Point number eleven calls for:
A dramatic upgrading of State and Federal infrastructure, in water projects, roads, railroads (emphasising high-speed trains), schools and hospitals, and other needed infrastructure to provide urgently needed facilities, new jobs and to serve as the driver for general economic recovery. These projects more than pay for themselves by the economic activity they generate.
Australia is currently suffering what is called an "infrastructure deficit" of around $100 billion, that is, the amount of money that needed to be spent on infrastructure development to meet the economy's demands, and wasn't. In the early 1970s, 8% of GDP was spent on infrastructure; today, it is less than 4%, yet the demands are greater. The result is evident in the state of our roads, railways, bridges, dams, etc.
But, beyond just replacing the collapsing existing infrastructure, we must grow. Grand-scale infrastructure development is the engine of economic growth, and this was the principle our governments adhered to when they built the Indian-Pacific Railway, and the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Such large-scale needed projects today include the Alice to Darwin and Melbourne to Darwin railway, the Clarence River Scheme, the Bradfield Scheme, and a water scheme to service Kalgoorlie, among others.
The most exciting and far-reaching infrastructure project in the world today is the Eurasian Land-Bridge project of developing the old Silk Road trade route between China and Europe, with high-speed trains, gas pipelines and fibre-optic cables, which the Chinese Government is committed to doing, in order to face the challenge of developing its huge population into the 21st century. This Eurasian Land-Bridge will have three major lines from Europe across Asia, one of which will run all the way from the port of Rotterdam in Europe, across the Balkans and Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, along southern China, and down into South East Asia, to Jakarta, Indonesia. If we build the urgently-needed high speed Melbourne to Darwin railway line, then with high speed catamarans, of which Australians are the world's greatest builders, we can go from Darwin to Indonesia, and effectively integrate Australia into the Eurasian Land-Bridge, and thus into the greatest population markets in the world.
