Rarely do politicians actually do something of value, but Kevin Rudd’s policy has some merit. This is the time for boosting infrastructure spending, and removing ‘black spots’ in the road network is also important. Serious injuries from road accidents place a large cost on the community, so the expenditures to reduce deaths is warranted. Let’s just not pretend that speed cameras are saving lives. The expenditure on railways should have been down 20 years ago, so its about time, and it will be well-timed improvement to assist the coal industry as we emerge from this slump in 4-5 years.
According to the SMH, ‘Rudd pumps $4.7b into infrastructure’, the Australian government is going to spend $4.7bil to stimulate the Australian economy, in addition to the stimulus that will come with the weaker Aust dollar. I think this policy is very sensible because its balanced, evenly distributed, giving support where needed. Pity they didn’t concede that the problem was caused by government in the first place. There should never have been a credit bubble. Banks were involved, but its government that made it possible. You will not hear Labor criticise the Liberal Party for its monetary excesses because Labor engages in the same fraud. It’s what politicians do, as opposed to statesman who hold principles, who define a character away from the pack. Politicians huddle in a parliamentary bear hug, safe in the knowledge that they control both sides of the coin, and that they are bound to come ‘heads up’. Emergencies of course remind us that we need governments. But do we need them to cause problems and then to fix them, or do we just need them to administer justice. Not justice as they, you or I would define them, but principles proven tirelessly through debate until there is popular support for those principles. Instead we impose values, and we end up with poor policy outcomes, financial distortions and ‘blame games’ that really diverge from the real underlying causes of society’s problems.
