There’s something desperately wrong when opinion writers get all fired up and lambast pollies for stupid suggestions, but concurrently make the same suggestion.  Guy Rundle has chastised Anthony Albanese’s “lack of  infrastructure” and his alleged rock bottom performance on Monday night’s Lateline.

The crux of Rundle’s ire is that the problem with our cities is not the need for fast rail but rather the need for new cities and towns, about 20-odd.  According to Rundle, the much anticipated population bomb will make our current cities unliveable and require a significant branching out, with brand new populaces.

There’s always a rich, sweeping melodrama to Rundle’s writing. And he’s not afraid to tip his hat with passing references to anything which can populate his tomes with colour and add some ballast. But frankly, there are two things that spleen me about his latest.

One is the suggestion that we don’t actually need fast rail but must instead create these new cities with links just 30 minutes from where you would rather be, by (you guessed it) fast rail.

Secondly, these new cities and towns should not only be eco-friendly (whatever that entails) and designed by the best architects around but also not elitist. Unfortunately you really can’t have the name Gehry and the words ‘not elitist’ in the same paragraph. And by not elitist, Rundle means “low-income creative types, from painters to punk bands, can live there and transform them as they go.” Really, I think transition towns will be over-run before government starts planning Punktown. Why not just be elitist and say, “Not poor and uninteresting people”?

I sort of feel sorry for Rundle. His coverage of the Obama campaign was enriching and you couldn’t help enjoying his relish, knowing that this was going to be the most interesting thing that ever happened in his life. Staying up to critique Albo on Lateline — whether he looks like Doc Evatt or not — must feel crushing in comparison.

It’s not really worth getting so worked up about. Albo clearly doesn’t have much interest in trains, ports and roads. He’s much more worried about Carmel and the forthcoming bloodbath in NSW. But Rundle can do much better than this. This was like reading Catherine Deveny with a cock and an idea.