Policies > Infrastructure

Summary:

We believe that all major investment in roads, rail and ports should be funded by the Federal Government. This will eliminate the blame game between the state governments and the federal government over project funding. Major infrastructure projects should aim to improve the supply side of the economy so people and goods can be moved faster and safer.

Abbott continues the blame game: The new opposition leader Mr Tony Abbott responded to a question during a radio interview about the poor roads in NSW. His reply was "After 12 years of government we gave more and more money to the states (to build roads) but they wasted that money and are like bottomless wells" 2GB 8:50 am 14/12/09.

He offers no solution he justs blames the his opponents or state politicians. He takes no responsibility for his governments failure to act on infrastructure needs over eleven years in government. Australia's level of investment in key road, rail and ports infrastructure has been inadequate for decades. Tony is only the latest of many to play the blame game. The blame game will only end when we have a referendum and get rid of state governments.

Infrastructure that Australia needs:

1. The Pacific Highway: A dual carriageway along the Pacific Highway from Sydney to Brisbane.

This road has been the key means of transport from the largest population in Australia (Sydney) to the fastest growing population in Australia (South East QLD). This road corridor contains around ten million people which is close to half our national population. This road is still only half finished after over four decades of arguing between the NSW State and Federal governments on who should take responsibility for it.

The Greens have blocked or seriously delayed almost every upgrade proposition on the premise of environmental protection see link. We believe however that people are more important than trees and grass. The thousands of deaths over the decades and tens of thousands of people who are missing a loved one all want a safer road where there is no chance of a head on collision.

We will aim to have this road completed within three years if our party holds the balance of power in Canberra.We have a number of ways of achieving this goal. see employment policies link

2. Fast rail: Australia needs to start planning a fast rail service from Melbourne to Brisbane (via Canberra, Wollongong, Sydney, the Central Coast, Newcastle and the NSW North Coast.

We need to start thinking big as a country and our infrastructure is decades behind other developed countries of Europe, the USA and Japan.

3. Sea Ports: The Federal Government should fund the infrastructure upgrades necessary for our ports to have the capacity to meet the demand of overseas purchases. The Port of Newcastle has had a line of ships stretching one hundred kilometres to Sydney just waiting for the coal. This supply side constraint is inhibiting our potential economic growth.

4. Airports: The Federal Government has responsibility over the safe air travel in Australia through Air Services Australia. This is one area where the federal government has had an excellent safety record and achieved outstanding success. This is mainly because it does not have to negotiate funding with the state governments and divide the responsibility with state politicians which always leads to a sub optimal outcome. As many people would know, the more people involved the harder to come to a decision it is. As the old saying goes, " Too many cooks spoil the broth".

5. Sydney's second airport: The first option should be the RAAF Base in Richmond in Sydney's north west corner connected via a fast rail link to Blacktown, Parramatta and the CBD. If not, then Canberra or Newcastle airports could be the second or third option which should also be connected by a fast rail link where customs/passport inspections could be conducted on the 30-40 minute train trip.

6. Capital Cities: The federal government should take responsibility for funding all major infrastructure projects in the six capital cities after years of neglect by the state governments. This includes major suburban rail projects, public transport and new roads/freeways. For more detail see public transport.

7. Public housing and buildings: There is a great shortage of affordable housing in Australian capital cities and regional centres. The federal government should use surplus commonwealth land or purchase vacant land near major transport and employment hubs and build more public housing in connection with new low cost private housing. We need to be build more schools and hospitals as well.

8. Water security for the future: We live in a country where trillions of litres of fresh water flow into the oceans of northern australia each year, yet towns, cities and rivers are desperately short of water. We plan to change that by constructing a large water pipe to enable water to flow from the abundant waters of northern australia to southern QLD, NSW, VIC and SA.

The exact location of the pipe needs an extensive public discussion, but to start the flow of ideas it could start with the Mitchell River in Far north QLD, collecting water from other rivers towards Cairns and Townsville and then straight to Sydney via Toowoomba and Tamworth. Other pipes should flow off the main pipe to Brisbane in the east and to flow into the Darling river in the west so eventually people in South Australia can consume some too.

The corridor of this water pipe could be parallel to the fast rail link so both could be built at the same time as land is cleared. It is about time a significant ammount of steel made in Australia is used for Australians rather than being exported.

If you are from WA, SA, TAS or North QLD then please write in to us through our contact us section and tell No State Governments what new infrastructure you need.

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