KhunHeineken

The USA just lost its AAA credit rating. I suggest Australia isn't far behind. S&P have already warned Australia is at risk. Australia is only a small economy. If we lose our AAA credit rating, the AUD will take a bigger hit. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/moodys-downgrades-us-aa1-rating-2025-05-16/

Many members have put forward many alternatives to Skype, across the many Skype threads. Most are download, install, set up an account with email and password, add money, make calls. As another member asked, "Why do some people have drama with everything where some people have none?" Many of the Skype alternatives are just as easy to set up as Skype was. I put forward a few alternatives. One of them I said I could not recommend because it was not easy to set up. I also put forward the below alternative which was set up within 2 minutes. https://www.voipbuster.com/dashboard The majority of the alternatives put forward by members are an easy set up. If a member chooses a product solely based on it being the cheapest price, but it has a complicated set up, that's their choice, but you get what you pay for.

I was speaking in general, and not to your specific case.

If you look at the sticker on the bag, that's the symbol for "earth." It's not a cannabis leaf.

Victoria, also under Labor, is broke. This guy's land tax went up over 2000%.

Labor to tax money that doesn't exist for people. How good is Australia?

That will work fine, if behind that bag of sand that earth cable goes through the wall and onto a stake into the ground.

No good to you unless you have purposely built your own house and had 3 core wiring installed, with a circuit going to an earth. Surge protectors divert the surge to earth. With 2 pin plugs, there's no third cable going to earth. If you are in a condo, nothing you can do about it. If you are in a house, you might be able to rig something up on the power point where your sensitive electronics are, and where this power board will be. You could remove the power point, drill a small hole through the wall, and run a cable to a ground outside. Hammer a copper rod into the ground and attached the third cable to it. Back inside, either try to source an international plug power point or, strip some of the insulation back on the power board lead, cut into the earth cable and join it to your new earth cable, and then insulate the joint and the lead again. You would have to drill a small hole through the power point to poke the new earth cable through. . The above effectively means you have made a ground for the surge to be diverted to only for that one power point, but since you are using a power board, all the devices attached to the one power point will be surge protected.

Perhaps because some people only look for the absolute cheapest possible option, and then wonder why they don't get what they pay for.

Well, you know what they say about "death and taxes?" Errrr, it's draft government policy, which appears to have bipartisan, as shown in a link I have posted previously. We are talking about governments and taxes, not the weather. The thread title asks why posted reject living in the west. One reason is high taxes, well, the day was always going to come when they closed loopholes, particularly as the current laws are 90 years old and no longer fit for purpose. That said, here's a glass half full article for you. https://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/tax-compliance/20961-political-interest-in-reviewing-tax-residency-laws-has-disappeared-says-specialist

As we all will. Once again, paying tax in Thailand is the least of of most people's concern, and that amount can be minimized anyway. Paying 30% tax on your income in Australia, because you have been outside of Australia for 183 days, ouch, and yes, the pension is deemed an income.

It's my understanding that most people with a similar situation don't care even if they qualify only for $1 a fortnight of pension money, reason is, it unlocks a lot of other benefits.

It's funny because you have the kids of the boomers helping their kids to buy a house, known as "the bank of mum and dad" because the housing market is so messed up, yet, when these people are given a chance to vote for change, they don't take it, ensuring the next generation will be even worse off when it comes to housing.

New video, only 3 weeks old. They say it's coming in 2026. No idea where they get that information from. Remember, it's the opposite for Aussie expat pensioners, who want to remain a resident of Australia for tax purposes, in order to avail themselves of the tax free threshold.

Interesting that Centerlink knows one's date of return to Australia, thus, date of departure as well, which means they know how many days spent inside and outside of Australia in a financial year. Does 183 days sound familiar?