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2
Public Transport Users Association - August Volunteer & Member Meeting (ptua.wildapricot.org)
 

(open to non-members)

From the event page:

Join us next month for our upcoming series of Volunteer-Member meetings. This is a good opportunity to connect with like-minded transport enthusiasts, find opportunities to volunteer with the PTUA, and hear from speakers in the transport and urbanism space.

For our upcoming meeting in August, we are glad to have Peter Parker from Melbourne On Transit. Peter is a former transport planner and has written extensively on the network planning, timetable coordination and transport routes in Melbourne. We hope to see you for a night of good discussion over light snacks and refreshments

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Public Transport Users Association - August Volunteer & Member Meeting (ptua.wildapricot.org)
 

(open to non-members)

From the event page:

6 Aug 2026 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

Join us next month for our upcoming series of Volunteer-Member meetings. This is a good opportunity to connect with like-minded transport enthusiasts, find opportunities to volunteer with the PTUA, and hear from speakers in the transport and urbanism space.

For our upcoming meeting in August, we are glad to have Peter Parker from Melbourne On Transit. Peter is a former transport planner and has written extensively on the network planning, timetable coordination and transport routes in Melbourne. We hope to see you for a night of good discussion over light snacks and refreshments

42
Discussion/change my mind: There are almost no examples where privatisation has been a net good* (aussie.zone)
 

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/33395211

* provided you have decently well functioning public service, and it's not a country with high levels of corruption.

I hold the belief that things being equal there is almost no situation in which privatisation of public services has ever been a positive for the average person.

However, I'm keen to hear arguments, examples or studies where privatisation has gone well [1], and has been a net positive to society, and could not have been performed by the government.

I don't believe there are such examples, and I believe (with too many real world examples to list) that privatisation always leads to enshittification and budget blow outs eventually because private companies exist to maximise profits.

This community (!aussocialism@aussie.zone) does not delete comments that disagree with socialism, so you're very much encouraged to share your views respectfully.

[1] for countries that have some level of democracy at that point in history i.e. I'm not really interested in the example of China becoming capitalist, 1. because Chinese "socialism" was never control of society by the workers, and was (and still is) a top-down hierarchical dictatorship - which had a ruling class determined by party position, and now also determined by wealth. No wonder that things were being run so poorly before they decided to be capitalist. Dictatorships don't usually breed very good conditions for sensible management. 2. They still have most core government services being administered by government departments.

3
X-Post: Federal government to contribute nearly $4b extra to Victoria's Suburban Rail Loop (www.abc.net.au)
 

Federal government to contribute nearly $4b extra to Victoria's Suburban Rail Loop

How do we all feel about the SRL?

Personally, I don't hate it, but feel like money could have been better spent on numerous cheaper projects (like tram/train extentions for interconnectivity, or massively increasing bus frequencies and rationalising bus routes).

But I'm glad for any money to be spent on better public transport, and not more roads.

19
Federal government to contribute nearly $4b extra to Victoria's Suburban Rail Loop (www.abc.net.au)
 

How do we all feel about the SRL?

Personally, I don't hate it, but feel like money could have been better spent on numerous cheaper projects (like tram/train extentions for interconnectivity, or massively increasing bus frequencies and rationalising bus routes).

But I'm glad for any money to be spent on better public transport, and not more roads.

X-Posted to c/Melbourne

12
[Discussion] What level of proportional representation is desirable? (represent.org.au)
 

We have a mixed system in our federal parliament. We have a lower house made up of 150 preferential, winner-takes-all electorates, and an upper house of multi-member electorates for each state and territory elected Hare–Clark proportional representation.

My topic of discussion today is whether we would benefit from altering the lower house, and what way would you alter it (or not).

I'm personally not a fan of making the lower house as proportional as the upper house, as many government functions are legislated to be controlled by government ministers, which necessitates the lower house forming a governing coalition. This is made much harder under high levels of proportional representation (see Tasmania & many european countries).

I'm only not a fan because I think the general public doesn't like seeing slow moving government. I actually think it's fine.

However, I personally think a pragmatic change would be to increase the lower house MPs by 50% from 150 to 225, and then have 75 electorates of 3 members each.

This way, you retain the local representation, while removing "safe" seats that parties ignore, as it's likely at least one member is in doubt every election.

Keen to hear people's ideas, and pet proposals.

(Note, I am not a political scholar so won't have used the most correct jargon.)

6
How can we expect the RBA to control inflation with so little? (My editorialised title) (www.abc.net.au)
 

My commentary:

By my understanding, the only tools the RBA have to control inflation are: setting interest rates, and quantitative tightening (and conversely easing).

Surely, there must be more regulatory powers we could give them. Understandably, many inflationary controlling functions should remain legislative/departmental, but the bank can act decisively and quickly, so SOME extra powers are in order, in my opinion, so they don't constantly resort to ONLY increasing mortgages and therefore rent as well, every single time.

Just spit-balling here: variable tax rates (income and corporate). Since taxation is so damn unpopular (not to me, tax is necessary to have a functioning society under capitalism), it would make some sense to give regulatory power to alter taxation rates (within a legislated range) to the independent RBA. Let them take the flak for increasing the top tax bracket rate by 3% or something.

What are your opinions/ideas about the RBA?

(Sorry if against community rules, but there weren't any in the side bar)

4
Discussion: anyone else feeling a bit meh about the munnel? (www.youtube.com)
 

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/29742117

The "big switch" has ended up being a lot less big than originally promised. I'm really happy we now have a turn up and go service - or at least every 10 minutes - on the lines going through the Metro Tunnel (the Munnel), but feels really silly we haven't brought more drivers on board to run services at least every 10 minutes across the network, and upped all bus routes to the same frequency.

There's a great map that Taitset made showing sections of the metro network which could already do 10 minute running.

My mum, who's in her late 60s, told me of growing up in [European city]. She interchanged 2 times between 2 trains and a bus on her way too highschool. Her and her friends didn't like the bus because it only came every 10 minutes. In the 1970s.

It's a bit embarrassing to me how bad our frequency is, given our massive population.

It would be great if we could convince our government or MPs holding the balance of power at the next state election to invest in a larger workforce to achieve the frequency PTV needs to thrive.

Keen to hear others thoughts on the "Big Switch".

P.S. I've talked to multiple colleagues who live on the lines who literally didn't know about the "Big Switch" until I told them about it, 2 days beforehand.

2
Discussion: anyone else feeling a bit meh about the munnel? (www.youtube.com)
 

The "big switch" has ended up being a lot less big than originally promised. I'm really happy we now have a turn up and go service - or at least every 10 minutes - on the lines going through the Metro Tunnel (the Munnel), but feels really silly we haven't brought more drivers on board to run services at least every 10 minutes across the network, and upped all bus routes to the same frequency.

There's a great map that Taitset made showing sections of the metro network which could already do 10 minute running.

My mum, who's in her late 60s, told me of growing up in [European city]. She interchanged 2 times between 2 trains and a bus on her way too highschool. Her and her friends didn't like the bus because it only came every 10 minutes. In the 1970s.

It's a bit embarrassing to me how bad our frequency is, given our massive population.

It would be great if we could convince our government or MPs holding the balance of power at the next state election to invest in a larger workforce to achieve the frequency PTV needs to thrive.

Keen to hear others thoughts on the "Big Switch".

P.S. I've talked to multiple colleagues who live on the lines who literally didn't know about the "Big Switch" until I told them about it, 2 days beforehand.

Cross-posted to !melbourne@aussie.zone

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