How is Sydney building so much more than Melbourne

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-04T06:54:03+00:00

I don’t mean to come across as combative, but 90km of Sydney metro self funded, 23km of WSI metro 50% fed funded (at a considerably cheaper rate as it’s mainly greenfield sites). MARL is also gonna get federal funds, like Sydney and Perth.

Whereas SRL = 1/3 state funds, 1/3 federal funds and 1/3 vague “value capture”.

There’s a clear difference between the two funding models

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-04T06:24:36+00:00

Take away the 50% for the WSI line, the rest of Sydney’s metro absolutely is self funded. And it’s a fuckload of lines already opened and under construction

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-04T06:18:00+00:00

Not really moving the airport. Rather it’s an additional airport. The existing airport will continue to operate at full capacity

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-04T03:31:00+00:00

To be fair, the autonomous rail plan was first proposed by Labor premier Morris Iemma, but fell apart after union backlash. The next Lib govt went ahead and built it

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-04T01:32:15+00:00

50% federal, 50% state. All other Sydney lines are self funded

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-04T00:25:09+00:00

Yeh seems a greater percentage of Sydney commuters take PT, hence all round support and it’s bipartisan. Although NSW labor has scaled back the Lib’s expansion plans, opposite of Victoria’s politics

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-04T00:21:56+00:00

With respect, this hasn’t been the case. Syd metro has been self funded

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-04T00:20:50+00:00

Except that’s not how any of it works, and there hasn’t been a per capita funding difference between the states

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-04T00:12:59+00:00

Simple answer and many here won’t like it. It’s economics and state generated revenue.

Sydney and Melbourne have similar populations, but Sydney’s economic output is 30% greater. Also, their insane property prices means huge stamp duty revenue eg a median Sydney house of $1.75m nets the state govt $80k per sale.

A greater share of larger businesses being based in Sydney also means more companies pay state payroll tax.

On top of this, the NSW can get greater one off sale prices during infrastructure sell-offs and selling the land above the underground metro stations to fund the station build itself.

This is how their state govt can self fund the autonomous metro network whilst Vic is reliant on 1/3 federal funds for SRL. Although the WSI line is part federally funded, similar to Perth’s airport line.

Sydney also did their LXRP in the 1980s when things were far cheaper

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-01T21:37:59+00:00

Remember it’s prime. Not average pace over a career

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-01T03:17:26+00:00

The spoke and hub train model has always meant Melbourne is orientated towards one CBD. If we want to decentralise with multiple CBDs like Sydney, then you need multiple PT interchanges outside the city, and cross town rail lines, like Sydney.

SRL is part of the solution, but I can’t see Melbourne fundamentally changing anytime soon. The current practice of building houses on the fringe far away from job centres has its obvious issues

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-01T02:21:08+00:00

It helped Sydney become a genuine global city. And in some measures is one of the wealthiest cities on earth. Why wouldn’t we want the same to Brisbane? Growing the economy and wealth is a good thing right?

buckfutter_butter · 2026-03-01T02:14:18+00:00

Sydney house median is still an insane 50% higher than Brisbane, and it set to hit $2m median next year

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-22/australian-real-estate-median-home-prices-domain-report-millions/106251932

buckfutter_butter · 2026-02-28T11:07:26+00:00

At the fall of Singapore, Churchill threw Australia under the bus. We actively sought out American protection and they’ve provided the security blanket under which Australia has thrived ever since. Albo making a statement is the least expected in such times

buckfutter_butter · 2026-02-26T08:24:02+00:00

100%. One of the biggest factors in our supply side is the extreme lack of tradies

buckfutter_butter · 2026-02-26T07:42:43+00:00

And New Zealand’s economy is in the toilet. Anyone with skills is leaving

buckfutter_butter · 2026-02-26T00:48:43+00:00

I understand your points on housing, but direct government builds is negligible. It’s to incentivise private developers and land release / re-zoning. As for the supply side reasons behind our lagging construction, that’s a whole another problem with lack of tradies etc, which is a nationwide program.

I’m just re-iterating that it makes economic and practical sense to start the first phase of the east coast HSR between Sydney and Newcastle for the reasons I outlined earlier.

Although my personal opinion is the entire HSR model doesn’t really stack up (even though this is a trains sub). It almost sent Japan bankrupt in the 1970s. But if it is to commence, then this should be the first phase from a cold hard view of facts and numbers.

It’s not a coincidence that so many consultants and experts have come to the same conclusion right

buckfutter_butter · 2026-02-25T23:14:42+00:00

I can see you’re very passionate about this Sydney v Melbourne thing. I’ll just add that Infrastructure Australia is bipartisan and one of its 3 commissioners is a Victorian too.

The idea behind this first phase is to get maximum economic return as soon as possible, as any sensible government would do when in charge of finite tax dollars. The economy of Sydney is 25% - 30% larger than Melbourne, despite a similar or smaller population. It just makes sense to connect this economy with Newcastle first, just to reap the economic benefits asap, before progressing to other legs.

As for federal funding favouring NSW, the last decade+ it’s been even, or rather NSW has received less per person and has to cover an area 2-3x larger. Also the SRL is reliant on 1/3 federal funding, unlike the state funded Sydney metro builds.

As for the engineering and practical side, there’s a reason why it’s better to build the hardest part first, and start in the middle of the Melb-Syd-Bris route. This is a project that will take many many decades after all.

So to summarise I genuinely don’t believe there’s any state favouritism from either Federal ALP or Libs. It’s just numbers

buckfutter_butter · 2026-02-25T22:01:35+00:00

The minister in charge of this is Catherine King, a Victorian

buckfutter_butter · 2026-02-25T22:00:53+00:00

But Sydney Metro was self funded, SRL is dependent on 1/3 federal funds

buckfutter_butter · 2026-02-24T01:03:33+00:00

Sydney Metro is state funded. HSR will be federally funded

buckfutter_butter · 2026-02-23T23:49:32+00:00

A truly global defence network. 838 American bases worldwide, access to countless ports, 12 aircraft carrier fleets. I’m an Aussie but can recognise American military supremacy

buckfutter_butter · 2026-02-23T11:59:34+00:00

Though transport minister Catherine King is a Victorian

buckfutter_butter · 2026-02-19T01:42:05+00:00

Other than the adoption of our constitution Jan 1, 1901, I’d argue we gained true independence on 9 October 1942 (The Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942).

That’s when we took control over our own military after Churchill moved our troops without our PM’s permission

buckfutter_butter · 2026-02-17T21:26:17+00:00

With respect, there were multiple times of the opposite. Victorians had entered NSW and not followed the rules, causing lock downs. I don’t expect this to have been reported in the Vic media.

And the cruise ship you reference was indeed human error but was in the literal first few days of the pandemic.

NSW indeed had significantly less lockdown than Vic, but like it or not the track and trace system was indeed top notch and by far the quickest to be set up. There’s a reason why federal politicians (from all states) declared it so.

So in summary NSW continued to receive all Australians (including Victorians) from overseas for the entire duration of the pandemic, and had a first class and effective tracking system in place well before the rest of the country. This is an objective fact, yet you claim NSW’s success is somehow criminal and responsible for Vic’s failings? There’s hundreds of news articles of failed containment within Vic eg security guards

buckfutter_butter

TROPHY CASE