If I was God for a week/month/year...
We probably need a new thread to cover this - maybe "If I was Prime Minister/President/God for a year...."
But here's my list:
- solar EVERYWHERE
- rooftops - PV and HWS
- northern deserts and inland areas - massive large-scale PV acreages
- ocean link (like BASS Link to/from Tassie) to East Timor, then on to Bali, Java,
Singapore
- sell the cheap solar to countries that don't have the land to set up *acreages*
- energy efficiency measures mandated
- increase insulation requirements in all construction, to reduce power drain caused by
aircon and heating
- all A/C to be switchable by grid in event of peak overloads (trialled, works...)
- mandate co-recovery for all commercial towers and industrial sites
- composting of human waste, recycling of waste water for drinking (reverse osmosis, can
be done now, we're just too squeamish. Already happening in UK....!!!)
- decentralisation
- Whitlam tried this, but had to give up due to institutional/capitalist resistance, but
where it went, it worked - Bathurst/Orange; Albury/Wodonga; Armidale and so on.
- Provide tax incentives to move 'back office' functions to periphery of cities, so
commuters are heading in the oposite direction to usual.
- all govt to peripheries or regional areas. Make Gladys commute to Penrith, for example
This would relieve the congestion in the cities, as otherwise they end up like Hong Kong - all vertical and crawling with people (having said that, public transport works best when it serves millions). So ban any future high-rise unless they knock down an old inefficient building and replace it with a more efficient one the same size.
There is a 'size point' where larger towns/small cities become virtually self-sustaining due to ancillary employers and service providers soaking up available employment. Dubbo and Armidale are probably good examples of this. Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie on the coast (but still 'regional' areas).
Seems once you get a decent-sized hospital/medical infrastructure, retirees and development follow. These self-funded people need services that employs others, and so on.
- tariff barriers
Currently, this is considered to be a no-no in international trade talks, but that's because it suits the vested interests of trans-national capitalism to keep borders 'free' [for them]. Problem is, it kills all industries that can't compete with imports from lower-wage economies. Hence why US has a 'rust belt' and we have no car factories. Or much manufacturing of any kind.
So my idea is to have 'welfare tariffs'. In other words, measure the welfare of people in low-wage economies and apply tariffs accordingly. So, as the cost of living rises in developing economies, tariffs would fall.
This would mean we would once again have a clothing and manufacturing industry in this country. But maybe not cars, as the economies that export them tend to be similar high-wage, high-cost-of-living economies like our own eg: Germany, Japan, South Korea, but Chinese-built vehicles would cop a tariff, as would the BMWs and Mercs built in South Africa.
- social housing
Both sides won't touch this, but some useful models could be imported from UK and similar places, where social housing is mostly run by not-for-profits, many of them community-based, and often co-funded. You can't do 'for-profit' housing for the poor.
We desperately need social housing for the poor, homeless and un- (under) employed. The lower-than-market rents will thus enable those in them to get ahead, save a bit, and eventually either support themselves or get into a house of their own.
Critical is to make them self-policing, and preferably strata-titled with full-fee payers alongside welfare recipients where possible.
One method could be to require commercial developers to provide 10% of any development to a social housing NFP. Built a tower with thirty apartments? Three go to social housing.
This reduces the concentration of disadvantage that negatively afflicts 'social welfare suburbs' like Mt Druitt in Sydney's west. Obviously, the strata body in such cases would need power of veto over tenants, in case they copped a dud and needed to get rid of them. I certainly wouldn't want a meth head living next door, playing death metal at lethal volumes dropping used syringes in the foyer, etc etc...
This last measure would also enable lower-waged 'important workers' like nurses, police, firies etc to find accomm near where they have to work. They'd be good tenants too. Win win.
- buy Australian
Make it compulsory to 'buy Australian' unless the imported product comes from a similar wage, similar socio-economic nation. Currently, most rolling stock is imported from China, for example (freight rolling stock that is). Start with Fed and State contracts, then extend to all contracts. Make it a 'show cause' why you can't/won't buy Australian.
- build east coast dams
Australia is a dry country. We have a lack of water in the right place problem. Most rainfall is on east coast, runs back into the sea, uncollected. So we build dams on as many of the east coast rivers as we can. Collect water, generate hydro power, pump water up over divide into west-flowing rivers. No more Murray/Darling problem. Plenty of water for Walgett and the cotton farmers, and larger inland towns, etc etc.
Build one every 5 years. Major employment. Lots of economic activity in local region. Spread the lurve around. 'Green the inland'.
Once dams are built they don't need much maintenance, and don't provide much employment, but the water and cheap hydro power would provide 'balancing' of the grid that would otherwise be mostly solar.
- expand the grid
We need the larger interconnectors and high-voltage lines to get to more inland places where it makes sense to have super-large PV arrays. Like the NT to be close to the underwater link to Timor, but let's first use it to supply an NT or QLD alumina refinery to take the products from Gove (and Weipa as well.) Maybe one in NT (to serve Gove) and one in QLD (to serve Weipa). Cheaper to move power than bauxite.
We need an interconnector between WA and the East, so we can *actually* have a "national grid". This would also help as large-scale PV arrays could be put in WA that would feed both there and, due to the time difference West/East and sunset time being 2hrs apart, would enable some overlap with eastern states usage requirements.
- biodiesel plants
It's well-known that most diesel engines these days can run on upwards of 10% biodiesel, there just isn't enough of it being produced. So lets build a large-scale plant to produce it, and utilise both recycled vegetable oils and fresh oils from high-oil-content (non-edible) canola (devloped by CSIRO). Mandate minimum 10% biodiesel for fishos and truckers. Fuel receipts for both as part of tax return to prove compliance.
Canola needs less water than cotton. Saves water. Brings down CO2, makes fishing and trucking cheaper. What's not to like?
- high-speed rail
Construct an inland link - Brisbane to Melbourne via Armidale, Bathurst, Canberra, Albury.
Connecting hi-speed link from Bathurst to Sydney CBD, underground, straight line, couple of deep stations in Blue Mtns, ground level at Lithgow, Penrith, Blacktown, Parramatta, Strathfield. Probably have to be on viaduct across Sydney to avoid collisions with slower commuter trains and to enable ease of construction - all off-site pre-cast concrete. [This line would eventually extend to Adelaide, then Perth, Darwin...eventually].
Do same, but shorter lines, either side of major capitals.
QLD - Maryborough to Coolangatta via Brisbane.
NSW - Newcastle to Nowra via Sydney
VIC - Warnambool to Sale via Melbourne
So making each end of the line not more than 1 hr commute from CBD. So every town within a half hour drive of these high-speed lines is then 'commutable' to the CBD. Rural living, on cheaper land, local spending that then supports the nearby larger towns....
This type of 'commuter culture' works well in the UK up to three hours by train from London. So it can work. I already know people who commute to Sydney CBD from Southern Highlands using the 'minimal stops' intercity Goulburn/Canberra trains that are slooooow by comparison to high speed rail. Technically, with HSR, Canberra is commutable from Sydney and vice versa.
With current technologies, 3.5hrs Sydney to Melbourne is achievable, if it only stops Parramatta, Goulburn, Canberra, Wodonga. This is equivalent to the *actual* time it takes to get to the airport and get to the CBD of the other city, including minimum 1hr arrival time. This is the 'sweet spot' that rail people talk about as 'air shuttle replacement' which is the only way to make (the very expensive to build) high-speed rail financially viable. It has to take people off airlines and onto rail. So a dining car, cappuccinos, meeting rooms, biz centre, hi-speed wifi, MUCH more comfortable seating, etc etc. People would shift.
But Sydney Melbourne alone would be a $45 billion dollar investment (based on the $15 billion it cost for the Taiwan high-speed rail line that was 300km long, so 1/3 the distance Sydney-Melb). Not cheap. But phased in over 10 years...??? It's only $4.5 billion a year. And if government resumed the necessary rail corridor and provided it at peppercorn cost to the rail builder...??? Definitely do-able.
We could fund that from the franking credits savings (once that rort is eventually repealed).
BUT, the first thing we'd need to achieve is to convince voters that a higher-taxing govt/economy is actually in their best interests. Note that the highest taxing economies are the so-called 'social-welfare economies' of Scandinavia, and people there don't complain about the necessary spending on health, welfare, infrastructure. They get it.
So one way to 'guarantee' this for the (naturally) sceptical Australian population might be to link tax increases (or loss of tax cuts, whichever, same effect) with specific spending - like the 2% Medicare levy, for example. We could have a 2% 'Infrastructure levy' specifically to fund major projects that benefit the whole country, like the expansion of the grid, interconnectors to Indonesia/Timor; high-speed rail link corridor resumptions, etc etc. that would raise $5-6 billion a year.
If people can see there's some benefit for them, even if it's an indirect benefit, they'd likely go for it.
And I'm sure there's plenty of other things we could add....
