Australian big brother - now that’s entertainment

Australian big brother has been running for the last 14 weeks.

Just Like big brother programs running in other countries the concept pretty much rests on a very strange, hand picked cross section of the general public being chucked into the confines of the big brother house and being filmed 24 x 7 for our viewing pleasure.

The Australian version of big brother had some good twists which I’ve not seen on the UK version which is running now apparently.

firstly, when all the housemates moved into the house on the first day big brother joyfully announced that there was going to be no prize money.

The contestants ended up having to ‘grow’ their prize pot by competing in a series of games with the pot growing to a quite handy $425,000 (approx £185k) by the end of the program which was won by a 24 year old, blonde haired Aussie chick called Aleisha!

Another nice feature that I liked was the fact that all the contestants had to give a proper reason for nominating their fellow housemates for eviction otherwise they risked being put up for eviction by big brother himself. Non of this ‘I vote for Sheala because I don’t get on with her as well as I do Bruce’.

Perhaps the most entertaining viewing though, came last night; eviction night!

The votes were ’so close’ that the presenters had to pad for over an hour before they could announce who the winner was. I’m sure the media may well report on the real reason for the delay but I’m pretty sure some serious computer cock ups were to blame.

You could almost hear the voices of the TV executives screaming at the techos to sort out the issue. You could slice the tension in the air, the presenter even had a rubber chicken thrown at her head by a member of the audience. Rubber chickens! Classic!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Australia and the wonders of electricity

I’ve already raved about Western Australia’s transport system, the wonders of Australian Wildlife and the greatness of the parks but I need to have a small rest bite from loving this great country I now call home.

Its 6 30 am at time of typing and I’m on the train using the blog by email feature I discovered a while back. Its dark and it’s raining and its Monday and I’m traveling into work. Booooo!

I’m also knackard, I woke up at 2am and couldn’t get back to sleep, I tried but by about 4am I thought sod it and got up and ready for the day ahead.

So, I’m grumpy and feel like having a bit of a bitch for a few minutes about the wonders of Electricity so please bare with me!

I think the folks in Western Oz have done a fantastic job when it comes to deploying an infrastructure to support its people.

It seems though that the same folks who designed the transport systems and parks and other good stuff may have been in the pub (or they simply ran out of money) when it came to developing a power supply large enough and stable enough to support the population that uses it.

Last night we had a power cut, sure everyone has power cuts but this is about the fourth or fifth power cut we have had in the last few months.

I’m not talking five minute cuts in power either. Last night for example it must have stretched to over four hours. We were in bed by 9 30!

It transpires, through earlier conversations with my Aussie chums at work that these frequent power cuts are a bit of a feature when it comes to living in the Northern Suburbs (aka WupWup). Something to do with inadequate planning when new housing developments are being put in.

Joy of joys eh! Its a good job everything else about this country is perfect!

Nearly in work now, need a Latte….Yaaaaaaawn!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Time to rent for another 6 months?

I really can’t believe that we have now been renting our current home in Kinross for the past 6 months.

It’s time to make a call on whether or not we renew the lease and it’s looking likely that we’ll be going for it.

The house isn’t perfect; there is only air con in the main family room area meaning in the summertime it gets red hot in the bedrooms.

It’s on a pretty busy main road and you can often here evidence of hoonage in the early hours of the morning in the surrounding suburbs.

It’s not ours which means we can’t decorate it, stick pictures on the walls, basically do things to the house to make it more ‘homly’.

Having said that, it has a safe, enclosed back yard the size of a five-a-side footie pitch which is great for junior!

Its nice and big, the family room is huge and we have plenty of spare bedrooms if we have anyone to stay.

We also have the small matter of a pending birth. If I was to suggest to the missus that we look for another house 8 (ish) weeks before junior number 2 arrives I think it would be more than my life’s worth

So, were going to renew the lease for another 6 months. The chap from Moneycorp keeps on calling me to see if I’m ready to transfer our cash from the UK to Aus. Even though the rates are pretty poor (read terrible) at the moment, I think it will be time to bite the bullet and get the cash transferred over so we are in a position to buy should we find a nice
house..

All we have to do then is find a nice suburb, find a nice house, get a mortgage and buy all before Christmas.

I mean, how difficult can that be?

Popularity: 2% [?]

When it rains it REALLY rains!

Wow! We’ve had some really REALLY heavy rain recently.

I’ve always liked rain, at night time the gentle patter of the rain drops against the windows has to go down as one of the most relaxing sounds.

Although the UK appears to getting its fair share of rain at the moment, Australia has rain like I’ve never seen it before. You’ll be looking outside at the rain thinking ‘Jeeze, this rain is pretty heavy’ and then it just gets heavier and heavier!

If rain really was a by product of God having a shower then over Australia the big G really likes to keep clean!

The guy goes in for the full 12 jet power shower experience over here with a few extra buckets of water thrown in at random intervals for good measure!

When people describe heavy rain as ‘it’s coming down in buckets’ over here it really does. Big buckets! For wet stuff coming out of the sky it really is amazing!

What’s more amazing is the rate at which the rain stops. You can have torrential rain for 15 minutes, then it stops and the sun comes out again!

This may well lead us onto my next point. Even after all this heavy rain the weather guys are saying that there may still be a ban on sprinklers and irrigation systems as early as October!

The dams in Western Australia are still only 50% full at the moment and 20% of that consists of the sludge at the bottom.

We do have more rain forecast for the rest of this week but at time of typing the suns shining.

Being Western Australian sunshine, even in the middle of Winter it’s still the kind of nice warm sunshine that’s really good at evaporating rain.

Have I really just done a whole Blog entry on the weather. Jeeze, how English of me is that!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Perth Housing Market continues to jump around

The guys at REIWA (Which I think stands for Real Estate Western Australia or something like that) have been doing another survey to look at the current state of the Perth housing market.

The Survey covers 75% of all sales so is probably as comprehensive as you can get it.

So, what does the survey tell us. Well, there has been a price drop in the average Perth house price during the last quarter by a very modest 1.5%.

This figure represents a fall of round $7000 on Perths median house price since the last quarter. The new Median house price in Perth is now $470,000.

As a wannabe home owner, this is good news for me but the report also goes onto say that the reduction in the average house price may be due to high first time buyer activity.

The government effectively did away with stamp duty for first home buyers in May this year which has resulted in first time buyer activity increasing by over 15%. As the majority of these purchases are in cheaper end of the market then the average price of Perth properties being purchased is skewed a little.

The other strong theme to come from this latest report is the sharp jump in rental prices for properties in the Perth metropolitan area.

The average rent for ‘units’ was $255 whilst an average house in an average suburb will set you back $280 per week.

As I mentioned a while back, the new letting fee seems to be one of the main culprits for the sharp increase as landlords pass this additional cost onto their tenants.

Speaking of rentals; the lease on the house we are currently renting is due to be reviewed soon. I can’t believe that we have been living in this house now for nearly 6 months.

Its looking like we might be extending the lease for another 6 months. The owners want us to go for a year but there is no way that we’ll still want to be renting in 12 months time (famous last words hey).

The house is great but with the new baby coming and all that I’m not looking forward to the heat in the summer time.

Last year it was very very hot in a number of the bedrooms (think midnight and temperatures indoors of over 25 Celsius)! We don’t have Air conditioning to any of the bedrooms so I might look at investing in a mobile AC unit to try and keep the front of the house a little more comfortable for all of us (especially the new Junior).

We could of course look at buying a new house before the end of this year, after all, whats a life without pressure hey?

Popularity: 3% [?]

Australian Salary Survey - How much will I earn in Australia?

When moving out to Australia the question around Australian Salary’s and how these compare to those paid in your current country are often one of those frequently asked questions which will be important to everyone.

The consensus is that due to Australia’s ‘Cheaper’ cost of living, the average salary can often be 10 - 20% less then those paid in your home country.

I know when we moved from the UK to Australia I was told to expect to take a big pay cut if I was applying for a similar job, having said that I think it really comes down to the case of supply and demand and thankfully I was able to secure a job paying a similar kind of salary to the one I was paid in the UK.

Thankfully, there are a number of Australian based recruitment companies who regularly Review and publish Salary Survey information. These are a really helpful resource for you to review if you want to get an indication of the kind of Salaries being paid within a specific region.

Michael Page International has recently published the results of its most recent survey.

The surveys are broken down into a number of areas and include:

• Banking (.pdf 149KB)
• Accounting (.pdf 149KB)
• Chartered Accounting Profession (.pdf 149KB)
• Engineering (.pdf 135KB)
• Procurement & Supply Chain (.pdf 121KB)
• Human Resources (.pdf 123KB)
• Legal (.pdf 127KB)
• Sales (.pdf 143KB)
• Marketing (.pdf 147KB)
• Technology (.pdf 138KB)

You’ll need the Adobe’s acrobat reader to open these files. It’s a free application and if your not one of the 98% of computer users who already have this you can download it by clicking here.

Another of the large recruitment companies; Hays, also publish a similar survey on an annual basis.

The Hays Survey is compiled from information collected from their 42 locations throughout Australia and New Zealand and are based on the average salary paid on over 12,000 jobs advertised by Hays in the previous 12 months.

Similarly to the Michael Page Salary Surveys, the Hays Surveys are broken down into a number of key areas including Accountancy and Finance, Insurance, Contact Centres, Resourcing and Mining and Legal to name just a few.

Surveys are great but sometimes are so generic they may not give you all of the information you need to get a true idea of the kind of money you might end up earning within Australia.

Prior to moving to Australia I found the best way to get an idea of the Salary I could expect to be paid was by simply searching for a role similar to my current role on a number of the Aussie based recruitment websites.

Seek.com.au is touted as being Australia’s No 1 Employment site, however I also found that sites such as Jobserve.com.au and Mycareer.com.au also presented some decent information.

You’ll quickly find that there is some duplication of the roles advertised on these sites so the site you decide to settle on will really come down to your own personal preferences I guess.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Flying back to Sydney

Well, I’m packing my bags again on Sunday and will be flying back over to Sydney to visit our Sydney offices and attend numerous meetings with Suppliers over the next week.

I still think it sounds cool to say I’ve got meetings in Sydney , since my mini tour of Australia, I’m also hoping to have enough time this time around to see some of familiar sights.

Sydney is one of my favorite places and was the first city we ever visited when we traveled to Australia. If anything, Sydney is to blame for us falling in love with this fantastic country we now call home so it will be nice to spend a little time there again.

I’m traveling this week and want to try and cram as much stuff and meetings in as I can  because I want to make sure I don’t need to go for the next couple of months due to the pending birth of Junior number two.

The missus is already a little frantic that I’m traveling away but as we still have two months before the due date I reckon we’ll be OK -crosses fingers, toes, arms, legs.

I really do hope that this is the case because being a short FIVE HOUR FLIGHT away from home could cause a number of logistical issues should I need to get back quickly!

Thankfully the missus has been busy building up a small group of mum ‘mates’ that she has met via Kindergarten. I have to say, Kindi has turned out to be the centre of the social universe for the missus. Its amazing the number of things that get organised through the Kindi moms and its been a good way for us to meet a number of the moms and dads through the mutual acquaintance of juniors little kindi buddy’s.

It’s always been a lot easier for me to make new friends since arriving in Australia as I kinda got chucked into the social circle when I started work. The missus on the otherhand had to start from scratch and do little more searching.

I think its fair to say that its been a bit more of a hard slog, however, the missus is very sociable and slowly but surly she’s started to get together on a regular basis with a number of like minded moms and the sounds of text messages arriving on her mobile are again starting to become a familiar sound at home

We always knew that starting from scratch from a friend perspective was always going to be pretty hard but we seem to be getting there now and it certainly gives me a little more peace of mind when it comes to traveling again.

In other news I’m still kicking myself for not making my mind up earlier as the Australia Exchange Rate continues to strengthen against the UK Pound!

I’m seriously getting into the kind of space where I’m starting to think ’sod it’ as the house prices are still rising over here and I’m starting to get paranoid that the houses we can afford now will be out of our reach in 12 months time.

Still, Sydney will be interesting

Popularity: 2% [?]

Australian Skilled Visa’s - An Overview

For many folks looking to emigrate to Australia, the Australian Skilled Visa route is often the route they take when applying for perminant residency.

There are many different classes of Skilled Visa so I have listed an overview of the different Visa Classes for you below:

SKILLED INDEPENDENT (Permanent) - sub class 136.

This is one of the main skills migration visas.

Who can apply: Individuals with occupations on the Skilled Occupations List with a positive skills assessment from an authorised body and who meet the current pass mark of 120.

What it entitles you to: Permanent Residence and the ability to settle anywhere in Australia.

Terms and Conditions: Points are granted for skill, age, English Language Ability, Work Experience etc

Further Information: The normal age limit applies for principal applicants i.e. less than forty-five years.

SKILLED AUSTRALIAN SPONSORED (Permanent) - sub class 138.

A further skills visa where the applicant has a Parent, sibling, adult child, aunt or uncle, resident in Australia (Australian citizen, Australian permanent residence visa holder or eligible New Zealand citizen) and willing to sponsor.

Who can apply: Any skilled person as before with the appropriate relation in Australia and a positive skills assessment from an authorised body.

What it entitles you to: Permanent residence and the ability to settle anywhere in Australia.

Terms and Conditions: Points are awarded as before and sponsorship contributes a further 15 points. The pass mark is 110 points.

Further Information: Normal skills migration age limit applies for the Principal applicant i.e. less than forty-five years. An assurance of support is required. There are specific requirements for applicants with sponsors who live in Sydney, Wollongong, Gosford or Newcastle.

SKILLED STATE/TERRITORY NOMINATED INDEPENDENT (Permanent) - sub class137.

Again one of the main group of skills migration visas.

Who can apply: Individuals with occupations on the Skilled Occupations List who have a positive skills assessment from an authorised body but cannot meet the skilled independent pass mark but meet the pool mark and the occupation is a skill shortage in one of the states/territories.

What it entitles you to: Permanent residence but one is required to live and work in the nominating state/territory for two years.

Further Information: Normal skills migration age limits apply; the principal applicant must be less than forty-five years.

SKILLED INDEPENDENT REGIONAL PROVISIONAL (Temporary) - sub class 495.

A skills visa giving initial three years temporary residence.

Who can apply: Any skilled person with a positive skills assessment from an authorised body who has no family members in Australia to sponsor, who cannot reach the Skilled Independent pass mark of 120 points and whose skills do not meet the requirements for State/Territory nomination.

What it entitles you to: Three years temporary residence in a regional area of Australia and it can be made permanent on application after two years residence with one year’s employment.

Terms and Conditions: State/Territory sponsorship is required and the normal skills migration age limit applies, the principal applicant must be less than forty-five years of age.

Further Information: It is necessary to achieve a 110 points criteria for skills application, skill, age, English language ability, work experience, etc. DIMIA will award ten additional points for state/territory sponsorship.

SKILLED-DESIGNATED AREA SPONSORED PROVISIONAL (Temporary) - sub class 496.

A skills visa giving initial three years temporary residence.

Who can apply: Any skilled person with an appropriate family member, willing to sponsor, living in a designated postcode area and a positive skills assessment from one of the authorised bodies. In this case family members are, Parent, Sibling, Adult Child, Aunt/Uncle, Grandparent or First Cousin.

What it entitles you to: A provisional visa initially for three years and applicants can apply for permanent residence on completion of two years’ residence and one year’s employment in a designated area. Terms and Conditions: The application is not points tested and the current work experience requirement is reduced.

Further Information: Normal skills migration age limit applies – the principal applicant must be less than forty-five years.

EMPLOYER NOMINATION (Permanent) - sub class 121.

This is the major element in a group of four visas which are employer driven.

Who can apply:Highly skilled individuals whose skills are difficult to source in Australia whose occupation is on the ENSOL.

What it entitles you to: Permanent residence in Australia - other Sub classes in this group provide permanent or temporary residence.

Terms and Conditions: The employer must have DIMIA approval to recruit overseas and applicants (nominees) have six months to lodge an application from the date of nomination approval. If the applicant does not have two years recent work experience in Australia (including twelve months with the nominating employer) normal skills assessment will be required from one of the authorised bodies unless a base salary of over
$151,500 p.a is offered.

Further Information: Normal skills migration age limits apply i.e. up to forty-four years but there is limited flexibility beyond this in exceptional circumstances

Popularity: 5% [?]

Australian Business Visa Classes - An Overview

When Emigrating to Australia, the Business Visa Class may well be a viable option for you. Below you’ll find an overview of the different types of Australian Business Visa’s currently available to you:

STATE / TERRITORY SPONSORED BUSINESS OWNER (PROVISIONAL) CATEGORY - Subclass 163

Who can apply: Business people intending to establish a business in Australia.

What it entitles you to: A 4-year provisional visa.

Terms & Conditions: Applicants, must be aged less than 55. They must be able to demonstrate that they have at least four years’ successful business experience in a senior management role in a business or businesses in which they have an ownership interest; that their current business has had a turnover of at least $300,000 in 2 of the previous 4 years; that their business and personal assets have a net value of at least $250,000 and that they have adequate assets to finance the new venture and to support themselves whilst the business is being established; they must also demonstrate that they have carefully researched the market and must submit a detailed business plan. They must obtain sponsorship from the appropriate regional authority of a State or Territory government.
Further Information: The proposal must be shown to offer benefit to Australia. Once the business has been successfully established, a permanent visa may be applied forBUSINESS OWNER (PROVISIONAL) CATEGORY - Subclass 160

Who can apply: Business people intending to establish a business in Australia.

What it entitles you to: A 4-year provisional visa.

Terms & Conditions: Applicants must be aged less than 45. They must be able to demonstrate that they have at least four years’ successful business experience in a senior management role; that their current business has had a turnover of at least $500,000 in 2 of the previous 4 years; that their business and personal assets have a net value of at least $500,000 with net assets in the business of $200,000 and that they have adequate assets to finance the new venture and to support themselves whilst the business is being established; they must also demonstrate that they have carefully researched the market and must submit a detailed business plan. They must notify the appropriate regional authority of a State or Territory government, but do not need to obtain sponsorship.

Further Information: The proposal must be shown to offer benefit to Australia. Once the business has been successfully established, a permanent visa may be applied for.

STATE / TERRITORY SPONSORED INVESTOR (PROVISIONAL) CATEGORY - Subclass 165

Who can apply: Business people willing to invest $750,000 in Australia

What it entitles you to:. A 4-year provisional visa

Terms & Conditions: Applicants must be aged less than 55. They must be able to demonstrate that they have at least three years’ experience of direct involvement in managing one or more businesses or investments with an ownership interest of a least 10%, that their assets have net value of at least $1,125,000 and that they can demonstrate a high level of management skill in relation to investment or business activity. They must obtain sponsorship from the appropriate regional authority of a State or Territory government.

Further Information: The proposal must show that they intend to maintain a business or an investment in Australia after the designated investment has matured. At this point, a permanent visa may be applied for.

INVESTOR (PROVISIONAL) CATEGORY - Subclass 162

Who can apply: Business people willing to invest $1,500,000 in Australia

What it entitles you to:. A 4-year provisional visa

Terms & Conditions: Applicants must be aged less than 45. They must be able to demonstrate that, they have at least three years’ experience of direct involvement in managing one or more businesses or investments that their assets have a net value of at least $2,250,000 and that they can demonstrate a high level of management skill in relation to investment or business activity. They must notify the appropriate regional authority of a State or Territory government, but do not need to obtain sponsorship.
Further Information: The proposal must show that they intend to maintain a business or an investment in Australia after the designated investment has matured. At this point, a permanent visa may be applied for.

STATE / TERRITORY SPONSORED SENIOR EXECUTIVE (PROVISIONAL) CATEGORY - Subclass 164

Who can apply: Senior Executives intending to establish a business in Australia

What it entitles you to:. A 4-year provisional visa.

Terms & Conditions: Applicants must be aged less than 55 or they are proposing a business considered to be of exceptional economic benefit by the sponsoring state government, they must be able to demonstrate that, for at least two of the last four years, they have occupied a position in the 3 highest levels of the management structure of a major business; that their assets have a net value of at least $250,000 and that they have adequate assets to finance the new venture and to support themselves whilst the business is being established; they must also demonstrate that they have carefully researched the market and must submit a detailed business plan. They must obtain sponsorship from the appropriate regional authority of a State or Territory government.

Further Information: The proposal must be shown to offer benefit to Australia. Once the business has been successfully established, a permanent visa may be applied for

SENIOR EXECUTIVE (PROVISIONAL) CATEGORY - Subclass 161

Who can apply: Senior Executives intending to establish a business in Australia

What it entitles you to:. A 4-year provisional visa

Terms & Conditions: Applicants must be aged less than 45. They must be able to demonstrate that, for at least two of the last four years, they have occupied a position in the 3 highest levels of the management structure of a major business; that their assets have a net value of at least $500,000 and that they have adequate assets to finance the new venture and to support themselves whilst the business is being established; they must also demonstrate that they have carefully researched the market and must submit a detailed business plan. They must notify the appropriate regional authority of a State or Territory government, but do not need to obtain sponsorship.

Further Information: The proposal must be shown to offer benefit to Australia. Once the business has been successfully established, a permanent visa may be applied for

BUSINESS TALENT VISA (Permanent) - Subclass 132

Who can apply: Substantially wealthy business people who intend a significant business activity and who need to be resident to execute the business plan.

What it entitles you to:. A permanent residence visa

Terms & Conditions: Applicants must be aged less than 55 or are proposing a business considered to be of exceptional economic benefit by the sponsoring state government, and must be able to demonstrate

• minimum net business equity in the home country business of $400,000 (2 of the last 4 years),
• annual turnover in the home country business of $3 million (2 of last 4 years),
• minimum net personal assets of $1.5 million, able to be transferred to Australia

A proposal for State sponsorship must first be made, which will include substantial research - much of it conducted by the applicant, with total investment (applicant funds plus commercial loans) at well over one million dollars, expectation of many new jobs to be created, supported by a thorough business plan with conditional agreements between suppliers or partners etc. - in effect, this will read as an “all set business, just waiting to go”.

Further Information: Once sponsorship has been obtained, the proposal will then have to be approved by DIAC.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Retirement Visa Class - An Overview

Just because you may be over the age of 45 does not necessarily mean your chances of moving down under are lost for ever.

There are a number of Retirement Visa Classes available for those entering your golden years who still have a yearning to move down under.

Below we present the main options available to you:

INVESTOR RETIREMENT VISA (Temporary) - sub class 405

Who can apply: Anyone who is 55 years of age or over. If a couple, one partner only has to be 55

What it entitles you to:. Four years temporary residence in Australia with limited work rights of 20 hours per week. Further applications can be made.

Terms & Conditions: Applicants can have no Dependants other than a spouse and must have full private medical/hospital insurance at all times. State/territory government sponsorship is required and the following charges apply :

- A second visa charge of $8,000 per person

- Assets of $500,000 if settling in a regional area of Australia, or $750,000 if settling in a non-regional area, to establish themselves.

- Funds for investment in a treasury bond with the sponsoring state/territory government of $500,000 if settling in a regional area

or $750,000 if settling in a non-regional area.

- Net annual income stream from investments, pensions, etc. of $50,000 p.a. if settling in a regional area or $65,000 p.a. if settling in a non-regional area.

Subsequent visa applications will carry the same second application charge and annual income requirements but the amounts for investment in treasury bonds are $250,000 if settling in a regional area or $500,000 if settling in a non-regional area.

Further Information: Normal health and character checks are required on initial application and streamlined procedures on subsequent applications. Limited work rights will allow for voluntary work or investment management activities.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Next Page »