akiralx

What on earth is 'Islamic progression'? Halal certification reduces food costs because the products can now be sold to a much bigger market. No consumer is paying extra for it, and no money is going to fund Islamic terrorism, despite what tinfoil-hat wearing theorists might believe. To think otherwise is simple xenophobia.

Surely you don't consider Putin, Mugabe and Assad democratically elected...

How on earth is 'plural marriage' more closely related to conventional marriage than marriage equality? The last two are two people marrying, the first is more than two.

But the 330,000 input is only 0.5% or thereabouts of the UK population. Public services should be able to cope with an increase which probably falls well within their margin of error for planning.

Ocean Grove, Portarlington, Queenscliff are all pleasant. Portarlington has a nice beach suitable for small children, as there is no surf (inside the bay). Whrereas Torquay has surf (often quite a lot...). We live in Geelong and usually go to Portarlington (20-25 mins drive).

Brexit, trade and aid are out of his hands - he will just spend his time jetting around the world drumming up tourism with his usual buffonery, while grinning inanely and handing out Ferrero Rochers... Any genuine diplomacy and foreign policy emergencies will be run from No. 10 with zero input from him.

That is exactly being planned according to the Sunday Times: about 25 Tory MPs would not be willing to suffer Leadsom's leadership and so would resign the Conservative whip, and if Corbyn is on the Labour leadership ballot and wins then I would think quite a few centrist Labour MPs (most of them) would breakaway too.

Only as a result of white European immigration which obliterated Indigenous heritage...

Not for Parley. In fact I think it would be better if Australian residents whose origins are Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, China, Japan, Cambodia, Taiwan and others states are not lumped together as 'Asians' as it demeans their separate cultures. Earlier in this thread a post mentioned some European nations individually, it would be better if the same applied to nations in SE Asia.

The most recent census states that Bradford's population is 65% white. I should know as I lived there for 40 years. Your facts are incorrect...

The fact that Remain has a majority of at least 350 in the House of Commons is a slight problem. I suspect it may fail there and the new PM would have to call an election to test the mandate of Exit, with the Conservatives, Labour and LibDems all having Remain as official policy, and UKIP having Exit.

It 's not as easy as just going back to the UK - the relocation expenses can be high, I'm not sure we could afford it. Or find decent work over there. I have been fairly flat mentally for a while, and my wife (who actually grew up in Sydney, she was born in the UK) now is missing her family in UK and Europe. She said last night that she feels we are just existing here, not living, which is what I have been thinking. We have no family or friends here at all after 6 years. It is not a satisfactory situation for either of us but I think we will have to make the best of it.

So the procedure is countersigning photos of a child that they may never have even seen...

Depends if this UK person has set eyes on the daughter in the time she has been in Aus - to verify that the photos reflect her current appearance.

Well, she was only following DIBP who are equally misleading it seems - a far more serious matter?

Good point -I wasn't including work conversations there!

But the pension is means tested - a stupid idea in my view as it leads to all the issues we are discussing. I speak to many retirees in my job and the desire to qualify for the pension by manipulating their assets/income is almost an obsession. All accountants would offer this advice, such as putting in a swimming pool with a windfall so as not to jeopardise the pension. Unless we want to see the amount of the pension reduced, something will have to be done to mitigate the cost. Many of us sold up and moved house halfway across the world as part of life's journey - I fail to see why retirees should be insulated from this reality if it is necessary.

In my original post I emphasised no-one could be forced to move house - though many apparently want to downsize owing to maintenance issues etc, but stamp duty puts them off. The other proposal about the charge is the alternative. If one's property does not increase in value, the owner is already getting 'a boost': the aged pension. The point of house values increasing is that it is not earned income; it is not even taxed. It is just an appreciating asset which should not be totally ringfenced when assessing someone for the pension. The other alternative is a property tax, i.e. a percentage of a property's value to be paid each year. This is favoured by most economists, it is certainly difficult to evade (houses and land can't really be hidden) but is politically dangerous, which is why no party has seriously proposed it - yet. It is generally considered the fairest way of raising income. There would be the issue of asset rich but cash poor individuals, e.g. pensioners in large houses who would claim that they could not afford the tax. That would have to be looked at, though over time the property tax would be accepted just as a cost of owning property, like house maintenance. We might initially welcome some assistance for low income seniors in large houses - but would we be as happy to subsidise if such a senior said the roof needed repairing? Most people would probably just say the person can't afford to live there any more and should move somewhere cheaper... As an aside, in your post you would claim that someone who buys a house for $0.5m and sees it appreciate to $1.5m is not really a 'have' - but for a renter that increase in assets on the average salary would take twenty years' employment.

A charge is placed against the house when it is sold/bequeathed to offset some or all of the pension you receive, maybe up to a ceiling ($500K? Probably less, more like $300K). Or you may choose to downsize, releasing some funds to live on, which may lead to the pension being reduced under the current regime. In this latter scenario I would like to see stamp duty on the new smaller house being waived - this is apparently a large barrier to many retirees downsizing. Such proposals are only designed to protect the viability of the pension - as 85% of retirees end up on it, it cannot continue at its current level.

I actually have no issue with this for expensive homes, maybe $1.5m+ (even in Sydney/Melbourne). It seems absurd that taxpayers, many on low incomes, are supporting seniors with quite large assets whose main concern seems to be to pass on as much as possible to their offspring, thus exacerbating the have/have not property divide. No-one should be forced to move house (but maybe that could be encouraged for those who wish to downsize by maybe reducing stamp duty for seniors) but the government should create some kind of not for profit reverse mortgage scheme, or simply put a charge for the cost of the pension on a house when it is sold/bequeathed.

However Australia's banks are exposed to a remarkable degree to residential property, which is the most overvalued in the world. If there was a clear downturn in prices, or the bubble burst, then all banks here would suffer badly. In 2008 just before the GFC hit Australian mortgage debt held by banks stood at $638 billion. By the end of last year it had more than doubled to $1,400 billion, most of the increase struck at historically low interest rates. That is 130% of GDP.

I stopped reading here. You would struggle - I'm also 50 (in Melbourne) and want to hang on to my current job as long as possible as I doubt I'd get another decent one

Yes, this is a major issue - if you are not outgoing you will struggle in Aus in my view. And if you are in any way cerebral you will be viewed with outright suspicion by most folk... Financial services (where I work) is very blokey, cliquey, backslapping banter-y (new staff are usually introduced with 'he's a <insert AFL team> fan, but we won't hold that against him, hur hur..'), a testosterone-fuelled competition with a smattering of casual racism thrown in...

Yes, the current situation leads to the scenario often cited on these pages, where someone pays for health insurance to avoid the medicare surcharge - but when requiring treatment find the gap too large and so has the treatment on the public heath system. So the insurer is receiving premiums but the policyholder will never claim!

Car insurance is really to cover you in case your driving results in a highly paid surgeon (or sportsperson?) in a wheelchair. The policy payout there would make a Ferrari seem like chump change...