The idea of selling and tolling existing roads is one of the stupidest ideas I have ever heard, and could only come from people completely out of touch with the lives of ordinary Australians and Victorians.
Ordinary Victorians are feeling serious cost of living pressures. How does being required to pay each time we drive on roads we can presently travel on for free make us better off? It makes us worse off. Selling off existing roads to private companies and putting tolls on them will make those private companies wealthy, but it will be at the expense of ordinary motorists.
The reason Melbourne and other capital cities have traffic congestion is because our population growth is too fast, and we should tackle that by cutting migration back to the levels we used to have in the 1980s and 1990s.
Improved public transport is a superior answer to traffic congestion than building more freeways, but seriously, what is the point of building a freeway and then discouraging people from using it by sticking a toll on it?
It is a stupid idea and governments at both State and Federal level should reject it.
This idea (it is not new)is a continuation of the privatization mania which has afflicted both Labor and Liberal governments for years.
ReplyDeleteIt is part of the neoliberal economic dogma which is causing so much havoc in the US,UK and the EU.
Ultimately,infrastructure in Australia is a federal government responsibility.As the issuer of the currency they hold the purse strings.The federal government can afford to buy anything available for sale in Australia for Australian dollars.
If necessary infrastructure is not being built or adequately maintained then that is due to ideological not monetary or fiscal constraints.
Tolling existing roads is not only stupid but an evil impost on people going about their lives. Since the State government seems to want and encourages unending population and traffic growth, they need to face the consequences. It is impossible for no-one to get hurt in the process.
ReplyDeleteWhile Kelvin is the champion of the environment and of capping population and God bless him for that,he does not seem to realise all labors debts have to be repaid. We have to live within our means and so the pain starts now. I used to vote labor but I cant any more because of the inter generational debt Labor have created. I am not a member of any political party and live on a small pension and the carbon tax is going to raise costs way beyond the Gillard handout. That's why other governments have to sell the family jewels Kelvin.
ReplyDeleteWhile Kelvin is the champion of the environment and of capping population and God bless him for that,he does not seem to realise all labors debts have to be repaid. We have to live within our means and so the pain starts now. I used to vote labor but I cant any more because of the inter generational debt Labor have created. I am not a member of any political party and live on a small pension and the carbon tax is going to raise costs way beyond the Gillard handout. That's why other governments have to sell the family jewels Kelvin.
ReplyDeleteKent, public debt in this country is not a problem. Net debt is expected to peak at 9.6 per cent of GDP compared with an average net debt position of 93 per cent of GDP for the major advanced economies. Even when you look at it as a gross figure it still comes in at 20 per cent of GDP. Japan, for example, has gross debt over 200 per cent of GDP. That's a problem!! Talk of unsustainable public debt in this country by the Liberal Opposition and media commentators is just naked fear-mongering. Commonwealth government bonds have a AAA credit rating and our ten-year bond is around 3 per cent. Spain and Italy have ten-year bonds over 7 per cent. Greece's is over 20 per cent!
ReplyDeleteThe only reason that a private company is willing to invest in a toll road is to make a profit which under general circumstances should be at least 7%/year above their cost base. Once they have the asset they will do everything in their power to make this return larger. For the taxpayer this will mean a short term gain with very long term, and increasing may I suggest, pain. Just have a look at Sydney airport. I cannot think of any win-win infrastructure sale.
ReplyDeleteIn order to alleviate traffic pressure in the city governments however could start charging congestion tax and use the money to provide low cost parking around the city with low cost public transport to the center.
These galoots are still encouraging 1500 people a week into Melbourne. I look out the my window at Docklands onto the freeway which moves like an arctic glacier of a morning.
ReplyDeleteGradually decrease population is the only way to solve the congestion problem.