Daniel Bauer writing in the PA Times
“U.S. infrastructure and its present state of operating capacity is dominated by substantial costs to upgrade and/or costs attributed to new construction. Either way, the issue of infrastructure seems to be increasingly categorized as a ‘wicked’ policy problem”.
Clearly infrastructure development in Australia is the same wicked problem even with the rapid expansion of new technologies and funding approaches such as private-public partnerships adequate infrastructure is not being delivering for communities.
My observation is that the funding issue continues to get worse for governments with increased debt and a back log of funding priorities and promises for politicians. The failure to deliver on public transport like high speed inter-city rail and communication technologies like high speed broadband (NBN -National Broadband Network) are good examples of public policy failures.
It is a classic chasing your tail or what Brian Head has described as a wicked policy problem.
How do we stop chasing our tails to fund and develop appropriate infrastructure for our society? It is worth reading Daniel’s discussion in the US.
http://patimes.org/infrastructure-technologies-delivering-impact-2-0/