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.
Infrastructure
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.
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.
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.
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.
The broadband slog is just beginning
The Rudd government’s proposal to build its own fibre-to-the-home network poses a slew of questions, writes John Quiggin.
Essay: Rudd’s NBN recalls the day Billy Hughes went wireless
Nearly ninety years ago, prime minister Billy Hughes announced a public private partnership to construct a nation-building communications network. Sound familiar? Jock Given writes.
NBN: Pricey, but it’s building for the long term
Infrastructure doesn’t have to be profitable in and of itself to be of value, argues Stilgherrian.
NBN will be viable … but not Telstra
Getting infrastructure right in Australia is hard. It’s easy to bag politicians but the maths is always against them, writes Bernard Keane.
Why rail projects in NSW cost three times as much as they should
The gurus at Infrastructure Australia should be asking some hard questions because something seems terribly wrong with the cost of rail construction in NSW, writes Gavin Gatenby.
Rudd gettin’ busy with some nation building
Kevin Rudd wants to make nation-building fashionable again and it seems like the times suit him, writes Bernard Keane.
Kevin Rudd — the 76 billion dollar man
The Rudd Government needs a narrative, yes. But there’s a difference between promoting a narrative and chucking an idea a day into the news cycle, writes Bernard Keane.
Fixing politics: addressing our infrastructure shortfall
The issue of infrastructure investment perfectly illustrates the problems of our current political model. However, it is also the issue which is closest to being addressed successfully by a new approach from the Rudd Government, writes Bernard Keane.
Richard Farmer’s political bite-sized meaty chunks
Meaty snippets from the home of government plus the daily reality check and the pick of other people’s political coverage. Richard Farmer writes.
Economists: A three point plan for the new government
Sitting in his new office, feet on the desk, the afterglow of electoral victory is being tainted for new Treasurer Wayne Swan by the economic storm clouds gathering on the horizon. Crikey asked three leading economists for a three point plan on easing concerns about the economic outlook.
