Diane

After reading that in the UK google searches for "What is the EU?" have increased 8-fold since the results of the Brexit election, this is my plea to all Australians voting this weekend to please do a little research before exercising your democratic right (slash obligation here) to vote. With the changes in voting for the Senate, your vote can really make a difference - no longer are you at the mercy of some party's backroom preference deals, you can choose where your preferences go yourself. Whichever party you give your first preference to in the House of Reps, do a bit of research and reading beforehand on the people standing for Senate, and perhaps consider a vote for an independent party - but not just because they are shown as independent on the ballot paper - have a read beforehand of where they stand on major issues. There is a very good article here, with a little info about some of the smaller parties that don't get a lot of coverage in the main stream media. You are allowed to take your own notes in with you to the booth if you wish, or even make yourself your own 'how I want to vote' list to take in with you. We are very lucky to live in a democratic country, make your vote truly reflect your choices. http://theaimn.com/56645-2/#comment-470534

I spoke to a lady who ran a herb place somewhere in the Riverlands a few years ago who said she couldn't survive without backpacker workers - herbs sound s little less manual than fruit! Sorry it didn't work out - are you spending any time in Adelaide? I'm not working Friday (atm) if you're around then and fancy a coffee/lunch in the Central Markets maybe...

What jabs and tabs do I need to take beforehand?

I'm an omnivore, but I had to turn off the report as it was pretty damn horrible. I always think any human that can bring themselves to be violent to an animal is only one step away from doing it to another human.

Welcome to our beautiful city - are you heading straight off to the hostel or staying around the CBD for a few days?

How weird - does it get taken out of your pay? I don't get anything taken out of mine, and I only lived here from age 0-15months then from age 39-now (51) - I've never had private health cover here at all. I thought it was just if you earnt over a certain amount (and I only work part time so don't earn a huge amount!)

Artificially whitened Mekong river catfish, but people wouldn't buy it if they called it that in the shops, so they call it 'basa'

Oh well, that would be why everyone still calls it a Group Certificate then!! I'm a bookkeeper for several different companies - and they ALL ask for their Group Certificates! next time I'll tell them I don't know what they are talking about because some pom in Melbourne says the name changed!

It's ALWAYS been a Payment Summary, but most Aussies call it a Group Certificate.

Well, actually from the 1st July till 1st October, but close enough :tongue:

If you are working, you should get this from your Employer in the couple of weeks after 30th June. They call it a Group Certificate here.

Yeh stick with SA - don't listen to all these people trying to drag you away - you need to come to SA! It's nice here and the people are (mostly!) lovely!!

You didn't check out Adelaide? :wink: It has better weather than Tassie and has the advantage of being on the mainland...

You can usually go right the way through the booking process to nearly the end before you are asked to put any payment method in, and until you do that the flight is not booked and you're not committed, so you should be able to work your way through the website's booking procedure and find out if they add anything extra on, before you actually need to pay. Some add on a credit card surcharge, some - although I think this has been cut down on a bit - add on taxes.

No less so than the her namesake, I can assure you!

The way these things are advertised is very misleading - take the small business 'bonus' that the government made a big thing about whereby you can depreciate the full cost of an asset up to $20k in the first year.... lots of small business owners that i know thought that meant they could take out a loan to buy a $20k car and then they'd get the money back from the taxman (I know, some people maybe should do some sort of financial course before being allowed to run a business!)... whereas actually they need to have made in excess of $20k profit in the year, and the depreciation will then just reduce the amount of profit they will have to pay Company Income tax on that year. If they didn't make a profit, spending $20k on something, and even worse, taking a loan out to buy it, is NOT a good business idea!!

OOOh, you are coming our way! Where will you be? (Feel free to PM if you prefer?) and what sort of farm? Hope you have warm clothes... Be great to catch up when you're down here :-) Let me know if you need anything.

Fear not, sounds like Abbott is eligible to be British PM next! Bet he's glad he never gave up his British citizenship now....

Also bear in mind that the Australian employers often do this weird thing with accruing holiday. So you don't start a job with four weeks holiday, then can take two weeks after being there only a couple of months. We found this when we came - the place my OH worked at shut down over Christmas, and as he'd only started in September he hadn't accrued enough holiday then so either had to have leave without pay or go into negative leave (which many employers don't allow), then play catch up for the next few months. Vietnam Airlines are doing some cheap deals to the UK up to November with only one stop en route http://www.travelzoo.com/au/flights/-1055-up-8-Year-Low-Return-Flights-to-London-921-Off-2258271/?conf=1&cm=signedin&source=FBLon18&placement=&isFacebook=false&isgplus=undefined

As the talk is of grandfathering existing arrangements (i.e. only making new rules apply to properties bought after the rule comes into effect) how would property flood the market? If you already have a negatively geared property, you are not going to offload it just in protest at not being able to buy any more, surely?

Not often I agree with you (!) but this is definitely true - we've been to Fiji, Vanuatu, Borneo, Thailand, and off to Indonesia soon, as well as a cruise round New Zealand and Tasmania. And that's from sleepy Adelaide that has comparatively few direct cheap flights. I should imagine if you live in Perth, Sydney, or Brisbane there is more options too. I think the reasons Brits clamour for weekends away is to (a) get some sun (which we don't need to go away to get here), (b) chill on a nice beach somewhere (ditto), © to escape the place they are living for a while for another reason, or (d) experience s different culture and/or language - which is the main reason we have holidayed abroad from here. A weekend in Melbourne (flights from $19 one way from here) or Sydney is just as much of a culture change for us too .... and we've not even experienced FNQ, WA or NT yet. Don't forget in Britain too you get fined for taking your kids away during term time - that's one of the things I found so refreshing here, that the schools recognised how much of a good learning experience a family holiday could be. Obviously I wouldn't take mine out of school near exam times or in the top high school years, but at primary school I think fining the parents is just ridiculous!

Am tempted to go round to @Endless Winter and frogmarch him to the citizenship office before July 2nd!!

My son was doing long division here in Australia in Year 3 or 4 so I don't think they are behind. My kids have left school now (when we arrived they went into Years 2 and 4 and have gone through the whole Australian school system since. I did Maths at A level (quite a few years ago) and found the maths they were doing at Year 9 here was about the level I did in the final year of A levels in the UK, so I would say Australia is not behind the UK at all. There was a lot of focus on mental arithmetic inn primary school here. Australia manages to produce skilled engineers and scientists and mathemeticians.

I like the 'skill your kids up on clifftop protocols' tip! I was never scared of heights before I had my kids - but after....even the thought of my kids (when they were younger) being near the edge of a sheer drop like that makes me shudder!

I thought those figures were Pound figures, not Dollars? i.e. you have to have a job paying GBP18.5k... is the saving figure also GBP? Just found this which seems to say it's pounds http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/expat-money/11713544/Expat-families-torn-apart-by-UK-visa-requirements.html Anger has been fuelled among expats by the UK’s demand that UK citizens must prove an annual income of £18,600 or have £62,500 in savings which must have been held for six months.