

When I was a kid, between the age of 2-4, my parents seriously considered Emigration from the US to Australia. It would have been a good move too. Dad was a journeyman Millwright in the bottling industry at the time.

Apparently, his skill set was in high demand in Australia then, the early 70’s. It was a Golden Ticket, really, moving costs paid, housing on arrival. They even spoke of the ability to still Homestead in Australia.

My parents were all set to go, I mean, it was the chance of a lifetime. Until they found out about the quarantine for pets, or at least dogs. Dad had a big black Portuguese Water Dog… or Poodle to the casual observer. His name was Sport, and Dad loved that dog. Turns out the quarantine for dogs coming to Australia then was six months! Dad couldn’t do that to his dog, just couldn’t. So we didn’t go to Australia…. Still bums me out…

Fast forward to a couple of months ago, when my wife and I started seriously contemplating a move out of the country. A long time friend, having left for Australia 7 years ago, was one of the first people I reached out to.

Now even though Australia isn’t really on a wish list, I had to look into it.

First I looked into health care. They do have universal healthcare, and my buddy who lives there says it is quite good, so that there is one good grae for Australia.

next I looked into education, and wasn’t all that impressed. It really doesn’t seem to be much of an improvement over the US. Noticed the number of ausults on teachers and school administrators, and thought I was reading stats from Arizona! So not a big winner here with education. It’s not like it is worse than the US, but not an improvemet either.

On to culture and adventure. Though not in an area that has any special cultural interest, Australia is an exciting place, with lots to do. The aboriginal Culture would be fascinating to explore. Outdoor activities abound, and with friends there already, friends with children same age as my children. Australia does get a good grade in this dept.

On to Marijuana and drug laws. Though they now have a medical marijuana program, and jave recently allowed the growth of domestic marijuana , for tis program, it is still a mess. They had been importing the marijuana, which was problematic, due to time. They also have a patchwork of different laws in different states, further confusing the issue.

So their laws and program turn out to be a situation similar to what is going on here in the States. A good grade, but not really an improvement over the US.

They also have another problem similar to that in the States, the proposal to drug test those on public assistance. This proposal has Australians saying the same thing many of us say, Lets drug test all elected and appointed officials. So again, it seems we would be immigrating to USA light, not really what we were looking to do.

So it seems Australia is still on the list of possibilities, just not high on the list. They have time though, and further research could change that.

Alan Madden Rose

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