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My husband came here as a single person (and alone) at the age of 21. He wanted to come before then but was warned by someone at Australia House that he'd be eligible for the Vietnam draft if he was under 21. He had the sense to delay his departure until just after his 21st birthday and is still here 55 years later. He's never regretted his decision to emigrate.

No, as Marisa has pointed out, if you left within 2 years you had to refund to the government the full cost of the shipping fare to Australia. And the cost of the return fare wasn't small - much more than an equivalent air fare today. They didn't sponsor them in groups but any fit young single male was as eligible as anyone else. Many did see it like a 2 year backpacking experience with the added advantage of a fare paid one way.

Looks like I’ll survive a few years more after todays specialist appointment. Good start to the week

I have more of an issue with kids going to Rihanna concerts and singing her explicitly sexualised songs (or various other singers) than I do the prospect of story time with a drag Queen. There’s bigger fish to fry. By all means get distracted from the real issues facing out kids though.

I knew 3 lads from Scotland who came to Australia in the late 60s on the 10 pound scheme. One returned after 3 years and the other 2 stayed. One of them tried NZ for a few years but is now retired and living in the Blue Mountains the other is in Canberra. Both now grandparents.

I’ve binge watched the whole series, loved it.

Ok, how about bigoted moron? Violence is never the answer.

I think you've got that back to front. if you didn't stay two years, you had to pay the government the cost of your original fare. They didn't offer to send you home free after the two years was up. It was a pretty clever move on the part of the government. My aunt and uncle were ten pound Poms. My aunt hated it, but like most of the other ten pound Poms in their hostel, they couldn't go home, because it would've meant paying the government for their original fare, plus paying their own passage home. They just couldn't afford it, so they had no choice but to stick it out.

Actually a higher tax can be very liberating. When one does not need to worry getting ill, having a good retirement pension, not forgetting free child care at the other end of the spectrum, alongside a better standard of living for most of the population then money well spent. That's real freedom. No need for illegal activities to supplement social failings or simply promote greed and corrosive behaviour.

Fair point. I'll rephrase that to tax rates have been changed so that rich people pay less tax since the 1980s.

Curious, I just googled the person and found this. I don’t see what you see. Perhaps I should get that eye test. What do others think?

With his obviously strong opinions, I'd love @Parleyto answer this one. If he can.

Maybe not Nazis, just concerned citizens. Maybe they check Betty's social media a thought it wasn't appropriate and spoke out.

I find it odd why so many drag queens suddenly want to read stories and put shows on for young kids? This Betty confetti chap has named himself after a character in a children's book.

So you think every concerned citizen who opposes these things must be a nazi? You are wrong. Still it is good these events are being cancelled. I am happy about that. Our councils are increasingly being run by nutcases who want to remake the world in their image.

Careful @Parley, keep away from the media today - it seems other likeminded people have been triggered and have been threatening librarians with violence. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-16/drag-queen-betty-confetti-regional-kids-show-cancelled/102350198 What next, nazi style book burnings? It's a library for crying out loud.

Surely you'd be doing the weeding and hedge trimming whether the pool was there or not?

We arrived in ‘67, I joined in ‘70.

She was such a pretty girl until cosmetic surgery became an addiction. Hard to believe it's the same person.

Yes you are right, I meant not being a part of the community when we visit our son in Bristol. We have never lived in our investment properties, and always had a home base, which for the last 20 years has been the Sunshine Coast. I don’t worry at all about leaving a house empty, as we have never ever had a house/flat without a tenant. I was just pointing out the pitfalls that others might not have considered. I didn’t intend to confuse, I was trying to fill my time in hospital waiting for my husband to have the plaster taken off his broken ankle, X-ray etc, so kept stopping and starting while I was writing. His ankle is mending but another 6 weeks before he can drive, not a happy husband.