Australia: News and Views

I don’t often get a good laugh from the local newspaper but the “NO” campaign against daylight saving in Western Australia gave me one today - the headline in the print edition is Resetting Clocks and Radios Upsets Daylight Saving Opponents !

Yes you read that right - its “inconvenient” to change your clocks forward one whole hour! Words fail me so I turn to Liberal MP Matt Birney who says “If the biggest problem for the No campaign is having to turn their clocks forward by one hour than we are all in trouble.” That’s possibly why the YES to daylight saving campaign may actually win this - you see all the young people in the state actually know how to change their digital clocks - cool eh!

But for those who are struggling with concept if you want to know how to reset  your clock lets do a step by step…

1. Is your clock digital or analogue (if its got hands its analogue).
2. If its analogue you pull out the little button on the side- the same one you wind it up with - and change the time.
3. If its digital you will need to go to time set or something similar function - change the time and then hit enter or confirm or end to go back to normal display mode.
4. Congratulations - you now know how to change the time - well done!

The other issues people have is confusion (no kidding), getting kids to go to bed (try developing some parental authority).  It causes more traffic accidents as well - I really don’t make this stuff up. Oh and they get more tired because of the dislocation of timezones on the body (try taking an international flights if you want to experience jetlag - anything less than 4 hours makes absolutely no difference at all!)

This blog is still promoting that West Australians Vote YES to daylight saving on the 16 May poll!

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A lot of people are confused about whether shops are going to be open this weekend given that the 25 April is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand. The short answer of course is -that it depends.

In New Zealand shops cannot open until 1pm - most major shopping centres will be open Saturnday Afternoon. The same is probably the case in the eastern states of Australia: Tasmania, NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. These states do not have Monday as a public holiday but do have deregulated shop trading hours so shops will close all day on Saturday 25 April but will be open if they normally are on Sunday.

Western Australia has stupid shop trading hours and it required an act  of parliament to allow shops to open on Monday 27 April. Not that could just open as a shop owner though - oh know you still had to apply! Regulation is alive and well in WA I can assure you. So in Perth and the rest of Western Australia shops are closed Saturday (ANZAC Day) and Sunday (because  WA has stupid laws ) but will be open Monday - yeah!

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Britian’s Got Talent show discovers talent in a middle aged woman  has thrown scottish lady singer Susan Boyle into the spot lightlast week, in the auditions, is now looking like the biggest overnight success story ever! Boyle (sorry I got her name wrong yesterday its Susan Boyle not Susan Doyle ), has now reportedly got an offer to appear on Oprah’s show In fact it appears from MSN’s photo that the transformation process has already started with a bit of a haircut and eyebrow shape - which I personally think is a shame.  Susan Doyle needs to remember that she doesn’t have to confirm to society’s stereotypes to be succesful - as she has just so ably proved by the 15million and counting you tube hits since last weekend.

I hope Susan Boyle can handle the sudden descent of 1/2 the world’s media to her doorstep, of her small flat in Blackburn, Lothian, Scotland. She needs needs a competent and ethical agent fast to manage all this for her.  It sounds like the devout Roman Catholic who is currently unemployed living in a Council flat in one of Scotland’s poorest areas may well be the good news story of the year.

I wonder if she will go on to win Britian’s Got Talent Show - the point is nearly moot now as no doubt Simon Cowell will be handing her a recording contract soon - hopefully he’ll keep an eye on her business affairs as well.

Last year’s winner Paul Potts had his first CD out not long after the broadcast of his audition piece of Nessum Dorma started off his singing career and lost him to the world of phone sales. Hopefully Susan Boyle will be able to achieve something similar

Sorry the headline had to be written. Australia’s Got Talent Season has just about finished - and I noticed - that as usual the average age of the finalists was probably well under 20 - some were under 10. So why does it look like that in episode one of Britain’s Got Talent that it is probably going to be won by a 47 year old Scottish lady called Susan Doyle ? In fact it really doesn’t matter whether she wins or not - with over 10 million views on youtube in less than a week, she will have a recording contract before the end of the show  I should think.

Check out the video here

Its real nice that kids get a break - but does that mean you are all washed up if you are a 47 unemployed Scottish woman who wants to make singing a career?  What if she actually looks 47 - if not older as she hasn’t plucked her eyebrows, had her hair professionally cut or spent a fortune on an outfit - she is even, gasp horror - a little over-weight. You could hear the laughter as she came on stage,  you could hear the disbelief in the judges voices as she told Simon Cowell that she wanted a career to equal that of Elaine Paige - the assumption was that she was delusional, and presumptions as she announced that she would sing I Dreamed  A Dream from Les Miserables:

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used
And wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung
No wine untasted.

………

I had a dream my life would be
So different form this hell I’m living
so different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.

So this one is for all the 47-year old, not very pretty, women who society thinks have no value - go Susan Doyle- Britain’s amazingly talented singer!

The Australian Socceroos could be on their way to the Soccer World Cup in 2010 but they won’t know for weeks yet. The national soccer team is an oddity in Australia -an under-dog sports team. The Australian’s are used to winning at most sports they seriously compete in but soccer has a lot of competition against the big boys of AFL (Aussie rules) Rugby Union and Rugby League.

Soccer is having a bit of a come back though as AFL struggles with bad off-ground publicity around their players inability to behave around women, drugs and booze and rugby has a well deserved reputation for dangerous injuries which leave young men in wheelchairs. Soccer is seen by women as a more skilful and less violent option for their sons to play at school and this is starting to show at the national level.

The Socceroos won 2-0 to Uzbekistan recently but didn’t get an early qualification because Baharain defeated Qatar a few hours later. The Australian Socceroos will now have to wait weeks to see if they qualify for 2010

Has anyone got their stimulus payout  from the Australian government for those who earned less than $80,000 last year?

I’m just wondering because the news media has gone real quiet on it! Originally the Sunday paper’s thought that it might be in people’s bank accounts on Monday 6 April. The local appliance stores were running “stimulus sales” on Tuesday - but I don’t think anyone was buying because the ATO website is saying payments from Wed 8 April.

But probably more relevantly they are also saying don’t call the ATO about payments before the 16 May - I figure its going to take a while to process all those millions of transactions. Especially with this week being a short week and a 4 day bank holiday weekend due to Easter.

I think for most people Easter bunny isn’t coming early. I haven’t got my $900 payment from the Rudd government yet and neither has my partner. We both should get paid direct to a bank account which is obviously way faster than dealing with checks and mail delays.

Maybe the payouts will be sent out alphabetically - damme as I am an “S” and my partner “M”. Or maybe they will start with the East coast - and we are in Perth! So who has had their taxpayer related payout yet? Leave a comment below - maybe add your city and the first letter of your surname to so we can figure out the pattern to this - if there is one!

The Rudd government wants you to use the cash payout going into many Australian tax payers bank accounts this week to stimulate the economy - or as we have said before invest in the $900 Kevin telly! Unfortunately what is good for the economy is not necessarily good for the average Australian and their family, in uncertain time paying off debt is a much better idea.

Do you pay off your credit card every month in full? If so congratulations - you are in the minority - but well done you. Most Australians live on credit card debt and that is a pretty stupid thing to be doing when then interest rate on most credit cards is still nearly 20%.  If you have an outstanding debt on your credit card of around $1000 dollars you are paying $20 a year interest right? Wrong - because your balance goes up each month - after 30 days  you will owe about $1016 and then you will pay interest on that larger amount the next month and so on plus all  the other credit card fees: check out the details here

Think about this - if you lost your job and was out of work for a month or two - could you keep up the payments on the stuff you don’t need: not the house, but the car lease, the credit cards, the payments on the all-singing-dancing stainless steel fridge?

Maybe now is good time to take a long hard look at your lifestyle with a view of reducing your credit card and consumer debt, preferably to zero.

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Well the daylight savings debate is alive and well in Western Australia. Like deregulated shop trading hours, daylight savings is a bit too radical for the conservatives of WA. The 3 year daylight savings trial finished last week - so now we have darkness at 6:30pm and dawn at around 6:30am. Fantastic if you love to jog in the mornings - but for the other 95% of the population a right pain in the butt.

Lets face it - Perth is not Australia’s most dynamic city: if you want sophistication, good food or culture head to Melbourne or Sydney - even Hobart and Adelaide do better than Perth on these measures.  What Perth - does have is the spectacular Kings Park at the city located on the attractive Swan River - and the beaches - kilometers and kilometers of pristine, sandy, surf beaches. They are stunning, they don’t have nearly as many shark attacks as Sydney’s not as good cafe’s as Melbournes but the water is swimable for 6 months of the year and to my mind Perth has the best beachs in metropolitan Australia.

So what do the locals want to to? Stop day light saving - so that for all of March - when the sea is beautiful to swim in - it will dark too early for most people to take advantage. With daylight savings its still 30C at 4-5pm its warm, the sea is nice and its not dark - if you have daylight saving!

So Western Australians - do yourselves a favor and vote for daylight savings. Lets face it the “no” lobby is sounding pretty bloody lunatic by suggesting that there are more road deaths with daylight savings - like huh? it has to get dark at some time - surely its better not to be dark in the middle of rush hour? Of course the cows don’t like it - but most of them aren’t too smart and can’t read a clock - so the farming lobby can just but out of this debate and the rest of us hope that sanity.

Apparently builders lose money cause its too dark to work at 7am - well duh why not start work at 8am instead - the neighbours will thank you!

Unfortunately most people who moved here for the lifestyle don’t get a say - we are disenfranchised as non-citizens - so Aussies - get to the booth and vote for day light savings in WA!

Tiger Airways is a Singapore-based budget airline has just acquired the dubious title of worst airline in Australia in terms of customer service.

The flights are particuarly cheap: Adelaide - Perth is often sub-$100 with Tiger Airways while with Jetstar the 2.5hour flight can be easily $150. For $30 for Melbourne-Canberra or Melbourne-Adelaide becomes a weekend getaway - without the driving.

There are some downsides with Tiger - first their schedule suits no-one but those on shift work- the Perth flights to Melbourne depart just after middnight - gets you their in time for a very early breakfast.

The real problem with Tiger though is that far too many passengers are getting their flights changed a few weeks before travelling. The changes often mean that their connecting flights are useless, or they can’t get back in time for work on Monday. Oddly enough the flights which are suddenly over-booked for the $29 fare still have $149 seats available …

Not good enough Tiger - consumers check out Jetstar for domestic travel or even Qantas. Or get a real cheap holiday and check out the international airfare war from Australia