Reply to: Contracting in Australia or New Zealand

[confusedkiwi]

I wouldn't say contract market is hard in NZ. I picked up work within a week of looking for the first time.

Lots of big projects in wellington going on at the minute, good rates available...

You'll have to register for GST - umbrella company doesn't matter over there - but it's well worth it...and scorching hot at the moment too

[tay]

Currently security cleared, to SC level here, think its valid until September next year but would need to check that.

DOnt think that will be of any benefit in NZ or Oz. Contractor market is difficult in NZ, not sure I would plan on getting contracting work there.

[KrisM82]

what's your area of expertise?

Thanks for the replies guys! all be it some off topic

Java developer 4 years experience 2 with J2EE, also fair bit of C/C++ under my belt. Also Spring and Hibernate to some extent not an expert by any means but could happily make a high volume sight without to many issues...

Currently security cleared, to SC level here, think its valid until September next year but would need to check that.

Im currently working under an umbrella to save the complications (will change when I get back!) But are there similar contracting practices out in either NZ or OZ?

[tay]

It doesn't make a bit of difference who you pick if you are perennial bottlers.

Agreed, I dont think Vanikolo will help England much either.

The fact is that it's the eligibility rules that stink in rugby.

Not in relation to Pacific Islanders it doesnt. Players like Rawlinson and Devine are better examples. But they dont have brown skin and funny sounding names so English papers ignore them...

[Alf W]

Stephen Jones is a 'stupid' Welsh rugby journo and he's written some pretty damning stuff on English rugby as well in his time.

The fact is that it's the eligibility rules that stink in rugby. You can't blame national sides for sticking to the rules (unless there's some comedy wind-up value in it).

It doesn't make a bit of difference who you pick if you are perennial bottlers.

[tay]

I thought I was doing an ok job of it already?

Yes yes top marks.... but I just love any excuse to post that article. Shirley there are enough stupid english rugby fans to go around?

[oracleslave]

Oh goody I get to post this article again and educate another english rugby fan.

I thought I was doing an ok job of it already?

[tay]

Yes, then you can import some fresh ones from the Pacific Islands...

Oh goody I get to post this article again and educate another english rugby fan.

Paul Thomas: False charge of poaching
Saturday June 25, 2005
By Paul Thomas

They're calling it the Rape of the Pacific. And like most of the hot air being expelled throughout the nation, it involves rugby.

New Zealand stands accused of enticing the best players in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga to abandon their homelands and throw in their lot with the All Blacks.

This charge has been levelled time and again by British rugby writers, sometimes indignantly, sometimes with disgusted fatalism as if our poaching operation is so brazen and methodical that it's impossible to maintain the rage.

And as the temperature rises ahead of tonight's first test, it's getting another airing.

Leading the attack is Stephen Jones of the Sunday Times. Jones has created a persona built on relentless disparagement of New Zealand rugby - its players, stadia, referees, fans and media. It can only be a matter of time before he lays into the ball-boys.

Although Jones has one setting - a pop-eyed, bull moose roar of outrage - he's not always being entirely serious. When challenged, he tends to complain that Kiwis don't get irony.

We could search for the irony in his statement that Sitiveni Sivivatu's four-try All Black debut was "one of the saddest sporting occasions I can remember". We could try to work out what he really means when he tells his readers that "the All Blacks continue to steal the best talent from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga" and "are now an amalgam of four nations".

But seeing we're frightfully gauche provincials who think Irony is one of those all-girl hip-hop groups, we'll just have to take these assertions at face value.

There are 10 Polynesians in the current All Black squad, five of whom were born here. Four went to primary school here. Sivivatu arrived when he was 17 to attend Wesley College.

We may think that because these players' parents came to New Zealand in search of a better life, because they grew up, went to school and learned to play rugby here, because they regard themselves as New Zealanders, it's appropriate for them to wear the black jersey.

Apparently not; apparently we stole them. Apparently this constitutes the Rape of the Pacific.

That's not my idea of irony; that's my idea of bulltulip.

The British rugby media rat pack choose to ignore the decades of immigration which have made Polynesians one of the four main ethnic groups in our multi-cultural society and Auckland the biggest Polynesian city in the world.

It's odd that they find it so hard to get their heads around the phenomenon of immigrant communities producing more than their fair share of outstanding athletes given that it has also happened in England over roughly the same period.

English track-and-field and boxing have flourished largely thanks to athletes of West Indian and African descent, and the days of the all-vanilla English soccer team are long gone.

Were these athletes poached or are they New Britons?

And on the subject of flags of convenience, how about that good southern man Brendon Laney, who a week after setting foot in Scotland was lining up at Murrayfield hoping that the TV cameras wouldn't focus on him during the singing of Flower of Scotland?

But that's okay. It's okay too that South Africans like Mike Catt, Stuart Abbott and current Lion Matt Stevens play for England, even though England already has more rugby players than any other country. And it's okay for France, when they played the All Blacks last November, to field two South Africans, a New Zealander and a flanker from Cameroon, even though France already has more players than any other country except England.

What's not okay is Jerry Collins, having arrived in New Zealand aged four with his family, having attended primary school in Porirua and St Pat's College in Wellington, having joined Norths, the club he still plays for whenever he can, having represented New Zealand at secondary school, under 19, under 21 and A level, running on to Jade Stadium tonight in an All Black jersey.

Well, I can understand that the Brits would prefer he didn't, but to insist that he shouldn't be an All Black because he should be playing for another country is - here we go again - bulltulip.

It would be laughable if it wasn't for the nasty, lingering suspicion that underpinning this campaign is a mindset that those white South Africans, Australians and New Zealanders who swap countries at the drop of a hat are exercising their free will while the poor, naive Polynesians are being led by the nose.

After this week's Australia-England one-day cricket match, The Guardian website ran a headline describing Kevin Pietersen's 91 off 65 balls as the "best innings by an Englishman".

Only he isn't. Pietersen was born in Pietermaritzburg, represented South Africa at under-19 level and played first-class cricket for KwaZulu-Natal. Convinced that his progress was being blocked by the quota system that promotes non-white players into national teams, Pietersen defected to England in 2001.

Now that's irony - of the unconscious variety.

[oracleslave]

Is a good old fashined Englishman

[Lucy]

Hey guys,

I'm off traveling in a few months, and Ive been considering working out in either NZ or OZ...my situation would be on a working holiday visa in each (which I believe means you can work in any job you want just not for the whole year...)

My question is how easy it is to work in either NZ or OZ as a contractor? how complicated to the tax rules get both other there and back here considering Ive been contracting here since August?

Any comments or pointers would be great, as Ive been reading for an hour or so and I'm sill none the wiser!

Cheers
K

In Australia you need a Ltd Co. and a Tax File no.

In NZ you can be a sole prop. with just an IRD no. no need of a Ltd Co. I've worked in NZ and Australia and I found the tax laws in NZ to be much better.

It is of course legalised theft in both countries!

Sydney has a reasonable banking/fin sector, mostly centred around the harbour and you could end up with a gorgeous view at work. At home, you will need a bit of cash, Kirribilli is pretty, a little village opposite the Opera House, with a few cafes, restaurants, bakery, fruit shop and one pub. Canberra has loads of work for contractors, it's all mostly public sector, and you usually need a security clearance, try to get a clearance here before you go, otherwise it can take six months. Canberra isn't very exciting but it isn't too far from the snow and there is always very well paid work.

I've only worked in Wellington in NZ and it was okay, the weather was rubbish, constant wind and rain, much more miserable than London, except the landscape is stunning, Wellington like Sydney has a beautiful harbour and it isn't unreasonable to live around there. The NZ public service, despite being under a labor government is quite forward thinking and progressive.

Hope this helps and have fun!

[DodgyAgent]

At the risk of being mistaken for a kiwi this is a tired argument not born out by the facts. In the last world cup I think 6 of the 30 players in the NZ squad were born in either Samoa, Fiji or Tonga. All went to at least secondary school in NZ.

Lesley Vainikolo on the other hand.......

Is a good old fashined Englishman

[oracleslave]

Yes, then you can import some fresh ones from the Pacific Islands...

At the risk of being mistaken for a kiwi this is a tired argument not born out by the facts. In the last world cup I think 6 of the 30 players in the NZ squad were born in either Samoa, Fiji or Tonga. All went to at least secondary school in NZ.

Lesley Vainikolo on the other hand.......

[DiscoStu]

Not in NZ there isnt, we have to export all the old ones to the retirement league in England to play social rugby in the quaint little Guiness premiership.

Yes, then you can import some fresh ones from the Pacific Islands...

[oracleslave]

Not in NZ there isnt, we have to export all the old ones to the retirement league in England to play social rugby in the quaint little Guiness premiership.

inferior

[tay]

There is a big demand for props and other rugby players

Not in NZ there isnt, we have to export all the old ones to the retirement league in England to play social rugby in the quaint little Guiness premiership.