[QUOTE=AerialPerspective;10739553]
Originally Posted by
deja vu
Yes, every cent of which was paid BACK to the Commonwealth before the final entitlements were paid and NO, the total owed wages and benefits were not paid, given most got around 93% and I guess with each successive payment being treated as a separate ETP, probably came out roughly square.
The reason that was done is because, along with a litany of company problems, the dumb government that was there when the axe fell had some modicum of responsibility for having given FIRB approval to the sale of the final 50% to Air NZ, the same Treasurer and PM who bailed out the PM's brother's company a few years earlier, the same Treasurer who gave FIRB approval to APA to take over Qantas, a takeover that ultimately failed and so did APA several months earlier. Thanks to these idiots, Qantas would have went with it. Qantas was indeed lucky that one single shareholder held out and told APA to get stuffed as he held the balance of shares and knew they were just there to skin it, empty it's bank accounts and throw away the carcass. Mr bloody Costello, Keating was right when he said Costello was the laziest treasurer in history and a low altitude flyer. If FIRB exists to protect the national interest, why would this moron give approval for two major airlines when billy the blind man's dog could see it was not in 'the national interest'.
Oh yes, Peter Costello, the man who took his eye off the ball for several years while being consumed with his lust for Howard’s job. The same jerk that authorised the sale of Australia’s 167 tonnes of gold in 1997, in a sale timed to suppress the price of gold, to bury it forever, and replace it with government paper. Gotta love that fiat money hey Pete, you can just keep printing off more!!! He sold it at market price (fool) and it was around $400 per ounce back then. We lost at least $5b on that deal, in today’s value even more.