Budget Predictions and Wishlist

NRAS 2.0 - More effective than Homebuilder at getting tens of thousands of new homes built , creating lots of construction work and providing lots of badly needed rental in regionals especially. And because it invites institutional and retail investors to participate, rather than just a handful of wealthy renovators or first home buyers, it also delivers Govt a long term dividend as it removes the need to fund housing from the public purse and it aids significant growth in self funded retirees. Can be delivered quickly as well. Unlike other infrastructure programs, NRAS could be up and running within weeks/months

Bradfield Plan or similar .... not quick, but what an opportunity ...... Imagine harvesting rainfall from the North and being able to keep our river systems fully charged at all times... Imagine being able to develop intensive food industries with all the necessary irrigation, to become the worlds food bowl. Talk about a transformational nation building infrastructure project that could set the country up for centuries to come. Zero chance of happening while Australian politicians think in 2 -3 year cycles.

High Speed Rail to regionals... Again, not quick, but totally transformational . In concert with water infrastructure, could turn Australia into much more than just a handful of coastal cities with a few scattered towns. And again, zero chance while politicians think 5 minutes ahead.

Big spending on wind and solar. Quicker than we think, and also transformational. Could give us the cheap energy we badly need to power a manufacturing recovery

Australia could become a food bowl powerhouse - powered by cheap energy and plentiful water and interconnected by high speed rail , with good affordable housing options available.

Not a chance , sadly !

 

The Bradfield Scheme has been debunked several times as being impractical
Could the Bradfield Scheme ensure water security in Australia?

 

Can they bring it forward to this income year 20/21? Or is the soonest they can do it next FY 21/22?

 

I think our labour costs are way too expensive for this unfortunately - I only recently read up on the fruit picking labour shortage - what we do to tourists is shameful and probably illegal, but everyone turns a blind eye because the alternative is an entire industry wiped out!

 

We could do without it, not! How would WFH have gone on dial up or ADSL?

How will business practices change not having to fly to meetings.

 

I'm genuinely not sure, but apparently October 6th we will find out. My guess would be 20/21 despite a left wing think tank opposed to the idea....

Big tax cuts all but confirmed by Scott Morrison

 

If we get energy costs down , and water costs down.... this may not be the issue many assume. especially if people value food quality/security.... self reliance isn't a bad thing to have up your sleeve . This pandemic should have taught everyone that lesson

 

Nah. Wooden ducks are on another site I visit (rooster site). Might offend non supporters.

 

Thats why I suggested "or similar".... there will have been significant advancements to technology since Bradfield proposed his plan .

We all know the cost would be high, and his arguments that large bodies of water sitting inland would create additional rainfall throughout the outback may or may not be hocus pocus, but what is not hocus pocus is that Australia captures and harvests less than 3% of all the rain that falls here, and if we did a much better job of that and were able to store it so that it could be pumped it into our river systems when they run low, rtaher than just letting it flow out to sea, we would ensure we have plentiful supplies for everyone downstream, and be able to effectively drought proof the country.

It would require the construction of several new large dams, and I get that the environmentalists would have a pink fit, but if we want food security and drought proofing- and if we want to be able to decentralise our population from our coastal cities and grow our inland regionals, those considerations should trump ( excuse the mention of his name) the environmental concerns - especially when the places the dams would be constructed are so sparsely populated ....

 

It’s so much more important.
Infrastructure is still solving the same problem. Our need to get to somewhere.

But technology can solve many problems of why we need to even go there. Someone touched on it but wait to see what’s already possible with VR and then try and imagine that in 5-10 years time when you could put on a pair of glasses and have 8k quality interactions with people.

The potential is limitless.
Those who still think you need an office will become entirely redundant. You can be in an office in rooms with colleagues as clear as day from your loungeroom.

Perfect quality consultations from doctors and surgeons.

Sitting around the dinner table with family from Europe and you wouldn’t even tell the difference they were on the other side of the globe.

This is not sci-Fi minority report stuff I’m just throwing out there. This is actually nearly already possible but limited by the tech and Ofcourse internet speeds.

Like I said most people just don’t understand what’s out there and that’s OK, it’s not there job. I often recall when the first color mo ole phone came out. I remember saying to a friend “this is just stupid now, why do they need color for a phone”....haha phones aren’t even phones anymore. That’s like the most uncommon thing we do with them.

 

The fact that the middle east has Hundreds and hundred of Desalination plants and has little water issues.
Yet we are surrounded by water and cant get Water to our farming regions is so short sighted.

Give our farmers irrigators water and and the land thats currently useless will become one of our biggest profit centers.

 

Some have got what's on their wish list
NBN upgrade to give millions high-speed internet by 2023

 

Zoom has really shown up who has and who hasn't got good internet.

 

It's good to see that the government has finally decided to try to implement the NBN as originally envisaged and recommended by experts.

 

Now it's a much simpler task as it'll be upgrading the last mile for many users.

I daresay the first stage will be FTTN upgraded or extended to FTTC, with Fibre on demand (FTTP) becoming an extension upon request.

HFC users will be the last category to be replaced.

So much more argy bargy still to come.

Has anyone told NBNCo that fewer people are connecting landlines and going to use 5G? Well, maybe not if you're going to achieve gigabit speeds at home.

 

Agree with Euro on this point. You might do well to read a little more widely than that particular source before arriving at such a conclusion. The original Bradfield scheme from 1938 involved moving water from the north into Central Australia / Lake Eyre through the channel country. That particular plan was devised 82 years ago not long after the Americans got their Hoover dam project up and going, just for a bit of context.

We are now in 2020 and the latest thinking is to instead move water into the Murray Darling system all the way to Adelaide via the Warrego River in western Queensland. It also allows for further stages to pipe water from the Warrego to supply regional and even coastal towns and cities. So it’s a little bit simplistic to say Bradfield doesn’t stack up just by poo-pooing to the 1938 plan and not the 2020 one.

Among many others there would be three major benefits including irrigating vast areas of good inland soil to super-charge Australia’s agricultural output, it would supply reasonably cheap water for many communities that will enjoy the benefits of knowing the taps will work and the toilets will flush as our national population continues to expand, and there would certainly be major environmental benefits to having water flush regularly through the Murray river system in southern Australia.

But if you don’t like eating Australian grown produce and can do without the flushing toilets in years to come by all means keep listening to credible experts at the ABC and academia for your information as to why we shouldn’t invest in water security (or cheap baseload power) as a means to achieving prosperity. Everyone can form their own view on the matter but it should be based on unbiased information. With Bradfield we are talking about harvesting water that just flows out to the sea in the driest continent on the planet. Millions of megalitres that we desperately need. Its not like other nations haven’t figured out there are major benefits in doing this type of thing. A scheme like this will take us to a much better place, and it costs only a fraction of Jobkeeper. End of rant

 

Good!, now that your fingers have had a good rest you might like to exercise them and Google for comments on the Bradfield Scheme and take notice of articles written during the last 2 years. You will find comments on the pros and cons of the scheme, there was also a documentary on the subject aired last year, sorry, I cant find it - maybe it was on the ABC which discussed the pros and cons. ATM nothing has been decided, its just a lot of talk, I hope a conclusion can be reached as it would solve our water problem, however, my personal opinion is that it will be put in the 'too hard basket' again.

 

My prediction is a $850 billion budget deficit. I would love to see infrastructure like bullet trains in Australia. Wishlist would just be for more infrastructure generally, particularly railways in Adelaide. All the railways should be electrified and extend the lines to accommodate suburban sprawl.