What do you not like about Australia and New Zealand?

John Howard and our backwards looking right wing 1950s white picket fence government.
Our refugee policies.
The way our health system is veering dangerously towards a US style "look after yourself" one.
Sydney (sorry, Sydneysiders!).
The Herald-Scum magazine, A Current Affair, Steve Price, Andrew Bolt and everything of their ilk.
Bogans.

Umm... wow I really sound like I hate it here heh.

well, ok, i could think of a few things but nothing major.
i mean, you can get used to the awful aussie accent over time (joking ok! i acquired it myself after 17 years there )

oh, x-post trayce. and hey i lived in sydney, its great!
you forgot to mention that oh-so-smugly-irritating richard somethingorother on the australian 60 minutes.

Other than that, Australia is awesome.

richard carleton is bad but mike munro is worse

What I like about Sydney is the artists and musicians. They have had all the airs and graces knocked out of them through neglect and contempt. Also, once they move overseas, they carve it up, cos they're used to working very hard for little or no reward.

yeah it's pretty freaking annoying they get all the seasons upside down! They're celebrating spring in autumn!

I don't understand how people can find Australia uninteresting of all things. Hello - oldest continuous culture ever, some of the most fucked up racist/genocidal etc stuff ever, the most amazing fauna, the penal history, the vastness, Uluru...
?????????

we need bands that aren't looking into the northern hemisphere, or across the ditch, before they've written their first song.

we also need artists who make more art than they talk about making.

and we need cheap flights to places other than aussie or the pacific islands.

and we need our student loans written off or more jobs with better pay to be created so it doesn't matter.

To answer the question The distance from the US, Frente!, and Shihad

NZ students do not in any sense get money handed to them on a silver platter. In fact, if you ask about scholarships etc at any NZ university they say "if you go to the USA, you are bound to get some kind of grant"

do you just not like sydney Trayce, or do you activiely dislike it?

My favorite story involving Shayne Carter, as told by him in an interview:

MIGHTY LEMON DROPS (very much an English band) GUY: "So you're from Australia?"

SHAYNE: "Actually, no, we're from New Zealand."

MLD GUY: "Australia, New Zealand, isn't it all the same thing?"

SHAYNE: "Fuck off, you Irish git."

Thus.

Hahahaha. No.

Moite.

Actually I think what I really would fucking hate is all the South Africans who moved there after '94, yeah let's just find somewhere where we can have a barbecue and watch rugby for EVER and EVER and you know what? there's fuckloads of SAND there to stick your STUpid FUCKing shot-put of a head in and you can write emails about "Quality of Life" home and about how the only teeny thing you find difficult is shouting at WHITE builders and gardeners but fuck broo, they've got it right here, hey, gorra lekker beach and the DAHVing's fentestuck! Cunts.

Sorry. It's not Australia's fault, I know. I suspect I'd like it there too so I don't have a leg to stand on.

christchurch is v british, dunedin is v scottish.

NZ is definitely better - their PM is a hottie.

i used to think that till she shafted the green party. i am fickle like that.

anyone been to Nimbin... c or d? Byron Bay?

i hear its changed though.

That's what we electronic pirates shout.

Can we change the thread title to 'Come anticipate Australia and New Zealand with me' so that people who haven't been there can pontificate about them too?

We went swimming at Byron and the tide brought in a HUGE flood of goddamn blue bottles, and I got stung on the leg. The lifeguards came equipped with huge bottles of white vinegar.

At least I didnt cop a stinger in the eye like some poor kid did. You cant exactly pour the vinegar on an eyeball.

One thing I've always hated about Australia, and which I'm bracing myself to experience again, is the barrage of taxpayer funded propaganda that the Liberal government throws at TV and radio as we approach an election under the guise of providing information to the public.

You know how these ads go - first, a reassuring acoustic guitar figure, then a variety of hard working suckers - fruit shop owners, mums, engineers, etc - ask the camera to help them understand why a particular piece of legislation which deprives them of a series of rights is actually good for them. The voiceover explains that it means more choice, more money, more safety, and more opportunities. They all nod thoughfully, thoroughly persuaded.

the bullshit espirit de corps among all antipodeans is obnoxious. also, put on a good face and stab you in back

- cheap
- irresponsible drunks
- loud

Hahahah moley otm :(

BTW Jon you just had student wankers staying with you, wouldnt matter where they'dve been from tbh!

We are all loud drunks though.

Trayce, they were not undergrads though. One of the couch surfers was an ARCHITECT.

Also they knocked over my nintendo wii while drunk and didn't tell me.

this one girl.

The folks who said they didn't like NZ's racism were on the money.

Having lived away from my homeland for 3+ years I am starting to only remember the good stuff, however my daily perusal of the NZ Herald reminds me that I can definitely live without the horrendous child abuse and suicide stats. Also, Suzanne Paul just won 'Dancing with the Stars'.

I do miss the beach though.

"One thing I've always hated about Australia, and which I'm bracing myself to experience again, is the barrage of taxpayer funded propaganda that the Liberal government throws at TV and radio as we approach an election under the guise of providing information to the public."

For real this is worse now than ever! They have ads about the changes to Workchoices, private health insurance and super all on at once! And they're about to add the ad campaign about how they've been climate change heroes all along. I mean, the labor govt did this too, but they never had so many different strings to their bow all at once.

Wait is this a federal election?

Geez I'm glad I dont watch TV.

this one girl.

-- emsk, Tuesday, May 29, 2007 1:25 PM

Better not be talking trash 'bout me, Emsk! ;)

lol, course not. there appears to be only one spanner in the works of my life atm and it is this one girl :/ grr, i want to send her back.

Australia:

1. mean peeps
2. asian haters
3. lame accent
4. self haters
5. "reckon"
6. tall poppy syndrome
7. best beaches in the world ruined by appalling surf culture
8. nowhere near enough snow
9. 10 months of summer

Well, I for one can't WAIT to go home this year.

I was in Australia recently for the first time in five years, and it felt somehow worse. More redneck. Lots of Australian flags everywhere which I don't remember from before, and which I'm thinking is sort of coded racism because for years and decades they talked about changing the flag to chop out the union jack in the corner, but now there's no more talk of that and I get the impression that the flag has become a sort of symbol of white bread anglo-saxonism. Lots of paranoid crap about Islam... I don't know, I was only in Sydney, it might be different elsewhere. (And yet, John Howard is still prime minister, what the fuck.)

sunny successor largely otm.

That's so true about the flags, they're fucking everywhere. It's so...American.
And yeah, especially "post-Cronulla" the flag is totally a 'sort of symbol of white bread anglo-saxonism'. I agree.

- cheap
- irresponsible drunks
- loud

This is also how Americans are viewed down here. Well, not the cheap part.

Well, at least you have an accurate view of Americans as long as that American is me.

...sunny successor not completely otm as I'm sure there are better beaches elsewhere.

<self-hater/>

I guess it's a fairly cliched thing to say, but there are fuckwits and non-fuckwits wherever you go.

to anybody: Why do you think there's an abnormally high rate of child abuse and suicide in NZ?

Because like Australia, 'It's the arse end of the world'.

Why do you think there's an abnormally high rate of child abuse and suicide in NZ?

Poverty, institutional racism, gang culture, macho bloke culture and tall-poppy syndrome.

I like how I sound so sure of the definitiveness of my answer.

That's right, there's been intense gang fighting in NZ lately. Or has there always been intense gang fighting? Also, whereabouts does it take place?

...sunny successor not completely otm as I'm sure there are better beaches elsewhere.

<self-hater/>

-- Drooone, Wednesday, May 30, 2007 5:59 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

Drooone, I grew up on Cronulla Beach so, you know...

There has always been intense gang culture. It seems to be very intrenched in the smaller towns/rural areas, but they're everywhere, as far as I know.

It's in the news lately because a gang-member's (infant?) child was recently killed in a drive-by shooting. And possibly for other reasons, but I am following NZ news from a distance.

xpost Yeah, I grew up at fckn Coolangatta. I'd say very similar places, very similar fuckwit/oblivious surfies.

I have an idea what tall-poppy syndrome means but could someone explain...?

It essentially means hating on people who are more successful than you.

Oh right, everyday life. (I loathe everyone.)

Bizarro Ned might loathe everyone, but not this Ned, surely.

True!