Tony Abbott’s incapacity to handle the basics of economic policy is hurting his party.
Infrastructure
Life on the railroad: caught between state screw-ups and federal follies
More than six months after the ill-fated Brumby government rattled dozens of Footscray residents and business-owners by forgetting to tell them about a plan to bulldoze their properties to make way for the new Regional Rail Link, homeowners here are facing more uncertainty. Local resident Pat McGrath explains.
Why you won’t hear calls for a CBA of the post-flood reconstruction
Post-disaster reconstruction illuminates the irrational, but humane, approach we sometimes adopt to infrastructure provision.
‘Critical infrastructure’ = hysterical
reaction
The “critical infrastructure” apparently leaked by WikiLeaks is a bureaucratic exercise that tells us nothing. Why is the press overreacting?
Coalition’s infrastructure policy: good if you’re paranoid about debt
The Coalition finally offers some sensible policy on infrastructure, but it’s on the wrong track in a few areas.
Gillard’s rail pledge ends decades of disgraceful mismanagement
NSW, no matter what the government, cannot be trusted with infrastructure dollars, as the mal-administration of transport projects is hard-wired into the state’s public service.
Forget high-speed rail — there are plenty of better investments to be made in rail
Labor has managed to produce a high speed rail policy twice as bad as the Greens’. And it badly misses the point about where we should be investing in rail.
Populate or perish?
What does population growth mean for environmental policy? asks the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Charles Berger.
Housing — the real arena for federal takeover
While health gets all the attention, housing policy is a critical Commonwealth-state issue that we must get right in the face of a growing population.
Sydney, a giant dementia farm in the making, cans its new Metro
Yet another Sydney transport infrastructure project — $5.3 billion underground CBD Metro — is about to be snuffed. It seems one of the few growth industries in Sydney is proposing and cancelling public transport projects.
Get off the bloody road: the roads aren’t safe for bikes
No one would suggest it is safe for pedestrians to be on the roadway, so why should it be any different if a pedestrian gets on a bike? Ex NSW Roads Minister Carl Scully says cyclists should get off the road.
A look behind the detour of Transurban
Transurban is destined to join the worldwide queue of over-valued toll roads mired in debt and based on misleading financial models, writes John Goldberg.
Kelly: Building the foundation of a viable nation
Infrastructure shouldn’t be a vote grabbing propaganda exercise, particularly since tough decisions need to be made to balance population growth. Rudd needs to recognised that infrastructure is more about economic reform than nation building, writes Paul Kelly.
My shovel’s better than yours: Rudd v Howard on infrastructure
Federal politicians are falling over themselves to claim credit for spending taxpayer’s money on infrastructure, writes Alan Moran. Too bad public projects are never judged with the same rigor as private projects.
Guy Rundle: We don’t need new fast trains, Albo, we need new cities
When it comes to infrastructure, what we need first and foremost are not new rail lines. Not even fast rail lines. What we need are new cities.
Stutchbury: Stuff the GFC, pay attention to China
Will a lack of adequate infrastructure slow Australia’s economic growth? Australia needs to embark on a new wave of supply-side reform, one that actually includes cost-benefit analysis, writes Michael Stutchbury.
Over-crowded and under-planned: Australian cities in crisis
Don’t believe state governments’ glossy planning documents promising of “strong communities” and “smart growth”, says Peter Spearritt: Australia’s cities are a mess of urban sprawl, inadequate transport, congested roads, dwindling water supplies and energy-guzzling buildings.
You don’t have to be a roads scholar to work out congestion
Urban road transport is a vast public policy failure by governments that costs us billions of dollars a year, but it will go on being tolerated, chiefly because voters won’t accept the solution.
Rudd: Howard wasted his boom time wealth
In PM Kevin Rudd’s latest op-ed, he reaffirms his idea that the Howard Government “squandered” their chance to reform, but assures us his government won’t do the same.
Go Betweens bridge push enters final days
Indie music fans across the country are voting in force to have a Brisbane’s new Hale Street Link Bridge named after Australian band The Go-Betweens.
Criticism for school signs plan
The government is extracting every political mileage out of their school infrastructure program possible, with schools forced to place government advertising signs outside new buildings until 2011.
Infrastructure funding plight continues
What Australia got from the federal budget is a list of projects, not a solution to our infrastructure crisis, writes Phillip O’Neill.
NT budget: deficit delivers overdue infrastructure spending
The $4.472 billion NT budget will power long needed infrastructure, hospital health services and fund the construction of a new city… called Weddell.
Budget countdown: Auslink infrastructure planning fail
Auslink: frequently no appraisal, no cooperation and no planning, and no one ever evaluated anything.
Budget countdown: It’s time to introduce tolls on our roads
There is a way to extend existing infrastructure funding further without slicing or delaying projects: it’s time to introduce tolls.
