One reason the Australian government’s net debt is relatively low as a percentage of GDP is that successive governments have effectively out-sourced public debt to private citizens. What otherwise would have been built/provided by governments for use by private citizens is no longer built/provided. Instead of paying tax to cover the repayment of the government debt for building the infrastructure or providing the service, private citizens borrow money to pay for the private sector to produce the same outcome. Same numbers, just hidden in different places. But I digress …
There will be no second public international airport anywhere in the Sydney basin. There are too many important people with snouts in the bottomless trough that is the KSA monopoly. Also, there is so much demand for McMansions in the Sydney basin that the lure of short-term profits from housing/industrial development will always outweigh the long-term and benefits of fundamental infrastructure. It’s called the “Obeid effect”…