In Australia the predominant term used for SOEs is government business enterprise (GBE).
Former Commonwealth SOEs include Telstra, established in the 1970s as Telecom Australia.
Telstra, now Australia's largest telecommunications company, was privatised in 1997 by the Howard government.
As of June 2010 Telstra owned a majority of the copper wire infrastructure in Australia (the rest is owned by Optus) and is pending sale to its former parent, the Australian government, for a non-binding amount of 11 billion Australian dollars, as ducts in the copper wire tunnels are needed to install the fibre optic cable.
The State Electricity Commission of Victoria and the Gas & Fuel Corporation were the best-known government enterprises to be disaggregated and sold.