Why so much money is wasted on bad infrastructure

There are not many aspects of government spending – many contributors to debt and deficit – that need reforms rather than spending on public infrastructure or more contribution to the national productivity and less contribution to budget pressures

But you would never know because of the way our politicians, the business lobby and the treasury are obsessed with tax reform, decade after decade. We have had a lot of tax reforms over the years, but that has never been enough to satisfy their appetite.

So, why is infrastructure spending so wasteful? Mainly because it is one of the few areas of politics where polli themselves have plenty of latitude to play Santa in particular states and even particular electorates at times of their choosing. By-elections, for example

It is often too tempting for pollics to choose projects based on the votes their ads are supposed to bring, rather than the extent to which the public benefits they bring out exceed their costs .

Philip Davies, who leaves work next month, made his final contribution by unveiling a list of 11 principles that governments should follow to make infrastructure decisions, to enhance the quality of these decisions

. Households across the country rightly want to know that governments are investing limited public funds in infrastructure that will bring powerful benefits to productivity, support our quality of life and contribute to a collective vision of Australia strong, fair and prosperous. coming years, "says the document.

She Names Some Aspects in Which Government Decisions on Infrastructure Still Leave Room for Improvements – To Put A Upset bureaucratic.

There should be more transparency – that is, information about the steps in the decision-making process and the publication of the badysis – to make decisions about projects.

This includes reviews on the completion of projects. future investments. Everyone agrees that it is a good idea, but such revisions are rarely made and rarely made public.

Taxpayers pay dearly the politics and predilection of the public service to never admit that what they did was far from perfect. what the opposition and the media would say. Better always be honest about failures, so critics stop being over-excited but lessons learned

Taxpayers pay dearly for politics and the predilection of public service for ever admitting that what they did was far from perfect. Another improvement is possible because "projects are often developed without taking into account all the options available to solve an identified problem, including potential solutions that make better use of existing infrastructure through technology and technologies. data "

. This happens because the polls like to announce that they spend a lot of money to build something new and wonderful – then come back five years later to cut the ribbon.

They do not attract as much media attention and none when they spend money every year ensuring that existing badets are well maintained.

And they would get negative attention from the media if they did what bureaucrats were referring to with reference to making better use of infrastructure "by technology and data – motorists are billed directly for their measured use of roads and the timing of their use