akiralx

This ' unnecessary gadgets' canard has been exposed as a myth. If a potential first time buyer did indeed forego any type of mobile phone, holiday, daily coffee for the several years it would take to save a deposit for a house - the property would be even more out of reach owing to price rises. Houses are at their most unaffordable ever, particularly for young people - that is one fact that economists agree on. If you were a young couple buying your first home in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, or 2000s - you had it easier than young people today, sadly for them.

Why is it stupid? Yougov is a highly respected polling organisation. Their data looks accurate to me - which element do you disagree with? The only issue I might have is that the title includes 'derided' when the data suggests the subjects were merely in receipt of negative views. Someone might look down on a group, but that is not the same as deriding them - a rather more active response.

Public services that most countries, including Australia, can only dream of?

I came a cropper by supplying passport photos that were not recent enough - they could tell as they were the same as in my UK passport which was too old. I had to get some more done.

We aren't really answering his question - if he doesn't take his UK passport, or lets it expire, and arrives in the UK on his Aus passport, how will UK border staff know he is a UK citizen? As far as I know there is no obligation for UK citizens to arrive/leave the UK on a UK passport, as there is here.

Not sure if that was a humorous comment, but if not, so you have a source for it?

Get your relatives to put you up for 2-3 weeks until you can get a norrnal rental and buy furniture.

Here in Melbourne a friend viewed an apartment online, with photos of two good sized rooms, advertised as a bedroom and a sitting room. When she arrived to inspect the place it turned out it was the same room photographed twice from different angles, redressed each time...

We sold ours remotely from Aus in 2012 after leaving in 2009 - it was worth less at sale then when we left so no CGT fortunately. I didn't make any UK CGT declaration though.

A couple of our old cat Ramsay, who stayed in the UK when we left, with a friend - he is still thriving (now renamed Rambo...). A very muscular cat, not very affectionate really - he was always aggressive with any animal who crossed his path, I witnessed him chasing a fox down the road once.

Same applies to the West. We have killed well over 100,000 civilians in Iraq since 2003. So why are we any better than ISIS?

Doubtless you will be attending the VW Owners Club gathering on Geelong Steampacket Gardens, there seems to be something on there every few weeks in summer - there are loads of classic car clubs in Victoria, just google as above...

Sibel and Leo, they are brothers. The latter is now wearing a cat bib to thwart his attempts to decimate the avian population of the Bellarine Peninsula...

20 and light drizzle in Melbourne...

Exactly - there is something different: Dutton decided to deport him even though he hadn't actually broken the law, he wanted to do it so he just did it.

Yes, he has not committed any offence and was not allowed any legal representation, in fact no judicial process took place. Dutton just made the decision to ship him off to a detention centre offshore. If an Aus citizen who had not committed an offence was incacerated indefinitely in somewhere like Bali solely on the approval of a politician without any due judicial process taking place, I'm pretty sure the Aus media, and many who seem to endorse our government's actions in this area, would be pretty steamed up about it...

Can I just stop you there - I didn't bother to read the rest, as your statement is demonstrably false, as even Tony Abbott was forced to admit: the vast majority of those claiming refugee status turn out to be exactly that, refugees, and *not* economic migrants. The earlier part of your post is simple 'whatabouttery' - i.e. the practice of reacting to justifiable criticism (in this case of Australia's woeful border control policies) by scrabbling around desperately to find an even worse example. It doesn't wash any more. Australia should aim to match the best in the world, not the worst.

We lived in Glen Iris until 2 years ago. Nice area, affluent, high house prices. A lot of demand for rentals. No idea about schools. Good for public transport, we used the Alamein train line to the CBD. Camberwell, Malvern are good shopping strips nearby. But we prefer living in Geelong where we moved to.

But there never seems to be any attempt to close down this alleged 'illegal' organisation...

Is relocating to another state like Victoria, which might be though more European in climate etc, a compromise option.

Yes, I would do that. Tell them you are only willing to pay a lot less than paying off the contract - as the alternative for them is your not paying anything after you leave.

Why not recruit the best person - then become his mate? It's true though that 'mateship' seems to trump everything in Australia, including talent, aptitude, training or skill....

Irritatingly, to pay these class 2 NI conts I'm supposed to supply an 18 digit reference number - but my letter's reference is: ICW-ROW-DMS-000005855967-[my NI number] So what am I supposed to use?

Sounds like a lawyer should be engaged. Remember that your daughter has just taken her son, so not sure why his actions are different?

Man's haircut: $20. Considerably more for my wife's hairdressing visits... 4 weekly train pass from Geelong to Melbourne (75km, an hour journey time) return: $220. I would agree that public transport is good value compared to the UK.