Infrastructure
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SARAH ANN WHEELER, EMMA CARMODY. Was the Government’s irrigation cash splash worth it? (The Advertiser)
One of us was born on a fifth-generation irrigated dairy farm in NSW; the other in a country town in the Murray-Darling Basin. Continue reading »
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GEOFF GALLOP. Effective public servants need nuanced understanding of politics, what drives their minister and government. Geoff Gallop offers eleven theses on Australian politics in practice.
Geoff Gallop is a former premier of Western Australia. Your minister cannot avoid dealing with the politics, so you should understand the ideas behind it, and the policy compromises they must make to secure alliances. Continue reading »
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KIM WINGEREI The NBN is wrecking a whole industry
NBNCo is not just a costly technological failure, but a policy debacle that has cost Australias taxpayers billions of dollars that should have been better spent, as well as contributing to the severe devaluation of a whole industry. Continue reading »
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CRISPIN HULL. Transport policy takes us on Argentine road (Canberra Times 7 June 2019)
Transport should not be a hostage to politics and ideology, but in Australia it has been since before the rival colonies of NSW and Victoria decided to have different railway gauges in the 19 th century and it is likely to continue and get worse with the re-election of the Coalition Government. Continue reading »
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JOHN TÖNS JP. Is the trend towards Artificial Intelligence a threat to Employment?
If today’s (12/06/19) National Press Club address by Chris Richardson is to be believed then the trend towards artificial intelligence presents no threat to employment. The analysis presented, however, reminded this listener to Mark Twain’s comment ‘that there are lies damned lies and statistics.’ 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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ROBIN SMIT, JAKE WHITEHEAD, NIC SURAWSKI. Australians could have saved over $1 billion in fuel if car emissions standards were introduced 3 years ago (The Conversation)
When it comes to road transport, Australia is at risk of becoming a climate villain as we lag behind international best practice on fuel efficiency. Continue reading »
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SHARON PARKINSON, DEB BATTERHAM, MARGARET REYNOLDS. Homelessness soars in our biggest cities, driven by rising inequality since 2001 (The Conversation)
Homelessness has increased greatly in Australian capital cities since 2001. Almost two-thirds of people experiencing homelessness are in these cities, with much of the growth associated with severely crowded dwellings and rough sleeping. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. The communist threat curbed capitalist greed, but no longer
Five years ago in this blog I warned about growing inequality.With the communist threat gone we have seen again greed coming back into full play around the world. We have seen it here in the greed and anti social behaviour of our banks and massive tax avoidance by large multinational companies in co-operation with our Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. It’s the vision, stupid! Why we need #BetterBroadband
While neither side of politics is saying much about our increasingly-maligned National Broadband Network during the election period, the fact is Australia is falling behind in the race to leverage the benefits – economic and social – of an emerging digitally-enabled future. Irrespective of the outcome of the election we need #BetterBroadband and we need a Continue reading »
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ANDREW SALMON. South Korea unveils national strategy for 5G (Asian Times)
South Korea expects to create 600,000 new “quality jobs” by 2026 thanks to fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile technologies, and hopes to leverage its first-mover advantage in the sector globally, a senior government official said on Monday. Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. Labor spells out its NBN rescue plan
Labor’s communications spokesperson, Michelle Rowland, has outlined a very sensible approach to fixing the dud NBN. In fact, should the Coalition retain office it would be well advised to adopt Labor’s plan. 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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JACK WATERFORD. Can Thodey, or Shorten, stop bleeding in the public service? (Canberra Times online 30.3.2019)
It was hard to avoid the feeling this week that Terry Moran has a much better take on the problems of modern government and public administration than the review of the public service commissioned by Malcolm Turnbull last year. And Pearls and Irritations is “ Australia’s best website focused on policy issues’ ! Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. Fair trade or exploitation – the ‘warehousing’ of Internet domain names.
auDA – the company managing our Internet domain name registration system – is engaged in a reform program. This follows a review by the communications department which called for major governance changes. auDA has released a discussion paper and has called for public submissions on a range of proposed policy and operational changes. This is being accompanied by a consultation Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WEST, JEFFREY KNAPP. Conflicts of Interest”R”Us: KPMG pursues PwC back into insolvency (Michael West).
The Big Four, the relentless architects of global tax avoidance, have returned to the insolvency business, despite selling out of it 15 years ago because of overweening conflicts of interest. When it became known last year that the bosses of PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG had been getting together for cosy dinners, and given the 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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PATRICIA & DON EDGAR. The Farce Called ‘Community consultation’.
Yarra City Council touts community consultation as part of its resident-friendly credentials. But our recent experience suggests the process is a farce. It demonstrates why public disillusionment with government and a bureaucratic process is at an all time high for transparency is completely lacking. 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 MENADUE. Some Coalition legacies that a new government must confront
There are several major issues that dominate public life today and require resolution. Those issues are –the growing existential threat of climate change, the dire consequences following the Iraq invasion, tax cuts during the mining boom that result in continuing budget deficits and debt increases, the NBN debacle, hostility to refugees and asylum seekers, and Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. As PM, Bill Shorten could help offer cheaper cars without any cost to the budget
The Australian Motor Industry Federation and the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries have successfully lobbied the Australian government to continue restrictions on the imports of second-hand vehicles. We are paying a large price for protecting an industry that no longer exists,our auto manufacturing sector Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. The Liberal and National parties have deserted country people on climate change, NBN and more.
Both the Liberal and National parties are taking a drubbing from country voters. A while back it was New England and Lyne. More recently it has been Indi and Wagga Wagga. Continue reading »
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JOSEPH E STIGLITZ. How Can We Tax Footloose Multinationals? (Project Syndicate)
Apple, Google, Starbucks, and companies like them all claim to be socially responsible, but the first element of social responsibility should be paying your fair share of tax. Instead, globalization has enabled multinationals to encourage a race to the bottom, threatening the revenues that governments need to function properly. Continue reading »
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GARY McLAREN Is an NBN quick fix possible?
The National Broadband Network went from a nation building project to political football after the 2013 election. Is it now too late to save? How much of the billions spent can be salvaged? How much needs to be spent to remedy the fundamental flaws? 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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RICHARD DENNISS. Our regulators fail to protect the vulnerable from the greedy. Let’s find out why. ( A repost from 19 September 2018)
Neoliberalism’s best trick was convincing us that ‘empowering’ citizens to shop around would deliver better services at a lower cost. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. We are paying an enormous price to keep Christopher Pyne in Parliament
The Coalition Government ended our car manufacturing industry which had an Effective Rate of Protection of 8%. It employed 200,000 people. We are told by the Government that the void in SA will be filled by building the new French submarines in Adelaide. The won’t. There will be only about 2000 new jobs in SA Continue reading »
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LUKE FRASER. The roads that ate the Australian economy – Part 1 of 2
Australia’s current approach to road spending will soon generate up to $20 billion every year in new public sector debt – making it impossible for any new Commonwealth government to benefit from much-needed tax reform and revenue increases. This also cooks the goose of the road freight sector which Australia’s economy relies upon, while the Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. We are paying to protect an industry that no longer exists.
We see it almost every day in the media; rent-seekers extracting benefits for themselves through political influence and lobbying at the expense of the broader community. It has very little to do with markets. It is about political favours for the powerful. No wonder that more and more people around the world are concluding that 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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