there is some truth to this though.

google "The World Bank's Doing Business report says Australia is second easiest place to start a business"

Sausage rolls
Australian Sausages taste like horsemeat. Revolting. Your going to be bigging up the delights of fritz and Dagwood dogs next...



Dagwood Dog!!! Oh My GOD only in my worst nightmares......

Yeah they don't do the best sausage rolls although I've had a really nice pork sausage roll in North Sydney train station. Pie face ones aren't too bad with a bit of ketchup even if they are not pork.

Australia does customer service very well. Now, before you laugh, telecoms companies are usually rubbish as they are world wide. But generally speaking, when you walk into a shop, you get a genuine friendly greeting. There are exceptions.

Applying for your drivers licence and walking out the door with your new licence. That impressed me very much. Being able to change the address on your licence for free an unlimited amount of times, even if its just be a sticker on the back.

Australians do 'sickies' better than anyone. I'll soon be an Aussie and looking forward to pulling the sickies very soon . Saying that, the company I'm in now don't seem to do it much and they are mostly Aussie.

Also, pub food. I don't think I've been to a pub in Sydney yet who didn't do a decent burger.

I read the original post as things that Australia does best, amongst all the things Australia does. I then read the article and see the author was referencing things Australia does better than other countries. It's something that any one of us could write about our home country compared to where we've been. To be taken with a pinch of salt I think.

I know it's a part of the national folklore...but I've never really agreed with this.

In the UK I could self certify SEVEN consecutive business days.

Here...it's always been:

2 consecutive days - need a medical cert.
Sickie on a Monday - need a medical cert.
Sickie on a Friday - need a medical cert.
Sickie adjacent to a public holiday - need a medical cert.

I had a look at my leave requests recently and realised that my sickies were almost always on Tuesdays!

But having a long weekend via a sickie means, making a dr appointment, paying $65, going to Medicare to get $32 back etc...! Hassle!

I think thats unusual but maybe it's not. From my experience, a sickie can happen on any day of the week without a doctors note.

If that's the article I read a few days ago - note that the author is also quite negative about Australia - and says what many say here.

It's relative folks -that's what you have to remember.
He was talking about red tapes in countries like India etc.

His point was that it ain't a bad place.

I've never needed a note - that's for sure! In fact most mgrs I work for barely record them.

I've had 3 (edit: 4 actually!) employers all with the same policy.

Here's how to do it properly!

http://www.jimmeruk.com/Jim-Reports/...-your-job.html

Interesting about the ones after a weekend etc. I can see where they are coming from...

With kids, I find I get sick on Mondays.. because if my kids get sick at school, I seem to get it over the weekend!

offense
racism
mediocrity

So you've tried all sausages in Australia? If you bother to look you'll find sausages better than any in blighty but they aren't in supermarkets obviously. Try organic pork from old English breeds that have died out in England for a start. Too many others to mention. Generalisations like yours are common here but they really don't achieve anything.

Of course they are common here, they are the kind of comment you'd expect from us expats. If you don't like them, don't read the threads that are likely to contain them.


I've spent several years trying different sausages in Australia, I now don't bother. I avoid sausages over there and only eat them when I'm back here at home where I can find good ones at a reasonable price, in every supermarket.

I don't lnow about some of those:
Customer service - bad here, bad in the UK
Pies - again, crap in the UK and Australia. NZ is the place for great pies
Red tape - rampant in both countries but probably slightly more so here
Coffee - I don't get coffee culture. AUD4/GBPeso 2 for something that costs 10c to make. Wankers