Re: HST's, pollies and dreamers.

[Peter Parker <parkerp@pcug.org.au>]

"Ben Staples" <BenKim@bigpond.com> wrote:
>I guess the opening up of the American west doesn't figure in this argument.
>

Neither should it. In the 1850s, rail was the only relatively high-speed 
mode of transport available.  Now it is has to compete with other modes 
that are as quick if not quicker for moving people and goods. 

We must not avoid the fact that getting more people to move to remote 
areas has always been hard.  I personally like a more decentralised 
settlement pattern with most Australians living in cities of between 
about 20 000 and 300 000, all linked by medium-high speed rail and good 
internal public transport systems.  However the preference for the people 
as a whole is to settle around existing capital cities and coastal 
centres. 

Rail is often presented as a scheme to 'open up the inland' and reverse 
this trend. However much more than a railway is needed for regional 
development.  Development is tied up with population growth rates. This 
depends on the birth rate and and immigration.  Recent migrants by and 
large do not move to inland areas.  There are all sorts of reasons for 
this that I won't go into here (jobs, communities come to mind).  I think 
the Govt recently tried to provide incentives for migrants moving to 
country areas, but I don't think it was successful.  So we come to 
natural population increase, which is less than it used to be.  This is 
important because regional development initiatives are best when the 
nation's population growth rate is high. Otherwise it will be a zero-sum 
game with suburbs and other areas experiencing problems due to 
depopulation, while nominated regional centres prosper.  

So regional development is not easy, however desirable it may be. I 
suspect there are more cost-effective means of achieving this than an $8b 
railway, which as I pointed out previously, could even cause further 
decline and depopulation.  


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Parker                                     parkerp@pcug.org.au
---------------------------------------------------------------------

URL: http://www.pcug.org.au/~parkerp/  

Proudly hosting the following web pages:

* Novice Notes Online             * Australian QRP Home Page
* Amateur Radio Ideas Page        * Peter Parker's Projects Page  
* ACT Sustainable Transport Working Group Home Page
---------------------------------------------------------------------