Since they have been rising lately in the polls, I’m still curious about their policies on public transport. The only thing I could find was Pauline Hanson criticising the CRR project at a senate inquiry but that was back in 2016. We don’t know anything about their policies regarding Public Transport & Active Transport investment (or any of their policies for that matter aside from rounding up and deporting legal migrants but that’s another story).
Considering their recent growth, I just want to know what their policies regarding transport are. I know the Greens are heavily in favour of Public transport investment and so too are Labor (though they could have done more when they were in government last at a state level). And we all know that no matter how much they pretend they’re not, the LNP are secretly (or not so secretly) often against investment in public transport. But for political groups like One Nation and all the other growing minor parties, not a lot of transparency on what their policies are around how we get around.
I ask that any comments on this post follow BTQ guidelines and that this doesn’t get too political (or personal) outside of the relevant topic, which is transport policy. I have since changed the title so not only does it apply to One Nation but more broadly the Transport policies of all sides of politics
Keeping my personal opinions to myself, I had a look at the One Nation website and the only thing I can find that relates to transport at all is one sentence in the “Australian Jobs and Infrastructure Policy” that says: “A third installment of this strategy would be combined with nation-building infrastructure projects including water, rail, roads, and energy.”
So nothing specific. I think it is fair to say that based on the evidence of their website they do not have a developed transport policy. There is a lot of detail about how they don’t believe in climate change, so that particular argument in favour of public transport does not seem to apply for them.
In Queensland, yes. But in NSW and Victoria, public transport is so widely used that blue team can’t afford to ignore it as an issue. They tried ignoring it in Victoria the last time they were in power, focusing on the East-West Link toll road instead, and it cost them big time. I think their NSW branch took note of this and made sure to trumpet shiny new public transport projects like Sydney Metro and various light rail lines, even if a significant portion of them weren’t actually new lines but rather changing the mode of existing public transport services. But it goes to show that blue team don’t always have to be allergic to public transport projects, they just need the right incentives.
As for orange team, I’ve also never seen them say much on the topic. But they seem to have a general desire to move back in the direction of the “traditional” Australian society of yesteryear. Note that the time period they long for was dominated by cars, and public transport was going backwards at that time, with tram tracks being ripped up and railway lines shutting down passenger services. So I imagine they’re not particularly keen on public transport in general.
I think the east west link tunnel though was important in its own right as the road it was meant to relive traffic off already has multiple tram routes crossing it. If it ever gets revived though they should plug it to the west gate tunnel
I think it was a horrible waste of money, similar to the Clem Jones Tunnel here but worse, as the state would have been on the hook for it rather than the private sector. The business case submitted to Infrastructure Australia had a benefit cost ratio of 0.45. That’s 45c back in benefits for every dollar spent, appallingly low value for money.
Mind you, I don’t think the West Gate Tunnel was much better. It looked to have been the result of a very cosy relationship between the subsequent red team government and Transurban. I think it’ll prove to be a similar waste of money that could have gone to public transport, though to be fair I’ve never seen a reported BCR as low as that for East-West Link, and red team have also put a lot of money into public transport spending alongside their road projects.
The east west link is the only road tunnel I would build now. Because it really is a missing link between east and west. The Eastern freeway ends abruptly at the moment.
A lot of highways end abruptly. That doesn’t make them worth extending. Every dollar spent on a great big new toll road is a dollar not spent on public transport. Unlike the level crossing removals this isn’t something that can help both modes of transport, it’s a zero sum game where public transport is the loser.
BTQ will need to work with the government of the day. That is increasingly looking like some form of multi-party coalition, whether that is left or right of the political spectrum.
There may be good opportunities for improving regional and rural transport links, such as long distance public bus transport across Queensland, as well as local transport within regional cities such as Toowoomba, Cairns and Townsville.
This one though intersects with a lot of inner city areas north of Melbourne including many tram routes. There are a lot of trucks that use this corridor and many have even struck tram wires. I do think however the private sector should fund any tunnel and all the gov should do is approve it. No government funding at all.
I do think One Nation is directed far more by grievances and vibes than by formulated policy, especially in areas like transport that aren’t hot topics with their voter base. That does mean that their approach to transport project might vary a lot depending on how they’re framed, and whether the voter base sees the project as supporting rural Australians vs woke (whatever that means) city dwellers.
I think there’s a third category here, the outer suburban battlers that don’t have time for inner city woke agenda but aren’t rural Australians.
It is perhaps this category that One Nation has the greatest ground to make up and (mathematically) is where Red team will lose ground to Orange team if a multiple party right wing government is to emerge (or even an Orange majority).
These are people that have accessibility as a huge issue too, both road and PT. There are some real opportunities to sway the discourse here if clever enough people get targeted with what they want.
Are there any proposed, realistic public transport projects that would appeal to the sort of outer suburban voters who orange team are seeking to win over? Perhaps in Melbourne, where the failure to prioritise the Melton line electrification is an obvious source of frustration for people living in that area. I can’t think of one off the top of my head in SEQ though.
Perhaps this is me showing my ignorance and stereotyping, but I think of orange team’s target demographic as the sort of people who don’t see public transport funding as providing any benefit to them, because they prefer to drive everywhere, not appreciating that every user of public transport represents one fewer car occupying the road in front of them.
Maybe. Apparently the town Pauline Hanson lives in is (just) within the seat of Wright, which also contains Beaudesert. However, if she ran there, perhaps orange team would think her name recognition and personal appeal alone would be sufficient to win the seat without needing to campaign on a rail line. Perhaps they could campaign for the state seat of Scenic Rim on such a policy, but I wonder if many residents of the seat who don’t live in Beaudesert would care about a rail line.