http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sell-the-trains-more-toll-roads-bring-it-on-says-ofarrells-goto-man-20110629-1gr9u.html
THE man hand-picked by Barry O'Farrell to drive the future of NSW transport and infrastructure is in favour of privatising the state's rail system and supports congestion charges to get drivers off the roads.
Paul Broad, named the first chief executive of Infrastructure NSW this week, is an unabashed fan of Jeff Kennett's reforms to the Victorian transport system and believes NSW would benefit from something similar.
...
Asked if he would support more private involvement in Sydney's rail system, run by the government-owned RailCorp, Mr Broad said: ''I don't want to pre-empt it, but obviously a personal thought about that is that you would. I think that the private sector in Victoria has done extremely well in part of their rail network. So I do think there's opportunity for that.''
I was severely incensed when I heard this on the radio this morning. Just like everything else that governments have sold off in this country never to return to public hands, I fail to see how any proposal to sell off the railways is any way shape or form approaching "good government".
The views expressed by Paul Broad the new chief executive of Infrastructure NSW, I think are at odds with the position to which he has been appointed. The media release from Infrastructure NSW says that:
http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/releases/110628_broad_ceo_final.pdf
“NSW has been crying out for a body like Infrastructure NSW – for the first time this State will have an independent body laying out a strategic direction for infrastructure delivery.
No longer will any area of NSW be taken for granted – or be promised projects as pre-election bribes that are never delivered - as Labor did for 16 years.”
Yet within two days of Paul Broad's appointment, he's already talking about selling off the railways. This would be a joke if it wasn't so pathetically tragic and scandalous.
Fixing the transport network of the state was one of the issues which brought the O'Farrell Government to power in the first place. I suspect that Mr O'Farrell recognised this when he named himself as Minister for Western Sydney. The people of the West and especially the North West have been crying out for decent public transport now for 40 years.
As for Mr Broad's comment that NSW would benefit from something similar to the Victorian experience, did Victoria really benefit from selling the railways and tramways? Not in the slightest.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/12bn-sting-in-the-rail/2006/04/08/1143916767672.html
PRIVATISATION of Melbourne's public transport has cost taxpayers $1.2 billion more than if the system had remained in public hands, according to a analysis by transport experts.
And if Connex and Yarra Trams are given franchise extensions, taxpayers will pay $2.1 billion more by 2010 than if the system were publicly owned.
Clearly not.
Perhaps I read Mr Broad's comments incorrectly. What does he mean exactly?
"I think that the private sector in Victoria has done extremely well in part of their rail network. So I do think there's opportunity for that."
Well, on reflection I would agree with him. The private sector in Victoria has done extremely well. They have gashed open the wallets of Victorians for more than $3 billion since the transport system went into private hands. As for the people of Victoria? Well, they've been left with a slightly worse service and pay more in rail fares.
I guess the people of Victoria don't matter then do they?
"I actually admire what Kennett did. And I think we did a fair bit of that in Nick Greiner's time"
Can I just remind Mr Broad of "what Kennett did" and apparently what he "admires"?
During Kennett's time as Premier of Victoria, 350 public schools were closed, $29 billion of state assets in gas and electricity alone were sold to private enterprise (and as a direct result the price of electricity and gas more than tripled in the four years that followed), 66,000 public servants lost their jobs and after the imposition of a poll tax in 1992, the biggest strike in Australian industrial relations history occurred when 4.5 million people stayed home.
Yet Mr Broad thinks that this is admirable? Even today you can still see the evidence of Mr Kennett's legacy. The town of Kennett River to this day consistently has the name Kennett crossed out with spray paint within hours of a new sign being erected in their town.
Well done... just well done.
Dear Barry, if this is your attitude to the people of NSW then I severely hope you are deposed from office before your term and you never darken the doors of Parliament House again.
One of the biggest symbols of the City of Sydney is the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was completed during the Great Depression and still to this day shows the vision that governments had almost 90 years ago.
When Francis de Groot upstaged Premier Jack Lang in 1932 when the bridge was opened, he did so "in the name of the decent and respectable people of New South Wales." Policitians would do well to remember this. The decent and respectable people of New South Wales are in effect your employers. We do hold the power to install and remove governments; that is worth thinking about should we wish to retain your services beyond 28 March 2015.
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