Who is to blame for SEQ's transport woes?

Comment posted on 'How to restore democracy in Queensland' at 'Online Opinion':

"The Courier Mail editorial "Heavier price of progress for some" of Wednesday 15 July 09 provides further illustration of how that that newspaper remains a key
barrier to the proper functioning of democracy in Queensland.

Essentially, although it acknowledges some of the harm caused by the construction frenzy in South East Queensland (SEQ) it nevertheless excuses it as a necessary price for 'progress'.

The Courier Mail is very good at blaming the problems on others (and often rightly so), but will never acknowledge to its readers its own role in bringing Queensland, particularly SEQ, to the deplorable state that it is in today.

As an example it tries to imply that the construction chaos is in response to loud impatient demands of Brisbane residents, themselves, for a solution to Brisbane's traffic problems:

"There is another side to this. In recent years Brisbane residents have become increasingly strident when it comes to complaining about rapidly deteriorating road conditions, and demanding something be done to tackle gridlock. ..."

In fact, the Courier Mail, itself, was more strident than most in demanding that money be splurged on ever more road construction (despite alarm felt by many that the global petroleum production could soon begin to decline inexorably). Some time during the 2007 election campaign, the Courier Mail managed to corner Kevin Rudd into promising to fully fund the upgrade to the Ipswich motorway.

Then in 2008, when the Rudd Government tried to back away from that commitment, the CM denounced it savagely on front page articles until it gave in. (I have the articles buried away somewhere. I will make references to them available on http://candobetter.org/CourierMail when I find them.)

It is almost certainly largely because of the Courier Mail's own knee-jerk and strident pushing of such hobby horses, that South East Queensland's transport is in the terrible state that it is in as noted in the Auditor General's report at http://www.qao.qld.gov.au/downloadables/publications/auditor_general_reports/2009_Report_No.3.pdf"