"So far our major attempts to meet the water crisis has been to build desalination plants which are a colossal waste of money, not only in capital costs, but for daily operation as they use too much power, while we waste 90% of the water that falls on the continent."

Where is the cost-benefit analysis to justify the building of the above? Was not the building of desalination plants due to politicians succumbing to propaganda peddled by alarmist AGW believers, such as Tim Flannery and yourself? When are you going to wake up to the fact that there is no empirical scientific evidence to support the AGW hypothesis?

"We are light years behind the rest of the world with underground railways because we say that we cannot afford them. The fact is that we can afford them and we can spread debt repayments over a century so that future generations pay their share."

Fanciful thinking -- typical of Labor! Think pink batts, Julia Gillard memorial halls, NBN! Proceed without cost-benefit analysis, borrow billions, and repay forever more!

Given our limited financial resources, it is imperative that allocation of capital to infrastructure projects be subjected to cost-benefit analysi

In my view underground rail is just a waste of money when you consider how much cheaper, easier & less environmental impact a mono rail system would be. No tunnels, no bridges, no cutting through forests, no flooding & just so much less maintenance & running cost.