[LINK] myki - a tracking device (was Re: more myki pain)

[Lea de Groot]

On 14/04/10 1:44 PM, jore419-links at yahoo.com.au wrote:
> yes and why are we even moving away from the simple system anyway? what isn't working?
>
> is it a financial reason? (seems to me like myki is a blow out in any event anyway but perhaps this is the point -- corporation/gov relationship, gotta take care of the cronies)...
>
> but where is the public demand even, for myki or indeed any other 'smart card' "solution" to some non-problem?

Yep, an issue I have thought over more than once.
The old-style system has people working locally and paying their taxes 
locally.
So, simplifying drastically, the money flow goes:
commuter -> (eg) railway -> wages -> taxes
When we 'computerise' these systems and 'reduce manpower' the dynamic 
changes to:
commuter -> (eg) railway -> consulting company that builds e-system,
And that is often a foreign company, or if not the probability of it 
being local in the way the employees were is low.
Then the state governments wonder why they don't have enough money!

Has anyone ever heard of an e-ticket system in Australia being 
introduced that wasn't a huge cost overrun and replaced within 5 years?

Lea
-- 
Lea de Groot
Brisbane, .au