Coalition promise: $33m for Outback Highway through Alice

Would it be possible to have a map showing the Outback Highway and which sections are already sealed? I know some of the road west from Winton is, and the Lasseter Highway from Alice to the Rock is as well. Does the single lane from Gem Tree to the Stuart Highway count?
This is a piece of national infrastructure that is increasingly important, and sooner of later I expect to see the job completed. It’s very welcome news that an incoming Coalition government will commit to getting on with the project.

Crikey, poor old pollies. Basic premise if economics is unlimited material wants and how best to satisfy them.
Liberal candidate in western Sydney highlights traffic hold ups there, even blames refugees!
NT govt cuts teachers out of high schools, federal coalition promises billions for rolled gold parental leave system, yet cutting the school kids bonus and heaven knows what else.
Opportunity cost is the most basic principle of any economic system. All very well for us all to call for funding for our pet projects, but we don’t always really see the big picture and the needs of others.
I’m not sure the Outback Way would be high on my list of priorities. How does the cost benefit analysis stack up against other priorities? And while I think of it, the new Alice Springs rail overpass! Crikey!

Alice Springs is the center of the nation. The best way to ensure that the Central Australia receives constant funding is for governments to stimulate growth in the center no matter who is the government of the day.
As with any proposed legislation, this should be the number one priority for all political parties.
Citizens would then have the opportunity to judge our political leaders on their ability to represent their community.
Mrs MacFarlane is quoted as saying: “The Outback Way’s center is Alice Springs, which for many is the geographic center of the nation It is the perfect place to announce upgrading this monumental trans-continental route and put real funding to put actual bitumen on the road.”
Mrs MacFarlane should give an assurance or promise or makes a sworn intention that will ensure the NT will always receive funding for schools hospitals roads and not say she is going to do something just because it is election time.
Much, much easier travel to Alice is need – the town’s survival depends on it.

If all we are considering is roads in Central Australia (big if), it may be that completing the sealing of the Tanami is a higher priority than the Outback Way? Scarce resources should go where they will produce the most economic and social benefit, not to the noisiest lobby group.

I’ve got great news – according to a front page headline from a non-locally owned newspaper, the “East-West highway is on edge of reality”. True story! The article goes on to assure us that (very soon) the “Outback Highway” is a case of not “if” it will happen but “how” – and the full cost of its sealing will be only $288 million. The story was published in the month of September, in the middle of a federal election campaign – of 1998.
When I related this news on a radio station yesterday afternoon during a panel discussion about infrastructure promises (or lack thereof) for Central Australia in the current election campaign, Mayor Damien Ryan kindly reminded me of how his father was involved in a committee from the early 1960s lobbying for the sealing of the south Stuart Highway – and eventually this was achieved.
Fair point – but here’s the rub. ASPARDO (“Alice Springs-Port Augusta Road Development Association”) was commenced about 1962. The sealing of the south Stuart Highway was regularly promised by the major political parties in many federal election campaigns from that time onwards but wasn’t achieved until 1987 – it was a project funded for Australia’s bicentenary of 1988. In short, it took 25 years but the project was properly funded in just the last few years of this period.
In the federal election campaign of 1980, the Federal Coalition promised the completion of the railway from Alice Springs to Darwin in five years – as the lead sentence of the front-page article in the non-locally owned newspaper excitedly told us: “The Alice to Darwin railway is a goer!” Well, it did happen, only it took nearly five times longer to achieve – yes, it’s that magical quarter century period again! And also again, the funding for the railway project was allocated only in the few years leading up to its completion in 2004.
So, taking these examples as precedents, and setting the 1998 federal election campaign as the starting date, we’ve got another decade to wait before the final sealing of the “Outback Way”. The $33 million over three years promised by the Coalition is a pittance, considering it’s now (currently) estimated this project will cost a good half a billion dollars to complete.
Anybody feel like holding their breath?

A good perspective, Alex, and thank you for reminding us that infrastructure projects take time and money. I agree the $33 million currently on promise is a pittance. Could even the road from the Rock to Docker get paved for that?
And maybe the Tanami will get the nod first. It would bring Cable Beach closer.
But the Outback Way is the piece of national infrastructure missing from the Ozzie road puzzle, and eventually it will catch a spark. Until then it’s slowly, slowly, and the 25 year time frame is likely not too far off the mark.

A correction to my earlier post – I got the time spans of two key Coalition promises mixed up. In 1980 the Fraser Government promised to have the Alice-Darwin railway constructed within 10 years (the target date was 1988, Australia’s Bicentennial). So ultimately the railway took 2 and a half times as long to complete from that time.
The five year time frame was also a Fraser (caretaker) Government promise made in 1975, for achieving statehood for the Northern Territory by 1980. We got “responsible self-government” instead, halfway through that period.