anzbound

I had the same question about 6 month passport validity. As best as I can determine, Australia does NOT have a requirement that a passport be valid for 6 months beyond date of travel. New Zealand DOES! However, I checked with NZ Embassy because my passport expires in Feb and my travel is in Nov. They said there was NO problem. You might want to check directly with the embassies involved with your travel.

lizF

Nzbound: We know that NZ lets people in inside that 6 months time because you want people to stay. Australia on the other hand seems only to want those who we can spend lots of money on for years to come seeing that they get to live a great life>!!!!!!!!!!!

margo_oz

Well, John i M,
We've solved the problem of why your visa was refused! John Smith is the US Army prosecutor, in the case of David Hicks, Australian prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. As the whole thing appears rather suspicious, I'm not surprised you were refused!

Neil_Oz

Well spotted, Cousin Margo - a worthy descendant of the great Sherlock Holmes! As Arthur Daley, an immortal character in that great English TV series "Minder", used to say: "Dodgy, my son. Very dodgy."

JohnInMiami

Margo, I actually have a (small) connection to Guantanamo Bay!

During World War II, my father was stationed at Gitmo for about a year. He flew submarine patrols over the Bermuda Triangle!

Neil - your words describe our persident perfectly. "Dodgy, very dodgy!"

Neil_Oz

John - when W. visited Australia last year he reckoned that he felt quite at home - should we be worried? (The reason could have been that our journos weren't allowed any unscripted Q&A sessions either!)

The devious Arthur Daley, north London dealer in items that usually fell off the back of a truck, and dedicated coward, established the term "dodgy" as part of the Australian vocabulary. Unlike certain real-life personalities I can think of, though, he could be strangely endearing.

AndrewDavid

Neil,

Didn't touring companies of "Oliver" w/ the Artful Dodger help this effort as well. Remember you can never say enough bad things about W, regardless of season or subject.
A/D

Neil_Oz

A/D, and for that matter the Artful Dodger made his appearance in print even before that, but I did have the impression that it became common usage only after "Minder" screened on ABC-TV. Maybe it's still showing on a British-comedy cable network somewhere near you?

If by "touring production" you mean imported talent, we haven't had to resort to that for many a long year, although at the rate the local talent is leaving town you never know. We probably can't afford Hugh Jackman now.

Come to think of it, there was an old American frontier ditty called "The Dodger Song". I think it was last recorded in the '50s, when people like Cisco Houston and Pete Seeger were in vogue. That probably entered my head because we saw Arlo Guthrie, son of Woody, in performance on the weekend. Amazing who pops up in your local club. You'd have loved his monologue on the late Ronald Reagan.

Try saying something bad about W. on the Europe forum, which seems to be a Republican hangout - you'll get your head bitten off in double-quick (or double-u-quick) time!

margo_oz

They are a bit stroppy in the Europe forum, aren't they? They just don't have our charm and wit

AndrewDavid

Neil and Margo,
That must be Berlusconi, Aznar and Blair on the European forum. As I recollect the general population was not in favor of their sleeping with Shrub as he is sometimes known hereabouts.

I was in Italia for the first 3 weeks of the "war". There were peace demonstrations everyday and the profusion of the italian rainbow Pace flag made me imagine I had stumbled into Sydney Mardi Gras.

A/D

Neil_Oz

OK, I take it all back about the Europe board. There are currently two excellent debates going on under the headings "Do European politics affect your travel choices?" (49 posts to date) and "Overweight American in Paris" (103 posts) that have been models of mostly pleasant and often witty discourse. Not an abusive ranter in sight. I'm eating crow.