MichaelP

Have a friend who lives in Burra Rd, near the train line, can't hear a thing in their house, never noticed the trains. It's a nice area and there is the Freeway pubs and the Great Northern nearby. Neither of them are great, but then none of the pubs on the North Shore are.

Probably won't apply if you're migrating here with a legit visa, but the PM is now proposing a $5000 application fee for all house buying APPLICATIONS (not purchases) for foreign passport holders. I presume the intention is to address fears that Chinese house buyers are pricing first home buyers out of the market, even though these claims have been thoroughly disproved. A proposal by the Federal Government to slug foreign buyers with steep application fees for each attempt at buying property has raised concerns over the impact it will have on off-shore investment. Fees of $5000 to apply to buy property of less than $1 million and $10,000 for every extra $1 million in the purchase price have been suggested. The discussion paper launched on Wednesday is also looking at setting up a new register of foreign investors in both residential and agricultural real estate, and fines of up to 25 per cent of the value of the property for any breaches. The higher application fees and penalties are expected to fund an improved enforcement of the current foreign investment rules. "We need to make sure that all foreign investors are following the rules, and that those foreign investors who break the rules are not able to profit from breaking the law," the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, said in launching the paper

Your perception is correct in that the number of cancers has doubled in the last two decades, but it's not as simple as that. Many of the extra cancers are prostate cancers that are slow growing and would not cause death or serious disease. Many of the other extra cancers have been picked up by new screening programs such as those for cervical cancer. The good news is that many cancers are now treatable compared to even ten years ago.

The 'critics' have put up some much more workable and fair alternatives. For example, there are huge savings to be made in the hospital system, whereas primary care is run on the smell of an oily rag by comparison. The LNP rejected this option. In fact, the last Labor health minister tried to rein in some of the most expensive specialist fees but her move was voted down by guess who ... Peter Dutton. The Libs have cut $3.5bn from primary care, which is the most cost effective part of the health system. At the same time the LNP have sworn to defend the $6bn annual taxpayer subsidies for private health insurance, which have been shown to have been ineffective in keeping people out of public hospitals. (Private health groups such as Ramsay are among the biggest donors to the LNP). Oh and the increases you cite in Medicare are in line with population growth and GDP growth. In real terms spending on GPs has DECREASED.

The College of GPs have just put out a useful flyer on the rebate changes and how they will affect you.

Again, this is not true for most Australians. Nurse clinics can offers some vaccinations but GPs are the main providers for the overwhelming majority of childhood immunisations. Nurse clinics do not have the capacity or facilities to provide vaccines for all, and are not an option for most families. The RACGP has very grave concerns about the effect of the new GP charges on immunisation rates. Immunisation visits are also an important opportunity for contact between parents and GPs when other issues of child development can be reviewed - this is an important part of wholistic family practice care. Outsourcing immunisations to nurse clinics or pharmacies is not a good move.

I work in health and one bulk-billing GP I spoke with this week said their practice would now switch to charging $10 on top of the new reduced rebate (ie $27 in total) for concession card patients and new rebate +$30 (ie $47) for non-concession patients. Their patients will now have to claim back what they can from Medicare rather than have the doctor bulk bill on their behalf. The GP said she expected to do about ten 5-10 minute consults per day for repeat prescriptions, sick notes, etc. She also said she was planning early retirement, fed up of being taken for granted by the government as she knew she would continue to work for nothing for her really needy patients who could not afford the fee.

Sorry but you're mistaken. An 8 minute consultation is not "extremely short" and is not uncommon. A good experienced GP will do many such 'Level A' consultations in a busy morning's surgery - and we're not talking about the sausage machine '6 minute medicine' medical centres either. Good GPs do a mix of long and short consultations and until now have balanced these to allow themselves to bulk bill the less fortunate. With Level A's reduced to $11.95 for everyone, GPs will no longer have that option. Nor do busy practices have the option of [inappropriately] pushing out all consultations to 15 minutes just so the patient can claim a higher rebate. GP practices in regional areas are already completely booked out - often days and weeks in advance. Simple maths tells you those GPs cannot keep seeing the same number of patients if they're now all 12-15 minute consults. These changes are a major impact on how people see the GP. A young couple with two infants who need their vaccinations at 2, 4 and 6 months of age plus other GP-related consults are going to be out of pocket to the tune of a few hundred bucks where previously this would have been free with a bulk billing GP. Read the link I posted from the AMA, or read the latest info put out by the RACGP. They ain't scaremongering. This is happening next week.

Next Monday, on 19 January, the government is cutting the Medicare rebate for family doctor visits by $20. That's for everyone. All the doctors I've spoken to have said they won't be absorbing the charge, but will pass it on to the patient - in other words, stopping bulk billing. The rebate goes down from $37 to $16.95 (that's how much the government gives you back) in january and by a further five bucks to $11.95 in July. That means you the patient will probably be looking at a paying around $40 for a short GP visit (eg for flu shots) and getting $12 back; or $75 for a standard 10-15 minute consultation and getting $32 back. The government is also freezing Medicare rebates for the next four years, which means those gap fees will be increasing by about 5% a year as medical practices increase their charges to cover rising costs and keep pace with inflation. PBS fees are also going up by $5, on top of the current charges of around $30 for a prescription. The bottom line for pommy migrants is that a visit to the GP is now going to cost you at least $50, possibly a lot more if you need more than one prescription. These changes were introduced on the quiet by Tony 'no surprises, no new taxes' Abbott a few days before Christmas. GPs are only now waking up to the fees they will have to start charging. More details from AMA here.

Was in Australia for 12 years when I went back to Leeds. No reverse culture shock for 3 months then it kicked in when I realised we weren't going back and were stuck in the UK. I gradually started to appreciate all the things we'd had in Sydney. I also started to realise how we'd been left behind by all the developments (good and bad) in the UK. After 6 months I was feeling very alien and homesick for Aussie things. Fortunately we had one year return tickets and we couldn't wait to get back on that flight.

Yes that's me. A UK passport holder who had been living in Australia. Refused treatment at UK hospital unless paid.

My point goes back to the OP's question about healthcare in the UK - which as I warned is NOT free for non-residents, even if you have a UK passport as I do. I think that's a fairly important detail. Not sure why some are still trying to deny this, despite being quoted the relevant sections of NHS website and shown photos to back up my personal experience of this. Let me say it again in big capital shouty letters. AUSTRALIANS NOW HAVE TO PAY FOR TREATMENT IN UK HOSPITALS.

@paul1977 see http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/uk-visitors/Pages/accessing-nhs-services.aspx "Non-UK residents will also be charged for hospital treatments. If you are an overseas visitor to the UK you may be charged for some treatments and, depending on how urgent it is, you will usually have to pay in advance."

I broke a bone in my finger on my last stay (8 months) in the UK and was refused treatment at Leeds General Infirmary as I was "not a habitual resident" of the UK. The nurse at A&E bandaged my finger, advised me to take two Panadol and said I would have to see the accounts department and pay if I wanted the bone fixed. This was despite me having a UK passport, being born at that hospital and even having worked there during my summer holidays from uni! This was one of the factors that led me to return to Australia. If you are an Aussie you will be entitled to 'emergency treatment' only in UK hospitals under reciprocal arrangements with Australia. I have a crooked badly healed ring finger to prove it.

Worth reading this by one of the many angry GPs affected by this latest move: - 9 reasons why GPs (and all Australians) are being screwed by the government over copayments - by Dr Edwyn Kruys

The real underhand trick the government has played on the public (and GPs) is to cut the Medicare rebate for short consultations from $32 to $12. I've been speaking to GPs this week and they have all said there is no way they can stay in business with a $12 rebate - even if the patient pays a $5 surcharge. They will just stop bulk billing and charge the full fee. And this will hit everyone - even if your doctor is not bulk billing at the moment. It means that you will see a doctor for 9 minutes and pay $60 or $70 and get $12 back. Anyone who thinks they will be paying a $5 optional co-payment after this has had the wool well and truly pulled over their eyes by Hockey and Abbott. You can't take $3.5 billion a year out of the primary care system and expect a few thousand GPs to pay that out of their own pockets. Nope, the Australian public are getting a Great Big New Tax. They're also losing their universal healthcare system. Suck it up.

The corporate medical centres have never been a big influence on bulk billing rates. Even the biggest chain, Primary Health, only have 70 clinics (there are 25,000 GPs in Australia). With bulk billing confined to pensioners and kids you will see GPs start to charge everyone else the same obscene fees as specialists. The health minister keeps saying that Australians see the GP for free. Oh no they don't. As well as paying the Medicare levy, there are already a lot of costs in seeing the GP. My recent visit with my son for his asthma ended up costing us nearly $100 just for the prescriptions. Thankfully that was a one-off. I pity those with chronic conditions like diabetes who need to see a doctor regularly. And the idea of charging people a fee to "make them appreciate it" is just nuts. I've worked in a family practice and believe me people don't come in to see the GP just for a chat or with a sniffle. Just the opposite - far too many people avoid seeing the doctor until their condition gets really bad - and ends up costing the hospital and taxpayer a lot more to fix. Blokes are particularly bad in this respect. Putting a 'price signal' on GP visits is really bad policy. It should be the other way round - we need to be building up GP and giving them more funds for more staff to keep people out of the hugely expensive hospitals.

The new revised copayment system just announced by Tony Abbott will force GPs to stop bulk billing for the average punter. The changes mean that GPs will only be able to bulk bill pensioners and children and people on benefits. The policy is being misleadingly sold as an 'optional' $5 co-payment to be imposed at the discretion of the GP. The reality is that GPs will have no option but to charge a fee - they would go out of business with the $5 cut in the rebate. And if they are going to charge a fee, most GPs will now charge what they have always claimed to be the 'real' fee for their services - the AMA recommended fee of around $75. You will get $31 of that back. In other words, a visit to the GP will likely cost you $44 from 2015. Oh and this policy also hits you if your GP already charges a fee and doesn't bulk bill - the $5 fee cut means you will get $5 less back when you claim a rebate from Medicare. This new policy fundamentally changes the Australian Medicare system. It will no longer be a universal primary healthcare system, but a two tier system with a cheap-as-chips service for the old, unemployed and people on low incomes. In other words, it will become like the US Medicaid system. The next step will be legislation to allow private health insurers to offer GP policies - this is already starting with Medibank in Queensland offering their members 'GP Plus Care'. Australians can expect to be paying a lot more of their family budget on healthcare fees as a result of this.

Before I moved here I used to think Australia was an egalitarian society, but Abbott and his cabinet of mediocrities show that there is a real sense of entitlement and 'born to rule' mentality among the Liberals. They believe they can say anything before an election and just ignore it afterwards. They spent their time in Opposition mounting relentless negative smear camapigns against Julia Gillard for breaking an election commitment and imposing a "Great Big Carbon Tax", and yet they now expect to get away with cuts to the ABC and SBS, cuts to health, a Great Big GP Tax and increased fuel taxes. All of which they categorically ruled out before the election. Anyone who finds this hard to stomach is branded a lefty and an Abbott hater. I'm not a betting man but I would wager that Abbott won't be PM after the next election.

Turramurra High is OK. Catchment area includes West Pymble. Entry into selective schools is intensely competitive, full of coaching class kids. Catholic schools worth a look, many quite affordable.

Far out. You could probably get something closer in for that - we're paying about that in Chatswood.

As someone who works in the "Fourth Estate" I can tell you it is in big trouble, on all sides, not just the ABC. I have seen colleagues take their payouts from News Limited as well as from Fairfax. When I came to Australia I got my first job on a weekly magazine that had a staff of about 20, of whom 12 were journalists. I have recently returned to the same company and it is now a mostly online/digital operation employing about half those numbers. There simply isn't a commerically viable business model for the Fourth Estate any more. The only operations that survive in Australia are those that have a lot of trust fund money (Guardian), government funding (ABC) - or a billionaire willing to underwrite the losses with revenue from elsewhere in return for influence (Murdoch). There are a few minor operators, but the commercial ones are ailing - look at the cuts at places like Channel Seven too. I'm not going to get into the conservative-liberal debate over the ABC slant. If Australia wants quality local media content on a national scale with local outlets for radio etc, it will have to come from a centrally-funded model such as the ABC. The commercial channels won't do it except for the lowest-common denominator newstainment tabloid stuff. There are no more Kerry Packers willing to run a half decent commercial station. His son is now running casinos. Australians have a choice - they can maintain the ABC or lose it. In the next ten years you will see a lot of the commercial media outlets shrink and/or fold, just as the venerable Bulletin did. I personally find the ABC very dull middle Australia conservative, with occasional outstanding programme. It's not the BBC but it's better than the alternatives.

Chatswood itself has little sense of community (or decent cafes). It's just a Westfield centre and a load of offices. Surrounding suburbs like Artarmon are better - or Lane Cove perhaps. Chatswood has a large Chinese population, mostly from Hong kong rather than mainland China, and many prefer to live in the new Meriton-style high rises that have sprung up in recent years. Plenty of Asian restaurants and shops, but Chatswood doesn't have the feel of places like the inner west. The better schools are further out in places like Pymble, Turramurra, but there are some good Catholic schools (St Pius?) in the area.

The Liberals cut 450 transit officer positions in 2012 after they came to office in and promised an increase in Transport Police on the trains. I travel every day on the trains and I haven't seen one transit cop since then on the trains (except at the barriers), only those mickey mouse ticket officers. Standards have gone way down on Cityrail in the last couple of years, there is no longer any decent security on the trains. And worse is to come as they now plan to eliminate ticket office staff and train guards.

Sydney airport is just a cash machine for the conservatives who privatised it in 2002. John Howard sold it off to his Liberal mates and his offsider Moore Wilton has been running the joint since - of course vehemently opposed to a second airport that might dilute the takings. You will pay top dollar to go anywhere near the airport whether by train or road.