Writer
John Austen
John Austen is a happily retired former senior official of Infrastructure Australia living in Western Sydney. Details are at thejadebeagle.com.
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Infrastructure Australia should be abolished
A review of Infrastructure Australia risks putting the cart in front of the horse. It should consider whether the organisation should exist. Continue reading »
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Restoring integrity to Commonwealth infrastructure spending
The new Parliament should take responsibility for dealing with pork barrelling – not pass the buck to an integrity commission. Continue reading »
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Don’t believe what you hear about fuel excise and road funding in the forthcoming election campaign
It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that road spending is way too high, priorities are wrong, and there is a roads empire which is out of control. Continue reading »
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Policy wreck: we’re being told two contradictory stories about NSW trains
Stories about Gladys Berejiklian’s private life or bureaucratic fights might sell papers, but they distract from grave problems in transport policy. Continue reading »
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John Austen: Time to call time on Infrastructure Australia? It has failed
The latest Australian Infrastructure Plan avoids the key issue: Commonwealth (lack of) direction. It seems aimed at bureaucratic empire building and should herald the end of Infrastructure Australia. Continue reading »
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Newcastle Port decision: overreach, misunderstanding or both?
The Federal Court’s rejection of the ACCCs case against Government-imposed penalties facing Newcastle Port seemed to misunderstand transport policy matters and give more weight to the Government’s latest excuses than to logic and observed actions. Continue reading »
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Car parks: certainly corrupt and probably illegal
An Audit Office report led to condemnation of ‘processes’ behind Commonwealth funding of commuter car parks. This is like merely looking at – not even touching – deckchairs on the Titanic. Continue reading »
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NSW rail policy: more than cooking the books
Media reports claimed changes to NSW railways artificially inflated State Budget results. Yet ‘cooked books’ are the least of the concerns. Continue reading »
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Australia’s infrastructure plans: why can’t we get it right? Thorough inquiries are needed.
Recent reports confirm severe problems with plans for transport infrastructure in at least Australia’s two biggest cities. The Commonwealth, as well as State Governments, is blameworthy. Continue reading »
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The curious case of the new airport’s metro
Infrastructure Australia recently announced its refusal to include the proposed Western Sydney Airport Metro in its lists. That apparently reasonable result is surrounded by a range of murky matters. Continue reading »
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Fool’s paradise: ‘independent’ advisers promote lie that transport infrastructure can lead a Covid recovery
A recent report for Infrastructure Australia confirms what many suspect – some transport infrastructure projects should be shelved. Yet IA refuses to reassess any transport projects, including those it knows or should know are wrong. Continue reading »
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Sydney’s Metro mania is policy based on vanity
Is it of interest that a 2018 study by Transport for NSW and its federal counterpart into rail connections to Sydney’s second airport was made at roughly the time the same the federal portfolio spent $30 million to buy land near Leppington worth only $3 million? Continue reading »
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Transport infrastructure: our States biggest waste
The Reserve Bank governor recently asked States to support jobs – by spending $40 billion more on infrastructure. Please don’t – at least not on the usual transport projects! Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. High Speed Rail – shooting a corpse?
The Grattan Institute’s recent condemnation of high-speed rail is fair enough. However, its further speculations on ‘renovating regional rail’ and urban commuting need questioning. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Transport infrastructure in a Covid world
Governments made dramatic responses to challenges posed by Covid-19. New ideas are being sought in many areas of public policy. However, transport infrastructure is a lamentable exception – instead of a reassessment of plans in light of the new realities, the reaction of its boosters has been to double down their egregious rent-seeking. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Another year of record waste on roads
In the past few years Pearls etc carried posts on how road spending vastly exceeded road related revenue even though road use had not much increased – a perversion of public policy helping the infrastructure lobby at the expense of Australia. Statistics for the latest year suggest this continues unabated. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Placating the Infrastructure Club
Infrastructure Australia’s 2020 priority list doesn’t recognise – let alone address fundamental problems. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Sydney Metro developments
Are recent developments with Sydney’s Metro railway straws in the wind or embers heralding an infrastructure inferno? Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Electric Vehicle Charging
Recently the question of road charges for electric light vehicles – cars – hit the headlines. Opinions split into: those who want such charges to collect funds for road building; those opposed to such charges because they might slow the take-up of electric vehicles. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Sydney and the mock Metro
The Sydney Metro saga continues, with renewed – and still unrealistic – promises of a $20bn west Metro giving travellers a 20-minute trip from Parramatta to the CBD. Talk of this, and progress with tunnelling under the CBD, must be a welcome distraction from a Parliamentary Inquiry into part of the plan. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Infrastructure Claims – Above the law?
Ongoing urging of infrastructure proposals for Commonwealth funding exacerbates already high moral hazard. Yet nothing is done to discourage the possibility of illegal behaviour costing Australia dearly. Continue reading »
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Infrastructure Australia’s ‘believe it or not’ audit
Last week saw media coverage of Infrastructure Australia’s 2019 infrastructure audit. The hype was short lived.  The audit was another analytically deficient step towards a transport policy abyss into which the infrastructure club wants to throw vast amounts of your money. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Post-election infrastructure review
The NSW and Federal 2019 elections saw the return of Coalition Governments. My perspective – from western Sydney – is: Coalition infrastructure policies have been dreadful, Labor’s offerings weren’t any better. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Fast rail – apologies please from perpetrators.
A recent post said politicians should not ‘bite the bullet’ on high speed rail – but apologise for money wasted; unrealistic expectations fanned; incompetence. It suggested a start with Newcastle – a city dudded by bureaucrats. Better still would be policy that doesn’t just provide fodder for TV satires; instead infrastructure proposals should be examined in Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. NSW infrastructure: who is fit to govern?
Readers of Pearls and Irritations may have followed the transport infrastructure fiasco in NSW under conservative governments led first by Mr O’Farrell, then Mr Baird and now by one-time Transport Minister and Treasurer, Ms Berejiklian. Several reports last week put an exclamation mark to the debacle and raised questions about the fitness of either side to Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. High speed rail – Please don’t bite the bullet.
The Federal Opposition recently got media attention for high speed rail by exhorting Australia to ‘bite the bullet’.   Australians should indeed ‘bite the bullet’ on high speed rail – by demanding public apologies for failures: large amounts of public money wasted; false expectations fanned; bureaucratic misbehaviour rewarded and aversion to a reasonable approach urged by Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Transport for an incoming NSW Government.
NSW faces an election in March. This note – to help an incoming government – draws on transport matters identified in Pearls etc.  It won’t be in the incoming government’s briefs. Never mind – people who matter read Pearls! Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. WestConnex inquiry report.
The Parliamentary inquiry into WestConnex is the type of thing that should happen before any major infrastructure project starts. However, it let the project off too lightly. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Public inquiries into NSW infrastructure projects.
The former NSW Opposition Leader proposed a judicial inquiry into WestConnex and Sydney Light Rail.  The new Opposition Leader wants public inquiries into major infrastructure projects.  The NSW Transport Minister called this a ‘hairbrained idea’ saying projects are already subject to ‘independent oversight’. He is wrong. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. NSW farce rail
NSW Premier Berejiklian says her Government will ‘deliver a fast rail network slashing travel times across the State.’ Work will commence in the next term of Government and won’t wait for the Commonwealth – NSW will go it alone! Continue reading »
