The official OZ bashing thread.

[OzSucks]

Starbucks Closes Shop in Australia!

http://www.theappointment.co.uk/news...=False&ID=3758

Starbucks to close 61 Australian outlets
Starbucks is planning to shut 61 of its 85 stores in Australia. The coffee chain opened its first store in Australia in 2000 but has faced stiffed competition. Around 700 jobs will be lost.
However, reiterating the group’s expansion plans, founder Howard Schulz said: “As I have stated in previous communications, the US store closure decision was one of the most angst-ridden choices that we have made in my more than 25 years with Starbucks. Our decision to close underperforming stores in the Australia market was just as difficult, and it in no way reflects the state of Starbucks business in countries outside of the United States, which is quite strong. Our challenges in Australia are unique, and there are no other international markets that need to be addressed in this manner. Although it is not easy, hopefully, we realise that part of transforming Starbucks is our ability to look forward, while pursuing innovation. We strongly believe that our decisions to close underperforming stores and reduce our partner workforce will help support Starbucks continued growth”.
In the first three months of the year, Starbucks’ profits plummeted by 28% and the chain has been struggling in the US as consumers were hit by the slowdown.
In other news, Michelle Gass, senior vice president, will head a new marketing business and Jim Alling, appointed head of Starbucks Coffee International only last year, is leaving the group. Martin Coles will move from his role as chief operating officer back to his prior position, filling in for Mr Alling.
Additionally, Dorothy Kim, executive vice president, global supply chain operations, is moving to a new role as executive vice president, global strategy - office of the CEO; and Peter Gibbons, senior vice president of global manufacturing operations has been promoted to executive vice president, global supply chain operations.

 

[OzSucks]

NZ Cheaper, better than Australia!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4592585a19716.html
The grass isn't greener across the Ditch
Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 22 June 2008
Email a Friend | Printable View | Have Your Say
Sunday Star-Times

OZ BOUND: Thousands of Kiwis hop across the ditch every year in search of a better life in the Lucky Country - but don't expect the grass to always be greener, says recent Melbourne migrant Elinore Wellwood (with Loti, 3)

Australia lives up to its image in many ways.

Kiwi migrants to Melbourne, for example, can read the newspaper as though it's a novel, its fanciful descriptions of gang wars and restaurant assassinations, corrupt police passing names of police informers to gangland contacts, who call in the hitmen.

Even as you shrug off the language differences as background noise thongs for jandals, doona for duvet, a child's fluffy is a babycino, you will smile at the Italian grandmothers who stop polishing their iron railings to run a wrinkled hand under a three-year-old's chin and thrust a gold coin into the mother's hand. "She is beautiful. Buy her something with this."

At the large neighbourhoods of those who still regard themselves as Italians and Greeks even though their grandparents left those cultures behind when they were barely out of their teens.

So, at Easter, the local baker sells specialties like melomakarona (walnut cookies drenched in syrup) and kourabiethes (moonshaped almond shortbreads covered in icing sugar). And all year round, locals go to the brilliant tapas bars in the alleys which produce their own top-selling cookbooks, and the farmers' markets sell beef you can trust the rural folk have known it since it was a calf.

These are reasons to move to Melbourne, to Australia. The food, the warmer weather, the broader multiculturalism.

Just don't expect it to be cheap.

Despite salaries reported to be 25 per cent higher on average, middle-income professionals won't earn that much more than in New Zealand in the same job, says Kiwi lawyer Jo Davidson. She's been Tasman-hopping moving to Melbourne, then back to Wellington, before returning last year to Australia to a dream job.

She loves the gourmet food in and around the city. And for her, the weather is a relief. The summer in Melbourne is warm, the seasons actually change, it's always dawning fine and even when it rains, it's gentle.

She didn't return for the money, though. "I felt significantly better off when I moved back from Melbourne to New Zealand. As a single woman [in Australia] I would never have contemplated buying a house. I went back to New Zealand and within six months bought my own home."

Food, she says, is also much more expensive in Australia. Everyday items such as milk and bread will cost you more. Woolworths' chief executive even admitted to a national inquiry that the company charges shoppers more in Australia than in New Zealand.

"And the quality at supermarkets is appalling. I used to be able to go to New World in Wellington and buy every single thing I wanted, and it was delicatessen standard."

Even if your pay packet is larger, the money quickly disappears. Teacher Mike Arthur, who recently moved from Wellington, says he earns about $4000 more than in New Zealand. "But the higher cost of living here eats that up."

Houses and cars are the big unaffordables. Advertised prices do not include tens of thousands of dollars in stamp duty when buying a house or vehicle. "Our car was far more expensive here, and then we had to pay stamp duty on it, plus about $700 to register it," says Arthur.

Some things cost less. Furniture because of superstores like Ikea and electricity (80 per cent generated from coal, the green-minded should note) are far cheaper, he says.

Presuming you don't earn less than $A25,000 ($31,100) taxes are not too different from New Zealand - about $2500 less in Australia on average but 9 per cent of wages is taken for compulsory superannuation, a figure hidden in the salary packages that lure unsuspecting Kiwis across the Tasman (salary "packaging" to cut your tax burden is big business). Tough if you wanted to pay off the mortgage first.

That's if you can afford to buy. To live within 4km of Melbourne's centre, expect to pay well over $600,000 for a house. The house will be semi-detached, unrenovated, have a tiny courtyard and probably be next to a big highway.

If you can't afford to buy, finding lower-end rental accommodation may be difficult, with an inner-city rental crisis in Melbourne. Chris and Carly, who just moved over from New Zealand, told the Age newspaper they had "been to four inspections in four days. The perception from home is that there are plenty of places to rent, but when you get to a place, 30 people turn up".

Renters are being forced to offer more rent to beat the competition, or pay eight weeks in advance instead of four.

If you are going to go, do it when you don't have kids. Mother-of-one Jocelyn Prasad, who moved to Sydney last year from Auckland, says life in Australia seems harder for families. "If you're single, there's a lot more opportunity. I think the higher cost of living really kicks in when you bring a family here."

She's also found that private schools are not just a luxury for the privileged. Kiwis who would never dream of using anything but the local high school at home, scrimp and save to avoid the Australian government school system and put their child through private education.

Education experts such as Richard James, director of Melbourne University's Centre for the Study of Higher Education, says the middle class here has lost confidence in government schools and moved its children to private schools, blaming funding cuts and closures under the previous state government.

In Victoria, last year, only 58 per cent of Year 12 students went to state government schools (which often lack sports fields and language options). Private school fees are often higher than in New Zealand.

It pays to go private. Seven out of 10 Melbourne University students were recruited from private or academically selective government schools, according to an Age survey of 2006 Year 12 students.

And the quality education quest starts early. In parts of Melbourne, even to get on a kindergarten waiting list you have to pay $A100 ($125). School waiting list fees can top $800. And forget picturing your kids growing up running under the sprinkler. Thanks to water restrictions, the grass definitely won't be greener for them.

New Zealanders moving to Australia s

 

[IWC2006]

Re: Starbucks Closes Shop in Australia!

Shockshit - Be a man and use your nickname instead of wasting another storage space in the forum pose as another nick.

Hehe...such a coward & loser, no life.

 

[shockshiok]

Re: Starbucks Closes Shop in Australia!

Shockshit - Be a man and use your nickname instead of wasting another storage space in the forum pose as another nick.

Hehe...such a coward & loser, no life.

oh yes, the multiple nick defense. very original. its not my fault i instigate others, you know. but upsetting a subprime ex-singaporean makes my day brighter nontheless

hee hee

 

[shockshiok]

Re: Its Official:Australia is only for losers

You heard it here. You read it here. Let there be no doubt. This is fact, people.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=10545562

4:00AM Saturday Nov 29, 2008
By Jarrod Booker

Kelvin Lawson left Auckland for Sydney about 10 years ago expecting to encounter the "land of milk and honey".

What he found was the opposite - long working hours, higher taxes, higher cost of living and intolerance and poor attitudes among the people.

He and fiancee Denise Laing moved back to Auckland a couple of months ago to be closer to their ageing parents and friends, and are relieved to be back home.

"I believe a lot of New Zealanders are going to get there and they are in for a shock," Mr Lawson said.

"Australia has been painted out to be the 'grass is greener'. It's not. Unless you are making a simple lifestyle choice as in, say, weather... then there's no other reason to go."

Although Mr Lawson, 48, might have earned more in Sydney "it's not a lot more". And he was hit with a 48 per cent tax rate on overtime he was expected to do working in installing and monitoring communications.

Then there was stamp duty for home ownership and higher costs of car ownership.

Back home, Mr Lawson and Ms Laing were amazed at how much cheaper they found basic food items.

Mr Lawson was also left with an impression of many Australians he encountered not being accepting of other cultures. Being from NZ was not so bad, but "if you're from other any part of the world, mate, they can make it really hard for them".

He was also unimpressed at the lack of sportsmanship shown by Australians, illustrated most recently by their reaction to the Rugby League World Cup loss. "If they win at ping pong, you are going to hear about it. If they lose, it's like it never happened. It's unbelievable."
Reply With Quote

i dont know whats going on here - but i love how often i see this thread

hee hee

 

[shockshiok]

Axe168,QXD,IWC2006 Bad Behavior Make life in Melborune Hell

dont say i didnt tell you people. you heard it here, saw it here. just see the very bad behavior of subprime ex-singaporeans on this forum and see exactly why you should avoid melbourne, one of the most expensive cities in the world, and australia in general.

Axe168, QXD, and IWC2006, not only are you stupid - you have no class!

i love being right. imagine living anywhere near you morons.

hee hee

http://travel.asiaone.com/Travel/Globe+Trekkers/Wanderlust/Story/A1Story20081213-107585.html

S'poreans' habits abroad make me grind my teeth


By Belle Charlene Kwan

HERE'S a riddle: How do you spot a Singaporean overseas?

Never mind the accent or our obsession with wearing slippers to just about anywhere.

The biggest tell-tale sign is our eyebrow-raising habits.

I spent the last year studying in Melbourne and this once-proud Singaporean now cringes at the sight of her fellow countrymen going about their highly embarrassing ways.

Here'a an example: After a delightful evening at Wicked The Musical watching the story behind the Wizard of Oz unfold at the Regent Theatre in July, audience members file into the washroom to freshen up.

An Asian woman walks towards the paper-napkin dispenser after washing her hands. She's on her handphone, and her accent is distinctively Singaporean (come on, who else says 'Neh-mind' but us?).

She proceeds to pull a napkin out. She goes for another, and another, and yet a few pieces more.

A quick dab of her hands and she tosses the thick wad of napkins into the bin.

A Caucasian lady standing in line behind me asked her friend: 'Why did she just empty half the napkin dispenser?'

Another example: When Singapore Day came to Melbourne in October, Singaporeans thronged the festival grounds looking for a taste of home away from home.

And food, it seemed, was the top priority.

While standing in line for hours for a free plate of chicken rice, Gurmit Singh and gang entertained the crowd with Phua Chu Kang humour.

The Caucasians laughed and cheered, but the Singaporeans rolled their eyes.

'So lame. Not even funny, lor!'

'Wah lau. Go home, lah!'

Overhearing these comments coming from Singaporeans left me flabbergasted. So much for showing Australians our pride in homegrown culture.

And of course, our kiasu-ism follows us across land and sea.

Free giveaways on university campus will see Singaporeans flock like sea gulls to a basket of fish and chips.

Whether it is fruit juice samples, notebooks, or even fashion hair bands, a stream of Singaporeans is inevitable.

'Wah! Free ah? Take some more.'

'Wait, call friends. Sure also want.'

Now, why four guys would need 12fuschia pink non-slip hair bands is beyond me.

And there's more...

Then there are the public transport incidents.

Mothers putting their bags on the seats beside them just so their children can sit when they're tired of playing 'catching' on the tram and causing a racket.

These are also the same mothers who scream at the said children at the top of their lungs in full view of 60 other shocked commuters.

'Oi! Sit down before I slap you!'

I shake my head, and wish they did not sound so obviously Singaporean.

Perhaps a more neutral accent might help lessen my embarrassment.

Singaporeans seldom hesitate to point fingers and bad mouth foreigners for their eccentric ways.

Perhaps it is time for us to hold our tongues, and first examine the image we display when overseas.

Let's show some class, people.

Oi! You listening or what?

 

[chupacabra]

Re: Starbucks Closes Shop in Australia!

Thats great news! Starbucks sucks man.

 

[OzSucks]

NZ Cheaper, better than Australia!

ttp://www.stuff.co.nz/4592585a19716.html
The grass isn't greener across the Ditch
Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 22 June 2008
Email a Friend | Printable View | Have Your Say
Sunday Star-Times

OZ BOUND: Thousands of Kiwis hop across the ditch every year in search of a better life in the Lucky Country - but don't expect the grass to always be greener, says recent Melbourne migrant Elinore Wellwood (with Loti, 3)

Australia lives up to its image in many ways.

Kiwi migrants to Melbourne, for example, can read the newspaper as though it's a novel, its fanciful descriptions of gang wars and restaurant assassinations, corrupt police passing names of police informers to gangland contacts, who call in the hitmen.

Even as you shrug off the language differences as background noise thongs for jandals, doona for duvet, a child's fluffy is a babycino, you will smile at the Italian grandmothers who stop polishing their iron railings to run a wrinkled hand under a three-year-old's chin and thrust a gold coin into the mother's hand. "She is beautiful. Buy her something with this."

At the large neighbourhoods of those who still regard themselves as Italians and Greeks even though their grandparents left those cultures behind when they were barely out of their teens.

So, at Easter, the local baker sells specialties like melomakarona (walnut cookies drenched in syrup) and kourabiethes (moonshaped almond shortbreads covered in icing sugar). And all year round, locals go to the brilliant tapas bars in the alleys which produce their own top-selling cookbooks, and the farmers' markets sell beef you can trust the rural folk have known it since it was a calf.

These are reasons to move to Melbourne, to Australia. The food, the warmer weather, the broader multiculturalism.

Just don't expect it to be cheap.

Despite salaries reported to be 25 per cent higher on average, middle-income professionals won't earn that much more than in New Zealand in the same job, says Kiwi lawyer Jo Davidson. She's been Tasman-hopping moving to Melbourne, then back to Wellington, before returning last year to Australia to a dream job.

She loves the gourmet food in and around the city. And for her, the weather is a relief. The summer in Melbourne is warm, the seasons actually change, it's always dawning fine and even when it rains, it's gentle.

She didn't return for the money, though. "I felt significantly better off when I moved back from Melbourne to New Zealand. As a single woman [in Australia] I would never have contemplated buying a house. I went back to New Zealand and within six months bought my own home."

Food, she says, is also much more expensive in Australia. Everyday items such as milk and bread will cost you more. Woolworths' chief executive even admitted to a national inquiry that the company charges shoppers more in Australia than in New Zealand.

"And the quality at supermarkets is appalling. I used to be able to go to New World in Wellington and buy every single thing I wanted, and it was delicatessen standard."

Even if your pay packet is larger, the money quickly disappears. Teacher Mike Arthur, who recently moved from Wellington, says he earns about $4000 more than in New Zealand. "But the higher cost of living here eats that up."

Houses and cars are the big unaffordables. Advertised prices do not include tens of thousands of dollars in stamp duty when buying a house or vehicle. "Our car was far more expensive here, and then we had to pay stamp duty on it, plus about $700 to register it," says Arthur.

Some things cost less. Furniture because of superstores like Ikea and electricity (80 per cent generated from coal, the green-minded should note) are far cheaper, he says.

Presuming you don't earn less than $A25,000 ($31,100) taxes are not too different from New Zealand - about $2500 less in Australia on average but 9 per cent of wages is taken for compulsory superannuation, a figure hidden in the salary packages that lure unsuspecting Kiwis across the Tasman (salary "packaging" to cut your tax burden is big business). Tough if you wanted to pay off the mortgage first.

That's if you can afford to buy. To live within 4km of Melbourne's centre, expect to pay well over $600,000 for a house. The house will be semi-detached, unrenovated, have a tiny courtyard and probably be next to a big highway.

If you can't afford to buy, finding lower-end rental accommodation may be difficult, with an inner-city rental crisis in Melbourne. Chris and Carly, who just moved over from New Zealand, told the Age newspaper they had "been to four inspections in four days. The perception from home is that there are plenty of places to rent, but when you get to a place, 30 people turn up".

Renters are being forced to offer more rent to beat the competition, or pay eight weeks in advance instead of four.

If you are going to go, do it when you don't have kids. Mother-of-one Jocelyn Prasad, who moved to Sydney last year from Auckland, says life in Australia seems harder for families. "If you're single, there's a lot more opportunity. I think the higher cost of living really kicks in when you bring a family here."

She's also found that private schools are not just a luxury for the privileged. Kiwis who would never dream of using anything but the local high school at home, scrimp and save to avoid the Australian government school system and put their child through private education.

Education experts such as Richard James, director of Melbourne University's Centre for the Study of Higher Education, says the middle class here has lost confidence in government schools and moved its children to private schools, blaming funding cuts and closures under the previous state government.

In Victoria, last year, only 58 per cent of Year 12 students went to state government schools (which often lack sports fields and language options). Private school fees are often higher than in New Zealand.

It pays to go private. Seven out of 10 Melbourne University students were recruited from private or academically selective government schools, according to an Age survey of 2006 Year 12 students.

And the quality education quest starts early. In parts of Melbourne, even to get on a kindergarten waiting list you have to pay $A100 ($125). School waiting list fees can top $800. And forget picturing your kids growing up running under the sprinkler. Thanks to water restrictions, the grass definitely won't be greener for them.

New Zealanders moving to Australia s

 

[OzSucks]

Drunk Australians Beat up Asians!

July 29, 2008
Four men beat up M'sian student in Melbourne

MELBOURNE - A MALAYSIAN student who was walking to his cousin's house was badly beaten up by four men here last Friday.

Mr Kevinra Joseph, 19, son of Binary University College vice-chancellor Prof Joseph Adaikalam has emerged from a coma and is recovering from severe head injuries at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Police said that Kevinra, who arrived here just a month ago for his studies, was walking alone in Little Lonsdale Street at 2.50am on Friday when four men assaulted him.

Kevinra suffered head injuries and was found by passers-by lying unconscious on the footpath in nearby Russell Street.

The RMIT engineering student was walking to his cousin's house when he was attacked.

'Surgeons have found bleeding in Kevinra's brain. He has memory loss and is confused and traumatised,' said Prof Adaikalam, who arrived here on Sunday with his wife and daughter.

He said that his son, who was new to this city, had lost his way.

'He was talking to his cousin on the handphone when the attack took place. His cousin was still on the phone and could hear the screams and the whole attack,' added the father.

Police have CCTV footage of the assault and hope to catch the attackers soon.

Vicious attacks are becoming common after dark in the central business district here, and local police have repeatedly reminded the public to move in groups at night.

Most of the attacks are drug or alcohol-induced.

 

[OzSucks]

Australians abandon Australia!

More leaving Australia than ever before

9:59AM Tuesday Oct 07, 2008



Not such a paradise after all?

Related NZHerald links:

* Migration loss to Aussie highest in nearly 20 years

CANBERRA - New Zealand is the biggest beneficiary after Australia experienced its biggest annual exodus on record.

Almost 77,000 people left the Australia permanently in 2007-08, a new report shows.

The main countries of intended residence for all permanent departures were New Zealand (18.4 per cent), the United Kingdom (17.8 per cent), the United States (9.3 per cent), Hong Kong (7.2 per cent) and Singapore (6.4 per cent).

The migration from Australia will go only some way to redressing the balance on this side of the Tasman as official figures showed the annual loss of people from New Zealand to Australia hit a 19-1/2-year high in August.

Almost two thirds of those who left the country permanently were aged between 25 and 54.

A further 102,066 Australian residents left the country for a year or more with more than 55 per cent in professional occupations or trades, the Emigration 2007-2008 report shows.

The report showed almost half of those who left Australia permanently were in skilled jobs.

Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the figures showed that emigration played a significant role in Australia's current skills shortage.
"Historically high numbers of our young, highly skilled people are moving overseas to live and work," Senator Evans said.

The exodus in 2007-08 represents a 6.7 per cent increase on the previous year and a 325 per cent increase on the low of 18,100 people who left permanently in 1985-86.

"These latest figures also reflect the current global demand for skills and the internationalisation of the labour market as part of the broader process of globalisation," Senator Evans said.

Those leaving are almost equally divided between Australian born and overseas born.

Residents of NSW led the exodus with 31,390 people, followed by Victoria (16,408), Queensland (15,289), Western Australia (8,388) and South Australia (3,140).

Of the permanent departures, 39,467 or 51 per cent were men compared to 37,456 women (49 per cent).

Although there were 149,635 permanent arrivals in 2007-08, the net gain - arrivals minus permanent departures - was the 10th highest recorded.

 

[OzSucks]

Australia's Persisten Racism

The truth for all to see:

http://norighturn.blogspot.com/2008/...australia.html

Appalling racism in Australia

A group of women and children were kicked out of a hotel in Alice Springs because of their race:

"When we booked in, the manager, she gave us the keys to the rooms and we went and put our stuff in the rooms.

"We all went outside and the manager came out and told me that we weren't suitable to stay there," Ms Langod told ABC Radio today.

"They said (it was) because of our race. Other customers were making complaints that they were scared of us.

"I felt like I wanted to cry because it made me feel like I wasn't an Australian, like I wasn't wanted there."

It's appalling to see that this sort of thing is still going on in a supposedly civilised democratic country like Australia. And it shows that despite having made a historic apology, they have a long, long way to go.

In case you want to avoid it, the hotel in question is the Alice Haven Backpackers Resort. And if you'd like to let them know what you think of racists, you can email them at [email protected].

 

[OzSucks]

Australia begging Tourists to Visit!

n 2006, due to the massive drop in foreigners visiting Australia, the following ad campaign was launched:

"Where the Bloody Hell are You"

Self Explanatory.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tra...icle734231.ece

Australia's bonzer. So why the bloody hell aren't you guys here?


TOURISM chiefs in Australia have ditched the country’s highbrow sales pitch to attract foreign visitors in exchange for a more rustic approach: swearing. “So where the bloody hell are you?” is the new slogan, which was announced yesterday as part of a £76 million campaign that will appeal to people in Britain, Europe, the United States and Asia.

The “bloody hell” advertisement replaces the “Australia — a different light” campaign of 2004, which featured Australian artists and British celebrities such as Michael Parkinson. It was artistically acclaimed but was a marketing flop.

The latest advertisement marks a return to the use of rustic Australian idioms made famous by the actor Paul Hogan’s “Throw another shrimp on the barbie” campaign of the 1980s. It begins in an Outback pub with a man saying, “We’ve poured you a beer”. Then follows a sequence of idyllic images including a boy at the seaside saying, “We’ve got the sharks out of the pool”, and partygoers watching Sydney harbour fireworks saying, “We turned on the lights”. A traditional Aboriginal dancer says, “And we’ve been rehearsing for more than 40,000 years”. The advert ends with a bikini-clad young woman stepping out of the sea asking: “So where the bloody hell are you?”

But, if the initial reaction in Australia is any guide, the adverts could prompt a spell of national navel-gazing akin to that which followed the Paul Hogan campaign. That campaign provoked criticism for portraying Australia as a nation of happy simpletons.

The new advertisement has already provoked controversy, drawing in John Howard, the Prime Minister, who said that the word “bloody” should not be considered offensive. Fran Bailey, the Tourism Minister, welcomed the emphasis on the word bloody. “It’s the great Australian adjective. We all say it — it’s part of our language.

We’re presenting ourselves to the world in a very friendly ‘as we are’ people,” she said

 

[OzSucks]

Australia Property Prices to Crash 40%, Axe168 Run Road

Hee Hee.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/markets/ne...ectid=10545839

Gloomy forecast could end in long hike
4:00AM Monday Dec 01, 2008
Wall St meltdown

* Govt takes over RBS
* Falling kiwi means more action for film

An Australian academic who expects the country's interest rates to hit zero within two years and a 40 per cent drop in house prices has promised to walk from Canberra to the top of Australia's highest mountain if he's wrong.

And he'll wear a T-shirt saying: "I was hopelessly wrong on home prices! Ask me how."

University of Western Sydney associate professor of economics and finance Steve Keen made the bet with Macquarie Group interest rate strategist Rory Robertson.

Keen expects Australian house prices to plunge by 40 per cent within five years, double the drop in the troubled US market.

The academic who sold his inner-city house earlier this year also says the Reserve Bank of Australia will cut official interest rates to zero per cent by 2010 as spiralling debt levels push the economy into a depression.

His challenger, Robertson, said Keen's gloomy predictions of an Australian housing market plunge had a 1 per cent chance of being right.

"Never say never, but a 40 per cent drop in Australian home prices is a highly unlikely event, effectively requiring a meltdown of our financial system despite the combined efforts of the RBA and Canberra," Robertson said.

Advertisement
Advertisement

On the chance Keen is right, Robertson said he would make the 200km trek from Canberra to Mt Kosciuszko, in the Snowy Mountains of NSW.

A confident Robertson says a shortage of housing in Australia, unlike in the US, and the prospect of lower interest rates would ensure Keen became a mountain walker.

"We now have a bet, and I expect eventually to win," he said.

"That's because falls in Australia-wide home prices will be limited by our lack of overbuilding, our much more disciplined mortgage market and, especially, by the RBA's ability to drive mortgage rates lower."

Australian house prices fell by 1.8 per cent in the September quarter, the sharpest quarterly fall since 1978.

For the record, Robertson expects a 100 basis point interest rate cut from the RBA tomorrow, which would take the cash rate to 4.25 per cent for the first time since May 2002.

On this bet, financial markets agree with him.

 

[OzSucks]

Its Official:Australia is only for losers

You heard it here. You read it here. Let there be no doubt. This is fact, people.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=10545562

4:00AM Saturday Nov 29, 2008
By Jarrod Booker

Kelvin Lawson left Auckland for Sydney about 10 years ago expecting to encounter the "land of milk and honey".

What he found was the opposite - long working hours, higher taxes, higher cost of living and intolerance and poor attitudes among the people.

He and fiancee Denise Laing moved back to Auckland a couple of months ago to be closer to their ageing parents and friends, and are relieved to be back home.

"I believe a lot of New Zealanders are going to get there and they are in for a shock," Mr Lawson said.

"Australia has been painted out to be the 'grass is greener'. It's not. Unless you are making a simple lifestyle choice as in, say, weather... then there's no other reason to go."

Although Mr Lawson, 48, might have earned more in Sydney "it's not a lot more". And he was hit with a 48 per cent tax rate on overtime he was expected to do working in installing and monitoring communications.

Then there was stamp duty for home ownership and higher costs of car ownership.

Back home, Mr Lawson and Ms Laing were amazed at how much cheaper they found basic food items.

Mr Lawson was also left with an impression of many Australians he encountered not being accepting of other cultures. Being from NZ was not so bad, but "if you're from other any part of the world, mate, they can make it really hard for them".

He was also unimpressed at the lack of sportsmanship shown by Australians, illustrated most recently by their reaction to the Rugby League World Cup loss. "If they win at ping pong, you are going to hear about it. If they lose, it's like it never happened. It's unbelievable."
Reply With Quote

 

[OzSucks]

Australia's expensive Cars and Petrol

Dear all,

As you are no doubt aware, the cost of petrol and cars in australia is extremely high.

the subprime losers here (axe168, iwc2006 QXD) are still at a loss to explain why australia deems to cheat its customers when the US has prices that are 40-130% cheaper for cars.

for example: one liter in the US is approx US$.35 per liter (A$/S$.52 per liter)

http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx

why petrol is almost 100% per cent more expensive in australia seems to draw silence from sub-prime singaporeans who are suffering the extremely terrible situation in australia.

and we return to our time tested car example for australia: the mercedes benz, offical ah beng car of singapore.

one mercedes benz C class 300 auto with full options in the US: US$ 32,000 (A$48,000)

http://autos.yahoo.com/mercedes_benz..._luxury_sedan/

in australia: A$ 87,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://carshowroom.autotrader.com.au...52262420080701

tsk tsk tsk. can buy almost two cars for one. even with the weak toilet paper A$. so sad.

what else can you expect from subprime singaporeans?

hee hee

 

[OzSucks]

New Racist Party Formed in Australia-Asians Banned

once again you read it here, you saw it here, people.

so australian whites are not contented with beating and killing asians, now this Neil Smith wants to ban all non-white colored people for 100 years.

and dont forget pauline hanson ran in 2007 trying to ban muslims from australia because she gets letters from whites saying they are afraid of foreigners.

yet another reason why australia is the worst country in the world.

http://monash.yourguide.com.au/news/...n/1368090.aspx

Ousted candidate eyes 'next election'
24/11/2008 4:09:00 PM
A MULGRAVE Ward council election candidate, who was expelled by One Nation, has vowed to form his own political party with a platform slammed as "immoral and impossible".

Last month, Neil Henry Smith, who ran as a self-proclaimed "racist" in recent state and federal elections,

said he would form his own political party Pauline's One Nation White Australia Party.

His party's main platform is a "100 years moratorium on coloured immigration" to ease problems caused by

overpopulation. Monash University's Centre for Population and Urban Research director, Bob Birrell, said a slowdown in migration movement would help ease demand for water and other resources, but to link it to a 'white Australia' policy was "immoral and impossible". "The point about migration is legitimate but not based on colour. It's a real pity that this kind of advocacy gets wrapped up in an extraneous issue."

Mr Smith said he formed the party to get him "some billing in the next election".

One Nation state secretary Pat Loy said the party would fight against Mr Smith registering the proposed party name. "He is still bringing us into disrepute. We will have to take legal action if he doesn't stop. It's harmful to us and it's harmful to Pauline [Hanson]."

A spokesman for the Australian Electoral Commission said its jurisdiction came into play once a party attempted to register.

One Nation founder Pauline Hanson did not respond to the Journal before publication.

Kirsten Leiminger

 

[OzSucks]

Subprime Singaporeans in Oz Thirsty, no water to drink!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...biC7AD94SMLTO1

Drought forces Australian state to purchase water

By TANALEE SMITH – 2 days ago

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Australia's driest state has been forced to purchase water for the first time to ensure adequate supplies in the midst of a drought, a government official said Friday.

Karlene Maywald, state water security minister, said South Australia has purchased 61 billion gallons (231 gigaliters) of water so that Adelaide, the state capital, will have enough water for 2009 even if the drought continues.

"We're just being prudent, getting into the market and buying it (water) to make sure we've got it," Maywald told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

The purchase highlights the dire situation in South Australia, which some experts had predicted would run out of water by the end of the year. The state has suffered through drought for the past five years, and water in Adelaide's storage containers and reservoirs dropped 8 percent in the last year.

South Australia receives the least rainfall of any Australian state. Adelaide, on the coast, averages 20.8 inches (528 millimeters) a year but much of the state gets less than 9.8 inches (250 millimeters).

In addition to years of record low rainfall, the arid region also lies at the end of a river system that has seen falling water levels.

Residents are routinely under restrictions that limit outdoor use of water for watering lawns, washing cars or cleaning gutters.

Maywald said the state bought 8 billion gallons (30 gigaliters) of water from shared resources with other states, while 53 billion gallons (201 gigaliters) was purchased on the water trading market for between 350 to 450 Australian dollars per gigaliter ($225 to $290).

The federal government this week passed legislation allowing it to take charge of Australia's largest river system — the Murray-Darling Basin, which flows through four states. The system had been state-managed since 1901, but the protracted drought and overallocation of water rights in some regions prompted the takeover to preserve the basin's dwindling resources and ensure states like South Australia will not run dry.

 

[OzSucks]

Only in OZ! Mortgage Rates Down-but Bank Impose Penalty for 43K Losers!

http://www.news.com.au/business/mone...016199,00.html

Interest rate cut creates 43,000 losers

By Stephen Johnson

AAP

December 05, 2008 04:02pm

A MASSIVE interest rate cut this week has made more than 43,000 home borrowers Australia's biggest losers.

The costs of exiting an average fixed rate mortgage jumped to $18,000 because break fees for the loan rise as interest rates fall.

Banks charge break fees to exit fixed-rate home loans so they can meet interest payment obligations to term deposit customers.

The Reserve Bank on Tuesday announced it would slash official interest rates by a full percentage point to a six and a half year low.

The 43,632 borrowers who opted for fixed-rate mortgages between March and August this year, when interest rates were at a decade-high peak, face hefty fees if they want to switch to a standard variable loan.

Official interest rates would have to fall to the lowest levels since February 1965 for these borrowers to recoup the cost of switching out of a fixed loan through cheaper mortgage repayments.

A borrower who took out an average $250,000 loan, fixed at 9 per cent for three years back in June, faces an $18,000 exit fee if they want to move into a standard variable loan.

Leaving an equivalent $400,000 loan would incur a $29,000 charge, according to Canstar Cannex data of exit fees charged by the major banks.

Canstar Cannex senior financial analyst Harry Senlitonga said lenders typically charged higher "break fees" to exit fixed-rate loans when official interest rates were falling.

"The more the interest rate cut, the more the break cost," he said.

"For a borrower, the question they need to ask themself is how long you have left on a fixed rate and whether it's worth paying the fee or not."

Borrowers who took out a fixed rate loan in August would face higher exit fees than those who took out a mortgage in March, when the RBA was still talking up inflation as its biggest worrry.

Two of Australia's big four banks matched the RBA's one percentage point rate cut, which took the overnight cash rate to 4.25 per cent.

Monthly repayments on a $250,000 standard variable home loan with the Commonwealth Bank and NAB fell to $1,678 as mortgage rates dropped to 6.74 per cent.

By comparison, borrowers on an equivalent 9 per cent fixed rate loan are still paying $2058 a month.

Switching from a $250,000 fixed rate to a lower standard variable loan would reduce mortgage repayments by $13,680 over three years at current interest rates.

Borrowers would only recoup the $18,000 cost of exiting an average, three-year fixed-rate loan if official interest rates fell by another 75 basis points - to a 44-year low of 3.5 per cent - and took standard variable mortgage rates to under 6 per cent.

After this week's rate cut, a one-year term deposit account with a rural bank was offering 6 per cent interest on $1,000, updated figures from termdeposit.com.au say.

That would be good news for pensioners, who will get a $1400 cheque on Tuesday if they're single or $2100 if they're attached as part of the Federal Government's $10.4 billion economic stimulus package.

FIIG Securities head of research Justin McCarthy said the prospect of more rate cuts from the RBA in early 2009 would make a term deposit account a good investment.

"The RBA will cut rates further in the new year so it makes sense to lock in deposit rates before that occurs," he said.

Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association policy co-ordinator Charmaine Crowe said only about 10 per cent of pensioners would be in a position to invest rather than spend their lump sum.

 

[OzSucks]

Australian Job Market "Falls off a Cliff!"

http://www.theage.com.au/national/dr...1208-6u47.html

Dramatic drop in job prospects

* Peter Martin
* December 9, 2008

ALARMING figures show the jobs market "falling off a cliff" as the Government implores Australians to spend their $8.7 billion in stimulus payments due over the next two weeks.

The ANZ's count of newspaper job advertisements collapsed 12 per cent in November on top of a 12 per cent slide in October — the steepest fall in its 30-year history.

"Job ads are now in the zone last seen during the recessions of the early 1970s and early 1980s," said UBS Australia economist Scott Haslem.

"They have fallen off a cliff. For every 10 jobs advertised a year ago, there now are only six," said Macquarie Bank strategist Rory Robertson.

"Full-time jobs growth has slowed to a crawl. Should it slow further in the figures to be released on Thursday it will be an ominous sign of darker times ahead," he said.

Treasurer Wayne Swan urged the millions of Australians due to get the $8.7 billion in bonus payments to spend the money "knowing they are supporting Australian industry and supporting Australian jobs".

"These payments are directly related to the urgent task of supporting employment in our economy because of events which have occurred internationally," he said.

Treasury estimates suggest that between 50 per cent and 100 per cent of the payments will be spent.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull dismissed the payments as a "sugar hit", saying the money would be better delivered as tax cuts.

"In a climate like this people are very much inclined to save one-off payments like this," he said. "This is an economic equivalent of a one-off sugar hit."

"Across-the-board tax cuts, particularly targeted at lower and middle-income earners, are going to have a greater impact. People would see them as being permanent. They will see them as encouraging people to work, to invest, to hire people and so forth," he said.

Kevin Rudd expected the criticism. "The Government understands that we'll be criticised for how some of this money is spent, but the alternative is for government to do nothing to stimulate the economy, for government not to invest in jobs, in growth, in families, and this government, by contrast, has resolved to act," he said.

Payments will begin to enter bank accounts tomorrow. Families Minister Jenny Macklin appealed to eligible Australians to wait until after December 19 before phoning Centrelink to inquire about missing payments.

 

[OzSucks]

Forbes Magazine:Melbourne/Perth 8th/10th Most Expensive City

tsk tsk tsk. all the morons in perth/melbourne must be crying.

hee hee


http://www.forbes.com/realestate/200...ffordable.html

World's Increasingly Unaffordable Cities
Matt Woolsey, 07.24.08, 12:01 AM ET

The Australian government, for example, has increased interest rates 12 times consecutively since 2002 to stave off inflation and is cutting personal taxes so consumers have money to spend. This affects those in Melbourne and Perth, which rank No. 8 and No.10, respectively, for their accelerating costs of living. It's a precarious situation. Increase interest rates too quickly and you'll slow growth, but keep interest rates too low and you'll mute the spending power of the economy's growth by making money more expensive.

"The tax cuts over the past couple of years have been somewhat offset by the double whammy of sustained higher petrol prices and the marked increase in the cost of debt," says Matt Whitby, national director of Knight Frank Australia, an arm of the London-based financial research firm.

One major problem has been in the availability of housing. "Both state and federal governments need to seriously address the supply shortage in this country, not only as a necessity due to the growing population, but to put downward pressure on prices and rents and hence inflation," Whitby says.