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Articles

Roundabouts and car parks? The major parties are promising much on transport, but they should stick to their jobs
In the seat-by-seat slugfest that is the federal election, transport infrastructure is once again at the forefront. Small, hyper-local projects are a favourite of both major parties this time around. That’s even though small local projects, such as roundabouts and carparks, simply aren’t the job of the federal government, and in practice often go badly.
The road to Perdition - Elections and road spending
Brace for the federal election – the transport promises have begun. Some are pretty big, such as Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s A$678 million for the Outback Highway, and Opposition leader Anthony Albanese’s $500 million down-payment on faster rail between Newcastle and Sydney. If history is any guide, a rush of small local promises won’t be far behind.
Total transport spending is about par for the course, but the pattern is unusual
This year the rhetoric may be big, but the scale of the numbers is nothing unusual. What is different is the pattern of spending over the budget’s four-year forward estimates.
Infrastructure splurge ignores smarter ways to keep growing cities moving
Expanding the capacity of the transport network always gets far more attention than other ways of managing a fast-growing population.