Is high speed rail our national boondoggle?

While it would be small, revenue from value capture would be tax-payers dollars, not private sector dollars as the Government would have us believe. It could be used for any purpose e.g. urban public transport, education. Value capture is best thought of as a small but general source of revenue, not one tied to a specific project.

It's a real pity Labor and the Greens supported east coast HSR uncritically rather than making the effort to educate their supporter base about what an utterly stupid and regressive idea it is. Now all parties are locked into the National Boondoggle.

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Selected extracts from S01 E03, Very Fast Turnover, of the brilliant Utopia, made by Working Dog Productions and shown on ABC TV. Characters are Tony (CEO of the Nation Building Authority), Jim (Ministerial Adviser) and Rhonda (Head of Comms at the NBA):

Tony: People have been trying to get a very fast train up in this country for nearly 50 years.

Jim: Well, that's all the more reason to keep going.

Tony: And it hasn't got up. What does that tell you?

Jim: We lack vision.

Tony: Or else it simply won't work.

***

Tony: I know you're really keen, but I just don't think we can make a very fast train work.

Jim: Really?