Ben Sandilands says it is a race between Halley's Comet and the high speed train network as to which appears first this century.
But it's an interesting report, a lot better than some of the others I've read today.
HSR in race with Halley?s Comet to first appear in Australia | Plane Talking
The incredibly detailed High Speed Rail study begs for discussion and bi-partisan support, and it may not be as hopelessly unaffordable as many are already claiming if it is staged and drives strong ancillary economic benefits
Launching the study Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Anthony Albanese, made it clear the study isn’t a policy manifesto but a document for discussion and hopefully, a cause for critical corridors to be set aside for the future.
It might have been the only press conference the minister ever gives that is reviewed many times over after his death, indeed, given the time frames, after the death, or decline into elderly dementia, of most of those reporters in the Blue Room at Parliament House or watching the video cast.
Albanese was in form, correcting the inaccuracies in Greens leader Christine Milne’s grasp of the political history of the study, which had nothing to do with the party, and contradicting her earlier statements as to how it would remove the need for a second Sydney airport.
“Sydney’s position as a global city of the future is endangered unless a second airport is built,” he said.
He also referred to the need for a growing population to sustain high speed rail on a European scale, a form of growth the Greens generally oppose, and reiterated that “Australia isn’t Europe.”