Unfortunately, this mess will take many years to sort out, due to the massive complexity of the schemes and trusts that Timbercorp put in place - and we all know that liquidators don't exactly work for peanuts.

My partner invested in one of the WA Mortgage Brokers straight interest-bearing investments - and she did actually manage to get her money back. However, the Mortgage Broker also had a similar setup to Timbercorp, with trusts, various entities with interlacing loans and securities - and coupled with sorting out who was entitled to what, due to competing claims, the finalisation of the Mortgage Brokers asset distribution is still in the courts, fully 12 years after the liquidators were called in.

Many of the original MB investors have died in poverty, waiting for the courts to make determinations. There is a need for the speeding up of assessments of conflicting claims when it comes to company liquidations. As they say, the wheels of justice turn slowly.

Re Timbercorp, Mr Lee is correct. The upside will be, that investors in future, having had their fingers severely burnt, will never again invest in these tax-driven schemes, and will invest in projects with conservative and real returns, and managed by people with real-life management skills.

You can look like an expert manager when money is being splashed about - the sharemarket is booming, and tax breaks are coming thick and fast - but the real managers appear when the money supply dries up, the tax breaks disappear, the sharemarket goes into freefall, and drought hits.

Unfortunately, there is a real possibility of many of Timbercorps assets being sold at values well below what they are really worth. The bluegums growing on poor soils is probably the best thing that could happen with poor soils, as Australian trees grow well on poor soils, and survive drought - with bluegums being natural survivors.

Olive trees are similar - tough and drought resistant. I have seen them growing in the back of sand dunes on the beach, from discarded seeds by picknickers.

It is better that these growing and useful assets are managed for a satisfactory return, rather than being sold off well below their true value.