Roberta2
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Everything posted by Roberta2
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Please don't be deluded about the process. It's common for a government to indicate a date by which changes will be put into effect. How could it be otherwise? If they said they were going to make changes effective from two months in advance, there would be an avalanche of applications. The effective date is 20 April. Labor has shown no inclination that I have seen to oppose them. To the contrary, both major parties are terrified of One Nation, which wants to end ALL immigration. (True, this is a loony policy. True but irrelevant.) Therefore the Senate doesn't matter (because it only matters when Labor opposes the government) and there is no doubt this will become law.
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Please don't be deluded about the process. It's common for a government to indicate a date by which changes will be put into effect. How could it be otherwise? If they said they were going to make changes effective from two months in advance, there would be an avalanche of applications. The effective date is 20 April. Labor has shown no inclination that I have seen to oppose them. To the contrary, both major parties are terrified of One Nation, which wants to end ALL immigration. (True, this is a loony policy. True but irrelevant.) Therefore the Senate doesn't matter (because it only matters when Labor opposes the government) and there is no doubt this will become law.
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Have you noticed the Labor Party opposing these changes?
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If Labor agrees with these changes - and it so far has made no fuss - then the Senate will be irrelevant.
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Protecting Australia from radical Islamists is Item no 1 on Hanson's agenda. She doesn't bother much going after aborigines and Asians any more. To the contrary, she has even endorsed a couple of Asian candidates (the wheels fell off, as they often do with her.) Indians, Chinese and Poms constitute the major groups migrating to Australia. In calling for the end of ALL migration, I guess she is being non-discriminatory for once.
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A politician desperate to keep his/her job! What a surprise. Personally, I doubt Turnbull is going to keep his, but expect more "nativist" stuff in the near future. The Nationals are especially desperate to limit Hanson's inroads. On another topic, Turnbull may have some leverage on "frozen" Pom pensions in trade etc negotiations with the UK. Hard to explain to the Australian taxpayer why we spend billions topping up these pensions. The reason is that we lacked the leverage in the past that the US was able to exert over the UK. (I am of course not blaming individual Poms - all done over their heads.)
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I also think that the proposed new "temporary" visa for parents (five years renewable visa, no access to Medicare, no path to PR) is a dead duck. It was a result of successful targeting of politicians in key marginals by the Indian community in the last federal elections. Can you imagine what Hanson would make of that one?
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Turnbull is feeling the heat from Hanson. Queensland state elections are not far away, and it is highly likely that she will hold the balance of power. (Currently the Queensland Premier is on a knife edge and the state economy is not doing well.) Hanson wants to stop ALL immigration and ALL foreign investment. She is a sort of reincarnation of the Know Nothings in the US. Don't forget Hanson is far more disruptive to the Liberal/National coalition than she is to Labor - she takes far more votes away from them than she does from Labor. And of course she is greatly emboldened by Brexit and Trump. I haven't noticed the Labor party complaining about these changes. Maybe I've missed something. Anyway, if Labor supports them, the Senate is irrelevant.
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These visas are supposed to be temporary. There will be no access to Medicare or to the aged pension.
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The Productivity Commission report on immigration is worth reading. On the front page of The Australian today. Among other things, it says that parent visas carry by far the greatest cost to the economy of all visa categories. It estimates that the real cost to the taxpayer is between $335,000 and $410,000 per person, while each parent pays only about $47,000. Comment: the Productivity Commission has often been used as political cover for governments wanting to take tough decisions. Its report on aged care, which has led to sharply increased costs for many people, was more or less the template for the final decisions which were agreed to by both major parties. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that this report will have any important consequences. But it could.
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Children - what happens if you/your partner decide to go home.....
Roberta2 replied to 2tigers's topic in Kids Down Under
Agree- although few countries now seem not to be signatories. My daughter, now 40, was married to a Japanese. We knew all about the Hague Convention because it was often in the news in Japan. Presumably it was because Japan was under international pressure to sign up. There was the German wife of a US ambassador somewhere involved in it too - can't recall. Even now that Japan has signed, foreign spouses will very likely be having a tough time re their kids. Japanese courts will nearly always favour the Japanese parent. Anyway, it was one of the reasons daughter bailed out of the marriage before she had kids. She has two now, and is very happy. We hope her ex has remarried, but don't know. -
Children - what happens if you/your partner decide to go home.....
Roberta2 replied to 2tigers's topic in Kids Down Under
Hague Convention on the Rights of the Child has been around since 1980. Hardly new. Japan was one of the last signatories - 2014. -
As I said in another context, I meet the balance of family test, I am in Australia on my own. There is no way I could go to live with my son and his young family in the UK and get on the NHS for any amount of money. So who is talking about discrimination? And by the way, my father was a pilot in RAF Bomber Command and my great grandfather emigrated from Herefordshire in 1869. My advice to any Parent on this thread who is thinking of moving to Australia to rejoin family, do not tarry. The budgetary situation in Australia will only get worse. Every old Brit who comes here not only costs the taxpayer a lot of money via Medicare, (where costs are growing rapidly partly because of an ageing population)but the Australian taxpayer has to top up all those frozen pensions after the first ten years are up. Cash cows? Don't think so.
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It might be buried somewhere in the budget papers. Has not been publicly discussed, as far as I know.
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Any reason to think the exchange rate will improve? The Oz has always been a commodity dollar. Gold prices are up dramatically as a consequence of Brexit because gold is a safe haven. This is putting upward pressure on iron ore prices as well. But who knows? Australia is a small open economy highly vulnerable to a global downturn. We weathered the GFC quite well - we had a lot in the kitty because of the China boom. (Although far too much was squandered.) Now the boom is over, and we will be running deficits for years, whoever wins the election on Saturday. Australia is also at risk of losing its AAA credit rating. Nothing is easy to predict. I would try to get professional advice on the best hedging strategy re exchange rates.
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Yes. Anyway, who would not want to live on the Northern Beaches? Am heading there myself soon to stay with a pal for a week or two. I am half hoping Brexit will propel my son and his wife and two little kids back to Brisbane...He's just bought a house in the UK. Bad timing! Works for a US company, but no one is safe.
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early casualty of Brexit?
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What state are you living in? In Queensland, tenants do not have to agree to open homes. All they have to agree on is a viewing by prospective buyers on 24 hours notice. I am fairly sure you do not have to agree to the place being repainted either - have a look at the state Landlord and Tenant Act. Repainting is not repair, unless of course you have caused damage yourself, which I presume is not the case. There will also be some kind of tenant advocacy group in your state. Show a bit of fang and claw!
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Val, am interested in definition of "settled". My son is returning to Brisbane in October, permanently. He went to boarding school and university here. He will be bringing back a British partner and their two small children, who will both be dual nationals of course. She will get permanent residency on arrival, if all goes well, and citizenship as soon as possible. She will want to sponsor her parents (they meet the balance of family test) as soon as possible My son and partner will be doing all the normal stuff, including kids in child care, joining a church, buying a house etc etc. Will they necessarily have to wait for two years after she gets permanent residence to sponsor her parents? After all, my son will be resettling rather than settling.
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Other Family visas: Cutbacks and Delays
Roberta2 replied to George Lombard's topic in Family / Partner Visas
With unemployment now at 6.4% nationally, the worst for 13 years and higher than the UK, the May budget is not likely to announce any increases in migration targets. Quite the contrary, probably. -
Congratulations! Where are you headed?
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On visa delays, need to remember that there have been endless migration scams in recent years, mostly by those who have come here from Certain Countries where you can get what you want by scam and bribery. This has had a knock on effect on the rest of us, too. e.g in recent years I have had to get new birth and marriage certificates for myself and my parents, at considerable expense. Didn't matter if you were married in a registry office, old ones wouldn't do. Plus the terrorism threat. Some jihadis have left the country on passports belonging to others, etc. etc.
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It's summer here. School is still out, many people are still on holidays and we are all watching the tennis..and cricket... Not all that long ago, the prime minister used to run the country from his caravan. Robyn
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On health matters generally, there is always a debate here about the "need" for private health insurance. As previously mentioned, if you don't take out private insurance, you still have to pay the Medicare levy. When you do take out private insurance, you have options as to what coverage and premiums you want. All rather complicated. I changed mine recently, with the help of various comparison websites, but still found it hard to compare apples with apples. Some people just take a punt and rely on the public system. Others simply can't afford private insurance. It is currently a subject of debate between me and my 90 year old mother, who is now in a high care nursing home. She is self funded retiree, not a pensioner. She gets frequent visits from her doctor, as required, and he bulk bills. This is the case with all patients in nursing homes. There is a free dental service, in that patients get a free checkup every six months. But only a checkup. The podiatrist comes, but she has to pay for that. My mother pays $188 a month for top level private health insurance. Medibank, which has just been privatised. Her premiums are "reduced" because she has been paying for decades. So does she still need it? Probably. She was recently in serious danger of osteonecrosis of the jaw (literally dead jaw) because she had been on Fosamax for a long time for osteoarthritis. (Her then G.P was clueless.) This was pretty serious, and she had to go to a specialist doctor who did manage to fix it, to our great relief. I can't remember the bill - about $1,500 I think - and she did get about half of that back. Had this specialist been on an "approved" list for her particular health fund, she would have got more back. But we didn't care - we were just relieved to get attention in timely fashion from one of the best specialists in town. She's now off Fosamax, and we hope this problem won't recur. But she still needs specialist eye and hearing treatment. She may need new hearing aids soonish -about $7,000. Not sure how much of that she will get back. Pensioners do get free hearing aids, but I am told they are far from the best available. Since Mum has scrimped and saved all her life, I naturally want the best available because her hearing is a big problem for her. Deaf as a beetle, actually.... Best Robyn
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Am not sure, but I would think you would need to be in Australia for ten years, when you become eligible for the pension. You can't get both the Seniors Health Card and the pension. The Seniors Health card is meant for self funded retirees whose taxable incomes are fairly low. (As an anomaly, the incomes of those retired on public service pensions - both state and federal - are not taxed, so you can be on quite a high income and still get the Health card. Am not sure how much longer this one can last....) The way I read it for those on Contributing Parent or Aged Parent visas, the only social security you can access for ten years is Medicare, which you get on arrival. Others will be more expert on this than I...