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It would make sense that as more Australians travel overseas, more will get in trouble. What I don't understand is 20,000 Australians were in Lebanon and were warned to leave and chose not to. When the war started, they expected the Australian embassy to act as a travel agent and repatriate them for free (okay at taxpayer expense). Then they complain about embassy staff. Australian citizens spent $32M to bring these ungrateful ones home and only $55,462 was recovered. I think the expense should be treated similar to a student loan and the government should get payment, even if incremental. Hopefully if they know they will have to pay up, people will think twice before willingly putting themselves in a dangerous situation. Also I wonder how many of these are dual nationals...
What I don't understand is 20,000 Australians were in Lebanon and were warned to leave and chose not to.
From what I understood at the time, most of them weren't there just visiting but they were living there. So it would be difficult to just leave when the govt said it would be wise to do so. I resent having paid to "rescue" these EX-Australians who only flash their Aussie passport when it's convenient.
The ones without travel insurance, well what can you say? I hope the embassy/consulate staff told them to get stuffed for being so cheap and stupid. I mean, how can you possibly travel without travel insurance????
As far as getting arrested, well too bad if you act like a moron. Like the idiots in Rome recently - drunken Australians getting violent, gee, where have I heard that before?, and attacking the cops. I sure hope they got ZERO support from the consulate. I do not want to pay for them.
Reminds me of that twit couple a few years back who went on their honeymoon to a hurricane zone, during hurricane season. And gee golly whiz Gomer, a hurricane hit. There they were, on the TV, sniffling and whinging about how the Australian government wasn't there for them. Yeah sure, the PM shoulda been hanging out of a Blackhawk and scooped you off the hotel roof, at our expense.
It's the way society is going. Down the toilet. Nanny-stated into stupidity, no personal responsiblity, always demanding the "government" (actually, the TAXPAYER) rescue your dumb arse.
From what I understood at the time, most of them weren't there just visiting but they were living there. So it would be difficult to just leave when the govt said it would be wise to do so. I resent having paid to "rescue" these EX-Australians who only flash their Aussie passport when it's convenient.
I like how the government of Canada instructs its dual citizens on its website. If you enter a country not using your Canadian passport and you get in trouble, they (the government of Canada) will not help you. Perhaps Oz should adapt a similar policy. You can't cry wolf and flash your Aussie passport when you need rescue. At some point one should have personal responsibility for one's decisions, good or bad. And as for travel insurance.. I agree. I won't even cross the US border on a day trip without it.. and its not expensive at all! I like the way you think Vichel!
PS Perhaps the embassy staff should have just helped them cross the border to Syria and said, find yourself a travel agent and have a nice day!
I think in the past I've made mention of the aussies we had working for us in Colorado every winter. Usually every winter they got involved in some kind of legal trouble. I know of two separate incidents of employees attacking police officers while drunk, which is probably not a wise thing to do in the USA. AFAIK both ended up in jail. We also had another aussie on purpose set off the sprinkler fire system and it caused $150,000 in damage to an employee housing building. Not to mention the usual fights, property destruction, shooting out windows with air guns, etc. Another incident involved stealing several thousand dollars of keyfobs(electronic car keys) that belonged to a million dollars worth of company vehicles.
Plus another problem we had was aussies and kiwi uni aged students are filthy buggers and would not take their trash out all winter or clean their apartments.
To give the company credit and the aussies themselves, most were good employees and most of the above issues were due to a smaller percentage of trouble makers that think landing in the USA is licence for destruction.
In an hilarious incident involving two aussie employees from another company, they held up a local bank in Vail, CO with an airgun. Funny enough these silly clowns worn their work shirts and were ready identifable due to cashing paychecks there every week. They were caught at Denver Airport stuffing cash into a trash can due to believing their loot would come up going through security to catch a plane to Mexico. I think they got a lenient sentence of 4 years in butt pounding prison.
And can someone please explain to me how Cornelia Rau was allowed to travel to JORDAN??????
That said I do think in some cases like that of David Wilson and Britt Lapthorne the government does need to do better by its citizens in foreign countries.
I'd also add that in terms of travel insurance it's not like some companies are particularly good at their risk assessment efforts. They seem to spend an extraordinary amount of time haranguing people with pre-existing conditions and the elderly who aren't nearly as big a risk as the 25 year old bogan off to sink **** and hang glide in Indo.
I like how the government of Canada instructs its dual citizens on its website. If you enter a country not using your Canadian passport and you get in trouble, they (the government of Canada) will not help you. Perhaps Oz should adapt a similar policy.
Sounds good to me. They should also instruct those with multiple passports that if they MOVE to another country, especially an unstable one, don't go waving the most convenient passport and expect us to come running. Settle and pay your allegiances and taxes there, expect help from there!
I think in the past I've made mention of the aussies we had working for us in Colorado every winter. Usually every winter they got involved in some kind of legal trouble. I know of two separate incidents of employees attacking police officers while drunk, which is probably not a wise thing to do in the USA. AFAIK both ended up in jail. We also had another aussie on purpose set off the sprinkler fire system and it caused $150,000 in damage to an employee housing building. Not to mention the usual fights, property destruction, shooting out windows with air guns, etc. Another incident involved stealing several thousand dollars of keyfobs(electronic car keys) that belonged to a million dollars worth of company vehicles.
Plus another problem we had was aussies and kiwi uni aged students are filthy buggers and would not take their trash out all winter or clean their apartments.
To give the company credit and the aussies themselves, most were good employees and most of the above issues were due to a smaller percentage of trouble makers that think landing in the USA is licence for destruction.
In an hilarious incident involving two aussie employees from another company, they held up a local bank in Vail, CO with an airgun. Funny enough these silly clowns worn their work shirts and were ready identifable due to cashing paychecks there every week. They were caught at Denver Airport stuffing cash into a trash can due to believing their loot would come up going through security to catch a plane to Mexico. I think they got a lenient sentence of 4 years in butt pounding prison.
What the hell?!! Don't they go thru security screening interviews when they apply for these jobs? References, recommendations, etc.?
What the hell?!! Don't they go thru security screening interviews when they apply for these jobs? References, recommendations, etc.?
Oh yeah they have to get police reports and all that. Most of the people we used to get did come through references and recommendations but not all as we needed about 150 people a year.
I think the problem revolved around the fact that "dorm life" at uni isn't common in Australia like the USA. So a lot of these 21 year olds were spoiled and living at home and this was their first time away from home, hence they go berzerk and think they can get away with anything because they are in a foreign country.
The company to their credit starting doing a lot of random alcohol and drug testing as well as being proactive in firing people that misbehaved in employee housing or got in trouble with the law. That was actually a bad deal as their visa is revoked and they have to get out of the country in a few days plus they loose their housing deposit, etc.
It would make sense that as more Australians travel overseas, more will get in trouble. What I don't understand is 20,000 Australians were in Lebanon and were warned to leave and chose not to. When the war started, they expected the Australian embassy to act as a travel agent and repatriate them for free (okay at taxpayer expense). Then they complain about embassy staff. Australian citizens spent $32M to bring these ungrateful ones home and only $55,462 was recovered. I think the expense should be treated similar to a student loan and the government should get payment, even if incremental. Hopefully if they know they will have to pay up, people will think twice before willingly putting themselves in a dangerous situation. Also I wonder how many of these are dual nationals...
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I hope the embassy/consulate staff told them to get stuffed for being so cheap and stupid. I mean, how can you possibly travel without travel insurance???? 
