipeline: trade sale that raised $163 million.
1998
Adelaide Airport: sold to Parafield & Adelaide Airport Ltd for $467
million.
Darwin & Alice Springs airport: sold to Alice Springs & Darwin International
Airport Pty Ltd for $108 million.
Canberra airport: sold to consortium led by the Snow brothers for $65
million.
Hobart airport: sold to Hobart International Airport Pty Ltd for $35
million.
Dampier-to-Bunbury natural gas pipeline: Epic Energy, a consortium
including American power giants El Paso and Consolidated Natural Gas, along
with AMP, NSW State Super and Hastings, pay the WA Government a ridiculous
$2.47 billion for the Dampier-to-Bunbury natural gas pipeline and eventually
lose all their equity.
Australian Industry Development Corporation: trade sale that raised
$200 million for the Howard Government.
1999
Ecogen Energy: owner of Victoria's two small gas-fired power stations,
sold by Kennett Government to US utility AES for $350 million.
Queensland TAB: floated for $2 a share or $268 million in 1999 and then
taken over by Tabcorp in 2004 as investors enjoyed returns of almost 1000%,
including a solid dividend flow.
Gascor: the final Kennett Government privatisation saw Queensland's
controversial state-owned energy company Energex pay $29.25 million for the
rights to buy 10 petejoules of gas from Gascor for the next four years until
the market was fully contestible. This was Alan Stockdale's way of trying to
bring a fourth competitor into the gas market.
ETSA transmission: Li Ka-Shing led Cheung Kong Infrastructure and Hong Kong
Electric Holdings pays $3.5 billion to the South Australian government for ETSA
transmission and distribution assets.
Westar/Kinetik: Texas Utilities buys the first of three Victoria gas
retailers and distributors, Westar/Kinetik, for $1.62 billion.
Miltinet/Ikon: American group Utilicorp and its local partner
AMP paid the Kennett Government $1.97 billion to snare the second of Victoria's
gas retailers and distributors.
Gasnet: Victoria's monopoly gas transmission business, sold to GPU for
$1.025 billion in the last of the Kennett sales.
2000
Broadcast Australia: Howard Government sell the SBS and ABC
transmission towers for $650 million to UK company NTL, which later sold them
to Macquarie Bank which then jacked up the prices paid by taxpayers and doubled
their money.
Torrens Island power station: Texas Utilities pays $295 million to the
South Australian government for a 100 year lease to operate the 1280mW
gas-fired Torrens Island power station.
Alinta Gas: Utilicorp (later Aquila) and AMP pay $4.38 a share for a
cornerstone shareholding in WA gas utility Alinta Gas before it is floated by
the Court government at the knockdown price of $2.25 a share. Singapore Power
and the Babcock & Brown empire than bought the business for about $15 a
share in 2007, so once again taxpayers were dudded. However, those who accepted
all that Babcock paper only finished up with about $11 a share - still not a
bad result after paying $2.25 in the float.
ElectraNet: Queensland's Powerlink, ABB and Macquarie Bank
form a consortium and pay $938 million for South Australia's electricity
transmission company ElectraNet.
2001
Bell Bay power station: the government-owned Tasmanian Hydro Electric Corporation
hands 120mW Bell Bay power station to Duke Energy for conversion to natural
gas, complete with a long term management contract.
2002
National Rail Corporation and Freightcorp: Howard Government received $1.05
billion from Toll Holdings and Patrick Corp for its rail assets.
2003
Millmerran power station: the 840mW station is the largest
"greenfield" private investment in electricity generation in
Australia (as opposed to purchasing an existing facility from a government
utility). It was built by a InterGen/Shell-Bechtel joint venture and is owned
by a partnership made up of InterGen, Marubeni, GE Capital, Tohoku Electric and
EIF.
2005
Roaring 40s Renewable Energy: China Light & Power invests $110 million
for a 50% stake in Hydro Tasmania's Roaring 40s Renewable Energy business.
2006
DirectLink: Australian Pipeline Trust (now APA Group) buys the
DirectLink electricity transmission asset linking the NSW and Queensland power
grids for $170 million from the NSW Government-owned Country Energy, Hydro
Quebec International Group and Fonds de Solidarites des Travailleurs de Quebec.
Australian Railway Group: Queensland Government owned Queensland Rail
teams up with Babcock & Brown to buy the partially government-owned
Australian Railway Group in a $1 billion deal that covers three non-Queensland
states.
Murraylink power connector: Australian Pipeline Trust (now APA Group)
buys the 180km underground Murraylink power connector linking the Victorian,
South Australian and NSW power markets for $153 million. The asset was built by
Hydro Quebec for $177 million.
Allgas energy: Australian Pipeline Trust, now renamed APA Group,
pays $535 million to the Queensland Government for the Allgas energy
distribution business.
Sun Retail: Origin Energy pays $1.2 billion to the Queensland Government
for Sun Retail, the major part of the old Energex retail operations. AGL pays
$75 million for the smaller Sun Gas Retail business.
2007
Powerdirect: AGL buys retailer Powerdirect from the Queensland
government for an bargain of $1.2 billion.
2010
Tatts Group: in a deal worth more than $1 billion, they purchased the
state lotteries company from the NSW government. The NSW government will
receive $850 million cash for the licence and purchase of the NSW Lotteries
Corporation.
I will continue to add to the list, when time permits, if
any would like to assist, please email me details on the many I have missed so
far.
Mark AldridgeIndependent
aldridgemark@bigpond.com
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