The charge out rate on the 146 was not very low. In fact if the utilisation had been 1000 hours a year it would have more than broken even while taking some of the overhead burden for NZ. There were several reasons why it was a losing proposition - other operators cutting prices below cost for similar sized equipment (therefore getting the work), taking on sectors far too short for that type of aircraft (because that's all the brokers could or would offer) - resulting in only about 400 hours utilisation in a year. That does not sustain any turbine powered aircraft in a competitive marketplace.
With 20:20 hindsight Brisbane was probably the wrong place to park an aircraft for mostly speculative work. It may have done better in Essendon, Busselton, Cairns, Townsville or who knows where else , just so long as any sectors flown would have been much longer.
They very nearly cracked a good contract with Rio which would have seen the 146 working out of Exmouth, but that fell over when Rio scaled back its Pilbara plans.
PV did not stay in the aviation business for 25 years by not being able to count.