After a generation of no infrastructure being built by Labor the Elites are shocked that when Real things are done, REAL things have to happen*. An "I will TRAM with you" hashtag doesn't actually move anyone, though it may make some Elitists feel warm.

The North West train line and in particular the station was payed for by the denizens of the eponymous Business Park and Labor pocketed the money even though it was announced by Ministers 5 times.

A few near dead trees; get over it and let some new ones grow so when Nature in the near future acts, there is a (slow) replacement entrain.

What the Elitist latte sippers needs to worry about is the Baird is not interested in the inner city and has decided to build up Parramatta. Badgerys and the infrastructure means Sydney loses its monopoly as a centre.

* I exclude the serially bankrupt debacles of the Cross City Tunnel and the Olympics airport line.

Well, I can't claim to be a fan either or of the privatisation of income earning infrastructure the oldies paid for through endeavour and sacrifice.

I am however a fan of coal seam gas. But only that extracted from the land holdings of willing partners, and if used exclusively here in Oz to replace coal!

You see coal seam gas is the purest form of naturally occurring methane, which can be fed into household ceramic fuel cells to create the world's cheapest power and endless free hot water.

The first upside being the exhaust product of this chemical conversion is mostly pristine water vapor! Of course the water table needs to be protected or used as affordable and storable desalinated water; that's also cheap enough to support irrigated agriculture.

I fail to see a problem if saltwater is also pumped up and returned as around 95% potable water to the very water table it was extracted from. And for around quarter of what we currently pay to desalinate water!

And very doable if you take foreign multinationals and their profit curve model shortcuts out of any production paradigm, but rather replace them with our own oil and gas authority? Who should be tasked with supplying very cheap, very clean energy to our own local manufacture, all while ensuring additional irrigation supplies and reseres for local agriculture.

If the gas industry ensured any water they extracted and returned or stored simply made farming as its partners prospects, endlessly sustainable and lucrative, especially in the driest years, I'm sure they'd be welcomed with open arms rather than the parasites the greens present them as?
Alan B.

And many more just love Baird's vibe.

As for the forced amalgamation of councils, considering that most were technically bankrupt, some blatantly corrupt, and all of them were vastly bureaucratic and inefficient taking years to process development applications, it is way past time to root out the self interested incumbents and install professionals.

Shadow, have you got any evidence that "most were technically bankrupt"?

No doubt he wants you to believe what you've just posted, but is it actually true? It seems very unlikely to me, as it's not being applied as a penalty for mismanagement, but rather something he's forcing onto councils that don't support his agenda.

Aidan,

Read the papers, this is not an old issue. It has been discussed ad nauseum. It is long overdue to clean out these cesspits, and they should have been amalgamated years ago.

“Unfortunately, land for just such a freeway was foolishly sold off by the Wran Labor Government some years ago, perhaps after the urging of inner-city branches of the party.”

My understanding is that the land had been resumed by the NSW Government and householders were allowed to still rent their houses at a cheap rental. Wran then promised these voters that they could buy back their houses at the same price the government paid them many years before. This meant substantial capital gains for all of them and surprise, surprise there was the Wranslide. This would have to be one of the worst decisions/bribes have undertaken by any government in Australia. Am I surprised that it was a Labor government?