akiralx

Sydney has no wow factor for me, whenever I go there I'm disappointed, as well as finding it humid. Apart from the harbour which is great (and free) there's little to interest me. I wouldn't live anywhere in Aus except Victoria. We live in Geelong quite close to the coast which we really like but appreciate that I spend most days in Melbourne. It is a great city. Weather-wise Melbourne suits me as being quite European: individual seasons, warm summers but not humid or too hot.

Many people do, search other threads for the cost and companies who do it. We didn't, owing to the complexity and cost - he was rehomed to a nice couple who have larger house and garden than we did, and he is positively thriving, probably wishing he was sent there years ago. He is now decimating the rodent population of Notts after doing the same to Yorkshire. So while you may regard your cats as part of the family, don't think they won't adjust if you can find them a good home in the UK and their age/health or the cost makes taking them problematic.

Sibelius, one of our two cats... he likes to look at the birdies out of the window from his seat

AFAIK freehold and 99-year leasehold are separate things.

Yes: SA + NT could be renamed Middle Earth (one suggestion I have read)... The main issue about NT become a state (on its own) is whether it would then gain the increased number of senators it could be entitled to. With a population of only 200,000 I believe, that would be controversial.

Well, that is anecdotal of course - a 'Chinese buyer' could be a second generation Australian citizen. Assuming there *are* many Chinese buyers, remember there are more millionaires in China than there are people in Australia. Allegedly (according to Chinese expats here) a lot of the financing comes from 'dirty' money - bearing in mind overseas investment is generally illegal in China, and those who risk it get terrible exchange rates from unofficial Forex companies, investors here have varying levels of attititude to risk. One temptation is that in China buying a property's freehold is very unusual - they generally only obtain leasehold albeit for long periods - so buying a property outright is appealing for them.

Nor can you be an illegal immigrant until that has been proven. The vast majority of Australian asylum seekers end up being accepted as legitimate refugees, as has been pointed out many times on this forum.

The consensus is that Peter Slipper was a fine, unbiased speaker. No comparison with Bishop who was a disgrace. Brandis needs to add a dictionary to the list of books he billed the taxpayer for: he calls environmental activists 'vigilantes' for using the law - but a vigilante is someone who does the exact opposite, i.e. acts outside the law!

Not me - do all my shopping online.... I could happily retire to Tasmania.

Good luck to them - but if interest rates climb or rising unemployment causes either to lose their job I would worry how they will service that large loan...

SCI (salary continuance insurance) payments are made directly to the member, not into their super account.

Well, the UK public are in favour 3:1 (60%-20%), so it seems a popular idea. Even Conservative voters are not opposed. The belief is that a national railway system should be answerable to taxpayers not shareholders. Stations, signalling and tracks already are in public ownership of course. Publicly-owned railways work perfectly well in France and Germany, no reason why they shouldn't in the UK.

Coming back to Corbyn, it's clear that the right-wing UK press are determined to get him, by inventing every type of smear imaginable. For example, The Independent has strangely turned on him, claiming yesterday that he controversially wanted to reintroduce Clause Four to the Labour Party constitution, which would of course be problematic. In fact he said nothing of the sort, merely stating, as he has in the past, that he is in favour of public ownership of the railways and maybe some other utilities - which the majority of the UK public are apparently in favour of, to the irritation of the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and others. What is clear is that if Corbyn is elected Labour leader any policy he puts forward will be presented in a pejorative way via the distorting lens of the UK media.

I always thought MaryRose was female - from the name...

By the same token, the only people who make money from the current property market are estate agents...

No, you are investing in a company - providing funds for them to invest in new projects, expand and create jobs. With property you are not investing in anything. Just locking your money away in a building, crossing your fingers that its value will go up. 'Investment property' is a bit of a misnomer - it should really be 'speculation property'.

Well, we have established in this thread that under certain circumstances it won't.

Yes, as far as I know Corbyn has wisely only proposed (re)nationalising the railways - which as you say would cost nothing: every time a regional rail franchise expires just bring it back into public ownership. Don't forget he has said he would scrap Trident, which gives him 90 billion to play with...

And the others'…. No party will currently suggest its abolition, but Labor would be wise to propose restricting it in some fashion as a first step. The arguments against it seems to have been won, it is just a question of how to dismantle it gradually and as painlessly as possible.

Not sure about that - Labor's recent policy announcements on tax and super etc are very sensible. If they propose something similar on negative gearing to address the housing affordability issue they would be very difficult to argue against coherently. They have made a bit of a mess of the marriage equality issue but I doubt that will feature heavily in the election.

I suspect you're right, it will be Shorten - whether it will be against Abbott is another matter. I can't help feeling that the polls will remain as they are or get worse for the LNP, and the Libs will realise 6-8 months from an election that Abbott is just too much of a liability and renders the LNP nigh-on unelectable, so he will be dumped and replaced - by Scott Morrison rather than Malcolm Turnbull. Liberal election strategists must be feeling even now that to devise an election campaign involving Abbott is next to impossible: how can he present a manifesto and make election promises without looking ridiculous?

It is the ice melting and entering the oceans which causes lower temperatures in the weather we're seeing now.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-09/property-investment-lending-jumps-but-apra-crackdown-may-bite/6533236 'However, the latest Bureau of Statistics housing finance figures show that, after already surging 7.1 per cent in March, new investor lending grew 2.6 per cent that month, seasonally adjusted. That was a little lower than the value of owner-occupied loans but, excluding refinancing, investors still accounted for half of all new loans nationally.' I'm sure I have read somewhere that new investment loans account for about 52% of the total.

Just over half of new home loans are for 'investment' properties (I prefer the term speculation properties) rather than for owner-occupiers. That is a terrible statistic. As Dave53 says above, houses are at their least affordable in history right now, that is an economic fact.

1) Both have great parks and the like. Victoria is probably greener than NSW. Traffic can be horrendous in Sydney, and Melbourne is not much better... 2) Here I would favour Melbourne clearly. Sydney is always quite humid when I go. For me Melbourne has an ideal climate, warmer than the UK but distinct seasons. 3) My wife who has lived in both cities prefers Melbourne as there are more places to visit in one day, while Sydney has great places that are more for weekend trips or several days. 4) Not sure, but I understand Victoria is currently the hardest mainland state to find work. 5) Not much difference I think. 6) Melbourne has a reputation for good food, and certainly has plenty of farmers' markets.