Living in Australia

Living and buying property in Japan - never easier

2012-02-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

Australians have barely felt this recession because of the backlog of investment in the booming mining industry. BHP, Rio Tinto and others are leading a huge growth in productive capacity; their aim is to supply minerals to China before they are beaten by Mongolia; which neighbours China. The goods news is that Australia can service the coastal provinces whilst Mongolia can service the inland

The performance of the Australian Labor Party in government

2012-01-18T01:59:00.001-08:00

Achievements of the Australian Labor Party in government....read on.1.. Carbon Tax – “There will be no carbon tax under the Government I lead.”2.. Nation Broadband Network – $50 billion but no cost-benefit analysis3.. Building the Education Revolution – The school halls fiasco4.. Home Insulation Plan (Pink Batts) – Dumped after deaths and injuries5. Citizens Assembly – Dumped6.. Cash for Clunkers

Australian travel preferences and habits

2011-10-02T16:05:00.001-07:00

There is an interesting story about Australian travel spending and international travel habits or preferences. It provides some insight into where people are spending their holidays. It appears Australia is out of favour; no doubt this is because of the greater budgetary pressures of the recession as well as the relatively high AUD. Mind you, the AUD is off 10% - down from 1.07 t0 97c to the USD.

Australian property market - scary??

2011-10-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

According to Harry Dent, the Australian property market 'could' halve in value - at least in overpriced areas like Sydney just like California because of the European debt crisis."In Sydney, the average house price is over nine times the average income, which is clearly unsustainable, Dent argues".There are several problems with this story:1. The probable correlation between a book sale and '

In Australia - size matters!

2011-08-21T19:35:00.000-07:00

Never mind the housing boom in Australia; here is another angle. Australia is on average building the biggest homes in the world. According to CommSec chief economist Craig James, the reason is:"Certainly it makes sense that Australia builds bigger homes than in other countries, given that population density is far smaller than in other parts of the world".Actually that is too much of a

Extortion in Australia - applied pragmatism

2011-08-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

The Australian economy is of course faring well; but that is not to say a moral crisis is not impacting on Australia, as in other democracies. The popular resentment in of course against the major parties. There is of course a lot of angst with business. And to be fair, a great deal of 'big business' does involve some form of extortion. I cannot however bring myself to blame them for their

Wake up Australia! Gillard must go.

2011-06-09T17:05:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed how quickly government goes off track when you have a collectivist running government. Picture this story:1. Climate change is bad - so need to invest in solar. Huge sums given to fund programs, a great deal of misdirect of money, overpriced panels and installation, and unsustainable subsidies driving taxpayers into the ditch2. Humanity intrinsic - Need to treat all people with

Australian housing ok guys

2011-06-09T06:23:00.001-07:00

Australian home owners are the most indebted in the world, but you need not worry. There is no evidence to suggest a collapse in prices any time soon. A survey suggests they are comfortably paying off more than they need to, and there is no reason to expect any interest rate advance with such a strong currency. This is of course in accordance with our view that the economy is doing well, and

Tiger Airlines on the back foot in Australia

2011-05-30T00:04:00.000-07:00

It comes as no surprise to me that Tiger Airlines is on the back foot with respect to its ambitious expansion plans. The marketing side of the airline is bad enough without even looking at other issues. The airline has a number of issues:1. Poor capacity to allow seamless travel through Singapore with a hopeless booking system2. Misleading promotional campaigns which leave prospective customers

Extortion in the Australian building trade

2011-05-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

Years ago I was in a group of Australians studying the philosophy of Ayn Rand. We would get together every Sunday and listen to taped lecture courses. These courses were very good. You can probably still get them from the Ayn Rand Institute. One guy who turned up to one of the club meetings was a previously successful demolisher in the building trade. The guy was impressive in several respects.

The future of Qantas

2011-04-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

The future of Qantas. What does one make of the current problems in Qantas. The airline appears to be having a lot of mechanical troubles on flights...running at about one problem a month. The unions attribute the problem to the outsourcing of jobs to Singapore. I am inclined to agree. There is of course the possibility of union staff sabotaging the reputation of Qantas in order to get the

Discount airlines flying to Australia

2011-04-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

There are a number of discount airlines servicing Australia. I just found a new one - so I thought I would provide a list of the discount airlines now that I am aware of:1. China Southern Airlines - See their website. They fly to Sydney, Brisbane, and soon to Auckland (NZ). Looking at their website, its a shocker. A sign that Chinese companies just have no idea about customer service. They are

Sydney - the best place in Australia?

2011-04-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Reading this story I am inclined to agree with the author. Sydney would have to be one of the best places to live in the world....if not the best. I must say though there are a few issues I thought he missed:1. Intellectual pursuits - Sydney offers philosophy groups which hang out in pubs and bars, so you can always have an interesting chat. This is not of course the typical way of spending an

Australian Murray-Darling water rights conflict

2011-03-05T21:33:00.001-08:00

Australia, the Federal Australian Labor government is preparing to destroy the Australian farming industry with water policies which are based on bad politics, bad science and deluded environmental values. Read further here and watch this well-researched presentation. This is your country, and Labor is appealing to green groups with no thought for the implications of its policies.The

Australians call for a new flag

2011-01-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

What a silly issue to raise now? This is what small-minded Australians do when they get a title. They invest in small-minded issues which will be their legacy. "Yeh...see that flag! We did that! We are great Australians!".I would have thought people were more interested in changing our hopeless system of government which cannot even settle such an inconsequential issue as changing a flag. How

Political correctness gone mad?

2011-01-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

Political correctness gone mad? There was a news item on TV3 last night about a tennis player at the Melbourne-based Australian Open. She ended up apologising and retracting a story she told about being accosted by a koala. Apparently she made up the story to add some excitement to her press release, which she earlier stated were a rather boring affair. It makes you think that some person from

Extent of Brisbane flooding

2011-01-20T17:34:00.000-08:00

There is no better way to observe the extent of flooding than by looking at aerial photos of an area before and after. Here the ABC provides such photos for a multitude of suburbs which are affected by flooding. By passing your cursor over the photo, you can see the before and after photos.-------------------------------------------Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Drinking beer under-rated

2011-01-18T13:48:00.000-08:00

The latest statistics suggest that Australians are drinking far less. Beer consumption has fallen considerably, however wine consumption has picked up some absolute sales, and a large share of the alcohol market. There are likely two reasons for this:1. The positive health reinforcements about wine2. The over-supply of wine keeping prices downI personally love my wine, and am pissed off that I

Rainfall in Queensland causes flooding disaster

2011-01-12T10:51:00.000-08:00

Queensland is struggling to cope with record floood waters after being swamped by high rainfalls over the last week. The Bureau of Meteorology service offers very good statistics to gauge the impact. Looking at the map, it is apparent that most of the Brisbane River Basin (Qld) and parts of the Clarence-Moreton Basin (NSW) have received over 0.5 metres of water. When you appreciate that there is

The Australian people

2011-01-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

What a job - to characterise the Australian people. I might get accused of over-generalising, but here goes. First of all, there is a personal context in every person's life. I have met Australians who I very much liked. I am reminded of an Australian I met in Tokyo. He must have thought I was gay. I say to him "How come I don't meet any Australians like you in Australia". He said: "I wouldn't

Best place in the world

2011-01-05T17:06:00.001-08:00

There is no question in my mind that Australia is one of the best countries to live, but it does have some very unappealing elements. The problem I have come to realise is that there is no perfect place, and that you really have to 'create your own paradise'. In a sense, you kind of have to live a life in 'transience' to get what you want. For me, living the life as an expatriate is ultimately

Ruddy well about time - some ok politics

2008-12-20T16:15:00.000-08:00