Tell me the bad things about living in Australia.

[ilovepixie]

Following on from the USA thread what's the worst thing about living in Australia.

@squeekums

The Shire (south of Sydney) is a strange place.

Over Tom Ugly’s

Australian Government told all of the visa holders (there because they had specific skills needed by Australia) to "go back to your own country" and offered no COVID related help despite these people paying significant amounts of tax.

So I am and will pull my not insignificant super (investment) out of the country as soon as I can. It's going to be interesting to see them fill the skills gap locally over the next couple of years (hundred of thousands of people have gone) and it's going to be nothing but an utter relief to have full work rights again and be able to do normal things like get a mortgage.

Australian Government told all of the visa holders (there because they had specific skills needed by Australia) to "go back to your own country" and offered no COVID related help despite these people paying significant amounts of tax.

Unless you’re furloughed, it’s exactly the same in the U.K. Visa holders have no recourse to public funds, and if you have a work visa tied to your job, you have 30 days to leave the country if you lose it.

And I can assure you that visa holders struggle for mortgages too in the U.K. - we had only 1 back willing to lend to us for our first home due to my (then) visa, and has to stump up a 25% deposit. I’m married to a Brit as well!

The awful beaches
The ugly ocean vistas
The lack of outdoor pursuits
The disgusting wildlife
Too much sunshine

The list goes on....

Yes, and Boris Johnson didn't know that either, at least Malcom Turnbull did.

They made allowances for certain visa holders after some lobbying, but the international students were really thrown under the bus, and they make up a huge part of the universities income.

*ScoMo - they are changing prime ministers too quickly to keep up!

The Shire (south of Sydney) is a strange place

I hear this, i have no desire to visit lol
Give me the NT, Vic or Gold Coast

Born in England, have lived most of my life in Australia but have been back to England loads....all of my extended family are still in England.

I love Australia (I live on the west coast) BUT would prefer to live in a village within an hour or two of London.

The good things about Australia;

Swimming in the ocean almost nine months of the year
Bush walks in winter (when the max temperature is usually 15-20 degrees)
The size of our houses
Sunsets on the beach
Coronavirus has not had the impact here that it has elsewhere, largely due to our much lower population density I am sure. I count my blessings every day.
I can online shop from most UK shops

The bad things;

Sexism
Racism
Lack of culture
Many Australians are quick to anger and bad language is rife (massive generalisation I know)
Lack of respect (again, massive generalisation)
Lack of roundabouts and the ability to navigate them when they are used
Sharks ( we do have beaches with shark nets though)
Snakes
Spiders
Flies
Terrible TV and so parochial, even between the states. They always love an excuse to run down the British. I very rarely watch Australian TV though, I have an android box so that I can watch UK TV.
Lack of heating, the nights are freezing and our houses are not designed to hold in heat!
Only cheap holidays are camping and Bali
Meth

Now that's an interesting one at the end there, Nixmini.
Yes.
I don't know about the cities but in the poorer areas of NSW, "ice" is in abundance (crystal meth). Young teens get into it - we had a case in our local high school of the police being called because a 14yo girl was off her head on it in school time. Some of the local parents are obviously ice addicts too (from the state of their skin and teeth). In the areas where work is low, marijuana and ice abound.

But then there are drugs in the UK too - more cocaine, I suspect, than here - so I don't know if that's peculiar to here.

The 'Paki' thing is a cricketing reference - Aussies, Poms, Windies, Pakis, Kiwis etc. I had no idea there was a derogatory usage of the word until I came to the UK. It's not derogatory in Oz.

It really is a racist term, you can’t make it okay by saying it’s to do with cricket.

Never been to Australia and we did consider living there ( too far away from family was reason), but I can't say anything said on this thread would put me off the country as a visitor. I'd still like to visit. All countries have their up and down side.
What's this about pubs shutting at 10pm though..

@SusanneLinder this is the WORST thing about Brisbane. Last sitting at 9pm latest . It's really crap!

Lack of culture

What do you mean by that? Nixmini?

The fact that you've overlooked the oldest continuous human culture in the world?

Or a lack of a bunch of old buildings?

Or no art/galleries/opera/music/theatre?

Take your time...

Watch Simon on bbc iplayer .. he does a few series and has one on Australia . It's an eye opener !

Sorry .. Simon Reeve .

To be fair to Nixmini, she did say she's in WA (well, west coast, so I'm assuming WA) - a friend of mine who loved Australia and would have loved to permanently settle here met a man from WA and moved out here with him. She didn't realise he meant to settle in WA, she thought his plan was to move to Sydney or Melbourne, as that's what they had discussed. But when they got back to WA, he settled right back into family and friend life and refused to move. She stuck it out for a year but then couldn't any longer and they split. She said that WA just wasn't the same - nothing much going on, very little in the way of arts and theatre, shows or anything like that.

The fact that you've overlooked the oldest continuous human culture in the world?

The problem is that culture isn’t celebrated, or easily available to visitors. My view is that Australia should showcase its unique history and culture more.

The Justice and Police museum is a good example, to learn about the convict history.

It depends where you live in WA I'd assume.
Perth has a lot, but if you want big named bands and such, then forget it, and in the small towns forget anything international.
Even with Perth, it can feel like a backwater.
I lived a walk from the center but the outlying suburbs can be very parochial.

Also, Kalgoorlie!
It will never fail to crack me up.

My bil

*Racism
*
Ah yes. Coming from the country who spat so much racist vitriol at Meghan Markle she left the country.

Amused at the reference to the school for young ladies!

As I've already mentioned, I lived in Aus for 15 years, thus have many Aus friends. A thing I found interesting was how many of my female friends' ambition was to 'marry well'. These women are now in their 50s, most haven't worked from the day they got married.

There's a real arms race between the about how little they're expected to do!