Good taxpayer funded Infrastructure investment looks like this.

There’s something fishy about the Northern Australia Infrastructure Development Fund. For a start it makes up the kind of acronym, (NAIDF) that’s very difficult to pronounce. C’mon, you try, “NAI-DF”. We at pcbycp who love acronyms would have preferred the very simple ‘FAIND’ (Fund Another Indian Development Fraud), but bureaucrats don’t like making it personal. They’re above board, and free from the taint of corruption. That’s how they operate in the interests of the public, as objective and unbiased. And that’s a good thing. It makes us feel due process is being served.

Two of the board members of the NIDF have shareholder interests in mining, that could be a conflict of interest. Downer, who funds lots of private public partnerships and other odd bits of infrastructure are pretty good shares to have. We have a sneaking suspicion that Downer EDI could be one of those big companies that get big contracts and don’t pay much tax. They’ll be building the taxpayer funded railway and they allegedly grow the economy by funding projects like this.

Twiggy. Beneficiary of taxpayer concessions generously gives some of it back to his favourite causes as taxpayer funded philanthropy.For which he gets a tax break. (again)

Bad investment is when  public money is diverted to education, technology, research and health. That’s what the Treasurer says. he’s a bit like Mr Adani. He wants ‘big picture’ investment. Mr Adani employs accountants in the Cayman Islands or sone other bit of ol Empire like London to grow his own personal economy. This ensures viable work for those who benefit from his largesse, the letter lickers, the chauffeur, and the house butler. Though he doesn’t ever go there, he has nice houses in these and other exclusive locations. And why? It’s a bit like the Chinese couple who bought the house in Hawthorn for 9 mil, and then demolished and want 17 mil after leaving the site, (which once held a beautiful, outstanding example of late Edwardian architecture), because they could. It’s not greed, it’s the trickle down effect. To anoint us with a 17 million empty block so that Edwardian splendour can be replaced with a very nice Sino-Georgian architectural statement, that takes up the entire block. Point made.

Fallen woman, and angry. They like that in Queensland.

The Queensland treasurer is going to fast track the money to Adani, and see this rail built by hook or by crook. Good on him, there’ll be jobs for the odd railways track layer and some jobs in a Chinese rail-yard for the trucks. Because there’s no point in employing Australians to make the rolling stock and the rail is way to expensive also. Better we get them to do it, another instance of the trickle down effect. It’s what makes the project a boon for Queensland. Queenslanders like to be right and they’ll go to amazing lengths to prove that this is good infrastructure, and not some soft-cock la-de-da piece of nature like the Great Barrier Reef and Eco tourism for lefty poofta tree hugging international wankers.

Chapelle. Another fallen woman. Queenslanders Love it!

But there are more important things about being a Queenslander than digging stuff up, hating poofters and clearing the land of troublemakers. That’s providing a safe haven for Shapelle. She’s back and Queenslanders know once again, that the outside world is a dangerous place, down south is way too far down, and god-fearing and hating foreigners, (excepting that nice bloke Mr Adani) is on the go. And with Shapelle free there’s heaps better things to do than look at rainforests, coral and natural things of wonder and beauty. She’s a cultural icon. We identify with her. Like Pauline, she’s a fallen woman. And that’s reassuring, it makes us feel more normal. In Queensland that’s due process. And there’s no conflict of interest in that either.