For British people wanting to emigrate to [...]]]> Wespac, the largest banking institution in Australia is to open a new branch in London next Tuesday to support its Australian and New Zealand customers and also to assist Britons wishing to immigrate to Australia by enabling them to open a bank account before they even enter Australia.

For British people wanting to emigrate to Australia or New Zealand, the London bank will come in handy. Bank accounts, credit cards and even mortgages can all be approved from the London branch before you even book those one-way tickets.

The London branch will also support the tourist industry for visitors travelling from Australia and New Zealand to the UK, providing them with vital services and assistance.

It is not the first time Wespac has provided such a service to fellow countrymen and migrants in the UK – they first opened a branch in the heart of London in 1853 and at the peak of their banking employed 900 staff divided across three London branches. As well as offering a banking service Wespac also delivered around 60,000 packages each year sent from London to their families back home.

Unfortunately these branches closed during the late 1990’s due to a banking review that recommended concentrating on Australiasian businesses and slimming down the banks operations in Europe.

Now the bank has reversed this trend and there’s no doubt that the re-opening of a London branch will be welcomed by many. The branch will be located on the 1st floor of the existing Wespac Offices at St Mary Axe near Houndsditch for now, but aim to be in their own ground floor offices by 2011.

Westpac’s migrant and expatriate banking UK senior manager Anthony Davison said,  “The reopening of a Westpac retail banking branch in the City of London is an important first step in providing better support and service to those aspiration Australians and New Zealanders in the UK and also those aspiring to live in Australia or New Zealand”

McLaren Ridge is [...]]]> Periodically I come across businesses for sale in Australia. I list them on my website as a service and receive no remuneration for this. My listing a business on my website in no way constitutes an endorsement. The normal caution and discretion should be taken when assessing the viability of a business.
____________________________________________________________

McLaren Ridge is a boutique, 15 acre vineyard & accommodation property in the heart of McLaren Vale, South Australia, with breathtaking panorama, & less than an hour from Adelaide’s CBD.

The offering includes: premium shiraz & old vine dry grown grenache vineyards (13 acre under vine), a Cellar Door/Office Retail Shop & 4 feature filled self contained properties, all with spas, jacuzzi’s king size beds & wood fires.

Accommodating up to 22 guests across the 4 properties, McLaren Ridge can be used as a main/family residence & has a glass fenced in ground solar swimming pool.

The property has a fully equipped bore with ample water licence & it has been developed to the highest standard, in keeping with its natural & panoramic setting.

With excellent cash flows & profit, McLaren Ridge is an easy to operate property which would appeal to the investor as a staffed business or an owner operator or family.

Included in the sale is a well established boutique wine & accommodation brand, customer base, website, registered company name & all related intellectual property.

McLaren Ridge offers a unique opportunity to enjoy a fantastic lifestyle or investment, with income from the grapes, accommodation & Cellar Door & a flexible property which could be utilised for a range of purposes, in one of South Australia’s busiest & world renowned tourism & wine regions.

More details & images can be viewed at www.mclarenridge.com

AU$2,000,000 plus SAV

Contact Information:
Name: Heather Oliver
Phone Number:
0011 61 8 8556 7413
0011 61 8 8383 0504
0404 801 969
Website: www.mclarenridge.com

Pamela Anderson has had her latest TV ad banned in Australia. The commercial was banned by Australia’s Advertising Standards Bureau.

Pam, yes we’re on first name terms, appeared in the commercial for Internet Company Crazy Domains.  The ad shows Pam as a smart businesswoman who strips off to reveal a gold bikini and has milk poured [...]]]>

Pamela Anderson has had her latest TV ad banned in Australia. The commercial was banned by Australia’s Advertising Standards Bureau.

Pam, yes we’re on first name terms, appeared in the commercial for Internet Company Crazy Domains.  The ad shows Pam as a smart businesswoman who strips off to reveal a gold bikini and has milk poured over her and a female colleague. The ad sparked hundreds of complaints from viewers, which prompted the Advertising Standards Bureau to take action.

Fiona Jolly who is the president of the bureau said, “The ad is meant to be a cheeky, over-the-top depiction, but in the bureaus view it did cross the line.” Gavin Collins the managing director of Crazy Domains has accused “feminist bloggers” for the ban and he will be fighting the commercial being banned.

I’m not sure what all the fuss is about as the gold bikini’s in the video are an obvious reference to an Australian tradition the Gold Coast Metermaids.  The Surfers Paradise Meter Maids were introduced in 1965 by Bernie Elsey to help beat the bad image created by the installation of parking meters on the tourist strip in December 1964. This was a controversial promotion, using young women dressed in gold lame bikinis and tiaras, who strolled the streets of Surfers Paradise feeding coins into expired parking meters.

They are still in operation and have become somewhat of an Australian icon.

Lydia Lassila won the third Olympic aerials medal — and second gold — for Australia on Wednesday night, flying pencil-straight through the dreary fog to defeat two of China’s best, Li Nina and Guo Xinxin.

Lassila credits the Aussie government and its freestyle program for creating her country’s success by bankrolling the training, most of [...]]]>

Lydia Lassila won the third Olympic aerials medal — and second gold — for Australia on Wednesday night, flying pencil-straight through the dreary fog to defeat two of China’s best, Li Nina and Guo Xinxin.

Lassila credits the Aussie government and its freestyle program for creating her country’s success by bankrolling the training, most of which is done overseas, where there is more ice and snow.

“The other side of that is the particular athletes who’ve come through this program,” she said. “It takes some really special athletes willing to deal with a lot of time away from home to train and compete. It takes a driven kind of person to be willing to do that.”

The 27-year-old from Melbourne, who shredded her knee for the second time during qualifying at the Turin Games, nailed a pair of jumps to not only prevent a Chinese sweep, but knock the world’s other big aerial powers off the top of the podium.

Lassila looked like she was stepping out of bed, not flying from 50 feet in the air, when she landed her second jump for a total of 214.74 points, a 7.5-point margin over Li, who won her second straight Olympic silver.

Like so many in her sport, Lassila began her athletic career as a gymnast, but didn’t think it had to be over when she became too old to compete.

“I felt I was still young enough to think there’s more in me as an athlete,” she said. “I started aerials, and I fell in love with it right away. I think it was my competitive drive that got me here.”

Australia’s emergence as an Olympic power started in 2002, when Alisa Camplin pulled off an upset victory. At the bottom of the mountain that day, covered in snow, she admitted she fell on the way down because, well, she wasn’t all that accomplished a skier.

Aerials is essentially gymnastics on snow, and any top jumper does a good bit of training by landing in water, which is as native to Australia as knee injuries are to aerials.

“Every girl that blows out a knee in this sport is by themselves in a very lonely place trying to decide whether it’s worth the effort,” said Camplin, who also won bronze in 2006. “The knee just struggles on and on for years. This is when you’ve got to come from the absolute bottom to the absolute top, and Lydia worked her way every single day with gritted teeth.”

Lassila has embraced the reality in women’s aerials — that only those willing to try three flips will stay at the top, which is one reason she beat Li, who had four twists, but only two flips in her biggest jump.

“I wasn’t really training to do triple flips,” Li said. “This is why I wasn’t able to perform as well as the gold medalist.”

Returning to the Olympics for the fifth time was 37-year-old Aussie Jacqui Cooper, who might be the most accomplished aerialist ever, but finished fifth — and left still without an Olympic medal.

After her winning jump, Lassila only had to wait out one more competitor. That was Xu Mengtao, the Chinese teenager who led after the first round and is expected to be the future of the sport in her country.

Maybe she will be. But with the pressure of the last jump on her, she landed badly, did a 180-degree spin and went skidding down the hill backward for a second. That meant it would be Australia, not China, on the top of the medal stand.

Lassila said she had a good feeling, standing atop fog-enshrouded Cypress Mountain at the beginning of the night. She noticed an eerie similarity to the best training site in Australia. It’s the Chamois run at Mount Buller, where winters are often as wet as they are snowy — and the next Olympic gold medalist could be lurking on any lift.

“We saw the fog, and we got all cheery,” Lassila said. “We said, ‘Just like home, this is fine.’ And we knew we could handle it.”

Their plates overflowing with solidarity, many Australians tucked into Indian cuisine on Wednesday. From Victoria Premier John Brumby to the crowds that thronged Indian restaurants as part of the `Vindaloo Against Violence’ initiative.

Brumby ate lunch with members of the Indian community at Melbourne’s popular Indian cafe Desi Dhaba while Indian food, including tandoori chicken, [...]]]>

Their plates overflowing with solidarity, many Australians tucked into Indian cuisine on Wednesday. From Victoria Premier John Brumby to the crowds that thronged Indian restaurants as part of the `Vindaloo Against Violence’ initiative.

Brumby ate lunch with members of the Indian community at Melbourne’s popular Indian cafe Desi Dhaba while Indian food, including tandoori chicken, was served at Queensland’s parliament.

Mia Northorp, a web designer from Melbourne, who started the campaign to show solidarity with Indians in Australia following 30 attacks on community members since May last year, said she was amazed with the response. The campaign has led to many Indian restaurants across the country being booked well in advance for lunch and dinner.

Brumby said in Melbourne: “The Vindaloo Against Violence initiative is a unique opportunity for Victorians to unite and send a message that the actions of an ignorant few will not be allowed to undermine the reputation of Melbourne as a peaceful and friendly city.”

“Victoria has been shaped by people from across the world. We come from over 200 countries, speak more than 230 languages and dialects and follow more than 120 faiths. Today, Victoria’s 150,000-strong Indian community is a vital part of modern-day multicultural Victoria.

“Victoria’s cultural diversity is one of our strengths and any attack on our community is an attack upon us all. Any attack motivated by race or prejudice is particularly disgraceful.

In New Delhi, Australian High Commissioner Peter Varghese, said: “This is a simple but telling gesture from the Australian community to India and the Indian members of Australia’s community.”

“Australians love the diversity of our multicultural society and have categorically rejected the events of the recent past – they have no place in a society as culturally plural as ours.”

“This initiative will help in building bridges and restoring the trust, respect and friendship that exists between the broad Australian community and its valued members of Indian origin.”

Thirty five-year-old Mia Northrop, a digital media professional from Flemington, initially invited 100 friends on Facebook to dine out to support the Indian community, but her idea quickly gathered pace.

Northrop said: “I think it’s been an important time for people to say we don’t want our country tarnished as a racist place. The majority of us really enjoy the cultural diversity and have nothing but respect for our migrant communities.”

She knows there is no easy fix to the violence, but hopes this event will let the Indian community know “that they are welcome and entitled to feel safe here”, The Age reported.

As part of the campaign Wednesday, Australia’s Queensland parliament served an Indian menu, including tandoori chicken and vegetable pakora.

“Vindaloo Against Violence is the perfect chance for Queenslanders to show their support for the state’s 26,000-strong Indian community,” Multicultural Affairs Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk told parliament.

Most Indian restaurants in Australia were booked out for Wednesday.

Brenda Pereira, co-owner of Indian Tukka on Victoria in Collingwood, said: “I think it will go really well. It’s just the awareness, everyone letting their friends know, it has a domino effect.

“I’m sure it will go well and the message will go out to the community,” The Age quoted her as saying.

Rajendra Pokhrel, owner of Northcote’s Downunder Curry, arrived at his restaurant four hours early to begin cooking.

“Whatever support they’re showing it’s great. If I let them down it’s not going to be good. It’s great, it’s definitely sending a message across.”

Melbourne’s Tiffins, which delivers Indian meals by bicycle, was having one of its busiest days.

Mikhil Kotak, who co-owns the business, said they had to close their website down because of the phenomenal response to the campaign.

“It is so busy we have four vans helping our fleet of five bikes to make 1,000 deliveries during lunch today (Wednesday). This is a huge amount and just goes to show how passionately locals feel about this message.”

Assistant governor Phillip Lowe told a conference last week that China’s extraordinary economic growth has ‘’some decades to run” – and Australia will [...]]]> Insatiable demand from China and other Asian countries is about to put a booster rocket on Australia’s economic growth, pushing mineral export prices almost to pre-crisis levels, the Australian Reserve Bank predicts.

Assistant governor Phillip Lowe told a conference last week that China’s extraordinary economic growth has ‘’some decades to run” – and Australia will reap the benefit.

The Reserve believes that Australia’s terms of trade – the ratio of export to import prices – are set to increase 15 per cent from 2009 to 2011.

That means the world will pay Australia 15 per cent more for what it sells, relative to the prices we pay for what we buy. One-fifth of our output is exported, so that alone would raise national income by 3 per cent.

The Reserve flagged on Tuesday that more interest rate rises are ahead if the economy grows as it expects. It is forecasting growth to climb from 2 per cent over 2009 to 3.25 per cent this year, and 3.5 per cent in 2011.

Financial markets expect the Reserve to lift rates every three months or so over the coming year, lifting the cost of servicing a $300,000 mortgage by $250 a month.

Dr Lowe said yesterday the Reserve’s forecasts assumed rate rises of roughly that order, but stressed that the Reserve was not committed to this path.

The deputy chairman of the House Economics Committee, Jamie Briggs (Liberal, SA), said pressure on rates is rising due to ”the Rudd government’s reckless spending and significant increases in strikes under the Fair Work Act”.

Dr Lowe told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia the global financial crisis has left us with a ”two-speed world”: slow growth in Europe, the US and Japan, but rapid growth in developing Asia, especially China.

”If this is how things play out, Australia is well-placed”, he said. ”Around 70 per cent of our exports now go to Asia, and the strong growth in the region has supported commodity prices.”

In the six months to December, when Australia’s export returns slumped 27 per cent compared with a year earlier, sales to China rose 17 per cent, passing Japan to become Australia’s biggest customer.

Australia’s minister for broadband, communications and the digital economy, Stephen Conroy, visited a remote corner of Queensland to see the work being started by [...]]]> Work has started on the first section of the backbone for Australia’s National Broadband Network, the project funded by the government that will allow rival users to deliver high-speed internet services.

Australia’s minister for broadband, communications and the digital economy, Stephen Conroy, visited a remote corner of Queensland to see the work being started by Nextgen Networks for NBN Company, the wholesale operator set up by the government.

“Backbone infrastructure provides the communication links that connect our towns, cities and rural areas to each other and the world,” said Conroy.

The site, Mount Isa, was chosen because it has been identified as a broadband blackspot.

“This fibre optic backbone link will run from Darwin, through central and south east Queensland to Toowoomba, as part of the Government’s $250 million programme,” said Conroy. “One of the biggest obstacles for fast broadband in Mount Isa has been the lack of competitive fibre optic backbone services.”

In total, the NBN programme will see nearly 6,000 kilometre of new backbone links constructed across five separate routes.

“Once complete, this link will allow other broadband providers to enter the market and offer faster broadband speeds, cheaper prices and more choice for people and businesses across the region,” said Conroy.

Mount Isa is the midway point along the route from Darwin to Toowoomba, and the longest of the five regional backbone links that the NBN is planning. The link will take 18 months to build.