Yes... not as a "Greenie" or a member of 'critical mass' (pack of morons in my opinion) but simply as one who has used the MRT (mass rapid transit) of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and SPECIALLY the FAST TRAIN from KLIA to the city centre, and who comes back to Melbourne saying to himself "Well here I am back in THIRD WORLD Melbourne......"

Yes.. its just so EASY to get around in both Singapore and KL on the MRT and LRT, but there are still strong grounds for good road infrastructure yes... but we in Melbourne are DECADES behind the Asian countries to our north, and yet, we have more resources and GDP.
We need more than just a good MRT, we need an AFFORDABLE ONE..... present prices are through the roof. Singapore its rarely more than $2.00 to go as far as the rail line goes and in KL its less than a $1.00 for most journeys.

I suspect that we are between a rock and a hard place on this one. On the one hand we have governments, both State and Federal, who think it is frivolous to spend our tax monies on transport infrastructure, and on the other we have the Macquaries of this world only too eager to provide infrastructure, as long as they can make massive profits from us. Until and unless we can find a government willing to question the long-term economics of this approach, we are stuck with third-rate services and escalating costs.

One simple step which would help the "take up" of existing public transport options.

- Allow travel to and from work via public transport as a legitimate work related expense for taxation purposes.

If the government wishes to give more tax breaks to income earners this might be a good place to start.

Like all incentive scheme's it has weaknesses which leave some better off than others and is not always fair (nothing for those who cannot use public transport, walk or ride pushbikes to work etc).
It is related to earning an income and maybe helps allow for the reality that many of us have to live a fair distance from work because we cannot afford inner suburbs.

It does not build more infrastructure but maybe increased take up will lead to more pressure for improved infrastructure.

An average house using solar hot water can help prevent up to three tonnes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere each year – that's about the same emissions produced by one car on the road every two years. (http://www.energy.com.au/energy/ea.nsf/Content/NSW+Solar+hot+water)

I came into a fair bit of money last year, and being quite environmentally and socially committed, felt it would be financially and environmentally prudent to instal in my inner-city public housing unit a solar hot water system. Needless, the idiots that run this failing bureaucracy were against it, quite strongly. No reasons were forthcoming except [well its our right to withold authority for such a change].

I note that in NSW the government has been treating electricity companies and the GST [as canberra gives it to them later] like hollow logs and using their huge annual profits to prop up their annual Budgets and garguantuan surpluses. The cynic in me says that they just want more and more money and 'environment' is just lip service.

The idiots that run that charade are there up to the highest level. Even the minister, who I wrote, wouldn't save me from these imbeciles that run the show.

I came here from Germany in 1996. I didn't have a car in Germany and didn't think I would need one in Melbourne. After 3 months on public transport (bus, tram) I gave up and walked to work for 3 years until we moved out of the inner city and became car dependent. In my experience it was a complete accident if a bus or tram ran on time. There were no bus lanes (still aren't many) and trams got stuck in traffic all the time and took 15-20 minutes to get me to work (walking took 30 min). The whole experience was just a complete turn-off and I haven't used public transport in Melbourne since. Until the speed of trains and trams improves dramatically and punctuality gets somewhere close to German or Swiss standards I see no chance for partronage to improve to the 20% the state government is looking for.

Generally I agree with your article Bob, but just one bit annoyed me.

" Dr Fisher, Professor of Environmental Science at Monash University, has said, "If we intend to use renewables to power the extraction of hydrogen from water to drive future fuel cell powered cars, the implications for atmospheric disturbance are truly catastrophic". Sir Isaac Newton’s law will be proved right once again. "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." "

You have completely mangled Sir Isaac Newton's 3rd law of motion. I think what you meant to say was something along the lines of "for every silver lining there is a dark cloud."