‘Trash day’: Perth Mint and Gold Corp privatisation ‘on the table’

The privatisation of the Perth Mint and its owner Gold Corporation will be an option considered by a $1 million review into the refiner announced by Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Johnston on Thursday.

Johnston said the government was not currently looking to sell Gold Corp or the mint, but it would be one of the options considered by the commercial advisors appointed by the Department of Treasury.

The ownership structure of the Perth Mint will be subject to a review.

“All options are on the table,” he said.

“If this review said that there was a better structure for the ownership of the Gold Corporation then we’d look at that, but this is the start of a process.

“I’m not speculating on what the end of the process will look like.”

The mint has been under significant regulatory and media scrutiny over the past year after Austrac launched an audit into potential money laundering and counterterrorism financing law breaches.

A Four Corners report aired in March revealed details of possible holes in the mint’s anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing defences.

The review will assess the role Gold Corp and the mint perform in WA, the ownership structure and whether the state government continues to receive value from it.

The outcomes of the review were expected to give the state options on how to manage regulatory and financial risks related to its ownership of the government trading enterprise.

Johnston said the financial risks about commercial aspects of the mint’s operations and not the potential for fines stemming from the Austrac investigation which, in the case of bank AML breaches, reached hundreds of millions of dollars.

“The financial risk is that it’s a commercial business that operates in a commercial way. It buys product and then sells it on to others. That’s the only commercial risk I’m referring to,” he said.

“The profit margin of the mint is very narrow. As a percentage of turnover it’s about 0.15 per cent.

“I’m not aware that there’s any potential penalties pending for the Gold Corp.”

The review’s findings will not be considered by the government until Austrac hands down its findings from its audit, expected in the second half of the year.

Any move to privatise the mint would likely be controversial for the McGowan government, which was elected on an anti-privatisation agenda when it was elected in 2017 on the back of a promise to not privatise Western Power.

Shadow mines and petroleum minister Mia Davies said the review fell well short of the opposition’s calls for a Royal Commission into the mint.

“It’s not the ownership of the Perth Mint that’s caused the problems over the last six years, it has been the lack of oversight by the minister and the premier in charge of the portfolio and the management of the Perth Mint,” she said.

“This simply gives the minister and the premier another opportunity to avoid scrutiny and really delve into the issues that have potentially exposed West Australian taxpayers to huge financial risks and also reputational risks at the Perth Mint.”

Davies accused Johnston of making the announcement on a day when the public’s attention was directed on the eclipse.

“It’s pretty disappointing that the minister has announced this today with all eyes diverted as a result of the solar eclipse and the activity in relation to that, [in] a well-known political tactic – it’s called taking out the trash,” she said.

“It’s just another part of the journey this minister has been on in trying to avoid scrutiny.”