Australia Today

Politics

Mimmicking global warming, the Australian political climate has been overheated and irritable of late. In 2013, the left-wing Labor Party was ousted from federal government by the conservative Liberal-National Party Coalition. In the lead-up to the election, Labor was destabilised by an extraordinary period of divisive infighting and factional power plays. Australia's first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, lost the top job to Kevin Rudd in early 2013, whom she herself had ousted as PM in 2010.

Sitting back and rubbing their eyes in disbelief, the conservatives watched the prime-ministerial circus play out. They then easily won the 2013 election, surfing into office on a wave of public dismay over Labor's leadership soap opera. New prime minister Tony Abbott had the look of a man standing on the threshold of a future he wasn't quite anticipating.

Then, in 2015, things started to go awry for Abbott. His popularity flagging, he made the bizarre choice of bestowing a knighthood on Prince Philip (husband of the British Queen) on Australia Day – a move lambasted by the media and hailed as un-Australian by the public. A leadership spill was mooted, with PM-in-waiting and former leader of the Liberal Party Malcolm Turnbull the favoured candidate. But the leadership vote didn't happen: Abbott dodged a bullet, but by the time you read this, there may be a different PM ruling the roost.

Real Estate Addiction

Australians love real estate. They love talking about it, building it, buying it, looking at it on TV and (most of all) making money selling it. When the GFC bit everybody in 2008, economists and bankers across the Western world very sensibly said, 'Whoops! We've been lending people money they can't afford to pay back, and they've been blowing it on home loans that are too expensive' – and real estate prices tumbled.

But not in Australia. There was a glorious mining boom in motion: nobody worried about ridiculous real estate prices when there was always another chunk of Western Australia waiting to be exhumed and sold to China. Australians just kept on buying pricey houses, driving the market skywards. Now – having reached a tipping point where the median house price is more than five times the median annual household income – Australian real estate prices are among the least affordable on the planet.

What happens next? The Chinese economy has slowed and Australian mining exports are flagging. Fears of a property bubble about to burst are rife in the media. But as long as interest rates remain low and the perception endures that Australia is the 'lucky country' and is somehow immune to global strife, the national real estate addiction will be hard to break.

City Scenes

Australia is an urbanised country: around 90% of Australians live in cities and towns. Cities here are in a constant state of growth, reinvention and flux, absorbing fresh influences from far corners of the globe. The sense that the local is inferior to the foreign − a phenomenon known as 'cultural cringe' − is less prevalent today than it was 30 years ago. National pride is on the up, manifest in urban arts and culinary scenes. Multiculturalism prevails and cities here remain distinct: Sydney is a luscious tart, Melbourne an arty glamour puss, Brisbane a blithe playmate, Adelaide a gracious dame and Perth a free spirit. Not to mention bookish Hobart, hedonistic Darwin and museum-fixated Canberra. Aussie cities are charmers: spend some time getting to know one of them and it'll be hard for you to leave!