The way the Air NZ loan was structured was firstly about $ 300 million in cash, which was partially used to pay Ansett I think $ 150 or $ 180 million - I forget the exact amount. This was then converted into preference shares. The other $585 million from the NZ government was an outright share purchase. The net result is the NZ government has over 80% of the issued scrip.
Bear in mind this was the national carrier and the NZ government was never going to let it go. So they really had no other option than to take it over.
VAH is a very different situation and it will be challenging for the Australian government to find a way through this one.
Whichever way it goes, sadly jobs will disappear yet again.