Emigration to Australia

[nzlegend 1]

 Originally Posted By: Mantas

Trade shortages
Today I arrived on the job and the client handed me a 10k cash bundle before I started the job!

whats your trade? hitman?


but seriously 10K in cash? I thought Japan was the only place in the world where people carried on them and dealt in such large sums of cash? do people in Australia often get around with that much cash on them?

[HelperElfMissy 42]

At times yes.

 

If you want to get a tradey that hasn't just scribbled a business name on the side of his truck with magic marker you better have a mate who knows a bloke and pay him cash ...or no job done! It is THAT hard to get someone these days.

[Mantas 3]

I didn't ask for the cash and I didn't expect it either. I tend to bend over backwards to help guys like that. It makes me laugh when people expect you to jump through hoops for them because you are a 'lowly tradesman' and begging to do their job. Those days are gone.

 

>If you want to get a tradey that hasn't just scribbled a business name on the side of his truck with magic marker you better have a mate who knows a bloke and pay him cash ...or no job done! <

That's funny Mamabear

[bobby12 0]

 Quote:

Mantas:
Coming from the UK or Japan where you have 200+ people/square kilometer to Oz (6 people/square km) there is going to be some obvious differences in the facilities and infrastructure available. Culturally we are pretty isolated. We don't have 20 different countries and languages on our door step like the UK. We also dont have 2000+ years of architectural spender to marvel at. These things will become more and more apparent to some newcomers as the novelty of beaches and sunshine, and wide open spaces slowly wears off.

This is a good point. I felt that when I went to Sydney/Brisbane for 3 weeks a few years ago. I kept thinking - this place should be heaven for me, and yet somehow I found it kind of depressing/isolated. I'll definitely pay a visit back again before I decide to apply for a visa or anything.

[HelperElfMissy 42]

Our school caters for a lot of international workers. We have plenty of families who come for a year or two and then move on to the next oil job, or engineering job... Now what I have found is that the people who hook into a social network really quickly and find friends fast tend to stay and end up 'taking the test' to become Aussies. Either that, or when they leave for the next job post, they miss Aus and visit as often as possible.

 

But those who miss home horridly, and don't feel confident to reach out to a network of people, and look for the negatives - they are the ones who pick up and move home ahead of schedule.

 

It is what you make of it! And people to share it with ALWAYS makes it better.

[thursday 1]

Article in the Telegraph about the mining boom in Aus of late.

 

 

 

 Quote:

"You're starting to see a great deal of foreign investment coming out of China. The Chinese have cash; they want resources. There's a sense the rules of the game are changing."

 

The wealth created by the China resources boom is most evident in the mining states of Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia.

 

Property prices have soared in Perth and Brisbane and rapidly expanding mines are sucking in skilled workers from across the country. "I could jump on a plane tomorrow and earn A$250,000 [£125,000] a year," said Mike, a Sydney electrician. "Out west, they're crying out for tradies [tradesmen]."

 

So great is the lure of big wages in the booming north and west that the Australian army is unable to recruit enough soldiers and Sydney and Melbourne are emptying of builders, fitters and welders.

 

"A graduate geologist straight out of college can walk into a job and earn A$120,000," said Paul Heithersay, executive director of Primary Industries and Resources SA, a government agency in South Australia. Truck drivers working gruelling shifts hauling earth out of underground mines can earn almost as much.

 

"Mining accounted for about 10pc of South Australia's economy in the mid-90s. It's now 25pc and we can expect it to reach 50pc of export income in five years' time," said Mr Heithersay. "We happen to have the resources, China doesn't. We'll be linked for some time yet."

 

The amount of money spent in South Australia on mining exploration has increased more than 10-fold since 2004, from A$30m to A$330m.

 

Investment is being pumped into areas that were in the doldrums just a few years ago - towns such as Port Augusta and Whyalla, gateways to the state's vast Outback and its rich mineral deposits.

 

"House prices are going through the roof," said Mr Heithersay. "You couldn't have given them away five years ago."

 

China's power may be growing by the day, but Australians seem relaxed about the Middle Kingdom's emergence as a superpower.

 

A survey by the Lowy Institute in 2005 found that, remarkably, Australians regarded the United States as a greater threat than a rising China.

 

The survey of 1,000 people found that only 35pc of people were concerned about China, compared with 57pc who worried about US foreign policy, especially in Iraq.

 

Also startling was the finding that a majority was strongly opposed to siding with the US against China in the event of a conflict flaring over Taiwan.

 

Australians hope they will be able to continue to have the best of both worlds - remaining a loyal ally of the US and a pre-eminent member of the Anglosphere, while at the same time maintaining a friendship and growing trade relationship with the Chinese.

 

"Australians are pretty positive towards China," said Mr Thirlwell. "It's hard to be resentful about people who are making you rich."

 

Full article here

[Mantas 3]

And?

[soubriquet 0]

That`s the super pit at Kalgoorlie. There`s nothing a mining engineer likes better than a big hole in the ground.

[indosnm 0]

Well I've returned and gotta say all is good.

Get paid alot from KRudd and they even support the family!

[Mantas 3]

Was it 8k Indo?

 

My mate gets 8k from the government when his little nipper comes next month.

[thursday 1]

8k a month for one nipper? Pretty good.

[indosnm 0]

8k? they have just raised it to 5K!

not aboriginal by any chance???

[Mantas 3]

Maybe it was 5k.

[indosnm 0]

5K is better than a kick in the pants considering I PAID about the same amount to have ours.

Child support is good in OZ.

I get about $800 a month here compared to $150 a month in Japan (but due to me not working now)

Oz, "I'm luvin it!"

[HelperElfMissy 42]

Lord help us!

 

I have had 4 kids - NADA!

I don't even get family payment.

 

And we PAID to have ours as well. Well not the first two, they were born in the public health system - a quick signature and you are out of there....but the second two were born in the private system, and even with top private health insurance we had a bill of many thousands!

 

As for school ... dont get me started ... we pay a motza in school fee's, and then get critized for our schools recieving a pitance of government funding, as if we are taking what rightfully belongs to the less fortunate members of the community.

 

I agree that the safety nets in Aus are great, but it is frustrating that the harder you work, the more you earn, the more you get taxed and less assistance you get. What about giving people incentives for working hard and being successful? I don't mind that we don't qualify for the assistance, but it really irks me that we are criticized for our schools recieving basic funding.

[indosnm 0]

Very true MamaB,

 

Once I get a job I won't get any of the benefits either.

Though the money they are throwing at us now (whilst living at home) makes it very easy to just sit back, go for a surf or buy another slab!

 

I wonder why there are dole bludgers out there!

Too easy!

[HelperElfMissy 42]

On that we agree Indo!

For sure!

 

However, I must admit to being less than impressed at the hoops one of the ladies I was working with had to jump through to get support as a single mother. Her child had turned 7 (I think that was the critical age) and she HAD to work x number of hours a week or lose her payments, but she couldn't get suitable hours within cooee - admittedly she was not diversely qualified so the pickings were slim - but it did enable me to see the other side of the coin. The father was a complete deadbeat - bolted the country and paid no child support - and she had no family to speak of. People like her - I have no problem supporting through my taxes...it is the active avoiders of employment that get up my nose!

 

In your case - you need a minute to aclimatise - catch your breath and work out what you want to do where ... and I think it is great that our social security system can give you the opportunity to do that.

 

My SIL is recieving an absolute fortune in child benefits because she has 9 kids and they live in a remote location ... I often shake my head at that - it was a choice...should our taxes be spent that way... (her hubby is gainfully employed). I have 4, but there is a bigger break between the 2nd and 3rd because at that time we could only afford to raise 2 properly - so we delayed more kids. Once things improved for us, and we could afford to educate, clothe and feed the ones we had with money left over, we had the others.

 

Maybe I am strange, but I see Social security as a safety net - to be used without guilt when needed - but not to be a way of life.