Construction

A year ago, the theme of the day within this publication related to standards. 

Civility Today has been designed and constructed to help maintain high standards in various contexts, including in the construction industry.

Building a daily digital news service does not necessarily have much in common with building a house or road or school or hospital or multi-level car park or sports stadium or museum or bridge or rail route or airport or shopping centre or port or marina or mine or military base.

Yet physical infrastructure does not necessarily serve a worthwhile purpose, especially if it is poorly designed or poorly maintained or poorly placed or likely to produce a poor return on investment from the point of view of the funders.

Standards tend to be low when a quick return on investment is demanded or required.

Construction is meant to be a long-term investment for the greater good.

But what happens in practice?

What do you know about speculative property development?

What do you know about corruption and incompetence in local government?

What do you know about pork barrelling in state and federal politics?

What do you know about ugly infrastructure and energy-inefficient public buildings, and private ones?

What do you know about the politics of large-scale construction projects?