The real 'PPP': populism, probity and peak oil in the River City’s tunnel deal

We are continuing to monitor traffic growth on the roads that link to our tunnel. It is pleasing to note that the traffic volumes on the five major roads that will link directly to our tunnel continue to grow in line with our traffic model forecasts, despite the impact of construction on roads around the project. … the progress made this year is ensuring that project risks are steadily reducing. … The project is enormous, but by 2010 the benefits are set to be even greater.

The NSBT is indeed enormous – an enormous gamble on Brisbane’s happy motoring utopia 100 times greater than the Fremantle Passenger Terminal, with the hard-earned savings of ill-informed "mum and dad investors". Ken Davidson of The Age recently suggested that Melbourne's transport mandarins "will be able to decamp to Noosa to escape the urban mess they are creating" when the reality of peak oil strikes home. Noosa is obviously a bit too close to home for Brisbane's elite. Newman, who has long taken credit for solving Brisbane’s traffic congestion while outsourcing responsibility to the private sector, could head for Canberra and be the next Federal Shadow Minister for Transport. Rumour has it that Beattie has already packed his bags for Rome. RiverCity’s directors may be winging their way to the Cayman Islands even by the time you read this. Let’s hope they’ve packed some sunscreen and left their forwarding addresses with ASIC.

Over in the West, the old Fremantle Passenger Terminal is currently being used as a warehouse for imported cars. As Toyota Landcruisers and airline tickets become increasingly expensive in the peak oil era, no doubt it will eventually be re-commissioned as a passenger terminal. Sensible options like this are out of the question for Brisbane’s soon-to-be-redundant, $3 billion hole in the ground. Wine cellars and mushroom farms both have their merits, but the tunnel would probably best be used as a storm-water reservoir to alleviate the impact of Southeast Queensland’s 'worst drought in history', a.k.a. climate change. It will certainly hold water more effectively than the Traveston Dam.

From a public interest perspective, the construction costs for three of Brisbane’s road projects alone – the Gateway duplication, the NSBT and the Airport Link – equate to the entire budget for South East Queensland rail and public transport projects scheduled for the next 20 years. The construction of these motorways at the dawn of the peak oil era represents a tragic failure of governance and probity unprecedented in Queensland’s history.