I agree with the four examples you put up as being valid and valueable infrastruture projests. However, I'm not sure with some as being the optimal target for spending during the GFC. The money had to be out there and spent ASAP.
Roads, and rail tend to be capital rather than labour intensive relative to building projects. As such, they tend to have a much lower multiplier effect in the short term than some others, such as the housing program in Darwin you suggested. The last time I was in Darwin, the place could have reasonably been housed in a tent from Kmart (annex for the wet) lol, although I expect things have changed somewhat looking at recent house prices. Whilst a Darwin housing program could be instigated with a relatively short lead time, be labour intensive and have a strong multiplier effect, a clean power station, necessary as that may be, wouldn't be the first priority for keeping us out of the woods.
As far as how the money was indeed spent, the $900 was an early injection that could be dished out immmediately. Crude but effective. The cruel irony is that those who spent the money less responsibly, rather than say, paying of credit card debt, were the ones that helped the most.
I don't think anyone could argue that the insulation scheme, on the other hand, was anything but a debacle. I actually think it was a good idea with regard to energy consumption, but boy did Garrett make a meal of this one. Great music, lousy minister.
The schools program inefficiencies are a bit overhyped IMHO. No waste is good waste, but at the end of the day, there were complaints from only around 2% of schools, and having 5-6% spent inefficiently isn't really too bad, considering the speed at which it needed to happen and the effect it had. 20/20 hindsight suggests that the one size fits all was a mistake but any government of any persuasion would have had these issues if they were to do what was necessary within the time frame. Sadly, little will be learnt from the mistakes, I expect.
Like many others, I'm somewaht critical of the current Labor's government cynical and poll driven approach to things. However, as far as the stimulus package and associated deficit, the facts speak for themselves. The rest of the developed world, including those with significant natural resources, have high unempoyment, low or negative growth and huge deficits 10 times that of Australia. Australia has full employment, didn't experience recession levels of growth, a debt that will paid off within a few years and still having interest rates at the L/T average. I feel that's more important than whether or not the school hall was painted two or three times before they achieved their desired shade of magenta.
