Comments by "Andy Dee" (@AndyViant) on "What Does Australia NEED But Doesn't Have??" video.

  1. The other things we need are honestly: DECENTRALIZATION - we need more medium sized cities that are big enough to base competitive, world class industry in, but not be capital cities. If some of these were off the coast that would be highly advantageous. Other than the National Capital with the enforced industry of politics (and secondary industries of Journalism and Lobbying) we really don't have any big inland towns. Our largest inland non capital is Toowoomba at 140,000 people. These places would be cheaper to build houses as the land values in our capital cities are truly crazy. Compare how many major cities in say the 200k range the US has with a car manufacturing plant or similar. Only really Queensland has much decentralization going on and that's nearly all on the coast. We need more towns in the 200k-500k range, with a focus on just a couple of industries and then secondary support for the population, and then we need... HIGH SPEED RAIL to connect them to their major capital cities or other major rural centres. Australia is way too big for these hypothetical regional towns to just commute by car, and trips of say under 350 km should be faster by true high speed rail than travelling through airports with security check-ins and the like. We also need HIGH SPEED INTERNET to reduce those wasted transport times and to share the knowledge and research with other like minded people across the world. We also need a STRONGER DEFENCE FORCE because we do have an enormous area to cover. This will require a BETTER TAXATION SYSTEM to ensure that we actually shift the tax burden back to business, especially offshore owned extractive industries who pay basically no tax, leaving the tax burden to the workforce. We also need to get ourselves off fossil fuels. We can become an economic superpower with the available sunlight and wind resources we have, and were once at the forefront of Solar PV development, but our government wouldn't invest in it so now that's mostly run by China. What a waste of a fantastic industry due to lack of foresight. As the current situation shows, weaning the western world off oil and gas is not just an environmental issue but an economic one and addressing a strategic weakness. Thus we need a strong RENEWABLE ENERGY industry including EXPORT via HV undersea cable, and, since this creates a new strategic weakness, by exporting RENEWABLE HYDROGEN. To also support that defensive capability we need a MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY, say like a CAR INDUSTRY but failing that even making more buses and trains would do. We learnt in WWII that the ability to manufacture goods was an essential component of self defence which is why the Australian Car Industry. Sadly we have too many in government who keep trying to undermine our manufacturing industry due to ideology. Since we have to build up that new industry from scratch it would make sense to focus on the ELECTRIC CAR since we all know that export opportunities for gas powered cars will be limited in the future. In addition, the layout of electric vehicles would make manufacture of both left and right hand drive vehicles easier. We definitely need NEW SUBMARINES for the navy, but looks like we're not going to build them here. To open up those regional areas where we are going to build these things, and support the population of those large towns we need WATER SECURITY which is why we are all currently stuck around the coastline. For that we need a nation building scheme such as THE BRADFIELD SCHEME which would divert water inland for farming, industry, domestic consumption and recreation. We also need to reuse far more of our TREATED WATER even if recycling water leaves a bad taste in people's mouths it's essential in the driest inhabited continent.
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  2. Queensland used to have true high speed rail in that it could do over 200 kph (normally the definition of high speed rail) with the Tilt Trains which could do 215 kph. However, after a big accident they havent done those speeds for years and are artificially limited at 160 kph. Exactly the same as the very old XPT. You can blame the National Rail Safety Regulator, or you can blame our lack of grade separation, or poor quality of track (although still way better than USA) for that. ETCS (European Train Control System) may see the regulator back off on how fast we are allowed to run our high speed trains. We honestly need proper high speed rail.
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  3. You can get them from Reject Shop sometimes
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  4. Pretty easily.
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  5. Only to throw rocks at. Did you not just see Donald Trump call Putin a "Genius" for invading the Ukraine? Yeah, he's the great defender of freedom and liberty.
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  6.  @julzhunt7790  you realize that for 100 years we had to pay WA's way. You've averaged $4 recieved for every $1 you paid in tax during the federation. The current mining prices won't last too long.
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  7. Of course, how well were your shelves being stocked without that railroad? You'd starve to death in a month
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  8. @Aussie Pom there are reasons not to use 3'6" too, though - it creates limitations on capacity and speed, although in practice they seem not to be an issue until you get to really heavy freight or high speed rail. NT I thought only has Standard Gauge 4'8 1/2". Dunno about SA using 3'6" as it mainly uses broad and standard gauge. By the way, Tasmania also uses 3'6". All in all though, failing to standardise a gauge was a failure of federation.
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  9. of course, you can just apply to get a licence and buy new ones instead, completely legally
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  10.  @frankly88  Baseload power is a myth to market coal.
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  11.  @TheFishmanAU  the population is 57% pro Albo and 43% Scomo right now so I think you're outnumbered on that one.
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  12. Except the wealthiest can pretty much ignore Income tax, which is about 30% of most wage earners tax, in ways that poorer wage earners cannot
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  13. I don't need it, so I can donate some of mine to you
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  14. That's because we spend more time under Liberal governments who are anti union and therefore don't want a strong manufacturing industry which is far more likely to be unionized. Look at what they've destroyed - Car Industry. Textiles Industry. Steel Industry. Domestic Shipping. Local refining of fuels.
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  15. NO it should be where it was meant to be in the first placce. Yass. Y'ASS. Preferably they could build it near the infamous McDonalds Yass sign.
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  16. You can't grow enough food and eating iron ore is pretty tough.
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  17. Because Capitalism is working so well in Russia right now...
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  18. A new Prime Minister
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  19.  @davidlee-michaels9430  I'll take an indecent one so long as he or she shows some care about what is best for the country rather than their donors
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