JWW

I don't want to start a row here but, I have noticed just recently that amongst the usual chuff on the NZ news regarding Maori moaning about land and farmers moaning about....well moaning about everything, there does appear to be some very unpleasant stuff happening in Aussie at the minute.

People being burned to death in Brissy, father and baby get crap kicked out of them in Sydney, bloke in Perth goes loopy.

This is purely for the residents really, is it getting worse or is it just a cluster?

DianeOZ

Not been here that long - so I don't know if it's getting worse, but it has been pretty bad recently and sadly instead of being shocked at these things, it's turning into a bit of normal thing to hear on the radio, just like in the UK.

PeteY

Just the media.

Maybe the tabloids of the planet all unite and create a bunch of stories and then share them out?

Probably not

However, bad things happen everywhere. I very much doubt its any different in terms of violent crime in the UK, Oz, Nz etc. Somewhere like S Africa or Liberia maybe....


Saying that....i did have a somwhat disturbing chat with a close friend in oz the other day.

Shes a teracher on her rural placement, in Coober Pedy (middle of nowhere, SA). Shes having a real hard time of it at the moment, and is thinking of quiting teaching unless she can get work in a private school (does'nt like her rural placement). Her kids sound like a real nightmare. They make weapons daily and try to use them on each other! She says they have ranged from a nob of blutac COVERED in pins which was fired accross the classroom using a catapult, to a hard lunchbox with sharpened pencils poking out the sides. She also has to tell the police when shes going out of town as the kids know where the teachers live (small town) and have been known to break in an vandalise the place.

NOW>.......NOTE>......this kind of thing IS rare. My 2 brother in laws went to rural schools and they turned out fine, and said they had never heard of anything like this. However.....i thought i would share the story....

tinaj

Sounds just like my job in Tooting!!

Now you know why everyone ends up leaving teaching, it is the same in most 'developed' countries the world over- no respect for adults and little discipline.

If the parents of the decent children knew how their kids education was suffering because of the badly behaved yobs, they would have a fit.

I have often thought video cameras would be a good idea. The parents find it very hard to believe that their little darlings could behave that way. In fact we had some kids so bad that their parents had to accompany them in the classroom. of course they didn't misbehave then!

pommie bastard

People are people so what happens in the UK or NZ happens here , I do think there is a Yank atitude creeping in Australia that is ugly to say the lest.

Megalania

Coober Pedy (opal mining) is probably the toughest and roughest town in Aus. The kids families are probably feuding over opal leases or some such.

JWW

Maybe showing it on the NZ news is all part of a propaganda plan to stop Kiwi's moving there.

Kiwipaul

I feel as safe here(if not safer than I did in the UK). Never had a problem in the UK though. Sh*t happens everywhere, just steer clear of the rough areas (their is not that many).
Police here don't take as much sh*t as elsewhere, they just introduced an anti hooning law to stop reckless driving. First time their caught they loose car for 24 hours, 2nd time 3 weeks, 3 time permenently. Seems to be working, although no first hand experience.
Shame the courts are nothing like a ruthless, and let far to many people walk.

tiredwithtwins

hi tinaj...
I agree 100% with you. I live on a particulary crappy council estate, and my daughter went to the local infants for a term as I had just given birth to twins, and it was the more convenient option than the 12 mile round trip we now do. The parents are as much off their heads as the kids are... (In a recent news story about the level of poverty around here, one mother said she couldnt afford proper food for her 10 yr old son, and had to resort to buying chips and fish every night just to feed him.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
doh...
I realise that schools in Oz wont be perfect, but they surely cant get much worse than here. As I said, my daughter now goes to a school which is a 12 mile round trip - its in a fairly well off area. I now get (subtle) digs at taking up a school place that should go to someone who lives in the catchment area! Whatever happened to living in a democratic society and having choices!?
The good thing about Oz is that there is no class system, and that can only go in its favour...

jopaulss

Hi Tiredwithtwins
Trouble is what you have to remember is its a shock for some of us , we came from a country village sat in the cotswolds , and we have really had our eyes opened. Before in the UK we would read about these things happeneing , but now we seem to here them daily and are witnesses to it all and the victims. Yep shit happens everywhere its sad. We do love it here but it seems to be getting worse since we arrived nearly a year ago , the kids killed in cars is just so bad. My son said they sit in their english class and the hoons burn out in front of the school everyday , he said the noise is terrible , he is only in duncraig high , nice area. I think they shouldnt let them have these powerful cars here , they do to much damage .
Joanne

pommie bastard

Avoid what most of Australia?

Old excuses for problems

IT is almost an inevitable conclusion that whenever we hear of robberies, bashings, rape, antisocial behaviour and car chases, the first thought is: "Were the offenders Aboriginals?"

More often than not, this is the case. The situation is now seriously out of control. Yet we keep hearing the same old worn out irrelevant excuses from Aboriginal agencies - disadvantage, 200 years of oppression, racism and so on.

Whenever Aboriginals are criticised, their leaders label it a racist act. But the overwhelming majority of people want Aboriginal people to stand on their own feet and become useful and productive members of society.

City-dwelling Aboriginals have access to the same facilities as the rest of us to become educated and trained in the skills to carry them through life. They also have access to an army of government and other agencies with vast amounts of money, all of which is unavailable to the remaining 97 per cent of the population.

If that isn't a system of apartheid, then I don't know what is.

Aboriginal elders quite rightly throw their hands up in despair when they see the direction that their culture is heading.

All we get is politically-correct nonsense and end up with more and more Aboriginal children dying from their lifestyle or ending up on a merry-go-round of incarceration.

Aboriginals can break the cycle of crime but they alone must want to do it first before it gets much worse. Respect, like any other quality, has to be earned not demanded.

JEFF BUTLER, Leschenault.


A 12-YEAR-OLD boy killed in a high speed car chase. An elderly couple viciously bashed and robbed in their own home. A defenceless animal weighed down with concrete and drowned in a backyard swimming pool. And all this in just one day. The big man upstairs must be looking down and wondering where it all went wrong.

EMMA BODIN, Bibra Lake.

Kiwipaul

I'm sure I could find just as gruesome articles from UK papers if I could be bothered to look.
Just stating MY experience of 11 years out here.

Car broken into once nothing stolen. Never had any of my houses broken into, yet I leave them empty for months at a time. Never experienced any personnel violence or threats of such.
Only had one car accident when someone in car park reversed into me.

Just remembered did have my daysack stolen from deserted beach in NZ whilst out swimming. Sh*t happens.

I don't believe you can blame Abos for most crime in Brisbane at least as I rarely see any.

Megalania

We have the odd hoon, mostly from neighbouring families. Found throwing my hat at them seems highly effective. Rarely a problem anymore.

Families cop blast for hoon behaviour

Wedding car confiscated for hooning

Hoons Face Vehicle Loss

pommie bastard

The UK and Australia has crime only a fool would think that any country did not , or a Pom dreamer.
I do not blame Abos for crime unlike some .



IN a direct challenge to indigenous Australia, West Australian Premier Geoff Gallop warned Aboriginal leaders and parents to "get real" and shake off a culture of denial in which events in the nation's history were blamed for their children's bad behaviour.

The even-mannered leader turned angry yesterday as Aboriginal leaders and families blamed anti-social behaviour among indigenous youth on historic dispossession, after a stolen car crashed and rolled on a Perth highway on Monday, killing Carl Morrison, a 12-year-old Aboriginal joy-rider.

As indigenous leaders accused the Premier of inciting racism, Dr Gallop said the issue of anti-social behaviour by indigenous children was a national priority.

Dr Gallop said indigenous child abuse and protection issues would be high on the agenda when the Prime Minister and premiers meet at the Council of Australian Governments later this month.

Kiwipaul

I've admitted that I've experienced 2 crimes so obviously Australia is not crime free (mind you both these crimes were in NZ).
Just stateing the fact that crime is no worse here than in the UK, and it's def not a place where crime is totally out of control. Cannot comment on the Burb you live in mind.