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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JOHN AUSTEN – Road pricing; an update
Reports about the Grattan Institute’s assessment of Sydney and Melbourne traffic is the latest re-ignition of road pricing arguments. However, the risk that policy falls further into the hands of vested interests needs to be addressed. There is an urgent need for Commonwealth advisers to lift their game. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Priorities for Infrastructure Australia.
The new Infrastructure Australia chair said the organisation is open to ideas and seeks priorities from the public. Sitting in the public gallery I suggest three priorities: (1) revisit some of its advice; (2) set out the Commonwealth’s role; and (3) become more independent. The aim is to improve its reputation as a Commonwealth adviser. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Doubts about infrastructure go beyond Sydney Metro.
John Menadue recently asked for an open public inquiry into the NSW Metro scheme. Given the momentous questions about that scheme and its supposed evaluation there is no doubt such an inquiry must be Australia’s highest infrastructure priority. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Infrastructure advice – worse than expected.
Previous articles in this blog suggested serious problems in Australia’s infrastructure assessment and approvals arrangements – upon which tens of billions pivot. The recent Sydney and South-West Metro Rail review by Infrastructure Australia provides troubling evidence of this problem. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Infrastructure in Australia- the continuing policy confusion and advisory mess.
Infrastructure Australia’s ‘reform’ reports and its updated priority list – which assesses particular projects – add to evidence about problems with infrastructure advice. This article deals with the latest reform report – corridor protection – and the resulting depressing high speed rail humbug. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Road spending incurs billion dollar new debts annually – nobody notices (Repost from 27 June 2016)
It’s traditional that election time in Canberra brings out the road lobbies who ask for ‘all that extra cash’ which governments raise from fuel excise to be ‘put back into our roads’. The problem is that the facts no longer bear this out. Australia is spending more on roads than it collects from fuel excise Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Does Infrastructure Australia understand its ideas for public transport franchising?
A recent report by Infrastructure Australia recommends franchising state public transport services, with Commonwealth incentives for so doing. It claimed that this would realise around $16 bn of financial savings, which could be spent on infrastructure. The report assumed there to be inherent but undisclosed inefficiencies in state government services, without providing evidence of such Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Infrastructure misuse and mistakes – the Hume Highway.
The value of infrastructure depends on how well it is used. Australia’s main infrastructure problem is misuse of what we have; a symptom of an absence of sensible policies, advisory failures and lobbying to build monuments to keep the concrete flowing. This article, about the Hume Highway, is the first in a series on this Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN: The Commonwealth is ‘meddling’ in NSW rail – at last!
There are indications the Prime Minister wishes to modernise infrastructure policy. Reports regarding rail to Badgerys Creek highlight the discomfort this causes to the NSW Government- and enormous benefits if the Prime Minister gets Commonwealth involvement right. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Where to for Commonwealth infrastructure policy?
Legend has it that Charlton Heston flashed a Rolex wristwatch during a chariot race in the 1959 Ben Hur movie. Some recent Prime Ministerial comments could be considered flashes of a policy Rolex in an infrastructure discussion fitted to the setting of Ben Hur – in ancient Rome. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. NSW rail projects – a lot of explaining to do
Yet more questions arise about projects set off by former NSW Transport Minister now Premier Ms Berejiklian. This time about light rail. As for the port privatisations and metro, real answers are yet to come. The sooner a Commonwealth inquiry gets to the bottom of all this the better. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. The Sydney metro – the doubt and mess continues.
A little more real information about Sydney rail development is coming to light. It is not dispelling the doubts about metro. A decision on Badgerys Creek rail, which would have been straightforward without the metro, is now ‘years off’. The extent of metro disruption is becoming evident – spreading to even non-metro lines. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. The Premier and privatisation; selling silverware for transport tupperware?
Commentators on Premier Baird’s years focussed on short term matters such as money from privatisations or inconvenience caused by infrastructure building. The most important question, the merit of infrastructure built with sale proceeds, may take years to answer. NSW will be lucky if it ends up with transport infrastructure of lasting value from the sale Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Badgerys Creek – testing times
The new airport at Badgerys Creek will test national competition and state transport infrastructure policies and may reveal the latter to be gravely flawed. The usual Commonwealth-state funding fight spectacle should be treated as a trivial pantomime and not distract from the serious policy issues that must be addressed and their permanent consequences for many Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Roads – another year of congestion-causing deficits
We are spending enormous sums on roads and increasing our national debt. Communities are being seriously disrupted and the congestion is increasing. When will we put a stop to this nonsense? Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Sydney, metro again: $10billion more to ‘build something later’?
John Austen suggests that the NSW government’s approach to railways is at least back-to-front and probably misconceived. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Sydney Metro – a disaster in store.
The public has been given no serious justification for why Sydney needs a separate, distinct and very expensive new rail system like Metro. All we have is a very big bill and more on the horizon. Sydney could spend almost as much on its metro rail as Australia will pay for its new submarines, with Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Urban rail projects: property developers should be servants not masters
There is plenty of advice on how to plug the supposed infrastructure gap in Australia’s big cities. One popular idea is for passenger rail projects to be led and funded by property development. [1] The idea has intuitive appeal. The origins of some railways many years ago was land development. Land use has been put Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. How port privatisation will hobble Newcastle
Commonwealth action is necessary to undo potential penalties on Newcastle Port. While the infrastructure conversation focusses on major projects like electricity grids it can ignore more significant matters. One such matter in NSW that deserves immediate attention is port privatisations. A deal included in the sales of Botany (2013) and Newcastle (2014) impedes the development Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Is there a simple way of dealing with national infrastructure issues? Yes, but it is not a simple matter of adopting Infrastructure Australia’s ‘project list’.
The argument Recent pieces offered a seemingly simple way forward to deal with national infrastructure issues. It should be simple. All parties should commit to (Infrastructure Australia’s) “project” list – in part or in full – and then stop spending. These “projects” have been properly assessed and found to be worth doing, and specifically worth Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. The High Court – The Williams case and transport
This article expands on previous comments that the Williams (No. 2) case is reason to reconsider Commonwealth engagement in land transport. [1] The challenge to Government spending programs Williams (No. 2) was the third recent challenge in the High Court to Commonwealth Government spending. Before these three cases it was widely assumed the Government could Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. High speed rail – here we go again.
Another proposal involving high speed rail Sydney-Melbourne recently surfaced; from CLARA (Consolidated Land and Rail Australia). Extensive media reports noted an advisory board including former Trade Minister the Hon. Andrew Robb, ex Premiers the Hon. Barry O’Farrell and the Hon. Steve Bracks , and former US Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood. A figure of $200billion was Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Road pricing rather than more road funding must be the priority.
Road pricing is a hot topic for policy advisers although less popular with the public and elected representatives. This article attempts a (overly) simple explanation of what, why and whereto of road pricing. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Infrastructure summit – reported highlights
Is there such a thing as bad or wasteful infrastructure or is it like motherhood, all noble and good? Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. High speed rail – where to? Competing with airlines or cars?
This article proposes a change in focus for the high speed rail debate. Rather than seeking to compete with airlines, rail should contribute to settlement that eases pressures on capital cities. This change of focus does not require ego stoking thousand kilometre distances at 350kph plus speeds, but trains for comfortable commuting between second tier Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN and LUKE FRASER. Urbane transport policy. Part 3 of 3
This article is the third in a series about transport. The first two dealt with topics raised by the Prime Minister; mass transit, 30-minute cities etc and noted some challenges for the Commonwealth.[i] Urbane Transport policy. Part 1 of 3 Urbane transport policy. Part 2 of 3 The articles draw on public information – Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN and LUKE FRASER. Urbane transport policy. Part 2 of 3.
Urbane transport policy This article is the second in a series about transport infrastructure. Part 1 dealt with the Prime Minister’s focus on mass transit and 30-minute cities. This deals with other matters raised by the Prime Minister: value capture, city deals. A final article will deal with the Commonwealth’s role.[i] Value capture Value capture Continue reading »
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John Austen and Luke Fraser. Urbane transport policy. Part 1 of 3.
Prime Minister Turnbull made a splash on urban transport recently. He sketched a vision of ‘30 minute cities’ where residents spend on average just one hour a day travelling to regular activities like work and shopping. He also considered mass transit solutions rather than just more motorways. This article is the first of three raising Continue reading »
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John Austen. Grattan Institute on transport projects: a better mousetrap?
In ‘Road to riches: better transport investment’ the respected Grattan Institute joined commentators, independent authorities and lobby groups in advancing ideas on transport ‘investment’. Like others it proposed publication of assessments for public spending; a better mousetrap to ensnare politically motivated proposals. The report proposed a three stage process for government transport ‘investment’: Spending only Continue reading »
