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Commonwealth act
This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.
The Wool International Privatisation Act 1999 converts a Commonwealth government body called Wool International into a private company registered under Australian corporations law, renamed WoolStock Australia Limited. Think of it as the legal paperwork that turns a government-run wool authority into an ordinary company — cutting it free from the Commonwealth and placing it under normal corporate rules.
Wool International was a Commonwealth statutory authority (a government-run body set up by law) that held and managed a massive stockpile of wool that had accumulated under a now-defunct price support scheme for Australian wool growers. It also held "units of equity" (a kind of ownership entitlement) on behalf of wool producers who had paid wool tax over the years.
1. Registers Wool International as a company On 1 July 1999 (called the "conversion time"), Wool International is automatically registered with ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investments Commission — Australia's corporate regulator) as a public company limited by shares, under the name WoolStock Australia Limited. No vote or approval is needed — the law simply deems it to have happened.
2. Converts "units" into shares Before privatisation, wool growers held "units of equity" in Wool International (like membership stakes earned through paying wool tax). At the conversion time, each unit automatically becomes one fully paid share in WoolStock Australia Limited. Shareholders get all the normal rights that come with being a company member.
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Direct links to the current provisions in Wool International Privatisation Act 1999.
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View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
3. Sets up a TrusteeCo A special company called TrusteeCo (nominated by the Minister) is appointed to hold shares on behalf of people whose entitlements couldn't be directly matched to them — for example, where ownership records were unclear, names were wrong, or entitlements were "unclaimed." TrusteeCo holds these shares in trust and tries to find the rightful owners before a final deadline (the "finalisation time"). If shares still can't be matched to anyone by that deadline, they are cancelled.
4. Carries over existing charges (security interests) If a wool grower's units were subject to a charge (meaning the units were used as security for a loan — like a mortgage but over the units), those charges automatically carry over onto the new shares. The priorities between competing creditors (people owed money) are preserved.
5. Tax treatment The conversion is carefully structured so that:
6. Cuts the Commonwealth connection After the conversion, WoolStock Australia Limited is not a government body. It is not a Commonwealth authority, not a public agency, and not an instrument of the Crown (i.e., not part of the government). It operates like any other private company.
7. Limited Commonwealth guarantee preserved The Commonwealth continues to guarantee payment of debts that WoolStock Australia Limited took on before privatisation — but only if those debts haven't been changed after the conversion without the Finance Minister's written consent.
8. Compensation safety net If this Act's operation inadvertently takes away someone's property without fair compensation (which the Constitution requires — this is called an acquisition of property "otherwise than on just terms"), the Commonwealth must pay fair compensation. Disputes go to the Federal Court.
This Act marks the end of a significant era of Commonwealth intervention in the Australian wool industry. It winds down the government's direct role in managing the wool stockpile and hands the process over to a private company structure, while carefully protecting the tax and property rights of wool growers during the transition.