Federal Labor and the party’s current leader, Anthony Albanese, have been advocating high-speed rail since they were last in government.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The federal opposition’s idea for a bullet train from Melbourne to Brisbane is not a good use of a generation’s worth of infrastructure spending. It won’t even work as an economic stimulus.
After the ‘world’s biggest work-from-home experiment’, many people (and their employers) might decide they needn’t commute every day. If even a fraction do that, infrastructure needs will change.
Global cities such as Wuhan (pictured in March 2018) require investments in lower-carbon urban development to enhance public health.
Wikipedia
After the Covid-19 pandemic, we must seize the opportunity to make urban centers more livable places by investing in affordable housing, basic services, clean energy and active transport.
Researchers are turning microbes into microscopic construction crews by altering their DNA to make them produce building materials. The work could lead to more sustainable buildings.
Collecting water from a street pump in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jan. 13, 2020.
Mehedi Hasan/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Water is essential for health, economic well-being and social equity, but too many people around the world still don’t have access to clean drinking water and sanitation.
A health-care worker prepares for the opening of the COVID-19 Assessment Centre in Ottawa, during a media tour on March 13, 2020.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang)
International financing for massive infrastructure projects can create new problems for African cities.
A Bombardier sign welcomes travellers to Berlin Central Station, where Bombardier’s rail division headquarters are located. Canada’s failure to invest in rail infrastructure has hurt Bombardier.
(Wikimedia)
Building infrastructure takes time. To develop sustainable transportation, Canada needs to invest in high-quality infrastructure that will enable us to make environmentally friendly travel choices.
Collecting firewood on the Waiapi indigenous reserve in Amapa state, Brazil, Oct. 13, 2017. A new bill could open Brazil’s Native lands to development.
APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images
Native Brazilians are among the Amazon’s most effective defenders against logging and mining, because they’re fighting not just for the environment but for their people’s very survival.
Students at school on Rusinga Island, Kenya.
JLwarehouse/Shutterstock
States across Australia are increasingly using market-led proposals to build infrastructure. The emerging problems reflect the inherent risks of projects that bypass proper public planning processes.
Much was made of The New York Times’ dual endorsement of Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar. But four days prior, a hugely popular Facebook meme group threw its support behind Bernie Sanders.
Beware cold-stunned ‘chicken of the trees.’
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
Green iguanas are an invasive species that seem to be spreading and proliferating in Florida. Used to warmer temps, they switch into torpor mode when the mercury drops.
No coordination on macroeconomic policies in Nigeria
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Located at the edges of cities, suburbs have a role to play in urban resilience to disasters caused or exacerbated by climate change.
The Australian and Victorian governments have both promised funding for a Melbourne Airport rail link, but a private consortium’s unsolicited proposal is also on the table.
Stefan Postles/AAP
Unsolicited market proposals are not transparently assessed. Infrastructure should be built to serve the public interest, not shaped by its private backers, but the checks to ensure this are broken.