mohogony

coolshadows

Rubbish. Plenty of cheap housing about.

Amazulu

Why?

It is expensive here no doubt about it but you can:
a) Deal with it
b) Let it consume you and get bitter and twisted about it (like a lot of people on BE)
If you can do a) then you will enjoy your life here, but if you do b) then you are better off in the ultra low priced utopia that is the UK.

Geelong Gent

Well as I said you buy cheap.....

Cheetah7

How the frigging hell do you know what my situation was in England? Because you don't so please do not make assumptions.

On the wages we were on in the UK and where we lived, I am telling you that we could not have afforded it.

The government assistance here also helped pay our expenses for buying a house. We also earn more money in Perth than we did in the UK.

So before you say 'rubbish', think about what you say, you have no bloody idea of how we lived, where we lived and our situation.

HelenTD

An income of $100k might sound a lot, but Pomtastic is right, it doesn't go that far in Perth. We live quite frugally, but manage to save nothing. Even if you have private medical insurance, the rebate often doesn't cover the full fee, so you have to pay the gap. If there is something wrong with your kids, you cannot rely on the public health system to fix them. Some health conditions might get full cover in public hospitals, but others do not, or the care is of such poor quality, that you will do whatever you can so that your child can be as well as possible.

The Australian govt, especially a Labor one, regards $100k as being rich. It's about this level that you do not get Family Tax Benefit A and even Part B is reduced to very little. Let me tell you, we do not feel rich, or even comfortable!

It is so long since I have lived in the UK that I cannot compare the cost of living. However, I do know some things are cheaper there, so I buy from there. The cost of living is bound to be more expensive for families with kids than those without, whichever country you live in.

Kim67

In the eight months I was back in Perth in 2008 we had to use the emergency department of PMH three times - once for facial swelling caused by a food allergy, once for a head that needed gluing back together and once for a broken finger - the care on all three occasions was great and all covered under the public health system. I also used the Public Outpatients clinic at PMH a couple of times (transferring my child from clinics in Brisbane) and again all consultations, testing etc were fantastic and free.

Grayling

My experience of the emergency department of a public hospital in Brisbane was awful

.....and so was some of the follow up

Kim67

I've had some terrible experiences in Brisbane, but really the kids emergency section at the Mater can have scores of people waiting and a lot of them because they can't be bothered making an appointment with a GP. But when my kids have been really sick or needed to be taken in by ambulance when one broke their leg in a playground accident at school, they received top care and were in surgery within a couple of hours.

ABCDiamond

Yet they give the Low Income benefits to people up to $67,500 per year.

I think these benefits seem to cut out when people are no longer Low income, there is then a gap called Middle income, before they reach the RICH level, and hit them with a larger tax rate at $180,000 per year.
Looking at that, I would say they have classed it as:
Low Income = up to $67,500
Middle Income = $67,500 to $180,000
High Income (rich?) = Above $180,000

The average for a couple, both working full time, is actually $126,000 per year, combined.

ABCDiamond

Our experiences have been similar, urgent cases have been extremely fast, but non urgent tend to be left a while longer.

For emergencies I am totally happy with the system here.

77hil

Agreed. For the price of a house in the Midlands we could get a beach town property up the NSW coast (not Sydney admittedly). So house in the Midlands or NSW coast?...oooh tough one.

While I'm sure some of the expense is Australia specific, I wonder how much some of the frustration is simply because no matter where these people were they simply couldn't afford the life that they want.

Cant rain all the time2

Really?

Well I'm from Staffordshire( not the best place in the world but I was born there so what can you do ) £190,000 buys you a nice 4 bed detached house, what does that buy you with the curent exchange rate?

A 3 bed house that needs bombing that's what!!

HelenTD

We had a recent, life-threatening experience at emergency at PMH. The treatment was appalling. They incorrectly diagnosed him and our son almost died. There was no evidence of the caring profession on the ward. There was no follow-up care. Thank God for HBF. I've since met others who experienced the same awful treatment. It sounds like some medical teams and wards provide proper care, but others are terrible. If I was worried before about any of my kids ever needing to go to hospital, I'm even more worried now.

Cheetah7

I think most of us sadly have a horror story to do with hospitals - whatever the country.

For instance the care my Mum received at Hemel Hospital was appalling, totally and utterly appalling.

The care my kid nephew received when he was in ITU with his diabetes was top notch, they saved his life.

The care my Dad received at his local hospital was fabulous, yet there have been heaps of complaints about it.

Northwick Park hospital when we went there and I was a patient, was a total shit hole, Mr PP was there for suspected Dengue fever once - we got sent by the GP and the casualty doctor looked at him (yes I said looked at him, not examined him in any way) and said 'You don't look too bad, go home and see how you go' - much to the GPs horror.

Its luck of the draw, depends on the staff at the time but still worrying none the less and certainly isnt limited to any particular country.