Ministerial Charter Letters

[ozbob]

Ministerial Charter Letters

http://rti.cabinet.qld.gov.au/ministers/charter-letters.aspx

The Ministerial Charter Letters detail the Government's commitments and priorities Ministers are responsible for delivering through the agencies within their Ministerial Portfolio.

The charters are reviewed and updated periodically.

Jackie Trad MP - Deputy Premier, Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning and Minister for Trade (PDF, 1.36 MB)

>> http://rti.cabinet.qld.gov.au/ministers/assets/Charter%20Letter_The%20Hon%20Jackie%20Trad%20MP.PDF

[ozbob]

^ no mention of concessions for unemployed? 

[ozbob]

' inner city rail solution '   no more CRR?     

Rip out the seats, 7 car trains should do it ..  FFS ... 

[ozbob]

Dear Gawd,

Help us to win lotto.  I got to get out of this state ..  it is doomed ...

[Stillwater]

If we look at the Charter letter as a duties statement for a prospective employee, virtually any person associated with this site could be the transport minister.  We should view the words 'deliver an inner city rail solution' with grave alarm.  It is a shifting of the goal posts.  It limits the 'solution' to once that involves the current infrastructure, tweaked to operate harder. 

The current lines and the Merivale Bridge represent an 'inner city rail solution'.  We can expect no end to the impasse that would result in a superior CRR outcome.  It won't happen under Labor as it didn't happen under LNP.

For those who look for new rail lines and rail services to South-West and to the Sunny Coast, the expectations should be limited to incremental improvements associated with modest upgrades to what we have now, and what can be achieved with new generation rolling stock.

Pollies do this all the time, when they get cold feet.  They revert to words that allow them to shift the focus away from what has been committed so that whatever becomes the outcome (usually one that falls short of the mark) is the outcome that was desired in the first place.  For example, they will say 'we will reduce emergency room waiting times by 50 per cent' and later say 'we are achieving good progress towards a reduction in emergency room waiting times'.  Just look at the weasel words the feds are using about 'reducing Labor's big black hole deficit'.

Journos should do their job and, at the next media conference called by Ms Trad ask the following questions:

Is Labour committed to a CRR solution that involves infrastructure and track on a new alignment via Woolloongabba and another rail bridge or tunnel across the Brisbane River?

Do you concede that the words 'deliver an inner city rail solution' for Brisbane, as stated in your Charter letter means that Labor is signalling that a 'CRR solution' will never be built and that the best the travelling public can look forward to under Labor is based around the existing track and infrastructure?

When can we expect Labor to reveal its 'inner city rail solution' and will that be before the next election?  (Probably involving another glossy brochure and video 'drive thru', unfortunately.)

Where is the money coming from, and if not from the federal government, what taxing and other measures does Labor have in plan to raise the necessary money for a CRR solution?

Are not Labor's plans to increase patronage and increase the growth in the rate at which people switch from cars to public transport in jeopardy without a true CRR solution?  In that case, are you on a trajectory to fail one of the principles of your Charter letter from the Premier?

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

22nd May 2015

Get real ...

Greetings,

An interesting analysis on Brisbanetimes this morning.

Brisbanetimes --> Queensland's infrastructure health check - where we stand

Unfortunately governments don't govern these days.  They 'play politics', which is not the same as governing.  We are the poorer for it.

Even relatively straight forward matters and low hanging fruit such as bus network reform and rolling out  all door boarding of buses is beyond the simple comprehension of our bumbling bureaucracies.

Just look how the introduction of automatic train protection has stalled (ATP).  All too hard for Queensland.  Soon the SEQ suburban rail network will be the only metropolitan rail network in Australia without ATP.

Should incompetence in transport planning and provision be rewarded?  Seems so, the present transport bureaucracy bumbles along.

Some thought that a new State Government might move forward with some of the essential reforms.  For example they might actually do something meaningful for the unemployed - roll out immediately concession fares, something that is offered in every other state and Territory of Australia.  Word waffle in the so called Ministerial Charters defies belief!

Excuse our cynicism but this new administration seems even more inept than the last.

Enjoy the transport failure.

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

1. Brisbane Bus Reform: Extend All Door Boarding! http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=11322.msg156347#msg156347
low hanging fruit


2.  Ministerial Charter Letters  http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=11442.0

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

22nd May 2015

A comment from a RAIL Back On Track member.
http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=11442.msg156525#msg156525

"If we look at the Charter letter as a duties statement for a prospective employee, virtually any person associated with this site could be the transport minister.  We should view the words 'deliver an inner city rail solution' with grave alarm.  It is a shifting of the goal posts.  It limits the 'solution' to once that involves the current infrastructure, tweaked to operate harder.

The current lines and the Merivale Bridge represent an 'inner city rail solution'.  We can expect no end to the impasse that would result in a superior CRR outcome.  It won't happen under Labor as it didn't happen under LNP.

For those who look for new rail lines and rail services to South-West and to the Sunny Coast, the expectations should be limited to incremental improvements associated with modest upgrades to what we have now, and what can be achieved with new generation rolling stock.

Pollies do this all the time, when they get cold feet.  They revert to words that allow them to shift the focus away from what has been committed so that whatever becomes the outcome (usually one that falls short of the mark) is the outcome that was desired in the first place.  For example, they will say 'we will reduce emergency room waiting times by 50 per cent' and later say 'we are achieving good progress towards a reduction in emergency room waiting times'.  Just look at the weasel words the feds are using about 'reducing Labor's big black hole deficit'.

Journos should do their job and, at the next media conference called by Ms Trad ask the following questions:

Is Labour committed to a CRR solution that involves infrastructure and track on a new alignment via Woolloongabba and another rail bridge or tunnel across the Brisbane River?

Do you concede that the words 'deliver an inner city rail solution' for Brisbane, as stated in your Charter letter means that Labor is signalling that a 'CRR solution' will never be built and that the best the travelling public can look forward to under Labor is based around the existing track and infrastructure?

When can we expect Labor to reveal its 'inner city rail solution' and will that be before the next election?  (Probably involving another glossy brochure and video 'drive thru', unfortunately.)

Where is the money coming from, and if not from the federal government, what taxing and other measures does Labor have in plan to raise the necessary money for a CRR solution?

Are not Labor's plans to increase patronage and increase the growth in the rate at which people switch from cars to public transport in jeopardy without a true CRR solution?  In that case, are you on a trajectory to fail one of the principles of your Charter letter from the Premier?"

Sent to all outlets:

22nd May 2015

Get real ...

Greetings,

An interesting analysis on Brisbanetimes this morning.

Brisbanetimes --> Queensland's infrastructure health check - where we stand

Unfortunately governments don't govern these days.  They 'play politics', which is not the same as governing.  We are the poorer for it.

Even relatively straight forward matters and low hanging fruit such as bus network reform and rolling out  all door boarding of buses is beyond the simple comprehension of our bumbling bureaucracies.

Just look how the introduction of automatic train protection has stalled (ATP).  All too hard for Queensland.  Soon the SEQ suburban rail network will be the only metropolitan rail network in Australia without ATP.

Should incompetence in transport planning and provision be rewarded?  Seems so, the present transport bureaucracy bumbles along.

Some thought that a new State Government might move forward with some of the essential reforms.  For example they might actually do something meaningful for the unemployed - roll out immediately concession fares, something that is offered in every other state and Territory of Australia.  Word waffle in the so called Ministerial Charters defies belief!

Excuse our cynicism but this new administration seems even more inept than the last.

Enjoy the transport failure.

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

1. Brisbane Bus Reform: Extend All Door Boarding! http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=11322.msg156347#msg156347
low hanging fruit


2.  Ministerial Charter Letters  http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=11442.0

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Infrastructure Australia warns user-pays principle only way to keep moving as new projects fail to keep pace with population growth

[Stillwater]

Ms Trad can score 100 per cent of the goals the Premier has set her in the ministerial Charter Letter and ignore all of these warnings.

Here we have it -- Ipswich and Brisbane rail networks to reach 'crush capacity' in 15 years time; speeds on Brisbane arterial roads to be reduced by a quarter (some already at 98 per cent capacity in peaks), an extra 1.4 million people in Brisbane, Ipswich and Gold Coast, with major growth now at places like Ormeau and Jimboomba where there is no public transport to speak off, thereby forcing more cars onto the roads.

It makes no sense for the minister to strive to increase patronage on railway lines that shortly will be at 'crush capacity'.  Not one word in the Trad Charter Letter about finding innovative ways of funding new transport infrastructure.  It specifically rules out competitive tendering of bus and rail services.  In Queensland, the government of the day does not want bus and rail to run efficiently!

Infrastructure Australia is suggesting new revenue-raising measures to fund PT.  We are in a bind, a serious one.  It is about the chicken and the egg.  One solution is a congestion tax for Brisbane, on every vehicle that enters the city, and probably a differential rate for various times of the day.  But that would have the intended consequences of forcing people onto public transport where the capacity to handle the increased patronage is not there and peak services are at 'crush capacity'.

No privatisation of transport, no competitive tendering.

In short, the Trad Charter Letter is a plan for business as usual, do nothing.

[ozbob]

As IA is shoving down the throats of the political class nationally today, doing nothing is simply not an option any more ..   

[#Metro]

I think a land tax (states rates) would put brakes on the sprawl as empty lots closer to the city and underutilied/dilapidated blocks would be built on.

Some of the new developments - and I note with caution people should live pretty much where they like as long as they pay - have no PT access within Cooooee. Check out some of the developments at New Beith/Flagstone https://goo.gl/maps/fQoQJ

There is NOTHING within miles!

Action tends to happen on the cusp or when knee-deep within a crisis. We are not quite there yet.

[SurfRail]

There already is land tax.  The issue is how it is calculated and charged, and the number of exemptions available.

Widening this would go some way to being able to wean ourselves of stamp duties.

https://www.osr.qld.gov.au/land-tax/

[#Metro]

There already is land tax.  The issue is how it is calculated and charged, and the number of exemptions available.

Widening this would go some way to being able to wean ourselves of stamp duties.

There are very large exemptions to this, for example, most residential property is exempt (owner-occupier). There is also a way to convert this into a pay as you go scheme - link it to employment as credits. That way it is paid off in small amounts over the course of the year...

A lot of other taxes could be scrapped this way. And persons who moved to an apartments/smaller property would lessen their individual tax burden - efficient use of space and land.

[#Metro]

Charter Letter, what charter letter?!?!

[aldonius]

The necessary reform with land tax is simply to replace stamp duty (and then some, if a tax reduction elsewhere is desired). For owner-occupied dwellings allow the tax to be collected at property sale where stamp duty would currently apply.

[SurfRail]

A lot of other taxes could be scrapped this way. And persons who moved to an apartments/smaller property would lessen their individual tax burden - efficient use of space and land.

The land tax system already supports this too.  Land tax is charged on the unimproved value of the land - for a lot in a community titles scheme, it is a shared portion of the total unimproved value for the common property of the scheme (which near universally would result in a lower burden for unit dwellers). 

The problem is transfer duty, which is charged on the higher of the consideration for the transfer or the unencumbered value (ie if I sell a house and land package or a unit and both are sold for $500,000 then the buyer pays the same duty for both regardless of size).

All a moot point while the owner-occupier exemption and $350K / $600K thresholds apply.

[pandmaster]

Even though we have done the job for the journos with the questions for Ms Trad, I wonder if any of them will actually press her on the charter letter.

Nothing on bus reform in the letter either. The document is very disappointing and unambitious.