Buses and increased tolls

[Roderick Smith]

170404Tu Melbourne 'Herald Sun' - buses and tolls.
Roderick.

[system improver]

I suggest that Mr Fox and others have a bit of a read of Kennett's City Link contract - link attached.

http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domin ... deract.pdf

In summary, it reads "You, the public, are screwed and we, Transurban, have a licence to print money."

[Roderick Smith]

170405W Melbourne Herald Sun - tolls, Skybus.

Roderick

[boronia]

Every passenger is one car off the roads

So Transurban wants compensation for this loss. Seems like a good business deal to me.

What's the seating capacity of these CDi's? At 80 pax the toll goes up by 17c per passenger, are Skybus margins that tight?

[Heihachi_73]

To be honest, I wouldn't actually blame Transurban (and ConnectEast etc.) for making a mint on the government's own stupidity of giving away roads. I highly doubt Transurban would exempt public transport vehicles from the roads either, imagine the amount of money lost if taxis could travel up and down the tollways for free, never mind buses.

[stajourneyman]

My understanding was that the GST was supposed to take care of 'big ticket' projects like these.

Back in 2001 when it commenced, word from our nation's capital was that .. "Canberra is AWASH with GST money".

"We had no idea so much money was going to come in" .. (to the Government's coffers).

So what happened to that load of baloney??

Fifteen years later and motorists are being hit for a six with tolls .... cue idiots with .."well you can always travel on the normal suburban roads" ... yeah right ...like ones in Sydney and Melbourne where they have deliberately strangled these roads to make them nigh on impossible to travel on !!!

As usual in this might fine 21st century ... the taxpayers are being taken like lambs to the slaughter !

[Fleet Lists]

Just look at the welfare they pay these days compared to back in 2001. That is where most of it is going.

[simonl]

Just look at the welfare they pay these days compared to back in 2001. That is where most of it is going.

True enough. The biggest component being the age pension, last I checked. <ducks>

[system improver]

Projected for 2017/18
Assistance to the aged $65,538 million
Assistance to veterans and dependents $6,193 million
Assistance to people with disabilities $42,950 million
Assistance to families with children $38,152 million
Assistance to the unemployed and the sick $11,445 million
Other welfare programs $897 million
Assistance for Indigenous Australians $2,151 million
General Administration $3,394 million
Total social security and welfare $170,719 million

[Fleet Lists]

Just look at the welfare they pay these days compared to back in 2001. That is where most of it is going.

True enough. The biggest component being the age pension, last I checked. <ducks>

It may be the biggest component but it has not increased by anywhere near the same percentage as some other components.

[1whoknows]

Basic economics guys - welfare spending comes mostly out of the Federal budget.
GST revenue is shared out between the States and is not part of Commonwealth spending. The only argument is how the pie is cut up between the States with WA being the big whiners at present.

[simonl]

Basic economics guys - welfare spending comes mostly out of the Federal budget.

That's not economics.