I ask all eevblog members for a moment of silence for all that poor test equipment.
Might be better to ask Dave for a permanent forum topic.
Seriously, the way the Australian laws and accounting systems are set up to cause this, is really evil. And it persists due to the lack of public awareness of how ubiquitous it is. Having a permanently accessible and easily findable discussion place for anyone to post details of examples of this wanton destruction they see, really could go a long way to fixing the fundamental causes. It's a political issue, that can only be fought politically. And that takes public awareness.
One little bit of legislation, saying depreciated / written-off items can be given away or sold for less than (say) 5% of original purchase value without impacting the depreciation & rebates accounting, would go a long way to fixing this.
Going further and making it a criminal offense to destroy equipment/items that could reasonably be usefully used by someone else, without making a reasonable attempt to make the items publicly available, would be even better.
Here's another example. Years ago a Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical supplies factory/warehouse in Matraville was shutting down. A lady GP I knew was told by contacts that there was a whole doctor's clinic there that has been shuttered, complete with all the equipment. She had overseas contacts in some poor nations, and inquired if she could go to the site and see if any of the equipment could be donated to doctors in those poor countries. A J&J representative gave the OK, and arranged a time. I got asked if I wanted to come along, since apparently there might be some electronics gear there too.
At the site our 'guide' was a smarmy little man. Not to mention ethnic stereotypes, but I groaned inside, recognizing immediately a particular syndrome of bullshit laying that was likely to happen here. So we got a tour of the place, with Mr Smarmy at all times pretending that sure, it was very likely my doctor friend could have what she asked for. The place was being gutted, mostly empty.... except for the rows and rows of pallets of pharmaceutical/chemist/medical supplies, mostly shrink wrapped. All 'stock to be disposed of' according to Mr Smarmy. The clinic was well equipped, all just sitting there gathering dust. Also chemical labs, with demolition begun. One electronics lab, stripped. Except for one thing randomly left in a drawer among some junk - a beautiful electric field strength meter. No, I couldn't have it. Why not? Umm... because.
It turned out my doctor friend couldn't have anything either. Mr Smarmy's job that day was to present a reasonable, sensitive J&J corporate face, while never actually admitting that it was all going to be shredded regardless, and there was no way anyone was going to be given anything. I could tell he was really enjoying his day.
Edit: Coincidentally, just got a spam email from this group:
http://www.change.org/en-AUSomething to consider.