Most withdrawable shareholders with money locked up in the Permanent Building Society should get back 70 to 80 cents in the dollar of their deposit, following a Supreme Court decision today.
Attorney General Joe Berinson said the withdrawable shareholders have had to wait since November last year when the Opposition blocked Government legislation to help them.
"The Supreme Court decision is expected to put most withdrawable shareholders in the same position as other ordinary depositors with the society. This was the intent of the Government's legislation," Mr Berinson said.
"The decision has reclassified 3,800 of the society's 12,600 withdrawable shareholders as depositors (representing about 40 per cent of the value of withdrawable shareholder funds), and the liquidator has indicated that with further information he should be able to similarly reclassify most other withdrawable shareholders.
"The Opposition's negative tactics last year seriously delayed matters and added more costs to the proceedings, reducing the ultimate return to the society's depositors."
Mr Berinson said the court case involved collation of hundreds of different circumstances for the thousands of individual withdrawable shareholders.
"The Government view from the beginning was that on the basis of fairness to all depositors, the withdrawable shareholders deserved help," the Attorney General said.
