On the National Press Club today Mr Brendon Lyon of Infrastructure
Partnerships Australia spoke on infrastructure needs of Australia.

Most of his address was on problems of road congestion.
His organisation is proposing a system of road use charging to be
introduced in the future. This would be additional to toll road charges
and would be on all other roads. Congested roads would have higher charges.
He acknowledged that this would not happen soon but a discussion on
the form it should take is needed. Frankly it is a business as usual
proposal and will be irrelevant by the time it is introduced.
He hardly mentioned public transport except to say that the funds
"liberated" by the removal of registration charges could pay for the
dedicated rail freight line and the Sydney NW line.

As one who has no option but to enter one of Sydney's busiest main
roads I would get the highest charges without option.
Frankly I think he is away with the fairies if he thinks road
congestion will be the same let alone worse than it it is now in ten
years time.
Either car fuel will be too expensive for commuter use or it will be rationed.
Long distance road transport will have faded and that alone will
reduce congestion very significantly.

If this is the standard of forward planning that is being undertaken
now then as Dr Hirsch warned us we are in for really catastrophic
economic and social problems.

Bazz
What an absurd proposal. Now the citizens get to pay for the inefficiency of the NSW government's lack of forward planning as well as the curse of continuous economic growth and development foisted on a public who has been bemoaning the growth of Sydney/Melbourne and lack of corresponding infrastructure for years.

Does this mean the taxes paid towards road infastructure are to be refunded or reduced if we go down to a purely user pays system.

Is this the best we can expect from our policy makers?

What about some real action on population growth, decentralisation and infrastructure for regional areas. You won't get movements of people out of larger cities unless there are similar services in the regions.

I agree Pelican, we are being let down badly by both academics as well
as politicians.

I forgot to include the reference to Dr Hirsch.

http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/others/pdf/oil_peaking_netl.pdf

However perhaps we should not be too hard on the planners.
If they try and plan to match the real world, their proposals will not
be accepted by the politicians and they could be out of a job.
I think many of the demands for funds for hospitals, roads, rail etc
have reached such a level that the government can only meet them by
borrowing.
Then when you see the struggle to get growth restarted
again with little success, then I guess borrowing is a one way trip to
disaster.

I believe we should use the resources we have to electrify the railways
and reopen branch lines. That would mean cutting all expenditure on
roads except some rural areas where a rail line never existed.
As much as people will think that is away with the fairies then they
should consider the following;
The year that the most oil was discovered 1964.
The year that consumption first exceeded discovery 1983.
The year that crude oil production stopped increasing May 2005.
The year that crude + all liquids peaked July 2008.
Consumption is now four to five times discovery.

We are now on a plateau and there is now no discussion about the time
of peak oil, that is history, the discussion now is around when
depletion of supply will become noticeable.
The argument seems to be settling around 2011 to 2016.

I maintain that these are fundamental facts that infrastructure
planners should be taking into account.
However they do not even appear as "risks" to future planning.
Certainly the speaker at the Press Club is quite gung ho that roads
are the way of the future, we just need to tax their use to cope
with a population in Sydney of 7 million.

Aaaaarrrrggghhh !

Yes pelican this is about as good as the policy gets. Ever since about half way through the Hawke government we stopped having progressive and visionary policy and switched to reactionary policy. If the polls went this way so did policy. This is how it has rolled ever since and with a shallow and manipulative media ramming home the the reactionary view governments have become weaker and less likely to do what is needed.
Look at climate policy. Without going into the rights and wrongs let's say we need action on carbon. The right thing to do is impose a tax or regulatory system to control and reduce emissions. This is obvious and the people want to see something happen, but as soon as it is pointed out that it will cost us all to do so we get great resistance. A good government will lead use despite the fear to this new place and help us understand that it is not the end of the world. What we got was a government that tried to do it by halves then spat the dummy when it failed topped off by an opposition that saw a political opportunity to play on peoples fear and confusion on the subject for self promotion.
We now have many of our major industrialists demanding that action be taken to fix a carbon price so they can get on with future planning, it would appear that most of the industrial sector knows this is needed but we still have governments to scared to act because it won't look good at the polls.
We are desperate for a real leader, one with courage, vision and strength. All we currently have is a government frightened of the electorate and an abusive opposition with no idea's just criticism.

""" We now have many of our major industrialists demanding that action be taken to fix a carbon price so they can get on with future planning, it would appear that most of the industrial sector knows this is needed """

No! They just figured out they can reap heaps of loot by skimming their share of the plunder!

""" but we still have governments to scared to act because it won't look good at the polls. """

And right they are, the people are smarter than them!

""" We are desperate for a real leader, one with courage, vision and strength. """

Nice dream can I join in?

""" All we currently have is a government frightened of the electorate and an abusive opposition with no idea's just criticism. """

Not frightened at all, they're just regrouping after we shot them down in their last failed attempt at trying to swindle us.

Don't worry Bazz, this will all sort itself out soon as the pinch is felt. We'll go down so screaming fast, only the smart will be prepared. Then we'll be able to usher in a new world order :)

"All we currently have is a government frightened of the electorate..."

I thought they were supposed to represent the electorate?