Oh come on, enough of these rediculous conspiracy theories. Ansett went bust after YEARS of mismanagement. If my memory serves me correctly this management was only to happy to wash their hands of the whole operation and offload it to ANZ which inherited this massive mess including quite a few safety/maintenance violations that not only sent Ansett bust, but very nearly took Air New Zealand with it. Australia and New Zealand aviation markets both need to pull their respective heads out of their arses and allow a bit of competition which is beneficial for all involved.