Re: More investment in rail: economist

["Andrew Honan" <ahonan@zipworld.com.au>]

Its good to see access economics pushing the merits of rail. (I saw the
report as well and was astonished to hear the comments).
We should use access economics as a lobby for fixing the  existing rail
system
Andrew Honan


"David Bromage" <dbromage@fang.omni.com.au> wrote in message
R2Ek6.31$Nd.1110@news0.optus.net.au">news:R2Ek6.31$Nd.1110@news0.optus.net.au...
> From last night's 7.30 Report. I was given advance notice that this was
> going to be on, so I taped it to get the quotes right. It was a long item
> about the Feds spending money partly as a result of the recent state
> elections, and partly to kick start a sluggish economy. The impurtant bit
> it transcribed.
>
>
> Chris Richardson [from Access Economics]: The real danger is that the
> traditional response to a burst of populism is for spending your way out
> of trouble. Politicians have typically done that, all it does is typically
> waste taxpayers' money. Certainly there is good spending that can be done
> in Australia's regions. Some of its infrastructure is creaking and in
> desperate need of new investment.
>
> Alan Kohler [Reporter]: True to form, just as John Howard's 7:30 Report
> interview was going to air last night, he was in Darwin, promising to
> spend more money on the Alice Springs to Darwin railway.
>
> John Howard: We decided to go the extra distance. I might say, in the face
> of criticism from some people who look at government decisions entirely in
> the narrow confines of pure economics, that we decided to go the extra
> distance because we think there's a nation-building component in this
> railway.
>
> Chris Richardson: The railway is an absolute classic. A lot of Australia's
> transport should be carried by rail. It's not at the moment because we
> have a very inefficient system because we haven't spent enough in times
> past. There's a good case there. But invest, don't waste money.
>
>
> Cheers
> David