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And a few years ago our brilliant Chancellor of the time, Gordon Brown, sold tons of our gold at under $300 an ounce, which was a 20 year low price at the time.

This cost the country about 2 BILLION pounds at the time, christ knows how much that is now.

From an article on the web

"Brown offloaded the gold at a 20-year low in the market ? now nicknamed the ?Brown Bottom? by dealers. The 17 auctions achieved prices for the gold of between $256 and $296 an ounce, with an average of $275. Since then gold has risen sharply in value and stood yesterday at $685. This year, some top investment banks have predicted, it could even rise above the all-time high of $850".

Lost value in the commodity versus lower repayments on a reduced foreign debt?

Sell one to reduce another..sounds like sound managment to me
Nobody can predict commodity prices...especially gold

If you want to see a real government balls up by a treasurer try currency swaps.They rarely get reported but when they go bad they make the private sector losses look like childs play

TAX-PUNTING Australia
Further to the sad news that the Coalition Government has managed to lose $3 billion plus of our money betting on derivatives, a few accountants are speaking up. The Australian (26/2/02) said:
"The exclusion from the federal budget of almost $4 billion in currency losses incurred by Treasury was as shonky as the bookkeeping practices of US energy giant Enron or failed insurer HIH, accountants said yesterday ..... 'The method in the budget is a violation of generally accepted accountancy practices. It's generally accepted that you should recognize exchange gains or losses in the period in which exchange rates change. You don't wait for settlement,' said Jeffrey Knapp, technical consultant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants .....
"The swaps were entered into over more than a decade as part of a strategy to borrow money cheaply in the US, but it went disastrously wrong when Australian rates converged with US rates and the dollar slid from about US80 cents in 1996 to US51 cents last year. Budget papers show the portfolio is now a $3.8 billion liability that gets $189 million worse every time there is a 1-cent decline against the US dollar ....."

The Treasury Casino scorecard over the last seven years looks like this:
1995 - $864 million profit;
1996 - $651 million loss;
1997 - $2.1 billion loss;
1998 - $599 million profit;
1999 - $838 million loss;
2000 - $1.9 billion loss;
2001 - $200 million loss.

We suggest that Mr. Costello should confine his Treasury officials to "two-up", with a $20 limit! More seriously, the loss figure could have saved Ansett and got another airline flying alongside it. If people like Alan Bond, Larry Adler and Jodee Rich face criminal charges for a little "creative accounting", should not the same apply to Peter Costello and his Treasury cronies? Or does government service offer immunity?