purpleal

When the eldest child was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, the mother was already too far advanced in her twin pregnancy to abort. It was then established that the twins had the disease too. If you google, SMA, you will see that this is a horrible, horrible thing - the body is destroyed whilst the mind is unaffected - as a mother myself, this would be truly heartbreaking to even contemplate having 1 child like this - let alone 3. She was probably upset, depressed and couldn't see a future for them or herself. I am not at all saying this is justification for murder - but before you condemn her totally for her actions - place yourself in her position and just picture what her life would have been like.

Thank you, I am well aware that those locations are in WA. You may want to revisit your old posts - in none of them do you state any desire to live in ACT. You have always specified that you want to live in Bunbury or Mandurah. WA took HR Advisor off the list, hence you now wanting to get SS from ACT. If you are that passionate about moving to ACT you can come up with your own statement - just write about why you want to live there and what you can offer the community.

Are you really interested in living in Canberra? Or is it just because they are the only state sponsoring your occupation and once your visa is granted you have the intention of moving to Bunbury or Mandurah?

I had elective c-sections for all of mine - because I wanted to not because I had to. I think it is down to personal choice - I have too many stories to tell of what has happened to a ladies bits down there and I wasnt prepared to have something like that happen to me. For some, nothing happens and they are fine but for alot (and believe me, there are alot - most are too ashamed to talk about it) they have serious issues afterwards. For e.g my sister ripped so badly with her second, that she had half her vagina on the outside and needed major reconstructive surgery afterwards - now, what would you prefer?

Oh And eating your ear wax in Parliament in front of camera is much better?! That's Rudd by the way, on You Tube in all it's glory..................

The son of my best friend has just had braces put into his mouth. The total cost is about $12,000 of which she will be lucky to get even $2k back from BUPA. My husband needed a root canal, which cost a couple of thousand for that and a few other bits and pieces- think we got just under $300 back. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I don't really see the point of having private medical, other than to avoid paying the Medicare Levy Surcharge. Sure, you get to beat the long waiting lists for elective surgeries, but even then your out of pocket expenses can be quite hefty. If you are healthy and under the threshold for the medicare levy surcharge, a better option would be to stick a couple of hundred dollars into a high interest online bank account and let it accumulate for in the event of a medical emergency.

Also to add, with CUA there are no hidden fees, no admin charges etc and no early repayment fees. p.s, I don't' work for them I am just a happy customer!

We always get finance through Credit Unions - we have found them to be far more customer friendly than the banks. Our last car loan was through CUA - Credit Union Australia http://www.cua.com.au. Their current rate is 7.99% and also because we got the finance through them, we got a really cheap insurance premium (think it is through CGU) - $60pm on a $45,000 new car. Our previous car was a 6 year old Honda and the insurance was $130 pm. Hope this helps.

Hi Alan, No, we didn't move into the property before it was let. The property was put up for sale by the previous owners with the tenant still in it. We loved the house though, and we were tied into a new lease so the circumstances suited us. We do have a tax accountant looking after our affairs - and as far as I am aware, we have claimed as much as we possibly could with regards to depreciation, expenses etc. The house was only rented out for 9 months after we bought it and when we moved in had a few agents come round and provide us with updated, current value in writing - The market hadn't really moved and the values we were provided with are pretty much on par with what we paid for the property. The highest valuation was only $5,000 more than what we bought the house for. My Understanding was that we only needed to pay tax on any gain on the purchase price from buying the property and what it was when we moved in? Regards, Purpleal

We had the same issue, when we bought our house, it was tenanted. My understanding is that we are liable for CGT for any gain in the property's value from the time it was rented out until the time it is sold or we moved back in. So for e.g we bought the house for $960,000 when the tenant moved out and we moved in, the house was for examples sake worth $980,000 - we would then be liable CGT on the $20,000 difference. The upside is that your son should be declaring the income to the ATO, even if running at a loss ie the rent is less than the mortgage. All interest, and other property expenses such as rates/taxes, land tax, water etc are tax deductable and usually mean a nice tax refund at the end of the tax year.

Mmmm, let me see.. A 30 room (twin bed) boarding house for transients on 800sqm, in a residential area, zoned as low density, 150 metres from the primary school and pre-school. Sounds just great!!!!

Well, whether you like it or not - quite a large percentage of Australia has spoken and you're stuck with him for the next 4 years. I, personally am extremely happy and hope that he proves you wrong (I mean that in a nice way:) ). And incidentally, I am one of the voters Julia tried to put off with her mysoginist tactics - female, early 30's and married with kids. Clearly did not work - none of my female friends, married/not married voted ALP or anyone other Liberal for that matter.

I am not talking about him on a personal lovey dovey husband and dad at at home level - I am talking about him as a Member of Parliament dealing with his electorate level. I can go into many stories about how he has helped endless people in our community with seemingly insignificant issues - none have been too small and insignificant for him to deal with with. Do you think Mr High and Mighty Rudd would personally petition against a boarding house in his suburb? Do you think Mr Rudd would take time out to assist his neighbour with a passport issue? And despite what has been portrayed in the press, he is not a sexist pig - he is a normal man with a great sense of humour - with great family values to go with it.

Totally and utterly thrilled!

Oh and you know him personally do you?! How would you know really?! And for your information - I do know him. We're not mates, but he does live one street away from me and I can assure you that despite whatever you read about him in the press, he is a fantastic MP for Warringah and I am sure he will be a wonderful PM for Australia too.

How stressful for you. When we bought our house, it was tenanted and we said no to a dog. The reason being..obviously before this tenant, someone that lived here had a dog and the damage to the interior/exterior sliding doors, the wooden framework, the doors etc was immense. The scratchmarks are very deep and have just been painted over, although in reality it all needs to be sanded down, primed and repainted. To fix all this damage would cost far more than any bond/surety/guarantee which would be provided by the tenant. Now, I am not saying your dog would do the same - in fact, we ourselves are now living in the house and we have a dog who has caused no damage but I am just giving my perspective from an ex landlord point of view. I am not sure if you have done/know this already, but on Domain you can do a keyword search. If you go to domain, Rent, click on search by state, click on NSW, Select Sutherland as a location, don't select anything, put pets in the keyword search and then search. 41 properties came back. Good Luck and I hope you find somewhere soon.

Could be 'The Crescent Woronora River' ?

I love Tony Abbott. He lives two streets away from us on the Northern Beaches. Often see him jogging around the neighbourhood. Speak to many people around here and you hear alot of stories about how he has personally helped people with numerous problems - seemingly insignificant things like assistance with passports / development applications etc to far more important things. He is more ensconced in the 'real world' than millionaire PM KRudd and contrary to reports is no egotistical up his own arse man - unlike Kevin the narcissistic maniac who had a number of his inherited cabinet resign when he got back onto power. They would rather be jobless than than work for him! Oh, and he eats his own ear wax - truly disgusting!

As a South African who has lived in Joburg and on the Garden Route, Eastern Cape, I think I am pretty well informed as to what goes on in that hellhole! I, nor my family, will ever, ever, did I say EVER?! go back to that place again. If I had to list all the things that have happened to us, our family and our friends - you would not believe me, you would think it was straight out of some hardcore crime novel. It is a beautiful country and yes, IF you have money (many don't) you can have a nice life. Well, as nice a life you can - with the constant needing to look over your shoulder, locking doors, no driving late at night etc - do you know how stressful living like this is? You are on a constant state of alert. Many people that leave, say it takes about 2 years before they can sleep easy at night, without worrying about every noise they hear in the house.... in the yard...is it someone coming to hurt my family? Is it someone trying to steal my car? Do I go and look, do I call the police? Will the police even come? Etc etc, do you get my drift? If you don't have money, you are not able to protect your family security wise ie no electric fencing and fancy security systems - leaving you uncomfortably open to attack. Criminals will always go for the easy targets, you see. Rather the house without the security than the house with. And unlike Australia and the UK, there is NO benefit system either - if you lose your job, your house, tough, go stay with relatives or find a township and put up a shack - yes, there are white squatter camps and townships, however unlike the black population, these people are supposedly 'previously advantaged' so do not get government assistance, they must just scavenge and starve. So, rose tinted tourism glasses aside, a beautiful place scenic wise, but to some degree hell on earth. Even if someone paid my for my ticket and gave me 10 grand spending for a holiday, I would say no and stay here in Oz. Where I am safe, my family is safe, medical treatment is top class, my family can be educated properly, the weather is great, the beaches are lovely, government assistance is required, the list goes on. Why would I give this up, to become a possible statistic? And yes, I am one of those that the South African's hate - I make no secret of the fact I think it is a hellhole and I have facts to back me up. If anyone is interested, Google Censorbugbear reports, or have a look at the Facebook group 'Genocide of the white minority'. Here you will see that we are not just talking home invasions and murder, we are talking torture and brutality. This is the cold hard truth and not for the faint hearted. Save your money and go to Fiji, Mauritius or the Seychelles - far more relaxing!

I have always been advised by my broker that should you receive any monthly income protection benefit, this will be taxed at the marginal tax rate - regardless of whether you have claimed it as a tax deduction or not. A search on Google confirms this or have I misunderstood what you have said?

Oh and one final bit, go for the higher end of the estimation. Most of the properties I have checked have always sold closer to the high end than to the lower.

Hi, If you go to www.onthehouse.com.au, you can type in the property address. It gives you a rough guide of what they estimate your house to be worth and lists all the properties in the street with estimates of those too. If you click on each property, it gives you all the sale data of that particular property so you can get a bit of an idea of the value of the one you want to buy. EDIT - There are a small percentage of properties that do not have the sales data, but they will still have the price estimate. ​Hope this helps..

Hi, It is about 40k per parent with a $14,000 bond. The bond is returned after 10 years minus any deductions for medical etc. The 40k per parent is the visa 'fee' and is non returnable. All in all, if you are looking at bringing both your parents in, you are looking at a total of close to $100,000 for the contributory parent visa. Hope this helps, Purpleal

I could be wrong, but judging by the username and other details in the post, the OP could be in South Africa.

Here is my 2 cents worth... I am not British, nor Australian (well, not by birth at least - I hold both passports though), so I am not biased towards either (just for the record!) I lived in the UK for 7 years and had a baby using the NHS. I have lived in Oz for 7 years and had 2 babies using Oz public hospitals and I can say that in MY own personal experience, the Oz treatment and care I received was far superior here in Sydney than what I got in the UK. In the UK, I had a complicated birth, yet was left unattended for long periods even after I rang the bell for assistance. When someone did come, it was more of an inconvenience for them with an attitude which made it obvious so. Here in Oz, I was checked every 45 mins, some of the midwives even sat with me for 45 mins at a time just to make sure I was ok and coping as I do not have any family here other than my husband. When I had my 3rd baby, I was even visited by a midwife who recognised my name from treating me 2 years before when I had my 2nd. My little girl has an ear deformity and she was seen by a specialist within a week of contacting them for an appointment. I remember needing a minor op in the UK and the waiting list was 18 months - needless to say I went private..