Commonwealth of Australia (in Receivership)

Wednesday, 13 November 2002

This week's biggest item of business news is the decision of HIH's liquidators, KPMG to start action in the ACT Supreme Court seeking $5.6 billion dollars in damages from the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority and the Commonwealth Government. In a masterly piece of understatement, The Canberra Times says

This is one of the biggest civil claims in Australian legal history. The ramifications for government coffers, should the Commonwealth be found liable, would be huge.

Obviously, with so much of the operating capital of Commonwealth of Australia Inc on the line, we can expect the government to mount a pretty strong legal defence against this suit. However, I think the government would be remiss not to adopt a fall-back position and a quick call to Bondie's mate, Swiss businessman Jurg Bollag probably wouldn't go astray.