Australia: News and Views

If you are an overseas Australian property investor you may have noticed that the Aussie dollar is hitting new highs against the US$ and quite a lot of other currencies too. So if you are planning on selling a property and bailing from Australia - now is a very good time to do it - the property market is showing quite strong signs of recovery in places - and more importantly the rate you will get for your foreign exchange is fantastic.

If you are on the other side - maybe and Ausralian expat looking to head back to Australia you are in a worse situation - you might want to delay your overseas currency excahnage in the hope that the dollar doesn’t stay at current levels of over 90c - though speculation is that it might hit partiy - mind you the last time that speculation occurred  - alittle over a year ago from memory - it hit 62c - so you never can tell with foreign exchange.

My advice would be to avoid large currency transactions anyway - drip the currency in or out over a few months - to limit your risk

I am seriously wondering if now is the time to make a bit of a move and actually buy some property in Queensland ? I really enjoy Queensland and if we end up living back in New Zealand Queensland is the best place to hide from the winter! I’ve always been put off by the sky high prices of apartments or townhouses - particularly as I’d really want to buy a property which was near new and of course had a swimming pool.

Until very recently that mean in the popular hot spots of Gold Coast or Port Douglas - you were looking at little change out of $1 million - ouch - especially when the NZ$ is weak. But now it seems that therereally is an over-supply and banks are taking the loss of the portfolios of several large failed property developers.  There are reports of top end million dollar plus Gold Coast properties selling for less than half their original prices.

Another option is property in Palm Cove or Port Douglas - again a large developer has gone under and holiday units are selling for a third of the price of 6 six years ago.

Australia has made good money in recent year by selling ther excellent education system to foreigners. Not only do Australian tertiary level (universtiies and TAFEs) set up campuses overseas, often in Asia, but many students come to study in Australia under student visas.

The publicity has been a bit ugly recently though with attacks on several Indian students in Melbourne leading to diplomatic level talks between Australian and Indian governments to try and difuse the situation. Then the collapse of a doubtful  training provider saw large number of Indian student potentially out of pocket -though it sounds like the various insurance and government agencies will sort this mess out.

The point really is that the Australian tertiary education system is just fine - the problem is the student visa system which strongly favours those who have a student visa if they then want to apply for permanent residency. This is not, by the way for people with advance engineering or science degrees - no this is more for cooking classes and hairdressers! Now I would rather have my Indian chef trained in Bombay rather than Bondi! The opening for abuse is obvious.

Maybe too that the Australian government should be looking to the future - teaching sells is huge - but not at a country level - but online and globally - for just how much longer are students going to be prepared to spend thousands of dollars and move to a foreign country when the same education is available onlne and often for much lower cost?

The future is huge and but its online and many traditional education providers really need to be looking more closely at what their online competitors are doing.

Photo Credit

In a couple of days (21st July local time) it will the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings. What is not as well known is that Australia was an important part of the NASA infrastructure that saw man walk on the moon. Being “down under” was critical because observatories in Australia could cover communications with the space missions while Florida was on the wrong side of the world to have line of sight contact.

Of the three original tracking stations in Australia: Carnavon, Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes - only Parkes radio telescope is still in operation, and well worth a visit if you are interested.

The other well known connection that Australia has with Nasa - is that Ausralia is where Skylab ended up-  parts of the space station broke up and hit earth in remote Western Australia - driving the Nullarbor you will see some of the remnants in roadhouse museums!

The clear air and wide open spaces still attract both amateur and professional astronomers to Australia - but he romance and excitement of the moon landings has long gone. What is sure though when man does land on the moon again - Australia will be part of the communications team!

Its all about perception people! According to the Guardian Britian is has declared a “level 3 heatwave ” - its gonna hit 32C - make sure you stay inside people.  Sorry but hello world? Mild is how Perth weather forecasters describe low 30 temperatures. To get a description of hot in Australia - it has to be over 40C. To make the newspapers it has to be over 40C either a)in Tasmania or b) for more than a few days- 10 was Perth’s record last Christmas.

The crazy thing is that the overnight minimum temperatures are only 18C - your house shouldnt be getting that hot at those temperatures - assuming the Brits know to open up all the doors and windows and night and keep them closed during the day - duh! Also avoid wearing too many clothes - why do you think Aussie women don’t wear nylons! Shoes and socks are a pretty bad idea too!

My number one tip - and this works when the overnight temperature is 25C - is have a cold shower - and don’t dry off afterwards - walk around naked. Or shower in your clothes - its called evaporation and it definitly works!

On the same day that Farrah Fawcett is dead at 62 from cancer, Michael Jackson is also reported dead - at just 50. Reports are that Michael Jackson died of a heart attack at his Southern California home.

Though long known for his increasing weirdness - Jackson had been trying to get his career back on track. Whatever you think about his obessions and bizarre plastic surgery there is no denyng that Michael Jackson was a musical genius.  From a child star in the Jackson Five through to his famous moon walking Michael Jackson could sing and dance and compose with the best of them.

Over his career Michael Jackson has had 13 number one hits including

Black or White

The Way You Make Me Feel

Man in the Mirror

Thriller

The tradegy of Michael’s short life seemed to be his inability to deal with life in the spot light and his obvious problems with his own identity. Whatever at the end of the day his music will live on a lot longer than his weirdness - at least I hope so.

Initial reports had Michael Jackson in a coma but the county coroner in LA has now confirmed his death. He is survived by his three children who are no doubt on their way to California. The house is under guard by local police.

Though not unexpected its sad today to read that ex-Charlie Angels star Farrah Fawcett is dead too young at 62. Farrah had been battling anal cancer and died at Santa Monica hospital on the 25 June. Its a bit less of a shock of the news that Michael Jackson is dead at 50 from a heart attack.

Stunningly beautiful in her prime - Farrah Fawcett made long, blond-waved hair the trademark look of the 1970s when she starred in the original Charlies Angels TV series. Although she left the series after only one season and subsequently starred in more serious movies - it will be the image of her in a clinging catsuit which will be the image she is remembered for by an entire older generation.

Ryan O’Neal has been her great love and chief support since the cancer diagnosis in 2005. Although long time lovers Ryan O’Neal and Farrah Fawcett had never married, Ryan did however say on Larry King this week that Farrah had finally agreed to marry him. Whether there was a deathbed marriage is at the time of writing unclear.

It seems so unfair that someone who obviously took a lot of time and effort to live a healthy lifestyle and be fit and healthy should be dead so young. There is no guarantees in this life people - you just have to go for it and live every day as it might be your last - you just never know

Poor Queensland has been suffering even more flooding recently. Water damage is widespread in southern Queensland and northern NSW. Queensland must have the biggest flood cleanup bill of any state for a longtime. Finally the rains came to northern Queensland in January which saw towns such as Normanton isolated for weeks. Now that’s not disaster - its just the climate up there - its just that it hasn’t happened for a few years so the newsmedia were all over it.

And now Brisbane’s drought is officially over as the whole SE of the state got absolutely drenched with storms which have also created a fair bit of coastal erosion.  Quite a number of coastal mansions are under threat. Northern NSW is also pretty wet for this time of the year - and given that the storm was no respecter of state boundaries its pretty much can be said if you want fine weather - head north!

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!