Is Australia the best country in the world to live?

[FelixtheDog]

I have travelled around the world and found this is the case by a long long way.

The weather, the people, the lack of poverty, the modern buildings, the clean streets all contributed to it trully being a great place to be.

[zara 4]

I doubt i'll ever get there but australia is the place i've always wanted to be ever since i was a little girl,you never know maybe one day!

[jno]

don't be black, though

[Whickerman]

I've two friends who went to live there. One loves it, still there after 6 years. One came back disgusted at the levels of rascism. Whatever you can live with i suppose.

[noxlumos]

Yeah Nazi Germany was spotlessly clean.....

I have a huge problem with Australia and it's treatment of it's indiginous people, as whickerman says it's a racist hellhole, very nice to look at, fascinating Flora and Fauna but really needs to kick itself up the backside and sort out it's ethics.

All that being said most of the Aussies I've met are lovely people individually.

[peterd]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2149799.stm

[jno]

link doesn't seem to work peterd

[gary baldy]

Australia is a cultural wasteland!
Bland country for bland people.
The grass is always greener on the other side isnt it?
Give me British grit anyday of the week and all the amazing things this country produces from a relatively small population.

[peterd]

Link was saying based on quality of life & life expectancy Norway is top. Uk came 15th, only just realised report is from 2002 though !!

[jno]

erm, well, Britain's population is three or four times Australia's, gary (which puts the Ashes triumph in some sort of perspective), and no country that produces Picnic at Hanging Rock and Mad Max 2 can be that bland... though I would agree they're not on the same cultural level as Sex Lives of the Potato Men.

peterd I expect that's well out of date as British life has got steadily better under New Labour.

[gary baldy]

Being good at hitting a small ball with a big stick and a couple of decent films in 100 years wont tempt me to The Promised Land!
Thinking about it, more culture has come out of the area that covers my local postcode than the entire Australian nation.

[jno]

tut, gary, the British invented hitting small balls with big sticks (as you will know, there's even a mention of baseball in one of Jane Austen's novels) and have been trying to find someone to play against ever since. You can't renounce your heritage that easily.

[KittyGlitter]

I guess it depends on what people want from life? There is no such thing as a perfect country - I could list pro and cons for both the UK and Oz. There is the grass is greener syndrome too, which attracts people to Oz but there will always be some who miss the UK - I know this from experience and they then return. I remember vowing never to complain about our British climate, after suffering from extreme heat in the Northern Territory but now I'm complaining about being cold!

[CT]

Here's a newer one, by a different group. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4020523.stm
Australia is always likely to be good at sports because the climate favours the outdoor life more than here in the UK. However it is home to something like 9 out of 10 of the world's most poisonous creatures.

[waimarie]

I've been there a few times and can't see what all the fuss is about. You didn't mention the flies FelixtheDog, as well as all those other things ready to waylay you, spiders dropping out of trees and through trapdoors on your lawn. Make sure you wear heavy leather leggings the snakes can't penetrate and keep an eye out for that triangular fin when you are wading off that lush beach or the crocs sunbathing on the mud bank. The girls look lovely, bronzed beauties until.................they open their mouths. Oh gawd.

[zara 4]

Everything you've just mentioned waimarie,is in this country anyway,,,in government,so we'd never get homesick over there!!But at least they have sun!

[FelixtheDog]

Its great to hear everyone's opinion. But waimarie, I didnt see any trapdoor spiders in the yards and none dropped on me from the trees, there arent any snakes in the cities, all the house have flyscreens, the beaches have shark nets, the crocs are only in very remote areas and the girls are much much nicer than all the overweight, stodgy, overly made-up, poorly educated and opinionated tarts that seem to dominate the English landscape. Appologies to the minority who are not like that.

[jno]

I believe they do get the occasional taipan near towns in Queensland Felix, and sharks get through once in a while too. It's not really a dangerous place, though. All the same, I think the poverty is kept out of sight and the racism too often isn't.

[pugwashjw]

The problem with the Australian Aborigine is that he is Tribal. That for a long time lived a hand to mouth existence in a very harsh country. Except for a very few, there seems to be a problem with general cleanliness. The Australian government pays them an unemployment amount equal or more than any of its white citizens. Their children both in primary school and high school get a government 'pocket money' payment that is not available to white kids. They are supplied free housing that whites have to work and pay for. They have their own "Aboriginal Legal Service" and when they commit any crime, the excuse is always 'prejudice'. The people in general, like the American 'Red Indian" [ I do not know the politically correct term] cannot handle alcohol and become aggressive when drunk. The moment the government gave this people the 'right' to drink, it was as good as racial suicide. Again, a few have realised that to advance in society, they should not drink. A few have made a success, even reaching government Minister level, but for the majority, disaster. Thje general Australian population is built on a fair go to all, but the aborigines have abused the situation, in turn causing many white people to be unsympathetic. The apparent poverty they live in, as shown to the world, is mostly self inflicted. All the financial help is used on alcohol and no one in authority is brave enough to stop it.

[jno]

European settlers took aborigines' land and in many cases massacred them, in a way that might now be thought of as genocide. See here for instance for the fate of the Tasmanians.

But of course the survivors are a 'problem', as pugwash says.