State-owned enterprises of Australia

In Australia the predominant term used for SOEs is government business enterprise (GBE). Various Australian states also have GBEs, especially with respect to the provision of water and sewerage, and many state-based GBEs were privatized in some states during the last decade of the twentieth century. Former Commonwealth SOEs include Telstra, established in the 1970s as Telecom Australia. Telstra, now Australia's largest telecommunications company, was privatised in 1997 by the Howard government. As of June 2010 Telstra owned a majority of the copper wire infrastructure in Australia (the rest is owned by Optus) and is pending sale to its former parent, the Australian government, for a non-binding amount of 11 billion Australian dollars, as ducts in the copper wire tunnels are needed to install the fiber optic cable. The Commonwealth Bank, as its name indicates, was also founded as public company before later being privatized.

In Victoria many GBEs were sold in the 1990s to reduce the state's level of debt. The State Electricity Commission of Victoria and the Gas & Fuel Corporation were the best-known government enterprises to be disaggregated and sold.

Australian Government

As of March 2021, there are nine GBEs of the Government of Australia, comprising two corporate Commonwealth entities and seven Commonwealth companies.

The Government also has other public non-financial corporations (PFNCs) that are not prescribed as GBEs:

• Airservices Australia
• Australian Broadcasting Corporation
• Australian Government Solicitor
• Clean Energy Finance Corporation
• Future Fund
• Reserve Bank of Australia
• Screen Australia
• Special Broadcasting Service – fully owned, and combines government funding and commercial funding

Australian Capital Territory

The GBEs of the Australian Capital Territory include:

New South Wales

The statutory state-owned corporations of New South Wales include:

Northern Territory

The GBEs of the Northern Territory include:

• PowerWater
• Territory Generation

Queensland

The GBEs of Queensland include:

South Australia

South Australia is notable for having very controversially privatized most of its GBEs:

• Adelaide Metro
• SA Water

Tasmania

Tasmania has a considerable amount of GBEs, relative to other states:

Victoria

The GBEs of Victoria include:

Western Australia

The GBEs of Western Australian include:

References