Nuclear energy I hear you say? That's at least 20 years down the track given the build time, even if we started now?

Wrong, we could build one inside two years! The other 18 required to get the insane self-imposed prohibitions repealed/overcome the endless mindless, bogus rejections/political/profit-motivated interference?

Walk away safe, carbon-free, MSR thorium SMR's could be perfected inside a year! Then mass-produced as factory-built, shipping container-sized SMR's we could deploy virtually anywhere, even currently waterless desert!

One can turn turbines with just hot air and the venturi effect.

Moreover, the inventor and patent holder of the first nuclear reactor, Alvin Weinberg was neither an idiot nor scientifically challenged.

If Alvin liked and preferred MSR and thorium? And he clearly did and was sacked for it!

Then we should take a good long hard look at it

I mean, just 8 grams of thorium contains enough energy to power your house and car for 100 years! The cost of mining and refining that 8 grams? Around $100.00 That's just $1.00 a year.

Step outside into your yard, fill a cubic metre box with yours/almost any dirt anywhere on the planet, you'll be able to recover around 8 grams of thorium!

Imagine that powering multiple desalination projects
all over the joint!

Imagine one of the final waste decay products, alpha particle bismuth 213, being able to create massive medical tourism as annual milllions queue for their repeal from otherwise, death sentence cancer?

Given this, all but free waste product, has proved itself time and again, in numerous trials around the world as a miracle cancer cure! And if rolled out here to aid an intended recovery, may well send big pharma to the wall?

Why do you think we haven't got it, genius?

A recovery you say? Sacrifice you say?

Well, first cab of the sacrifice rank has to be, the mindless, ignorance personified, anti-nuclear stance of labor! And boy geniuses like yourself, Tristan.

We could spend another ten years debating an energy policy, you think?
Alan B.

Only a lefty could think ripping more money out of the private sector to feed an even more bloated public sector could ever support a recovery. Government needs to step back, reduce spending on bureaucrats, & let the money saved flow to the private sector which is the only area capable of creating real growth.

Halving the public sector, & most definitely the funding of the ABC is the starting point of a recovery.

If the Victorians think an assured permanent loss making project such as fast rail is a good thing for Victoria, then let Victoria fund both the building & continued losses itself. Just keep the rest of the country out of such a definite quagmire.

Stop any & I mean any & all forms of immigration, until every Ozzie who really wants a job has one, & then keep the numbers down to 1950 levels there after. If the only way to create enough employment is building houses, by all means build houses, but for Ozzies, not immigrants & most definitely not so called refugees. There are enough Ozzies needing housing to fill any migrant gap.

I believe the definition of a refugee is the side of an internal struggle that lost, & we don't need that sort of people here to build houses for, & feed welfare to.

The very last thing we need is big construction projects which will merely feed large corporations & their already overpaid unionists work force. It certainly won't help the little people, particularly in the country out of sight of the big capitals.

Tristan, really fast rail should be just that, not something that's already obsolete before its completion and should be still the fastest safest form of passenger travel 100 years from now.

And fully funded if the corridor is resumed as the very first step and a mile wide.

Once complete, land around stations along the way can be rezoned, subdivided and sold as urban house blocks, CBD's and industrial estates.

And means if we're smart? The profits made from the resale of newly rezoned land, will foot the entire construction bill!

And if constructed along the eastern seaboard, able to take full advantage of the third busiest transport corridor in the world!

And unbeatable in cost and inherent safety.

It's a project which will, if powered by MSR thorium, be the most affordable transport option in that space and for the next century and beyond as VLT!

VLT is faster than a 747 and will cruise at 900 klms.

How many transport options would transport you from Melbourne to Brisbane, CBD to CBD inside 3 express, no stops, hours? Or Sydney to Newcastle or Wollongong inside a very slick 20 minutes.

I've heard all the Monday morning experts tell us we can't/shouldn't do it, choose an option that allows CO2 spewing jets to patrol friendly skies. And because they just do not understand the transformative effect of an impossible project! We could not/should not have built the Snowy mountains project, because it was way too expensive way too big, etc, etc!

Likewise, the very same white elephant arguments were mounted by the same bean counters, when the Now famous Sydney Harbour Bridge was built and as suitable for today's traffic and volume by our then visionary leaders!

As opposed to the (rabbit in the spotlight) career pollies/hacks making all the decisions now with a level of competence that'd be sorely tried inside local government? We/they've been talking about very fast trains for over twenty years!

The end result? Something that'll cost four times as much today, even when adjusted for inflation!

Its how we've always done stuff here!
Alan B.

Any profits from any land sale should go to those who own the land, not some government resumption. Talk about robber baron, no thanks.

Hi Tristen - you state

"Some have suggested a 'HECS-style loan' for those unemployed as a consequence of this crisis.

Because this discriminates, it is unfair. Richard Denniss – speaking on ABC radio – is correct about this. Though I think he is wrong about HECS more broadly. Income contingent loans to pay for government support of individuals during the crisis would mean a veritable 'labour market lottery' as to who was left with debt. Denniss agrees with this much. But also 'income contingent loans' have a longer history of losing their progressivity as governments reduce thresholds to help pay for other endeavours – such as ubiquitous corporate welfare."

So I ask quite simply - why to Australians continue to have to pay for HECS debt?

Seriously - please investigate the amount of taxpayers dollars NOT being refunded to Government (Aussie taxpayers) under the HECS debt
system.

Please investigate those under HECS "students" who have no intention of repaying debt, and just take out another "course".

It may be of much relevance - now you can investigate.

The problem is that many students never get a well-paid job despite their HECS debts. Distributing the cost through Company Tax and income tax means people pay in proportion to the gains made ; including by corporations who exploit skilled labour. The problem is that repayment thresholds have been reduced well below average wages.