AussieMum

10 hours ago, CaptainR said:

Only the newer ones. Basix requirement I think?

We built in 2015 in Victoria and had different options available in order to get enough "points" for the energy rating, though the system may well have changed since then.  We chose a rainwater tank for toilet flushing instead of solar hot water (the tank does double duty as it is on the western wall of our son's bedroom and insulates it from the afternoon sun in summer).

10 hours ago, BusbyBoo said:

$10 on top of my NBN and I got a free fetch box and heaps of channels. I confess I still like my BBC First and uktv 🥰 and discovery etc.

Instead of getting one through your ISP, you can also buy a Fetch box outright from HN, JB, etc, which works with any ISP - we have a Fetch Mighty which allows you to record TV to watch any time instead of making sure you watch before it disappears from their catch-up/on demand service.  They have channel packs (one has BBC First and one has BBC Brit) which are $6/month or all four packs for $20, you can rent movies direct through the box and it has most of the streaming apps including Britbox (though we need to access Disney+ directly through the TV).

We find between Netflix, free-to-air, iView and SBS on demand (and now Disney+), we don't run out of things to watch.  We tend to get Stan and Amazon Prime for a month or two each year to catch up on their stuff as we don't find they have enough we like to justify having it all the time and only ever had Foxtel to watch Game of Thrones - we kept it for a month or two after one season ended and there was nothing on that was worth the cost. 

https://www.fetchtv.com.au/

16 hours ago, bicek said:

 Are seat belts used to secure car seats in Australia also? Is that what you mean by top-tether strap system? It sounds like the same thing? 

No, the top tether is an additional strap that is part of the child restraint at the top back of the seat and is used in addition to the normal car seatbelt.  It's attached to a vehicle anchor point in the car - the location varies by type of car and manufacturer but they are generally on the ceiling, back of the seat, or on the floor of a hatch/wagon/SUV. 

You won't be able to sell overseas car seats here, and while some people will say they brought theirs over and used them without a problem, you may run into problems, eg, with insurance, if you are found to be using a seat with an Australian Standards sticker on it. 

Another option if you are struggling to find a buyer before you leave is to see if any local charities take used car seats.  For example, here in Victoria, Geelong/St Kilda/Ballarat Mums take seats that meet certain criteria. 

9 hours ago, starlight7 said:

Just a small warning that although the chemist might tell you the no name brands are the same, only cheaper, it is not always the case. Personally I have had some bad reactions to the cheaper generic drugs whereas the normal brands were fine for me. Worth watching and monitoring because they will not tell you this.

The active ingredients in subsequent brands and generics are always identical to the original brand.  However, each manufacturer might use different "inactive" ingredients which you as an individual react to, or that may interact with another medication you take (eg, calcium salts can be used as a filler in some tablets but will interfere with the absorption of tetracyclines if you take them).  If an excipient differs between brands, there will be people who have a negative reaction to the brand name as well as some who react to one of the other brands.

There's also a small number of medications such as warfarin where each manufacturer's process and ingredients mean they all have a slightly different effect on the body and it will be recommended to stick to your usual brand unless a change is specifically indicated.  This is why prescriptions have a "Brand substitution not permitted" box the doctor can tick.

A good summary/explanation in plain English: https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/blog/are-generic-medicines-the-same-as-brand-name-medicines

6 minutes ago, Loopylu said:

Perhaps if the LNP did not freeze Medicare rebates for years on end the bulk billing GPs would not feel the need to supplement their incomes in this way?

Medicare rebates definitely have lagged behind what costs are incurred running a medical practice.  But that doesn't mean GPs should be rorting the system the way this one did.

I've had a mental health care plan from my usual GP a few times over the years and I have no problem at all paying for a double appointment each time it needs to be set up or reviewed because it does take extra time to do the paperwork.  But this GP filled in a couple of forms at record speed and pushed me out the door in a usual 10-min bulk-billed appointment slot - they did absolutely nothing to warrant being able to charge Medicare extra for something I didn't want and didn't ask for (yes, I needed to lose weight at the time but that was completely unrelated to my visit). 

There are good and bad amongst both bulk-billing and private GPs.  My local private practice is my go-to and I've been going there for the last 18 years or so - I started when I knew we'd be starting a family soon and I wanted to build a relationship rather than just needing to pop in to get a certificate to confirm sick leave.  They bulk bill pensioners and kids under 16 as well as whenever the doctor decides they want to, eg, I've always been bulk billed for a followup visit to get test results.  We can pop in in an emergency and be squeezed in (eg when I grated a huge hole in my finger that didn't need to go to A&E at hospital but needed the nurse to check it didn't need stitches and dress it). 

I've had bulk billing GPs sign me up for a chronic health condition treatment plan with referrals to a dietitian and an exercise physiologist (when I just needed a doctor's certificate because I had gastro and my regular doctor's was full) because it meant they could charge Medicare for an extended appointment.  I was not well enough to be in the mood to argue but I haven't been back to them since. 

Quote

Finally, if you come from a family with the breast cancer gene, you cannot get the genetic test on Medicare and the cost is several thousand dollars which is usually not covered by insurance. My friend with breast cancer found this out a few years ago.

There are definitely publicy funded genetics tests looking for BRCA gene mutations, Lynch syndrome, etc, that are accessed through Hereditary or Familial Cancer Clinics.   But there are qualifying criteria for Medicare funding, eg, family history including how many and how close the relatives are, is there a family member who is better suited to testing (due to their position in the family tree), etc, and if you have a high-risk mutation then you may also qualify for early cancer screening, surveillance MRIs, etc.  If you don't qualify for free testing, you can elect to self-fund. 

2 minutes ago, Dusty Plains said:

I don't think Bobi needs to apologise for merely stating what he read. Who cares if it is a month old, its still topical.  Dan Gladys and Scomo jointly agreed to close the NSW / Victoria border in July 2020. That event is older a than month but its still being talked about here on PIO.

I don't see anybody asking for an apology from Bobj.  I was just clarifying that it wasn't something that happened in the last few days which is what can be inferred from "just read an article". 

Dan might have agreed to NSW closing their border but he didn't instigate it and asking for his input was likely just a courtesy - if he had disagreed, do you think it would have had any impact on a decision being made by the NSW Government in NSW?

The NSW entry permits are administered by NSW so while the decisions on eligibility and access affect some Victorians, it's incorrect to blame permit refusals, advice to fly livestock, etc, on anything other than the short-sighted/city-centric NSW permit criteria and/or poor training/ignorance of Service NSW staff.

26 minutes ago, Bobj said:

just read an article by a farmer who lives in Victoria, but his farm is 23 km across the border in NSW. He has 1500 sheep on the property and bought 43 tonnes of hay to feed them. He rang the Victorian Govt. and, because of the covid lockdown  laws, explained his position to the relevant authorities and their only response was for him to go to Melbourne, and get a flight to Sydney, spend 14 days in quarantine there, then drive to his farm and feed his sheep. His question to the er... um... person in Govt, was, had that person any idea how much it would cost to fly 43 tonnes of hay from Melbourne to Sydney? And, how long could 1500 sheep go without feed?

Beaurocracy gone bonkers???

Cheers, Bobj.

That happened over a month ago and was due to border restrictions imposed by NSW.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2020-08-20/farmers-told-to-fly-livestock-to-avoid-covid-19-restrictions/12574610

The 5 km restriction is a big driver in helping stop people moving around and spreading COVID-19 while asymptomatic.  Without the restrictions, you wouldn't have "a very few cases" where you live for very long.

Are the restrictions tough? Yep.  Is it getting harder the longer it drags on? Sure.  But the alternative if we let the rate of community transmission climb is absolutely horrendous - not just deaths but the unknown long-term effects. 

He's following the science (which is changing because that's what science does) which is all we can ask for, rather than trying to win an election by trying to make decisions that he thinks will be popular with those who will vote for him/his party.  I feel like some of his critics forget that he and his family have to follow these rules too, it's not like him and Brett Sutton, etc, are all having parties and hanging out with their mates at super-secret bars and parks.

7 hours ago, Marisawright said:

 Especially Melbourne - drive an hour from the centre of Melbourne and you're still in the middle of the suburbs. 

It depends on which direction you're travelling though.  I'm in Lara on the outskirts of Geelong and outside peak hour, it takes 40 to 60 minutes to drive to Melbourne CBD depending on traffic - close enough that a lot of people commute by car or train to Melbourne for work and easy to go up for a concert/show/shopping at Costco, but also far enough away that we're not part of Melbourne itself.  I'm 5 minutes drive from Coles and Woolworths, 20 mins from large shopping centres in Geelong, Waurn Ponds or Werribee and 40 mins from beaches (bay beaches on the Bellerine Peninsula or surf beaches, eg, Torquay).

For Western Australia:  " You have to stay in school or training or approved work (or in a combination of approved options) until the end of the year in which you turn 17 and 6 months or you have reached the age of 18 years, whichever happens first. "

http://det.wa.edu.au/participation/detcms/navigation/faq.jsp

Probably not as it's not commercially made and sealed in a factory, though it may depend on if it's a whole cake or part of a cake that's been cut.  All food items need to be declared so if it's not allowed, it would just go into the bin here anyway.

The only people who can tell you for sure is ABF. 

https://www.abf.gov.au/entering-and-leaving-australia/can-you-bring-it-in

8 hours ago, Collie said:

Also Ambulance cover is included as a benefit on most hospital policies.

You can buy ambulance only cover (quite cheaply) if you don't have a hospital policy.  Has no impact on the medicare levy surcharge (neither does extra cover btw).

Be wary of relying purely on private health insurance ambulance cover.  With a small number of companies/policies, you take out your own ambulance membership and they reimburse the cost to you, which is great as you have full coverage.

Others, however, only cover "emergency" ambulance and the insurer decides if they think it was an emergency or not, eg, no cover if you're being transferred from one hospital to a specialised spinal or trauma unit.

One ambulance trip is easily in the thousands if you have to go more than a few km and for air ambulance you can be looking at the tens of thousands (20 years ago it was in the region of $5000+ just for the airwing to take off).

ALWAYS get insurance before you drive your car home.  You can shop around and take out the policy to start on the day you'll be picking it up once you know the make, model, rego number, etc.  Depending on the value of the car, you can have full comprehensive, third party property or third party, fire and theft.   

I used to work in car insurance including handling motor claims.  If you have a collision and don't have insurance, the best case scenario is that there is only minor damage to your own car that you pay for yourself.  Other possibilities are that your costs aren't recoverable (either at fault, hit and run or single vehicle) but you cause expensive damage to your new car, other vehicles and/or to other property such as a house, fence, etc.  I've also dealt with people who had an accident where the at-fault driver was also uninsured so their only recourse was to engage a solicitor and take them to court to recover repair costs (often they were insured for another vehicle and decided to take the risk while they sold their old car or forgot to swap the insurance over). 

I'm not in NSW so can't advise re: Registration and compulsory third party insurance (which is for personal injury) as it varies by state.  For test driving, if it's a dealership they normally have insurance/self-insure.  If buying privately, you would need to check with the owner to make sure they don't have a listed-drivers-only policy. 

7 hours ago, Marisawright said:

The biggest thing against it is its remoteness - if you want to visit the big city, it's a very long drive to Melbourne. 

Even though Mildura is in Victoria, Adelaide is about 150 km closer (approx 400 km vs 550 km) so unless there's a reason to go to Melbourne specifically, Adelaide is where most Mildurans will go if they needs to visit a state capital, eg, for specialist medical treatment they can't get in Mildura or another, closer regional city.

I have some friends up that way and if only one of them is coming to Melbourne, they will often fly rather than drive.

When is your daughter's birthday and when are you moving?  The official word is that to start school, they have to have turned 5 before 30 April that year so if her birthday was before then, she could go into Prep this year and grade 1 next year (depending on when you move).  HOWEVER, if she doesn't turn 6 until 2020, she will most likely be one of if not the absolute youngest in her year level and I'd probably look at her doing a full year of Prep in 2020 for a variety of reasons.  If she turned 5 after April, then her age cohort will be starting Prep in Jan 2020 and some won't start until 2021.  

My oldest's birthday is in January and he started school the year he turned 5 (so about three weeks after his birthday).  On paper, he should have about one third of his classmates with their birthday after his (before they start turning the next age) but in practice, he is always one of the youngest in his year level.  The vast majority of kids with birthdays in January to April (and even back to July/August depending on their school readiness) started school the following year.

16 hours ago, Parley said:

Some professions get more eg police and other emergency services I think.

Teachers obviously get lots of holidays.

Teachers here in Victoria get about 11 weeks where they're not required at school.  

• Many teachers spend at least half of that time catching up on admin work from last term and planning and preparing for the term/year ahead.
• It's not at all unusual for many teachers to be sick during school holidays once they stop running around like headless chooks and it catches up to them - unlike other industries you can't have those days counted as sick leave and get your annual leave days credited back to you to use another time.
• You don't get any choice about when you have time off.
• You still only get paid leave loading for 20 days and it's paid as a lump sum once a year if you're lucky enough to be ongoing.  If you're on short-term contracts, they only cover holidays that fall during the contract period, eg, if you have a contract that is for terms 3 and 4, you only get paid during the break at the end of term 3.  
• Other working parents will ask or assume that you'll provide childcare for free because you're not at work.

(yes, some of these points are relevant to other industries as well, eg, in hospitality getting time off in peak periods is nearly impossible)

OP isn't a teacher so it isn't relevant in their scenario.  I love that my husband is around to look after the kids in their school holidays while I work but being a teacher definitely doesn't mean you only work 9 am - 3 pm for 40 weeks a year.

Families are hard work!  The only thing I'd suggest that hasn't been mentioned already is to consider a few sessions with a counsellor or psychologist - sometimes having someone truly independent (but still on your side if you know what I mean) can really help you work through it and find the best way forward and also help you cope with any fallout from any actions you decide to take.

Once you've narrowed down to where you'll be living (as Coffs to GC is about four hours drive), the local council will have details of playgroups in the area, as will local FB groups. 

On 06/02/2019 at 23:45, Tulip1 said:

Of course it happens,  it’s just someone routing through a lady’s handbag just isn’t  the British way 

They don't (or at least aren't supposed to) touch anything, it's a visual check only though they can ask you to move things out of the way so they can see.

It's a condition of entry of many shops (ie, written on a sign at the entrance) so if you don't like it, don't shop in those places.  Simples.

7 hours ago, Amber Snowball said:

Depending on time of driving and where in Geelong you are and where in Melbourne you are travelling to it will be longer than an hour driving. The train is an hour. The road is a pain in the arriss. 

Geelong is a nice place for a family.

But that's only to the CBD and depending where in Geelong you're starting from, eg, northern suburbs vs further along the ring road/train line vs nowhere near the ring road/train - most tradies who live in Geelong also work here or perhaps in the western suburbs unless they specifically work in commercial construction (and even then, there's been a lot of work in that area in Geelong in recent years with Epworth, TAC, Worksafe, etc, building here).

My youngest turns 13 in August (born in 2006, so roughly two years older than your son) and is starting high school (Year 7) at the end of this month with his age cohort.   Note that I'm in Victoria and other states might be different.

Government schools must provide a place for students that live in their catchment area and can choose to accept students from outside that zone if they have space - their website will usually state if they are only accepting enrolments from within their catchment, otherwise if you contact them directly they will be able to tell you.  This of course means that it can be extremely difficult to find housing in the catchments of the schools that are seen to be the "best" - bearing in mind that a school that is a good fit for one family or one child isn't going to be a good fit for another. 

17 hours ago, unzippy said:

@bayside- It's getting very spammy.

I think we're well past the "getting" stage - no contributions to discussions other than to necro posts that are years old. 

22 hours ago, Bulya said:

Why would anybody be doing a roast in the middle of summer let alone Xmas Day

Because here in Victoria we've had Christmas Days some years with a top temp of only 15 degrees where you're digging out your winter clothes to wear! 

I'm a born and bred Aussie (married to a Pom) and my family has always done roast chook or turkey, corned silverside and ham.  Hot meat and veggies if it's cold, cold meats cooked the night before and salads if it's hot.  The thought of a beach/swimming Christmas just doesn't appeal to us, partly because as kids we had a pool but Christmas Eve through to at least Boxing Day was always spent at with my grandparents a few hours' drive away and about 60 km from a beach.