iamaboringperson wrote:...
The only odd thing is that federal elections are won by Liberal, state elections by Labor.
The thing is that if you look in the federal governments past, you'll see two governments vastly different way of running the place:
Labor()
{
HUGE (and LONG TERM) unemployment, AND I MEAN HUGE;
HIGHEST interest rates over a long term;
Some of the biggest spending, esp. wasting money.
Some of the worst and most contraversial desicions ... even contraversial within the party.
Worst ecconomy Australia ever had.
Produced the biggest debt ever.
Employed many people to sit around and do NOTHING in gov. run companies in order to artificially reduce the unemployment rate ... even though the unemployment rate only went up!
}
// On the other hand...
Liberal()
{
Cleared the debt. we're now in surplus.
The LOWEST unemployment rate for ... well, decades..
Interest rates are MUCH lower now.
The ecconomy has been GROWING. Even when other countries have have shrunk.
A much better outlook for the country
}
Well, that's a pretty simplistic view, but does sum up part of the situation of the recent history. Your summary does have some notable ommissions though.
I also like Mebourne a lot. I haven't been to Sydney, but I can say that Melbourne is very different from Perth, so Sydney could well be very different again. Melbourne has a MUCH better night life than Perth (this is a sad point about Perth).
What I really don't like about Melbourne is weather, whch frankly is just cr@p compared with Perth. Far too many dark, overcast days, and too much rain in summer. May be good for plants, but no fun for me, getting rained on in singlet and shorts, after enjoying a 35 degree sunny morning.
I agree with Odin that remote areas can be very parchial, and certainly there's an element of xenophobia in Oz (feel like a trip to Royston Vasy, anyone? :-P ). However, I'm not sure that it's worse than anywhere else. I can say for a certainty that xenophobia is leveraged for political and commercial advantage here, which I have observed to extend its prevalence throughout the community (just my observation and opinion, but a considered one). This is one of the issues I have with wing politics and commercial media here. Of course this is not unique to Oz in any way. Again, I haven't been to NZ, so don't know what it's like there.
One more thing which probably should be mentioned, is the problem with small scale economies. In Perth, you have to pay a lot more for specialty items, than in big cities, and big countries, and the accessability is much worse. To an extent this is also true for Melbourne and Sydney, though not quite as bad. Extrapolating from this, I guess NZ may be worse in this regard, as it has a smaller, weaker economy. One example I can offer is of an American thermohygrometer I wanted for a project I was doing. It was the best suited item for my purposes. In the States, it cost around $90, and in Oz it cost close to $500 with GST. The American supplier wouldn't ship it directly, as they had a distributer here. So, I got a lower spec sensor, for a more reasonable price, but the project had to suffer.
I would also like to hear from some New Zealander's about this, specially anyone who's also lived in Oz. I was considering working in NZ as well. There seems to be a reasonable demand for electronic engineers over there. I've just started a new job here now, but I may go in a few years.
With respect to dangerous animals, well mostly they're just 'potentially' dangerous. I live just near a lake, and there are many insects, so there are also many spiders. I must have several hundred in my garden. But hey, they're in the garden, and live there quite happily. Good for them. It's only an issue for small children who don't yet have the sense to leave them alone. However, a friend of mine lives 'really close' to the same lake, and he will have tiger snakes in his garden several times per year. This is much more serious, but still manageable. Personally, I just wouldn't live that close to a wilderness environment. Most people in the suburbs just don't have any issues with this stuff. I've been bitten by spiders a number of times (not the bad ones), but most of them just give me a very minor rash. My wife, who is from China, has an uncomfortable reaction to the local mosquitos, though I hardly notice them much more than for the annoying noise they make.
Oli
