Citizens Electoral Council of Australia
Media Release 6th of August 2010
Craig Isherwood‚ National Secretary
PO Box 376‚ COBURG‚ VIC 3058
Phone: 03 9354 0544 Fax: 03 9354 0166
Email: cec@cecaust.com.au
Website: http://www.cecaust.com.au
Sydney to Newcastle high-speed rail:
Get real, go maglev
The original proponent of a high-speed train from Sydney to Newcastle, Citizens Electoral Council candidate for Charlton, Ann Lawler, today called Anthony Albanese’s announcement of a feasibility study “another tease”.
“Despite 40-odd years of greenie crap, most Australians remember and appreciate the importance of infrastructure projects like the Snowy Mountains Scheme in developing our nation,” Ann said.
“For that reason, at every election, pathetic politicians of both sides cynically use infrastructure as a political tease—they always announce plans to look into new projects, with no intention of following through.
“Well, cut the crap, Albanese, we don’t need a feasibility study, we need the fast train!”
Ann pointed to the CEC’s blueprint for extensive infrastructure development in Australia centred on high-speed rail networks and large-scale water projects, the Infrastructure Road to Recovery, and her own 2003 proposal for a Sydney to Newcastle magnetically-levitated train.
“Albanese’s ‘feasibility study’ will look into the ‘cost’, the ‘financing’, and bizarrely, whether it will be in breach of contracts with existing private infrastructure owners, such as Macquarie Bank,” Ann said.
“Well, first, to hell with Macquarie Bank, and as for the rest, it is absolutely unnecessary: the ‘cost’ is in fact an investment, which will increase the economic power of the region; and the financing should be provided by national credit, through a government-owned national bank that can provide a long-term, low-interest loan amortised over a minimum of 30 years, for which the CEC already has legislation.”
Ann insisted on the importance of using maglev technology:
“A project like this should not be approached as ‘catch-up’ infrastructure, but should anticipate our needs as far as we can project into the future. That means going with the most cutting-edge technology. Maglev is proven in Germany and China, it’s a leap forward from ‘wheels-on-steel’ technology, and is super-fast, upwards of 450 km/h—even with two or three stops, it will make the trip in about 30 minutes.”
Australia’s current infrastructure discussion coincides with Lyndon LaRouche’s proposal for America to build the expanded NAWAPA—North American Water and Power Alliance—project to transform the biosphere, and reverse the global economic breakdown. Infrastructure is the basis of all production, as LaRouche has emphasised, and therefore is the key to increasing the power of the economy to meet the needs of the population. Ann said that building the Sydney to Newcastle maglev should be seen as Australia participating in that NAWAPA-led global transformation of the biosphere for the benefit of all of humanity:
“If NSW embraced the idea of developing this technology, then it would need to build new manufacturing complexes to handle the necessary prefabrication of pylons and other parts of the Maglev guideway. Whilst initially ‘rolling’ stock could be imported, NSW could encourage the development of new factories to make a home-grown product, and universities and colleges would be compelled to produce a new generation of engineers specialising in electromagnetic technologies.
“Newcastle is in the unique position to be the catalyst for an industrial revitalisation of not only our manufacturing and construction; we are right in the midst of the raw materials required to make the steel, cement and components required.”
She concluded, “Australia has to drop the greenie garbage, stop acting backwards, and instead build a nation of hope and optimism for the future generations.
“All Australians have had a gut full of the lies, backflips and back peddling on anything real. If the major parties won’t do what’s required, then let’s kick them all out, and put the CEC on the job.”
And where are we going to source the electricity to power the MAGLEV?
Oh, right. Coal.
For what it’s worth (an IIRC), the energy required to push an object through air roughly squares with speed. What a great potential source of income for the big, internationally-owned mining companies, eh? They get to dig up/pollute farmland, they take the profits overseas, they suck the oxygen from the rest of the economy, and still get to sell us the electricity. It’s a win-win for them.
They’ll probably bid to build the MAGLEV too.
actually, there’s a really cool idea someone had many years ago, and it was that if you evaccuated a tunnel, then you could ignore air resistence, thus reducing cost, and increasing speed… and power can easily be generated by an implimented solar system staged along the whole line. or even wind, but i don’t know the local area enough to know what the weather is like.