13. Significant Items

	Half Year to				Year to
	Sep 03		Mar 03		Sep 03		Sep 02
	$m		$m		$m		$m
Ongoing operations
Restructuring expenses	-		-		-		(580)
Tax benefit	-		-		-		(168)
Net restructuring expenses	-		-		-		(412)
Disposal of SR Investment (HomeSide)
Proceeds on the sale of SR Investment	-		-		-		2,671
Cost of SR Investment sold	-		-		-		(2,686)
Loss of sale on SR Investment	-		-		-		(15)
Income tax benefit	-		-		-		(21)
Net profit on sale of SR Investment	-		-		-		6
Significant items after tax	-		-		-		(406)

Restructuring expenses
During 2002, the Group recognised costs of $412 million after tax resulting from its Positioning for Growth (PfG) program and related actitivities. The initiative comprised fundamentally of a reorganisation of the Group structure as well as a series of revenue and cost enhancement initiatives. Restructuring expenses primarily related to redundancies of $230 million, Technology write-downs of $88 million, surplus lease space of $54 million, and other restructuring costs of $40 million. During 2002, payments of $101 million (before tax) were incurred in relation to 859 redundancies.

Sale of HomeSide
On 1 October 2002, the National sold all of its shares in SR Investment, Inc., the parent company of HomeSide Lending, Inc., to Washington Mutual Bank, FA. Total proceeds were approximately US$1.5 billion (A$2.7 billion), comprised of the interim settlement amount of approximately US$1.3 billion based on an agreed estimated value of the net assets sold as at closing, plus approximately US$0.2 billion representing amounts receivable in relation to the sale of bulk mortgage servicing rights. This resulted in a profit on sale after tax of US$3 million (A$6 million), which was recognised as a significant item for the year ending 30 September 2002.