Canberra Times: Tram poses a question on housing

My op-ed in The Canberra Times, 8 January 2024, p. 17

Those Canberrans who do not want to live in high-density housing are making choices that the ACT government cannot control. Canberra's green vision underpinned by high-density housing along a tramway is not for everyone it seems.

The tram is asking Canberrans to make a large compromise.

I wish to ask a serious question: do Canberrans really want to live in high-density housing?https://t.co/iowBSIfGuB

— Le Flâneur Politique (@FlaneurPolitiq) January 8, 2024

Bowen’s homemade recipe for an energy debacle

Not even Chris Bowen can control the weather [Public Domain: Dust Storm, Texas, 1935]

Rewiring the Nation won’t happen by rewriting history. Markets work best through light regulation and promoting competition. Government has a role to ensure important social outcomes where profits are scarce. But Labor’s energy transition is all about government control. Whether we agree with a government-led renewables future or not, one thing is clear: skills are not keeping up with demand. Australia is going it alone without nuclear, and Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s homemade recipe for an energy debacle is in full swing.

From The Spectator's "Unfiltered" newsletter:

Michael de Percy also offered a savage look at the energy future of Bowen’s Utopia, including all these lofty promises of ‘job creation’ that never seem to manifest in reality.

Bowen’s homemade recipe for an energy debacle

Rewiring the nation won’t happen by rewriting history.

Markets work best through light regulation and promoting competition.

Government has a role to ensure important social outcomes where profits are scarce. But Labor’s energy… pic.twitter.com/nc1s7rI5Dd

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) January 5, 2024

Canberra should be a hothouse for 'green' transport skills

Japanese-made electric bus on display at the Osaka Mobility Show, 8 December 2023.

Transport Minister Chris Steel has advised that we will have to wait until after the ACT election for the business case for stage 2B of the tram network. But with the ACT Government’s tram project central to reducing emissions, why are we waiting? Is light rail really the environmental panacea it is cracked up to be? We need to be focusing on developing local skills, rather than relying on a privatised tram network to take care of Canberra’s future.

My latest article in The Canberra Times, available here: https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8456049/why-canberra-should-develop-workers-green-transport-skills/?cs=14246.