So, it's all over

[Rally Pack 2000]

8 minutes ago, dt36 said:

Well, "there ain't no party like an S Club party". 😁

That was at the rock they used in Star Trek all the time! lol

[katana]

Hey RP - this is at a tangent so forgive me - but been seeing a lot of Youtube content recently from Aussie 'news' channels about the state of the Aus economy, Aus debt mountain, housing and utilities problems, state and local councils overstepping their mandates - seems Aus isn't the place to be anymore? Can't be as bad as portrayed - can it? Obviously ignoring the fires and the drought (which also had a prog regarding the farmers on the Murray River not getting water for arable crops, beef and sheep farms while asian owned farms far downstream having as much water to irrigate almond trees!) - mental if true!

[Rally Pack 2000]

54 minutes ago, katana said:

Hey RP - this is at a tangent so forgive me - but been seeing a lot of Youtube content recently from Aussie 'news' channels about the state of the Aus economy, Aus debt mountain, housing and utilities problems, state and local councils overstepping their mandates - seems Aus isn't the place to be anymore? Can't be as bad as portrayed - can it? Obviously ignoring the fires and the drought (which also had a prog regarding the farmers on the Murray River not getting water for arable crops, beef and sheep farms while asian owned farms far downstream having as much water to irrigate almond trees!) - mental if true!

Thats alot of complicated issues all rolled into one. It may take too long to detail it all. Basically our economy went to hell when we stopped making our own stuff. Simply our economy revolves around stuff we dig up. Trouble with that its a large portion of that is coal and as such the Politicians become pathological climate change deniers so as to protect the Coal industry so our economy won't collapse. 

Local councils don't have quite the power reach yours do but they are pretty much controlled and manipulated by developers. They have no participation in housing, education or health services. They do however like to assert authority where none exists. In fact its a little known fact that they dont want getting out is that there is no third tier of government in our constitution. Only State and Federal. Technically they are corporate bodies illegally charging Tax. Even an attempt to rectify this illegality was rejected by referendum but they go about there business fining people and charging taxes without legal basis claiming they operate under Local Government acts that they created themselves. They do like to attack individuals while turning a blind eye to fake reports and illegal activity by developers.

Housing is one of the biggest issues of all. Its a bit of a politically correct sensitivity issue here but basically our immigration its too high. 2/3s of all housing in major cities is taken through new arrivals. Because of the housing shortage it drives prices to ridiculous levels. Our Housing prices are second only to Tokyo in Japan. Young couples cant ever afford to own their own homes. Basically the average house price in the most impoverished area of Sydney is over a million dollars. With more people than the city can handle comes the lack of infrastructure and transport. Packing people into high rise and having to lower everyone's quality of life to spread it around. If your single you wont even be able to afford the rent of a flat on your own where rich Chinese investors taking advantage of the housing crisis hide their money in property and then leave them empty.

We don't have enough water and water allocation is corrupt in that its politically based not scientifically based in order to curry favour for certain electorates. Certain parts of my own state don't have a drop of water to drink or wash and have to have it trucked it while only this week a Canadian Pension fund bought the water rights for 90 Billion litres of water from the Singapore Company you were talking about for the almonds. This while people cant wash and we dont have enough water to fight the fires as the country burns. The Communist Chinese state own millions of hectares of farming land and the Federal Government has made it illegal for anyone to publish how much they actually own in case there is a public backlash.

We live in a Police and Nanny State. Its now illegal to expose any government illegal activity in spying and other corrupt activities. With no Bill of Rights as such and a high immigration base thats just glad to get away from their own repressive states they wind back every freedom and liberty that you may take for granted. They want to force phone companies to place back doors in all mobile phones sold here so that police can access all data on your phone at any time without a warrant. Thats where we are at right now. A journalist this year reported a plan by the government allow our International spy agency the right to spy on local citizens illegally without warrants and that journalist had her home raided by Federal Police, went through her panty drawer and plans to file charges. All for exposing plans of something that would in fact be illegal.

If it was ever the place to be it hasn't been that for at least 20 years. We are in environment crisis at the moment, the nation is burning and we cant put the fires out, some days you cant see the house two doors up and our Prime Minister is currently taking a holiday in Hawaii.

In answer to your question, "here aint all that!" Just the other day I mentioned to my mum that because her father was from Lancashire she has a British Citizenship option and she said oh so im not stuck here then?

[Vista]

3 hours ago, Rally Pack 2000 said:

Thats alot of complicated issues all rolled into one. It may take too long to detail it all. Basically our economy went to hell when we stopped making our own stuff. Simply our economy revolves around stuff we dig up. Trouble with that its a large portion of that is coal and as such the Politicians become pathological climate change deniers so as to protect the Coal industry so our economy won't collapse. 

Local councils don't have quite the power reach yours do but they are pretty much controlled and manipulated by developers. They have no participation in housing, education or health services. They do however like to assert authority where none exists. In fact its a little known fact that they dont want getting out is that there is no third tier of government in our constitution. Only State and Federal. Technically they are corporate bodies illegally charging Tax. Even an attempt to rectify this illegality was rejected by referendum but they go about there business fining people and charging taxes without legal basis claiming they operate under Local Government acts that they created themselves. They do like to attack individuals while turning a blind eye to fake reports and illegal activity by developers.

Housing is one of the biggest issues of all. Its a bit of a politically correct sensitivity issue here but basically our immigration its too high. 2/3s of all housing in major cities is taken through new arrivals. Because of the housing shortage it drives prices to ridiculous levels. Our Housing prices are second only to Tokyo in Japan. Young couples cant ever afford to own their own homes. Basically the average house price in the most impoverished area of Sydney is over a million dollars. With more people than the city can handle comes the lack of infrastructure and transport. Packing people into high rise and having to lower everyone's quality of life to spread it around. If your single you wont even be able to afford the rent of a flat on your own where rich Chinese investors taking advantage of the housing crisis hide their money in property and then leave them empty.

We don't have enough water and water allocation is corrupt in that its politically based not scientifically based in order to curry favour for certain electorates. Certain parts of my own state don't have a drop of water to drink or wash and have to have it trucked it while only this week a Canadian Pension fund bought the water rights for 90 Billion litres of water from the Singapore Company you were talking about for the almonds. This while people cant wash and we dont have enough water to fight the fires as the country burns. The Communist Chinese state own millions of hectares of farming land and the Federal Government has made it illegal for anyone to publish how much they actually own in case there is a public backlash.

We live in a Police and Nanny State. Its now illegal to expose any government illegal activity in spying and other corrupt activities. With no Bill of Rights as such and a high immigration base thats just glad to get away from their own repressive states they wind back every freedom and liberty that you may take for granted. They want to force phone companies to place back doors in all mobile phones sold here so that police can access all data on your phone at any time without a warrant. Thats where we are at right now. A journalist this year reported a plan by the government allow our International spy agency the right to spy on local citizens illegally without warrants and that journalist had her home raided by Federal Police, went through her panty drawer and plans to file charges. All for exposing plans of something that would in fact be illegal.

If it was ever the place to be it hasn't been that for at least 20 years. We are in environment crisis at the moment, the nation is burning and we cant put the fires out, some days you cant see the house two doors up and our Prime Minister is currently taking a holiday in Hawaii.

In answer to your question, "here aint all that!" Just the other day I mentioned to my mum that because her father was from Lancashire she has a British Citizenship option and she said oh so im not stuck here then?

😲......................

 

But more importantly, is Kylie Minogue ever coming back to Neighbours? Or should I give up watching it and waiting?

[accord83]

Wow! And we thought we had it crap. So much for the Ramsey Street, Crocodile Dundee lifestyle stereotypes. But hey, at least the Americans named your big wheel craze after a national hero, Donk. So it's not all bad.......😂

 

 

[katana]

I'm sort of sorry I raised it, but pleased that it wasn't 'tv sensationalism' and is confirmed by a native! The water thing is the one I couldn't get my head around! The fact that a commercial interest can 'buy' excessive amounts of water, the water companies can waste billions of litres through overspill at a narrowing of the Murray River in the middle of a National Park flooding the forest and killing the Gum trees - its a hell of a conservation plan - all to support crops of Almonds. . . . . a well known life support crop and stuff the milk, beef and sheep farms cos no one needs that to live on - veggies and vegans don't count as they can eat grass - except they can't cos there is no water for it to grow!

The Chinese investment market / capital resources is globally colossal and is also a major player in the UK's largest cities leading to a goodly proportion of our own property market problems! I've never understood the buying of vast portfolio's and leaving them empty - surely rental income plus property value growth is better than just the latter? The world has gone Greed Mad IMO! 

[Rally Pack 2000]

7 hours ago, Vista said:

😲......................

 

But more importantly, is Kylie Minogue ever coming back to Neighbours? Or should I give up watching it and waiting?

No I dont think she'll ever be back but hey she lives there in the UK now so your chances of seeing here are much greater than mine. Although I have seen her in shorts in real life.

7 hours ago, accord83 said:

Wow! And we thought we had it crap. So much for the Ramsey Street, Crocodile Dundee lifestyle stereotypes. But hey, at least the Americans named your big wheel craze after a national hero, Donk. So it's not all bad.......😂

 

You and Donks, I cant stop laughing when I hear that word now because of you! But a donk to us is a really big engine. So those American things are Donks with big Donks and that sounds rude LOL

6 hours ago, katana said:

I'm sort of sorry I raised it, but pleased that it wasn't 'tv sensationalism' and is confirmed by a native! The water thing is the one I couldn't get my head around! The fact that a commercial interest can 'buy' excessive amounts of water, the water companies can waste billions of litres through overspill at a narrowing of the Murray River in the middle of a National Park flooding the forest and killing the Gum trees - its a hell of a conservation plan - all to support crops of Almonds. . . . . a well known life support crop and stuff the milk, beef and sheep farms cos no one needs that to live on - veggies and vegans don't count as they can eat grass - except they can't cos there is no water for it to grow!

The Chinese investment market / capital resources is globally colossal and is also a major player in the UK's largest cities leading to a goodly proportion of our own property market problems! I've never understood the buying of vast portfolio's and leaving them empty - surely rental income plus property value growth is better than just the latter? The world has gone Greed Mad IMO! 

Don't be sorry its fair question to ask and your not the first person to ask it. Its a pride thing like your favourite football team that always looses, we always like to tout that we are the best country in the world when it really isn't so we "tall truth" our way through it if we are ever asked to talk about it just to give the impression its the best place ever. National Pride can take some some strange forms like the way Americans think the same yet have the most appalling greedy heath care system which with all the middle men and insurance companies and corporate greed actually costs them more than it ultimately costs both of us with your NHS and our Medicare System. Free health care should be a fundamental to any great country. Yet they think its a commie plot.

I cant get my head around selling the water rights off to foreign interests either, it makes no sense but then we have a gas shortage during winter that raises prices when we need it most all the while being one of the largest gas exporters to China. Literally corporate profits (Often Foreign ones that pay no tax) outweigh the fundamental usage needs of the people who technically own all resources administered by the state.

The Chinese property thing is a an offshore wealth haven for Chinese citizens to hide large sums from the Communist Chinese Government, its like the new version of the Swiss bank you could say to hide their wealth which is apparently naughty when your a communist unless its a state run corporation then its totally OK.

Housing, overcrowding and lack of infrastructure to cope have really eroded the quality of life here in the past 20 years. We are on fire and cant breath at the moment so that may come through as extra cynicism from me in the moment. But our lying and cheating politicians and their push for over development to satisfy the big end of town has become so megalomaniacal that there is little pushback from a demoralised people, they just put their heads down and try battle through it but too proud to say if an Englishman or Yank ever asked, National Pride dictates. From what I can see you guys have it rough too sometimes, like when we burn you flood. There are some things better there than here and visa versa. I see certain things about the UK and think gee I wish we had that and then other things I think oh we are pretty lucky to have that where you guys don't. Politicians are universally greedy corrupt liars that will sell you out to a foreign power for a few bucks so neither has any advantages there. Human nature means we complain more than compliment sometimes so I may have painted a much darker picture than I should but I think both our nations are pretty much at the same level. Again Its better there for some things and worse for others so when you balance it out we are the same. To quote Monty Python, all our arms and legs have been cut off so "How about we call it a draw then?" Its funny like the analogy with Australian and British Escorts, some features are better on yours and some features better on ours but if we stick together we can get the best of both worlds. Australia has survived on the world market by itself while this fear that has permeated through the UK that you cant survive without Europe is all complete and utter nonsense we have been doing it forever so if we can do it so can you as you even have a better manufacturing sector where ours is more in commodities. If anything like Escorts now that we can trade bits without Brussels telling you we cant it will only be better for both of us. Getting those best bits from both. You buy our rocks we buy your made stuff. We are already in line for new trade agreements so perhaps I can finally have a choice to all the Chinese made crap for a change. One Election myth I took away from your Election is that if you do free trade with the Yanks you will loose your NHS, again what total BS!! We have a free trade agreement with them and yes they tried eyeing our health system and subsidised pharmaceuticals and we told them to bugger off. Deal done with not a single alteration to Heath and Medicine. Just don't be bluffed by the likes of them. You will just have to contend with a bigger ginger ass than when we made our agreement. Sell them heaps Of Jagwars.