Australia: News and Views

The local Australia news is never-ending about the damage done to Australian’s superannuation investments with the property melt-down and share market implosion.  Now the job crises means that the poor  not-so-old, not-so-rich people can’t even get a part-time job!

Think out side the box people - a look north! Malaysia is one of the most pleasant countries in the region - a varied climate, nice people, modern infra-structure. It seems strange to me that people don’t take advantage of living somewhere so much cheaper for part of the year. And with Air Asia X’s flights from Perth starting at about A$100 its hardly expensive!

The Malaysian government’s Make Malaysia Your Second Home seems like a very good deal offering 10-year visas for self-sufficient retirees. Self-sufficient in Malaysia is a bit different from in Australia. The requirements for over-50’s in the program include:

• 150,000 ringgit (A$50,000) to be deposited in a Malaysian bank’s term deposit OR proof of 10,000 ringgit (A$3500) month pension/superannuation.
• After one year the deposit reduces to 100,000 - and difference can be used for buying a property in Malaysia or education or health expenses there.

In fact Malaysia is offering a much better deal to retirees than Australia does. There are incentives for the immigrants to buy cars. Other things that make Malaysia an attraction option includes:

• overseas income including pensions are tax free;
• there is no restriction on what type of residential home you can buy - unlike Australia you are not restricted to new properties;
• tax exemption on car purchase
• overseas income is free of Malaysian tax
• and a very attractive cost of living

Its certainly an option within reach for many Australians who would struggle to live on $3500/month in Australia would live very well in Malaysia for that amount.

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It seems with the economic crises comes a surge of people moving overseas or at least thinking about it. Countries such as Australia have always had a lot of immigration in good times. Western Australia and Queensland have suffered serious skills shortages with the boom in the mining industry - this has seen an influx of skilled and qualified overseas workers.

Now however the pattern of  migration is changing. Australian accountants and other finance professionals have often moved to London to gain work experience. But now that the big money has dried up in the world’s financial capitals it seems that many young professionals have decided that home is best and are starting to reverse the trend of young Australians moving overseas for work experience.

Ireland looks set to reverse its trend of the last 15 years of again becoming an exporter of people instead of one of the biggest targets for immirgration in Europe.  The reality is that for many people moving overseas is about chasing job opportunities- if those are harder to find than the same people will just as readily move themselves home. Moving overseas is no longer a one-way trip the same way it was a few generations ago And at least the airfares are cheap.

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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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

OK disclaimer: I am a New Zealander and a resident of Australia. I could not believe my eyes that the NZ Herald is up in arms because because an”online expat guide” has disshed and called Auckland  “horrible soulless city” NZ Herald.

The Australian anonymous bloggers less than glowing review of Auckland (dull was mentioned) has Auckland’s tourism CEO angry:

“Maybe they’re just envious that Auckland recently rated ahead of every Australian city as a tourist destination,” Osborne said.”

OK people let us get a grip here please! Its not an “onine expat guide” - its a bloody blog, and quite a good one too - check out the fushnchips blog its nicely written, rather dull layout, with no obvious monetisation yet - its quite new -  its not a bloody online expat guide.

These guys don’t even know how to properly hide their personal details on their hosting.

Geeze - I agree with them acutally - ony the tourism chief of Auckland could claim that Auckland rates higher with tourists than Sydney or Melbourne or even Perth. I mean please,  lets think about this: Sydney Harbour v. Auckland Harbour, Sydney Harbour Bridge v. Aucklands, Melbourne’s eating options v. Auckland.  Sorry I have been to both - and you have to be bloody kidding! Auckland is somewhere you fly into and out of New Zealand - its good for some last minute shoping that is it. The bloggers mention that they can’t get a major Australian newspaper in the town - that’s pathetic Auckland - you can in Wellington BTW - maybe time to choose a better town ?

Fush’n chips I like you guys keep it up- you have controversy on a 3 week old blog and a backlink from a newsite - nice one - keep it up!

Auckland tourism: you have what to compare to this?

Well it had to happen. As  payday for the $900 payout to many working Australians draws nearer, some enterprising retailers have found the perfect price point for that must have HDTV digital television - $900 - obviously. Some will even throw in a free Kevin Rudd t-shirt to remind you who is paying for it! I nice touch I thought.

Of course the irony is that the $900 television that you may consider using your $900 payout on will no doubt be made in China - so how exactly does spending your $900 payout help save the economy?

To be honest I have no idea why spending your payout on Chinese imports will help the Australian economy- but if you want to help your family’s maybe you might want to save the cash or use it to pay off your credit card bill

Australia Day is coming up on the 26 January and apparently along with the traditional approaches to the day which is about partying and fireworks - Australia Day is a big movie going weekend.  The theory is that it will give a big boast to Baz Luhrman’s Australia movie as patriotic audiences flock to see the movie on the big screen.

Although the Australia movie has been pretty much universally panned by the critics its been doing alright in the box office- shows what they know eh!

The film has taken $32.7 million since it was released in November - making it the third-highest takings in eight weeks by Australian films (still behind Crocodile Dundee and Babe).

According to 20th Century Fox - the Australia film’s distributers the Australia Day long weekend is traditionally a big movie-going weekend - and of course - going to Australia or Australia Day has ring to it - you could do that even if you weren’t in Australia!

And here’s a nice photo of the Australia Day fireworks over the Swan River in PerthI’d like to say I took  if I had a nice camera, a tripod, and patience, the credit is below!

Photo Credit

ANZAC Day is for me, and I guess for a lot of Australians under 50, just another public holiday. For those of you who are not Australians- ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand is the 25 April – and commemorates one of Australia and New Zealanders greatest military defeats.at Gallipoli, in modern day Turkey, was a disaster of military planning by the British, but is was the ANZACs (Australia New Zealand Army Corp) who bore the brunt of the casualties in 1915.

Occurring just 15 years after the birth of the Australian nation ANZAC Day has come to be a time to remember the dead of all wars and is traditionally marked by dawn services and marches.

In 2009 April 25 is a Saturday and the only States which will give people the paid holiday on Monday 27 April are Western Australia and the ACT. All other Australian states and New Zealand will lose the paid holiday (unless they are routinely working on Saturdays).

The RSL and other returned servicemen associations don’t seem to have a problem with this. Explaining that the only reason for the holiday is so that people can attend dawn ceremonies. Well sorry mate, but I do have a problem with it. Most Australians on a salary have a certain number of public holidays factored into that package. ANZAC Day is one of the few holidays that you can lose just because of the vagaries of the calendar (poor New Zealanders some years lose both Waitangi Day AND ANZAC Day). Who wins: the employer. Its not like they give you another day’s annual leave to compensate – which would be fair I think. Nope – you just loose the day.

So I for one, though it no longer applies to me, am delighted that from 2010 Australia’s federal government has seen fit to legislate so that ANZAC day will be taken on next working day if it falls on a Sunday (in 2010) or Easter Monday (2011 – ANZAC Day’s holiday will be on the Tuesday)

Poor old New Zealanders will however continue to miss out on paid leave because of when ANZAC Days falls – so I for one will again fail to get anywhere near a dawn ceremony – way too early in the day for me!

Well I thought that  I would do a bit of research to report what was happening for Thanksgiving, assuming that ex-pat Americans in Australia would be celebrating Thanksgiving.  Although Thanksgiving isn’t a public holiday in Australia I thought there might be something going on in the larger cities.

Well maybe they are: but there is little to no mention of Thanksgiving in Australia at that I can find on the web? I checked the American Embassy in Canberra’ s site: no mention of Thanksgiving!

I checked Google: the font of all no knowledge: nothing terribly relevant though an interesting article from The Age arguing that Australians understand how to party and therefore the American ideal of the “pursuit of happiness” than the Americans - that could well be true but it didn’t answer my question!

So over to you guys what are Americans doing for Thanksgiving in Australia? The turkeys are all available in  the supermarkets: the weather is pretty nice: my guess is you are throwing a sickie and heading down the beach - am I right?

Schoolies is on now and is, depending on your point of view, its either an iconic rite of passage or a pathetic party for the rich brats, whose parents desperately want to buy their love.  Schoolies is the Australian tradition of school leavers (year 12’s) heading down to the nearest beach to get absolutely rat-faced for the week.

Of course many are under-age - but that doesn’t seem to slow down the mobs of drunken teens on the rampage. Visitors who innocently happen to be visiting Byron Bay, Gold Coast, Rotnest Island or Dunsborough probably wonder what happened!

Its a curious tradition: I’m not sure that Europe or the UK have similar. The American equivalent is probably Spring Break - though the timing seems odd - you have to still deal with your peers for another semester after Spring Break. The beauty of Schoolies is that whatever happens, so long as the law doesn’t catch up with, you can probably not see the people who were your witness ever again!