Collie

On 03/12/2020 at 17:50, Jon the Hat said:

We are hoping to live in Ardross or Mount Pleasant to get the kids into Applecross SHS.  We can certainly rent there, whether we can buy what we want depends on me getting a decent job.  It's a difficult balance.

Schools in Rossmoyne and Willetton are highly rated too.

A bit more affordable to buy. 

Based on what you said you like, Melbourne is the best city in Australia for those interests.  4 seasons in 1 day though.

Sydney next, both come with a price tag.

2 hours ago, Raye said:

My husband and I have had our visas granted for our family. But had a huge argument last week and it may result in a divorce. He is the main applicant. Can we still go on our PR visas if I take the children? Can he cancel them? Will Aus allow us in without the main applicant? 

Flights are booked.

I've applied for jobs. 

 

 

 

Let me get this right.

You are proposing to move the children away 13,000 miles from their father.

You and him can get a divorce, doesn't mean that the kids and their Dad are divorced.  What ages are the kids?

You will need his permission for the kids to emigrate with you or a court's ok if he objects (highly unlikely).  If you take the kids without that, it will most likely be seen as abduction. He can apply for a recovery order through the courts and return of the children under the Hague convention (& it will be most likely granted).

I some some experience of the family law courts.

23 hours ago, Aussiebird said:

Qatar have got terrible reviews at the moment, will just have to wait a bit longer and see how the situation is mid August. 

I flew Qatar last year and couldn't fault them at all.  Would have them above Qantas, BA or Emirates.

I know lots of others who said the same.

They were pretty good when my mother changed plans to travel in March.  No problems issuing a credit voucher valid for 2 years even though the flight still went.

Doha airport is an easy one to navigate too.

The bigger issue you will face is the limitations on arrivals by the government.  I think Perth is at 525 per week and can't see it changing anytime soon.

On 12/06/2020 at 01:23, Lavers said:

Manchester - Melbourne

Manchester - Adelaide is over £3500

Hey mate,

FYI

Victoria have just announced that all incoming international flights to be diverted for the next few weeks.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/markets/british-pound-sinking-to-emerging-market-currency-status-1.4291672?mode=amp

All of the world.

Need central banks to print money to avoid a 1930s style depression.

On 04/05/2020 at 09:50, Alex57 said:

Sadly, I'm a DUAL citizen (British & Australian) - my parents made me an "Australian" when I was too young to make up my own mind and too young to sign the citizenship document. Anyway, my old Australian passport has expired, but I have a current British passport and want to PERMANENTLY return to my homeland in England asap NEVER to return to convict Australia. I find it hard to believe that the fact that a person is a DUAL having an Australian citizenship some how CANCELS the rights of a British citizen with a British passport to PERMANENTLY return to the land of their birth. I have a British mobile number, but no Australian mobile number. I also have a National Insurance Number which allows me to be taxed correctly in the UK as a paid worker and also allows me to vote, but I'm not on the Electoral Roll in Australia. I also have a HSBC British bank account in Guildford, Surrey where I previously lived. Should I write to Peter Dutton or should I just apply for a stupid extension - any thoughts??

If you feel that strongly about it, you can always renounce your Australian citizenship. 

3 hours ago, wrussell said:

BTW speaking of tax and the OMARA,

I received  the attached from a Deputy Commissar. I let him know that he was one step away from an action for abuse of office. I had to respond, because it was possible that some party had claimed have paid me a commission.

There was a discussion about my professional fees being less than the industry average - I wonder where the ATO might have discovered that!

For example I charged only a $250 professional fee to lodge a 410. All I had to do was update the previous application, get the client to sign it plus a 956 and ask him if he wanted another cup of coffee before he went on his way and posted the Express Post Envelope to Western Australia - run time 30 minutes plus or minus.

How much should I have charge for 30 minutes work?

Your fee for MRT applications is much lower than the industry average. I wonder where you found that out? I reported my AVERAGE fee to a certain party and since I act pro bono for my clients who finish up in the MRT (i have won them all) my AVERAGE  fee (which I took to be the arithmetic mean) was likely to be less than the industry average.

If you find yourself undergoing a desk audit where there is an issue about the $6 you invested in fish food for the aquarium in your waiting room, download the ATO annual report and see how much they paid for pot plants to adorn their offices. Last time I checked it was $240000.

John Arthur Spenkelink was executed in Florida in 1979. He spent his final days writing these last words on various pieces of mail: “Capital punishment means those without the capital get the punishment.”

 

 

 

 

OMARA and ATO.pdf

It's just analytics mate.

They do it across all professions.  The ATO have a huge amount of data.  With AI, it is likely that a human never saw that letter, the analysis would have been done automatically and letters issued based on certain parameters.

If your return is legit, you'll be fine and I doubt there will be any further action.

17 hours ago, Mad4daSun said:

Thanks for the advice, sorry for the late reply. No working remotely is not an option for the Canadian job. What are your thoughts on Brisbane? Thanks.

From a work point of view for your partner, Brisbane may be better than Perth but not by much.

It really is Sydney or Melbourne.  Her type of role does lend itself to remote working but unlikely to get that straight away.

If you end up doing FIFO, she may as well be in Sydney.

On 06/02/2020 at 05:50, JetBlast said:

Good Morning,

I am based in SA and I have been offered a new position as a senior manager. I am reviewing the documents and the notice period is 6 months. Is this usual please? My current position (manager) is 4 weeks. 6 months seems quite excessive.

Thanks

Is it 6 months both ways?

For most white collar roles, 1 month is the norm.  As you get more senior, it would be 3 months.

For 6 months, I would expect it to be a C suite role.

Is it something you can negotiate down?

At least make sure it is paid notice.

Also, someone mentioned non-compete clauses.  They are rarely enforceable and have been struck out by the courts on many occasions (a recent example is the Ryanair v Peter Bellew case)

6 hours ago, Mad4daSun said:

She could work for any Super or investment fund, and I'm sure there's at least some in each state. Doesn't have to be the big ones. We're also looking for family friendly to raise our kid. If we can have it all we'll take it haha.

Mate,

I come from a FS background.  60%+ of opportunities for her will be in Sydney, about 35% in Melbourne and maybe 5% elsewhere.

While the big super funds will have front office operations interstate all the back office stuff will be Syd/Melbs.

Perth is great for raising a family but there is next to no FS operations (trust me, I live here).

She could look at a treasury type role in 1 of the big resource companies but they are hard to get into and there are a lot of very qualified professionals in Perth job seeking.

Adelaide has a big defence industry,

Canberra is a govt/uni town.

Have a look on seek.com.au or Linked In to get a feel for job opportunities in the various locations.

Could she keep her Canadian job and work remotely?

2 hours ago, GeeBee said:

Thanks Nicky. Useful bit of info that. I Had thought it was more than a little underhanded to give so little opportunity to claim back the super at the end of a temporary visa. 

Yep, it's just reallocated from your super fund to the ATO.  It's to prevent it been eaten away by excessive fees.

I'm open to correction but I had thought that was nothing to do with your visa but rather whether your account is active or inactive i.e. happens to PRs and citizens too.  I thought it was 12 months of inactivity and simpling logging into your account makes it active (but I may be wrong).

4 minutes ago, The Pom Queen said:

Well it seems the OP was correct according to the Age Newspaper, https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/power-company-warns-of-blackouts-as-heat-stretches-grid-20200131-p53wmo.html and I’m afraid however much I love Australia I agree, the grids should be able to cope. 
‘It’s not just the electric, our internet dropped to 68th in the latest reports and placed 32 out of the 35 OECD nations for speed. That’s if you can get internet at all. We are lucky where we live but the neighbours can’t get a mobile signal nor can they get NBN. 

That's why I asked where they were?

All anybody can do is speak to their own experience and I have experienced minimal issues in 15 years mostly in NSW and now WA.

Far from 3rd world experiences.

I didn't say there are no power cuts anywhere ever.

My point was that IME, Australia is far from a 3rd world country when it comes to power reliability as the OP was trying to imply.

11 hours ago, Mad4daSun said:

Hi there,

We just got granted 189 visas and will be making an activation trip soon from Canada.

I am a Mechanical Engineer with almost a decade in the natural gas pipeline industry in Canada. I already got the CP Eng designation in advance from Engineers Australia.

My Wife is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 6 years working in portfolio management for pension funds in Canada. Fixed income is her specialty.

If anyone on this forum is hiring or knows companies that are we would be delighted to connect and go into more detail on our skills.

Really looking forward to making the move.

Thanks!

Where are you planning to move to?

A bit like Canada, Australia is a big place.

Your wife will be best served first in Sydney or 2nd Melbourne for work opportunities (very little outside of that, possibly Suncorp in Brisbane).

For you, probably WA or Qld.  You may be able to look at FIFO which pays well but not ideal.

You have some research and decisions to make.

On 31/01/2020 at 15:09, starlight7 said:

As soon as we get hot weather out come the power cuts in Australia. I was brought up in post war London and could count on one hand the number of power cuts we got. Here it averages one a month, more in hot weather. Lots of excuses but no politician seems to be able to assist. It seems to have started when they privatised power. Obviously they want our money, lots of it ( we have the most expensive electricity in the world ) but don’t care about their customers at all.

Where are you located?

15 years in Australia, lived in 2 states and travelled to them all.

Can count the amount of power cuts on 1 hand and only lasted a few hours in each case.

Both well regarded schools.

You'd be best getting program details directly from the school's website.

Hi Scott,

I don't know up that way well.

You may be better posting under WA oron the perthinpoms site.

22 hours ago, Simmy said:

Hi There, we are considering a move to Gero in the future too.  We love peace and quiet so nightlife does not concern us.  We have a young family of 3 girls of  Primary school age.  We used to live in Yanchep north of Perth and are currently back in the UK.  Here is the big question, we have a plot of land in Karloo, do you think its a good enough area to build on?  Abraham street a short walk from Karloo park.  I'm now hearing it's not great there, and I would be concerned if there was a concentrated drug problem nearby or frequent robberies and social crime.  What is the consensus, sell up and find a better suburb or go for it and enjoy??  I'd love your own opinions please? Currently living in Didcot(Oxon) in the UK and its not amazing but neither am I scared to walk down the street.  

Hey mate,

I'm in Perth and can't really speak to Geraldton with any real authority.

What I will say is that I have yet to meet anybody with a positive thing to say about the place.  I have met a few who gave it a go but ultimately felt it was too dodgy and left.

1 hour ago, GeeBee said:

Hi all,

Currently enjoying life in Aus on a TSS visa, 1 year in.

Our current plans are to move back to the Uk after a couple more years, to try for a kid. I’ve toyed with the idea of applying for a 190 PR visa to keep our options open but realistically if we did go to back and have a child (not guaranteed, I know) I can’t see us returning before the travel component of the PR expires. It feels a fair chance therefore its a waste of money and effort. 

I had a thought regarding superannuation though:

when leaving on a temporary visa I can claim back my super minus 45% tax. However this tax is already not far off the cost of applying for PR  at the moment and will increase over however longer we stay in Aus. 

Babies and life choices aside and looking at the financials alone, I’m wondering if one reason for me to apply for PR is to lock in the super as a small investment until I retire and be able to claim it without being taxed. I would have to assume that my PR would expire before I retire and that I settle in the UK in later life. If this happened Would the super still be available via an Australian bank account and tax free?

Obviously there’s other benefits to applying to PR but is there logic is this approach from the financials? 

thanks

 

 

I think what you're asking is can you leave your super in Australia to accumulate even if you are on a temp visa and leave Australia, thus avoiding the punative DASP tax.

Is that correct?

I'm open to correction but I think the answer is yes.  You can leave your super in Australia (to grow) when you return to the UK.

You then withdraw it on retirement (or when yoyr age allows) as per the rules at the time.

You will be taxed as per the rules of wherever you are tax resident at the time you receive the income.

On 17/01/2020 at 05:34, Aussiewannabie said:

Hi, 

Me and my partner are looking to move to Australia. We have 2 children also. Any information and help would be much appreciated. 

Thanks 

Hey mate,

That's a pretty broad query.

It's like saying we're thinking of moving to Europe.

Australia is a big place and the cities are all very different.

If you put a map of Australia over Europe, Perth is about where Lisbon is, Darwin would be in Scandanavia and Sydney probably close to Istanbul.

As a few others have said, 1st thing is to see if you are eligible for visas.

With a family, there are additional costs (school fees etc) if you are on temporary (sponsorship) visas and you can be pretty vulnerable.  If you can, look at PR visas.

After that maybe start doing some research on where in Australia will match what you are looking for, where you'll get work and fits within your budget.

9 hours ago, kamb1ng said:

Thank you that is very helpful.

One follow up question, what documentation do we need to bring when we apply for Medicare? Is a British passport and visa approval documentation sufficient or do we need things like EHIC card? I have NHS number but not on any card/paper.

Thank you.

Google is your friend and you would be better getting info directly from the medicare website (dept of human services) than from the randomers on here.

Depends what you are into but a week for Dubai would be too long IMO.  There isn't that much to do there.

Also with Iran & the US sabre rattling, not sure I'd want to be in the middle east at the moment.

Dubai is very expensive for alcohol too ($15/16 a standard bottle of corona) although good for food and mocktails for non drinkers.

Given the choice, I'd go to Asia or even NZ.

Well really, I'd go snowboarding in Japan but may not be your thing.

Hey mate,

Don't know them well but both have some dodgy areas.

I spent a year working (but not living) in Rocko, nice on the surface but a fair few dodgy characters around.  I live near the city but my colleagues down that way all drove in from elsewhere everyday.

Safety bay is one of the nicer areas I believe.

I suggest renting for 6 months first to get a feel for the areas.  Check out the various shopping centres etc.