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Category: Infrastructure

Electricity and the perils of second-best thinking – Paul Kerin

In an article in Wednesday’s Australian, Paul Kerin argues that our governments should focus on “first-best” environmental and energy policies to best serve the overall public interest. He warns that the negative consequences of second-best policy choices (such as the large-scale renewable energy target (LRET) and the maximum price cap (MPC) on wholesale electricity) are […]

Posted in Business economics, Economic reform, Economic regulation, Infrastructure, Paul Kerin, public policy, South Australian economy | Tagged |

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Fixing Australia’s Infrastructure Problem – Garry Bowditch

Garry Bowditch, Executive Director of the University of Sydney’s Better Infrastructure Initiative, makes the case for reforming our approach to infrastructure investment…
All too often I attend infrastructure forums where policymakers and industry leaders call for the urgent need to fix the infrastructure deficit, by building more assets and deliver more projects. This point of view […]

Posted in Business economics, Economic reform, Infrastructure, public policy, South Australian Centre for Economic Studies | Tagged |

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The coming utilities crisis: huge risks for consumers and taxpayers

At last week’s Energy Networks Conference (held in Adelaide), electricity industry leaders were adamant that the future for traditional utility business models was very dim (see, for example, Electricity market smashed by technology). AGL Managing Director Andy Vesey said that business models based on the traditional technology paradigm – large-scale generation, large-scale wires and electricity […]

Posted in Economic reform, Economic regulation, Economic research, Infrastructure, Paul Kerin, public policy | Tagged |

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Boost infrastructure investment through key reforms – Darryl Gobbett

In a recent speech to the 2016 South Australian Infrastructure Conference in Adelaide, Darryl Gobbett made several recommendations to help improve South Australia’s economic performance, including:

Boost infrastructure investment that focuses on cost-reduction, output, exports and regional SA;
Establish a SA Productivity Commission to determine investment and other priorities; and
Fund investment priorities though a broad-based land tax, asset […]

Posted in Business economics, Contributors, Darryl Gobbett, Economic growth, Economic reform, Infrastructure, public policy, South Australian economy, Taxation | Tagged |

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