[Media Release] NSW Budget: Welcome housing supply measures, but more ambition needed. @peter_tulip has long argued that we need to ease planning restrictions and increase density to improve housing supply and reduce prices and rents.

Numeracy checks coming sooner for Year 1 students. 'We want to make sure that the items that we're using in this screener are as accurate as they possibly can be in identifying the children that we want to target' says Kelly Norris. Read here:

Thread on gov't waste. 🧵⬇️.

In his 2023 paper, "Bungles, Blowouts and Boondoggles: why Australia’s infrastructure projects cost more than they should" Grahame Campbell warned of just this problem. 7/7. You can read the full paper here:

“Thousands of projects have been built in the Sydney basin. You know, you could go back and see how they were managed.”. Soil or geological abnormalities should ideally be discovered before works begin. Water management – which can lead to sinkholes – is “always the biggest.

“You would think that having lost billions of dollars over decades, [governments] would have learned by now – but unfortunately it doesn’t seem like they have.” 5/7.

“A contractor is pretty good at throwing concrete in the ground. But they’re [sometimes] not particularly good at project management. Keep your mind open and understand the broadest issues and deal with them. Unfortunately, those concepts aren’t very big in gov't at the moment.

"Blowouts have not always been so common. They can be caused by various factors, including contractors starting construction before finishing designs, changes to designs, governments handing responsibility for risks to contractors, and a lack of expertise within government or at.

Grahame is confident the M6 will be completed eventually, but believes it will be over budget – like other major projects including Sydney’s metro and light rail builds and Melbourne’s North East Link. "Of course it can be finished and it’s a matter of doing it correctly and.

Too many gov't infrastructure projects are bungled with massive time and cost blowouts hitting the taxpayer. The M6 looks like it will be no different. Read CIS Contributor Grahame Campbell's comments in the Guardian today. 1/7.

RT @CISOZ: "If Australia was to expand its defence spending but continue to spend it in the same way, there is little guarantee of a genuin….

More defence money ≠ better outcomes. 'Unfortunately, the reality is that both sides of politics have allowed industry concerns and state gov't parochialism to dominate defence needs when it comes to procurement'. Read @SimonJCowan's latest op-ed:.

@peter_tulip You can also find @peter_tulip's thoughts on the NSW Budget in this recent media release.

RT @CISOZ: [Media Release] NSW Budget: Welcome housing supply measures, but more ambition needed. @peter_tulip has long argued that we nee….

“This shortage of homes has developed over decades,” @peter_tulip says. “It’ll take a while to fix. This is a high level of construction, but it’ll need to be maintained and increased going forward to solve the affordability crisis.”.

RT @peter_tulip: I discuss the government’s housing targets with @myriamrobin in the AFR. 1/2 .

CIS's @peter_tulip argues the federal govt’s housing targets are clearly feasible. Economically, we can run a construction industry at these levels (as we have before). Politically, the community has previously accepted these levels of construction.

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"If Australia was to expand its defence spending but continue to spend it in the same way, there is little guarantee of a genuine improvement in our position.". Read @SimonJCowan's latest for the Canberra Times.

RT @peter_tulip: A great ABC show on @SydneyYIMBY . A clear and accessible explanation of what the YIMBYs are about.