Ask an Aussie

[puthyjip43]

Here to help with any q's about life down under for anyone thinking of emigrating

I am not a tax expert I have friend who has just been audited last year as her mother has sent over a few multiples of $11000. They have had to pay back tax on this sum as it's deemed to be income not a gift. As it was a "regular" event.
You have to declare amounts over 10000$ at the border but that's money laundering concerns

We are near bribe island in qld

Froginthepond - there is free healthcare too. It's called medicare. Lots of people dont have private healthcare they just use medicare which is like the NHS. Not everything is covered for free but you can see a dr and go to the hospital for free treatment. I think everyone needs ambulance insurance though? And dental. People on benefits might be entitled to more free services and treatment.

Most people have private health insurance because there are tax incentives, it can be quite affordable and you can avoid waiting lists for non essential surgery (eg: grommets). Also Australians love going private for things like education and health. Lots of my Australian friends spend thousands to go for private obstetrics but you can have a baby at a public hospital for free. They just like paying for stuff.

If you are a UK citizen you don't need private health insurance. You can access medicare. However it doesn't cover dental and ambulance. Ambulance cover is cheap! We pay $80 per year.

I hate hate hate praying for health care. it makes me angry that successive governments have rolled back medicare introduced levies and propped up a failing insurance industry. Many Australians feel as I do. Oh and if you are on benefits you still have to pay for pretty much everything in terms of healthcare.

Is it a good idea to use a migration agent?.....thinking of doing it myself but don't want to mess anything up xx

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has offered advice!

I've been looking not an Ozzie move for years! I'm hoping that my five year plan will see us over there soon.

Just thought, check what you get on certain visas as if you go over on a 457 you can't access Medicare I think and you pay for schooling. Much better to get there on a pr visa. I could be wrong though!

Kaza1 the advice from Australia immigration is you should be able to complete the forms yourself. Why not download the forms and have a look. Depending on visa you are applying for you need different evidence. Friends of mine who have used visa agents have regretted it because it doubles the cost of your visa and you still need to find the evidence yourself.

Imsosorryalan Health care is based on your citizenship not visa. If you apply for a 457 and are UK citizen (and a couple of other countries) you just write reciprocal when they ask what health insurance you have. There is at least one MNer that has done this if not more.

Definitely you can fill the forms in by yourself.
In qld now you don't pay ambulance insurance. It was part of the electric bill. But it's now part Medicare.
Medicare is citizenship linked. Not visa schooling in some states is fee based on a 457. Our kids were in school in qld on a 457 and no fees.

It was you chloeb2002 I was thinking of above but I couldn't remember how to spell your name.

A few of us on mn haven't taken out private health. Interestingly dh is working of immi at the mo and he asked if we were meant to have private cover and the answer was that .. No .. If you are eligible for reciprocal healthcare this covers the brief of do you have healthcare cover for the duration of your stay. 457 visas are available for all nations. Many are not eligible for reciprocal healthcare. Even my German au pairs are not! Sweedish one was tho! So yes answer is yes.. British citizen reciprocal health. Dentist cover is good idea tho!

Yes, there's no need for private health insurance if you're entitled to healthcare by reciprocal arrangement (which applies to UK citizens), just register for medicare when you arrive. Ambulance cover isn't needed in QLD but is in other states.

There are some tax advantages to having private health cover if you earn over $100k.

If there's any way you can afford it I'd advise coming over and visiting the places you're looking at setting in. The various areas are very different, and getting it wrong can be an expensive mistake.

One thing we did that was also a huge help was to come across for interviews. Line up the job .. Then we arranged the house we rented at first so we knew exactly where we were coming too. And ordered furniture to be delivered the day we arrived! In general it worked very very well. One months rent was money well spent! We did have a hiccup with the furniture as amart didn't have some stuff in stick even after two month of ordering it! We just went out and ordered the rest else where and cancelled the rest!

I did an online food shop with Coles putting in shopping to do 7 typical meals, household, toiletries and some beer and wine. This shop would normally cost me £60-90 here depending what store i go to. Bill at the end of Coles shop £282.77 sterling I knew things were more expensive and i was planning on double but not expecting it to be this high.

Dental can be really expensive. Instead of taking out insurance we put aside money each fortnight in a high interest saver then when we need the dentist just pay in cash from that.

I think food is a bit more expensive here but I think that is because the lower range stuff is better quality.

It's not related to living in Australia but I've always wondered what an Aussie barbie is like? As in what you cook and have on the side. I'm curious how different it is to a British BBQ.

An Aussie bbq will typically have sausages, hamburgers, potato salad, pasta salad, and a general salad (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, etc). Sometimes fried egg, tomatoes, onion and mushrooms on the bbq with the meat. And sliced bread, butter, and tomato sauce! And probably a lot of cold beer.

The sausages and burgers may be kangaroo meat.
I went to a bbq a few weeks ago where they served wallaby burgers.

My experience of Aussie BBQ are exactly the same as Scottish ones.

Steak.. Not been to or had a BBQ here in 7 years with out a good chunk of steak! Can't best Aussie beef!
As for grocery shopping... I think it depends what you buy. I am a home brand queen. Something's no but mostly home brand. There are less lower quality foods. Food standards in aus are higher than the UK. No hormones in meat. No 1 pound chicken. Not forced chicken for breast meat. Even the $1 bread has crept up fast as it's unsustainable.
Milk is still $1 a litre. But it's permeate loaded so personally we don't buy it ??
Swings and round abouts. Grocery more than UK. Fuel cheaper. Running a car cheaper. No tv licence. Insurance cheaper even for young adults.

The other thing is aussie BBQ happen a lot. I think over December January February I maybe cooked 10 times inside! We have a hooded gas BBQ so I even do full roasts on it. That is a bit of a life saver when the house is super hot. Oh an Aussie's seam to have many more gas bbq's
Rissoles are also common on BBQ, I can't remember eating them in the UK

Chloeb2002 did you see the checkout episode on permeate? It doesn't seam like such a bad thing. I was bit worried but after that i feel ok about sticking with the $1 milk.

I have moved away from looking at supermarkets and am now looking at Asian food markets and shops as i buy a lot of Asian food. Going by reviews online these shops offer cheaper foods and a lot fresher. Does anyone have any experience of shopping in them of normal food markets? Are they better value? I live somewhere that has a farmers market but the stuff sold there is more expensive than the shops as its all specialist meats, fancy breads, chutneys and veg.

Thanks for all the advice. Can someone recommend a pet carrier firm? Is anyone on here from Northern Territory? Keep going bank to it as it looks lovely & was wondering about job prospects fir painter & decorator. Thanks x

Not sure about important animals can be a lengthy process with potential stays in quarantine, although the stay has been shortened recently. www.daff.gov.au/biosecurity/cat-dogs

I've not been to NT would love to go. It is remote. Some of it is very very remote. I mean having fruit and veg flown in on a plane that you have to pre order, being several hours flight away from a hospital (although a lot of places have clinics with nurses ect) It would be an amazing adventure. as for jobs the local paper www.ntnews.com.au/ looks like it links in with Career One so have a search for that.

I would totally not go to nt to live without a visit first! It is lovely. Generally low socio economic and eye wateringly expensive as above everything is flown in!
Large indigenous population with the associated health and education issues that go along with that! ( no I'm not racist but it's a fact)

Permeate milk. I have watched a couple of programmes about milk and permeates. My gut feeling is that it's a way of producing milk in a cheap manner. At the end of the day it's like making fruit juice from conventrate?? I just want my milk to be milk. Not that I think permeate loaded milk is "bad" but we mess with everything we eat now! Don't get me started on artificial sweeteners.. Or even worse the "natural" sweeteners.. Off the soapbox now.,