You can tell straight away that Aussieland has a better quality of life that respect human being and their rights..
http://willwen.blogspot.com/2007/05/australia-vs-singapore.html
Wenty's brother called us last night, apparently he has a dilemma. He doesn't know whether it will be better for him to stay and settle in Singapore or migrate to Australia. We had no answers for him, just some perspectives. A man's trash is another man's treasure, this applies to location as well. Everyone is different, some people triumph in certain environment, others do better in different environment.
What we can do though is look at both countries objectively, look at a few important characteristics. The importance of each characteristic will depend on your priorities and what you want in life. Please note that many of the comparisons are coming from a very narrow view of a normal salary earner in IT industry with a Chinese ethnic background, and is in no way universal. Also note that I only lived in Singapore for some 20 months and that was over 5 years ago, my observation/comparison might be outdated or not completely accurate.
Work:
Australia: Higher salaries, better environment (shorter hours and more leaves), workers have more rights. Howard is doing his best to take them away though.
Singapore: Easier to find professional work, pretty much everyone I know who went there found a job in very short time. Bonuses can be very good in good times and can make up for the lower base salaries.
Housing:
Australia: Much cheaper, both in actual prices and annual property taxes. This is when you compare apple to apple, eg. private apt vs private apt, landed properties vs landed properties of similar size, not average houses here vs hdb flats there.
Singapore: Lower mortgage interest rate.
Food:
Australia: Has authentic foods from all over the world, by authentic I mean the chefs who prepare them are either from those countries or descendant of migrants from there.
Singapore: Cheap 'kopitiam' foods are everywhere! The local dishes (mee pok, katong laksa, fish head curries, chilly crab, stingray etc, damn mentioning them make me hungry) are best to be had locally.
House chores:
Australia: Labor is expensive, you have to do everything yourselves unless you are filthy rich!
Singapore: Indonesian maids can be hired at ~S$300 (plus another $300 to government) a month.
Transport:
Australia: Car is cheap, public transport is nowhere near Singapore's quality, taxi drivers are hopelessly rude and don't know their way.
Singapore: Superb public transport, cheap taxis, owning your own car is bloody expensive though.
Health care:
Australia: Everyone (citizens and PRs) is covered by Medicare. Waiting list can be long for non life threatening surgeries under public system though so many people have private health insurance anyway.
Singapore: Follow American system. Afaik, no such thing as public health care. Health insurance is normally provided by employers.
Government:
Australia: Democratic government, freedom of speech, people can openly criticize and complain against the government of the day without fear of reprisals.
Singapore: Virtually one party system, autocratic government. Heavily censored/government controlled media.
Crime Rate:
Australia: Pretty safe, I have never been robbed/assaulted/burglared in my eight years here (touch wood). It does happen though, and certainly more often than in Singapore.
Singapore: Gotta be one of the safest place in the world.
Racist:
Australia: My worst experience is limited to minor inconvenient like having a couple of idiots yelling racist taunts as they drive past. Under Howard and his fear mongering policies, Australia is becoming more mean and less tolerant though. His fear mongering is currently directed at Muslims so it doesn't really affect us yet. Considering our economy is highly dependent on resources export to China I can't imagine him driving his fear policy against Chinese anytime soon, but you never know.
Singapore: Will have to ask a non Chinese to find out how it compares. But as part of the majority Chinese, it wouldn't affect us.
Migrant treatment:
Australia: Eligible for some benefits (medicare, first home buyer grant, childcare rebates, etc) from day 1. After the first 2 years, PR has pretty much similar rights to citizen and access to all (afaik) kind of social security payment. Only restrictions are the obvious ones like residency requirement to extend PR, no rights to vote, stand for political office, some sensitive defense/intelligent jobs, and university fee loans (many PRs rorted the HECS by going back to their country after uni and never repaying a single cent of their HECS debt, hence the rule change).
Singapore: 2nd class citizen, can't buy new HDB, do not get most of government subsidies or handouts. Basically you don't get much (if any) benefits of the taxes you pay until you become citizen.
Taxes:
Australia: One of the highest income taxes in the world. It obviously depends on your incomes, deductions etc. You can expect to pay up to A$26k tax on A$100k annual salary in 2008/2009 financial year. GST is 10%.
Singapore: Low income tax. Property and vehicle taxes are much higher though. You can expect to pay up to S$7k tax on S$100k annual salary in 2008. GST is 7%.
Travel:
Australia: Far from everywhere, airfares alone are so expensive. Very strong A$ stretches further when traveling overseas. Plenty of domestic holiday destinations.
Singapore: Exotic destinations in their backyard within S E Asia. Travel to most destinations is cheaper and nearer.
Weather:
Australia: 4 seasons in a year, heck Melbourne is renowned of having 4 seasons in a day. We get the snows in the mountain and the ocassional crazy 40+ degree days in summer.
Singapore: Tropical all year round.
National Service:
Singapore: Your sons will have to serve 2 full years of National Service in the Singapore Defence Force.
Nightlife & Dating scene:
Can't tell much as we are married and do not have a clubbing and drinking lifestyle.
Anyone disagree or have something to add? It's obvious which one I think is better for us overall as I have voted with my feet. Like I said though, other may find it the other way. I always recommend people to visit their intended migration destination before making the plunge. It's a big decision, too big to be made based on hearsay. Don't quit your job or sell your house until you have seen first hand the place and culture and you like what you see.
http://willwen.blogspot.com/2007/05/australia-vs-singapore.html
Wenty's brother called us last night, apparently he has a dilemma. He doesn't know whether it will be better for him to stay and settle in Singapore or migrate to Australia. We had no answers for him, just some perspectives. A man's trash is another man's treasure, this applies to location as well. Everyone is different, some people triumph in certain environment, others do better in different environment.
What we can do though is look at both countries objectively, look at a few important characteristics. The importance of each characteristic will depend on your priorities and what you want in life. Please note that many of the comparisons are coming from a very narrow view of a normal salary earner in IT industry with a Chinese ethnic background, and is in no way universal. Also note that I only lived in Singapore for some 20 months and that was over 5 years ago, my observation/comparison might be outdated or not completely accurate.
Work:
Australia: Higher salaries, better environment (shorter hours and more leaves), workers have more rights. Howard is doing his best to take them away though.
Singapore: Easier to find professional work, pretty much everyone I know who went there found a job in very short time. Bonuses can be very good in good times and can make up for the lower base salaries.
Housing:
Australia: Much cheaper, both in actual prices and annual property taxes. This is when you compare apple to apple, eg. private apt vs private apt, landed properties vs landed properties of similar size, not average houses here vs hdb flats there.
Singapore: Lower mortgage interest rate.
Food:
Australia: Has authentic foods from all over the world, by authentic I mean the chefs who prepare them are either from those countries or descendant of migrants from there.
Singapore: Cheap 'kopitiam' foods are everywhere! The local dishes (mee pok, katong laksa, fish head curries, chilly crab, stingray etc, damn mentioning them make me hungry) are best to be had locally.
House chores:
Australia: Labor is expensive, you have to do everything yourselves unless you are filthy rich!
Singapore: Indonesian maids can be hired at ~S$300 (plus another $300 to government) a month.
Transport:
Australia: Car is cheap, public transport is nowhere near Singapore's quality, taxi drivers are hopelessly rude and don't know their way.
Singapore: Superb public transport, cheap taxis, owning your own car is bloody expensive though.
Health care:
Australia: Everyone (citizens and PRs) is covered by Medicare. Waiting list can be long for non life threatening surgeries under public system though so many people have private health insurance anyway.
Singapore: Follow American system. Afaik, no such thing as public health care. Health insurance is normally provided by employers.
Government:
Australia: Democratic government, freedom of speech, people can openly criticize and complain against the government of the day without fear of reprisals.
Singapore: Virtually one party system, autocratic government. Heavily censored/government controlled media.
Crime Rate:
Australia: Pretty safe, I have never been robbed/assaulted/burglared in my eight years here (touch wood). It does happen though, and certainly more often than in Singapore.
Singapore: Gotta be one of the safest place in the world.
Racist:
Australia: My worst experience is limited to minor inconvenient like having a couple of idiots yelling racist taunts as they drive past. Under Howard and his fear mongering policies, Australia is becoming more mean and less tolerant though. His fear mongering is currently directed at Muslims so it doesn't really affect us yet. Considering our economy is highly dependent on resources export to China I can't imagine him driving his fear policy against Chinese anytime soon, but you never know.
Singapore: Will have to ask a non Chinese to find out how it compares. But as part of the majority Chinese, it wouldn't affect us.
Migrant treatment:
Australia: Eligible for some benefits (medicare, first home buyer grant, childcare rebates, etc) from day 1. After the first 2 years, PR has pretty much similar rights to citizen and access to all (afaik) kind of social security payment. Only restrictions are the obvious ones like residency requirement to extend PR, no rights to vote, stand for political office, some sensitive defense/intelligent jobs, and university fee loans (many PRs rorted the HECS by going back to their country after uni and never repaying a single cent of their HECS debt, hence the rule change).
Singapore: 2nd class citizen, can't buy new HDB, do not get most of government subsidies or handouts. Basically you don't get much (if any) benefits of the taxes you pay until you become citizen.
Taxes:
Australia: One of the highest income taxes in the world. It obviously depends on your incomes, deductions etc. You can expect to pay up to A$26k tax on A$100k annual salary in 2008/2009 financial year. GST is 10%.
Singapore: Low income tax. Property and vehicle taxes are much higher though. You can expect to pay up to S$7k tax on S$100k annual salary in 2008. GST is 7%.
Travel:
Australia: Far from everywhere, airfares alone are so expensive. Very strong A$ stretches further when traveling overseas. Plenty of domestic holiday destinations.
Singapore: Exotic destinations in their backyard within S E Asia. Travel to most destinations is cheaper and nearer.
Weather:
Australia: 4 seasons in a year, heck Melbourne is renowned of having 4 seasons in a day. We get the snows in the mountain and the ocassional crazy 40+ degree days in summer.
Singapore: Tropical all year round.
National Service:
Singapore: Your sons will have to serve 2 full years of National Service in the Singapore Defence Force.
Nightlife & Dating scene:
Can't tell much as we are married and do not have a clubbing and drinking lifestyle.
Anyone disagree or have something to add? It's obvious which one I think is better for us overall as I have voted with my feet. Like I said though, other may find it the other way. I always recommend people to visit their intended migration destination before making the plunge. It's a big decision, too big to be made based on hearsay. Don't quit your job or sell your house until you have seen first hand the place and culture and you like what you see.
