Infrastructure
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QUENTIN DEMPSTER. ‘Because it’s wreck-able’: Anger mounting at decision to end Fairfax.
The proposed end of Fairfax Media as an entity governing the editorial output of The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and regional newspapers has provoked mounting anger by some of Australia’s most prominent journalists. Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. Public servants, political appointments and good government.
Earlier this week what was widely perceived as two highly political appointments to plum roles in the federal public service highlighted a need to re-examine government administration in the 21st Century. Not because these appointments were necessarily inappropriate, but because they exposed a basic disconnect. We still like to pretend we have an olde-worlde apolitical Continue reading »
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PATRICIA EDGAR. Going Round the Twist with Telstra and the NBN Co
NBN Co claims their ‘focus remains strongly on improving customer experience on the network including a smooth connection to the network.’ In fact the experience is a fiasco. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Bill Shorten and Western Sydney Rail.
Mr Shorten has the right intentions about Western Sydney Rail but he needs to read Pearls and Irritations more carefully! Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Sydney Metro: the $60billion dollar deception
Here are some starters for the Sydney Metro inquiry. Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. Domain names issue closer to resolution.
Next week the group attempting to oust board directors at Internet domain names authority auDA will have an opportunity to explain in detail the reasons for their concern and their solutions. Continue reading »
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DORINA POJANI, IDERLINA MATEO-BABIANO, JONATHAN CORCORAN, NEIL SIPE. Freeing up the huge areas set aside for parking can transform our cities.
Parking may seem like a “pedestrian” topic (pun intended). However, parking is of increasing importance in metropolitan areas worldwide. On average, motor vehicles are parked 95% of the time. Yet most transport analysis focuses on vehicles when they are moving. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. 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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JAMES FERNYHOUGH. Telstra’s bombshell announcement is ‘huge’ news for consumers.
Telstra’s bombshell announcement that it will split in two is “huge” news for consumers, resulting in cheaper, faster internet. But experts say it comes 15 years and $40 billion too late. Continue reading »
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DAVID JAMES. Academics tangle with managerial oppressors.
The imposition of what is termed ‘managerialism’ or ‘marketisation’ on universities is almost entirely disastrous. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Australian freight policy: after the chainsaw? Part 3
A recent report on freight and supply chains leads Governments astray. This is the last of three articles seeking to put them back on course. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Australian freight policy: where is my chainsaw . Part2.
A recent report on freight and supply chains leads Governments astray. This is the second of three articles seeking to put them back on course. Continue reading »
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GREG BAILEY. The IPA and the Survival of the ABC.
Two prominent members of the IPA have just edited a book calling for the privatization of the ABC. This has long been a desire of this group, but with Minister Mitch Fifield, an IPA member, now taking the role of the LNP government’s attack dog against the ABC, is privatization a possibility? Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Australian freight policy: where is my chainsaw? Part 1 of 2.
A recent report on freight and supply chains leads governments astray. This the first of two articles challenging its view that more bureaucracy and data is needed to deal with a supposedly ubiquitous task. Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. Facts and fiction: More on the auDA situation.
auDA – the organisation charged with managing the Internet domain name space on behalf of the federal government – is currently undergoing a review of its operations. As we approach a Special General Meeting to be held on 21 July 2018 I decided to throw a few pertinent questions at CEO Cameron Boardman. As I’ve previously written, Continue reading »
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LAURA TINGLE. Here’s what Peter Dutton’s Home Affairs super-department looks like.
When Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the creation of the massive new Home Affairs portfolio in July last year, he called it “the most significant reform of Australia’s national intelligence and domestic security arrangements — and their oversight — in more than forty years”. Continue reading »
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ANNE HURLEY. auDA has great opportunity to reinforce its role in our digitally-enabled future, but needs to understand that disunity is death.
Having watched with interest the unfolding debate over the future of auDA – the organisation charged with managing the Internet domain name space here on behalf of the federal government – I was delighted to recently be invited to join its new Consultation Model Working Group. auDA has drawn together a group of 16 members, Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Revolving doors at the infrastructure club
Infrastructure Australia should be made a Commission and do its work in public. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Newcastle port restriction – action not words please!
Instead of handwringing politicians should act to reverse the outrageous restriction on Newcastle port. Continue reading »
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STEPHEN DUCKETT. Turnbull government backs pharmacies over consumers, yet again.
The government has totally squibbed the latest pharmacy regulation review, and consumers will be the losers. Every five to 10 years in Australia, the government establishes a review of the regulations governing pharmacies. Those reviews invariably come to the same conclusion: community pharmacy is over-regulated, and a reduction in regulation would benefit consumers. Just as invariably, Continue reading »
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LUKE FRASER. Rail manufacturing reform and the political shot clock.
One of the things that makes basketball so dynamic is the ‘shot clock’: once a team takes possession, they have 24 seconds to make a realistic shot – otherwise they turn the ball over to the opponents. This speeds up the game and discourages defensive play. In politics there is also a shot clock; a Continue reading »
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MICHAEL LESTER. Political Culture and the Limits of the APS Independent Inquiry.
There is an old saw that cautions politicians never to establish an enquiry unless they know the outcome beforehand. The Prime Minister appears to have learnt that lesson from the ‘can of worms’ exposed in his Royal Commission on Banking. Turnbull has announced an ‘independent inquiry’ into the future of the Australian Public Service (APS). Continue reading »
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GLEN SEARLE, CRYSTAL LEGACY. A closer look at business cases raises questions about ‘priority’ national infrastructure projects.
Infrastructure Australia’s latest infrastructure priority list has been criticised for being “too Sydney-centric” and for giving Melbourne’s East West Link, cancelled in 2014, “high priority” status. The cancelled Roe 8project in Perth was removed from the list. So how does a project get onto Infrastructure Australia’s list? This requires submission of a full business case, Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Trouble in infrastructure paradise NSW revisited.
The mixed reception for the infrastructure works of NSW Premier the Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP continues. It is mostly bad news punctuated by the odd piece of what the NSW Government considers good news. Continue reading »
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MARION TERRILL and DANIELLE WOOD. The infrastructure budget trap
The federal government has foreshadowed infrastructure ‘presents from Santa’ in next week’s budget. But unlike gifts from Santa, someone ultimately pays for infrastructure spending even if clever accounting hides it from the government’s bottom line. Continue reading »
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LAURIE PATTON. Vindicated: NBN Co. boss admits multi-technology mix (MTM) flaws.
The departing head of the trouble-plagued NBN, Bill Morrow, has finally come clean. He has finally conceded that reusing Telstra’s ageing copper wires is creating major problems. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Media catch-up on Newcastle Port.
Drawing on a report from Deloitte yesterday, Matt Wade in several Fairfax newspapers breathlessly told us that restrictions on privatised ports was adding to Sydney’s gridlock. He added that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is now investigating the secret restrictions on Newcastle Port which were introduced when Port Botany and the port of Newcastle Continue reading »
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ANDREW HAMILTON. Clerical culture produces poor fruit.
In a recent ‘Eureka Street’ article, I remarked that in the Catholic Church clericalism is a pejorative term. I tried also to identify some of the attitudes and behaviour associated with people regarded as clericalist. The article sparked a lively conversation. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN – More on the Sydney transport mess-the Western Sydney dud ‘deal’
Announcement of a Western Sydney ‘city deal’ by the Prime Minister and Premier was touted as securing a rail line through Badgerys Creek airport. It does not. In fact, it merely committed to yet another review about what to do. That may turn out to be lucky for taxpayers and Sydney. Continue reading »
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QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Positions vacant: NBN Co’s ‘death seat’.
After Mike Quigley and Bill Morrow, who’s next for NBN Co’s CEO ‘death seat’? It can be called an executive death seat because the NBN’s business plan to start recouping the cost of the Turnbull government’s mis handled $49billion multi-technology mix (MTM) rollout has been shredded. Continue reading »
