Infrastructure
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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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ROSS GITTINS. Don’t assume more expressways and trains will fix traffic jams. (SMH 1.12.2018)
When Marion Terrill, of the Grattan Institute, set out to find out how much commuting times had worsened in Sydney and Melbourne, she discovered something you’ll find very hard to believe. But it would come as no surprise to transport economists around the world. Continue reading »
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LUKE FRASER. Best of 2018: Canberra has abandoned roads to inflationary spending and policy chaos.
Botched State road projects, toll road fee hikes and congestion grab big headlines and make good sport for critics of State governments. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. The Best of 2018: Sydney Metro: A Forty Billion Dollar Deception?
Like all our big cities, Sydney needs better public transport. The Government’s responsibility is to secure this with the best system, for the best price. But as a minimum, new investments cannot be allowed to threaten the productivity and growth potential of our existing public transport system and its commuters. Sydney Metro Rail is starting 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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Coalition energy and climate policies hit rock bottom at year’s end
The federal Coalition government has achieved what most would have assumed impossible at the start of 2018: its position on climate and energy policies has worsened and shifted even further to the right. Continue reading »
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TONY SMITH. The unacceptable road toll.
We should not accept that it is inevitable that people will die on our roads. While drivers must behave responsibly, governments need to take actions which might seem radical in a society obsessed with cars. Continue reading »
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LUKE FRASER. Canberra has abandoned roads to inflationary spending and policy chaos
Botched State road projects, toll road fee hikes and congestion grab big headlines and make good sport for critics of State governments. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Newcastle Port – another botched privatisation -A repost from 5 September 2016
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has taken legal action over the terms on which the NSW Coalition Government in 2013 privatised Port Botany and Port Kembla and imposed severe restrictions on Newcastle Port. Our mainstream media has shown scant interest in this episode of ‘crony capitalism’ which lessened competition, disadvantaged the Hunter region and Continue reading »
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STEPHEN LEEDER. Private-public partnerships – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Partnerships between public agencies and private providers demand unusual degrees of vigilance of both parties to ensure that the contract between them explicitly states – in great detail – their individual expectations and accountabilities. Values will differ. The agreement should, if possible, be tested component by component before “going live.” 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 »
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LAURIE PATTON. Time to ditch our dud NBN – beaten by the ‘All Blacks of Broadband’
The contrast could not be any starker. As warnings emerged that Australia’s telcos are seeing their profits squeezed by the end of NBN Co’s short-lived wholesale price discount (with the likelihood that retail prices will rise), across the ditch came word that New Zealanders are about so see their broadband speeds greatly increase while the price Continue reading »
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JOHN KERIN. Phasing out the Live Sheep Trade.
It is now nearly 60 years since the accelerated live sheep trade commenced from Australia to the Middle East. Early opposition to the trade came from the meatworkers union (AMIEU) in the 1970s, but has increasingly come from animal welfare groups and exposure of the cruelty in the trade (550,000 dead, 2000-2012?). After all this Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. A report by Infrastructure Australia on outer urban transport.
A recent report on outer urban public transport by IA provides some interesting information .But much better understanding and analysis is needed before more resources are wasted and communities made worse off . Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. Planning for smart cities – Code of Practice released
“Enhanced telecommunications connectivity, data insights, digital planning practices and innovation districts” will underpin the creation of so-called ‘smart cities’. That’s the theme of a Code of Practice released this week as part of Smart Cities Week Australia. Developed by leading smart cities advocacy group the Smart Cities Council and the Green Building Council of Australia the voluntary code is designed Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. The NBN sinks deeper into a technological mire.
Oh dear! This week new NBN Co boss Steven Rue told Senate Estimates they are still projecting that FTTN (the trouble-plagued technology using Telstra’s ageing copper wires) will be used until 2040. Experts, including Internet Australia chair Dr Paul Brooks, say FTTN will have to be replaced within 5-10 years of completion, preferably before then. Continue reading »
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JOHN STAPLETON. The fiasco of Australia’s telecommunications.
Complaints against the troubled broadband network have risen yet again with the latest Telecommunications Ombudsman’s Report, released this week, showing significant increases in complaints over the last year. Continue reading »
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STEPHEN HOWES. Bringing in backpackers is not the right way to get more workers onto farms.
Suddenly, getting workers onto farms is a top political priority. Over the weekend, and again in parliament on Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced plans to get more backpackers working on farms. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Immigration is not the problem in NSW- it is Premier Berejiklian infrastructure mess
Premier Gladys Berejiklian wants to halve Australia’s immigration intake. It is a diversionary tactic to disguise her infrastructure policy failures. Road and rail policies are in melt down Immigration does present challenges but it is Australia’s great success story. Some of the problems that immigration faces are the result of policy failure in other areas Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Pain before more pain and then no gain in Berejiklian’s growing Sydney transport mess
The NSW Government says there is an ‘amazing’ light at the end of the tunnel with the closure of the Epping-Chatswood line that is part of the Metro project. The analogy is apt. An approaching light in a railway tunnel heralds big trouble. Continue reading »
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RON GARDINER. Brisbane City Council’s Metro Madness
To address busway-congestion problems in central Brisbane, City Council plans to introduce, in 2023, a new and ‘distinctive’ form of public transport. Priced at approximately $1 billion, the project has the inappropriate name Brisbane Metro (common definition: a railway system, usually underground). Three aspects of Brisbane Metro are cause for urgent concern – choice of vehicle, proposed river-crossing Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. Common sense prevails in battle over Internet domain names service.
Despite a nasty and at times irrational campaign by a small dissident group, the future of Australia’s Internet domain names system was secured last week. A meeting of members overwhelmingly approved a new constitution and consequential governance changes to auDA – the company that oversees management of our domain names service. Continue reading »
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