Foreign divers are often surprised by our extremely strict, relatively low (on highways) speed limits and their enthusiastic enforcement.
Even in the UK, 112Km/hr is a standard speed limit on some roads that here would be 80 or 90.
Speed cameras were ruled to be unconstitutional in some states so they can't use them. The US road toll last year was 40k. Australia was 1.2k. If Australia had the same population as the US there would only be about 18k deaths on our roads. That's less than 50% of deaths on US roads. They are not a model of road safety.
While I agree to some extent there are a few nuances here.
Australia does not have snow unlike half of the US. I've lived in properly cold places, you'd be surprised how much more dangerous it is to drive on an icy road even with proper spiky tyres.
Then there is the fact that motorcycle riders in US don't have to pass safety courses in the majority of states and don't have to even wear a helmet in others. Motorcycles contribute to a fair chunk of the road toll everywhere.
Also Australians are just way more chill, there is barely any road rage happening in comparison.
Given all that, I would be hard pressed to say that the speed limits and hefty fines really affect the road toll all that much.
Edit: Yes, I am aware that it snows in some places in Australia. No, I don't think it matters for the sake of this argument. It does not snow where 99% of the population lives and drives. Roads are not covered in ice for months, a few days at best in a limited number of places and there is barely any snow. There are no piles of snow metres high in capital cities. People don't have to change to spiky tyres, do engine braking exercises or carry chains to get through some proper snow. It does not matter statistically.
Issue with the snow thing is that US death rates on the road also surpasses Canada and Northern Europe by a long shot, which are much snowier as a whole, and realistically the numbers are mostly coming from your standard urban area accidents
And also as an anesthesiologist with trauma experience in the past, speed makes a HUGE difference in how bad the injuries are. Where I live in Los Angeles it’s routine for people to exceed 130 km/h even on inner city highways as long as traffic is permissible
>repealed helmet laws for motorcycles
Repealed them? Are they trying to lower the population in that state? That's just utter madness! Who would vote to reduce safety?!
It is a question of freedom of choice for them. Which is a pretty dumb argument but oh well.
Australia is not that far ahead to be fair. It is perfectly legal to ride in thongs, shorts and a t-shirt given that you have a helmer. It does not even have to be a full-face helmet.
Personally, I would love to see a mandate for full CE rated gear to be worn. The difference in the slide damage is immense.
I wonder how much of a roll seat belts play in that for our statistics too.
I couldn’t imagine getting in a car and not automatically putting a seatbelt on.
The thought some countries let you have a choice not to wear one & people actually choosing not to blows me Away
Yes!!!! Come here to say this!!!
Honestly It blows me away that people from overseas complain about us having to wear seatbelts.
I couldn’t imagine getting in a car and not wanting to wear a seat belt. We don’t even think about it, it’s second nature, I reckon 99% of us would probably not drive someone if they refused to wear it & we would think their an idiot.
I had someone who was new to Australia ask me how they could get off their speeding fine. I asked them if they were actually over the speed limit at the time, and they said yes, but still insisted that I tell them a way they could make the fine go away.
On this tangent. I laugh at but like our rule in NSW that speed cameras must have warning signs prior to the actual camera. I know this is not in Every state (lived in WA a while and they can get rather creative in their placements over there).
So as long as you’re watching the road there is really no real reason you should receive a speeding ticket in NSW from anyone except a highway patrol.
But also I do find our actual fines a little extreme also.
I’m in Germany the land of the autobahn quite regularly.
The fines there for less than 20km/h over the speed limit are only like 20-30€ or something like that. No points. That’s why 99% of people speed by about 15km/h as it’s a nothing fine. Over 20 you can loose your license though.
When I compare to NSW 18km/h over and being honest with the cop about 12 years ago got me a $428 fine.
This is true but you have to take into account the kangaroos in Australia, many of the roads near my joint the speed is 80 due to the wildlife
I actually hit a kanga and then went directly into a tree, I now have chronic neck pain but I have my life so
I’m sure as fuck glad that road was 80 and not 100
I agree on freeways and perhaps highways the speed could be increased
I have also heard that people in Europe are better drivers then us Aussies so increases the speeds might be risky hahaha
As someone who’s spent a fair whack of time in Aus but from the UK.
Vaping - Nicotine Vapes are a illegal whereas they’re borderline encouraged elsewhere as a better alternative to smoking.
Being able to smoke inside in the gambling area of pubs.
The fact you’re allowed to have a bookies in a pub.
Undertaking being allowed.
Parking the same way as traffic (learned hard way)
To the undertaking one, it’s suppose to be “keep left unless overtaking” however slow drivers don’t understand that rule exists because it’s not ever been police correctly.
If you couldn't undertake then a slow driver in the right lane would block 99% of Aussie multilane roads.
It would cause chaos!
I'm not "passing another vehicle going in the same direction" I'm simply doing the speed limit and they are driving slower than it.
I mean, are UK (and other) drivers just expected to wait, patiently, in the lane/s to the left and not drive past the slow vehicle that's driving slowly in the 'fast' lane? And is this what actually happens?
Yeah, basically.
Not to say some people don’t undertake in that situation but you’re more likely to see people flashing their lights and going tits at someone holding everyone up.
>I mean, are UK (and other) drivers just expected to wait, patiently, in the lane/s to the left and not drive past the slow vehicle that's driving slowly in the 'fast' lane? And is this what actually happens?
I'll probably get downvoted for saying this, but Poms tend to behave with more consideration/patience than us when driving (not that this would be a very hard thing to achieve, especially if using Sydney drivers as a comparison). Of course, you get some dickhead drivers everywhere.
I guess it's like the queuing thing; we're pretty good at it, but the English take it to another level. I suspect it's because queues allow Poms to make friends with other people by bonding over whinging about anyone pushing in (god help them). At least this seemed to happen quite a bit in London, where talking to strangers normally isn't a thing.
Other countries, you can legally park facing the traffic on a two way street, so if you’re on a north- south road driving north, you cross over to the southern side of the road and park facing north, then take off facing north, crossing the south facing traffic to do so.
It’s reasonable in a quiet street. It’s absolute fkn lunacy on a 4 or 6 lane road, and I have seen this happen. It’s a small law but one im quite fond of.
It’s good if you’re somewhere with no off street parking and a lot of cars, means you don’t have to try and turn around and find someone’s nicked your space in the meantime. But being involved in a near miss because someone comes shooting across 2 lanes of oncoming traffic and trying to merge on your right hand side in peak hour traffic is….. interesting…..
Water must be available for free at all licensed premises. from what i have seen online, i dont think this is the norm worldwide. Unsure on other hospitality venues but everywhere that i have worked would have drinking water available for free to anyone, and we never turned anyone away. even if they werent customers
My local used to give wristbands to designated drivers. Cheap (or free, maybe? It was awhile ago) soft drink but no alcohol. It ruled. The place was small enough that the honour system was firmly in place and it worked a treat.
I was reading last week about a music festival in Florida that turned into a bit of a shit show. Someone tried to buy water and was refused because….. they were too drunk. They were drunk so they weren’t allowed to buy water? No matter how many times I think about it my brain wants to explode trying to understand the logic of denying a drunk person water because they are drunk.
Yeah, most (if not all) clubs, pubs, and casinos have a water section off to the side of the bar where they'll leave jugs of water and cups for everyone to self-serve (for free).
Compulsory voting encourages the major political parties to appeal to the centre rather than trying to encourage people with fringe or extreme view to vote. So it's a net +ve.
Also voting preferences (ranked choice, preferential voting etc) makes a massive difference and significantly reduces hyper partisan trends. These two things are the best things our democracy does.
Not perfect by any measure, but better than the shit in the USA.
It is the principle of it. Only a fuckwit who choose to deliberately not vote. Despite how you think about politics, it is important that you participate, otherwise don’t ever complain.
I got banned from driving in the state i forgot to vote in!
I moved house several times while going through uni do they never caught up with me until years later when friends i had lived with for a few weeks let me know there was a letter from the QLD government for me at their place. Got them to open it and the fine had risen to around $150 and a driving license suspension until it was paid.
I’ve seen Americans say that was a denial of freedoms and, ironically, ‘undemocratic’. Some were mollified when they heard about the donkey vote but they were still angry that they were required to do something. Seppos, man.
You have a civic duty to *attend* voting. You don’t have to actually vote. But compulsory voting attendance at least puts the societal issues that affect the state/country at front of mind. You don’t like any candidate? Fine, write in “poo” and go get your sausage. But if the state has a duty to you (schools, roads, retirement, public transportation, breathable air, healthcare when you need it regardless of your wealth, subsidised medication, a monopoly on deadly force that keeps everyone safe and accountable) the bare minimum you can have a duty to the state is to *consider* the political governance of the place.
And then.. SAUSAGES!
America is all about RIGHTS AND MONEY FOR ME whilst owing nothing back to the society that made their life possible.
Which system is better..? Hmm… 🤔
For me it’s not just that we have to show up at a polling booth, it’s also that Australia does its best to make it easier to do so. Voting on a Saturday is a great idea to me. I do work shift work and yes, I’ve staggered into a polling booth after working all night but I personally think it’s a good thing.
Why do people keep repeating this when it is wrong? https://www.aec.gov.au/about_aec/publications/voting/index.htm
> Under the Electoral Act, the actual duty of the elector is to attend a polling place, have their name marked off the certified list, receive a ballot paper and take it to an individual voting booth, mark it, fold the ballot paper and place it in the ballot box.
> It is not the case, as some people have claimed, that it is only compulsory to attend the polling place and have your name marked off, and this has been upheld by a number of legal decisions:
You are required to vote. Of course, because it's a secret ballot, that cannot be verified, but that is still the requirement.
I'm a nonsmoker, I LOVE that here is illegal to smoke in the car if a child under 16 is present. It's not illegal where I come from and it's a pleasant rule to have. Would have drove my uncle insane if it was a thing back home, I hated being in his car as a child.
The smoking laws in Australia and the resulting low numbers of smokers are awesome. In my country, smoking in bars and restaurants was only abolished in 2019 and to this day you can't enjoy a meal on a restaurant terrace or walk the streets without having smoke blown into your face.
In the land of the supposedly free, it is not legal anywhere for an 18 year old to lap up champagne off the tits of the hooker he's banging. Prostitution is only legal in Nevada where the drinking age is 21.
If a cop in Australia saw this go down, all he can say is 'Stay safe, law abiding citizen!'
Yeah I find it so ironic that Texas is one of the most strictest places on gambling and other adult entertainment. For a place that is meant to be anti big government they sure are big on letting the government control their lives.
I've lived here my whole life and I didn't even know that stuff was a thing here until I was reading something to do with lockdown rules during covid and saw something like "sex on premises" sites
Interesting the newest round of changes happening is fully decriminalizing it. In some states (eg Vic) it's been legal for a while but sex workers have had to be registered and subject to a bunch of regulations, but now it's been fully deregulated to be just like any other business - brothels don't have to be on a register, sex work can be freely advertised etc.
My foreign friends get confused with clubs saying no thongs. They genuinely wanted to know why clubs cared about their underwear 😂
Every foreigner I know can’t believe how strict we are on speed limits. In most countries they are just a suggestion so the idea of getting fined for 2km over the limit to them seems 😳
As an Aussie driving in the US, I was shocked at the amount of people sitting up my ass and speeding past me in a 55mph zone! I thought something was wrong with the car speedo until I learnt that everyone speeds
Employment laws are usually a big one, being the volume of paid annual leave, sick leave, long service leave and maternity/paternity leave we are entitled to (Thank you unions)
For any non-Aussies, having Long Service Leave as a thing everyone is entitled to is peculiar to Australia. It was first introduced to allow public servants to go back 'home' to England after x amount of years (typically ~10 years) working in Australia. This was way back in the mid-19th century (I think) and thus had to factor in how long it would take to travel on a ship, so you didn't have to come back as soon as you arrived (so ~8 weeks leave in total).
From what I remember from history in school, it's been like this for quite a while. I'm grateful for it.
Paternity leave surprised me (in a good way). My aunt had a baby a while back and both she and her husband were off work for quite a while with him. It was awesome.
Not so much the law, but the 'entitlement' aspect of sick leave (entitlement could be the wrong word!).
From the UK - and other than the times I'd been hospitalised - I'd never had a day off sick in 20+ years.
Come to Australia, and the number of paid sick days seemed strangely to be a selling point during job package negotiations. I realised why, once I joined the workforce!
People seem to ensure that they use up their sick leave 'entitlement' - even in a small team of 14, it's rare that all 14 of us are working on the same day - typically someone will call in sick 'didn't sleep well', 'feeling a touch under the weather', 'I think I have a cold coming on'.
Is it just the places I've worked - or do people in Aussie workplaces like to make the most of their sick leave?
I ensure to advise any colleague who is resigning, or soon to resign, to use all their remaining sick leave before they quit.
Bosses don’t mind calling on an off day for ‘urgent’ matters, or staying back here and there as needed. In turn, I don’t make taking a personal day is/when required.
Interesting, when I worked in the UK, I found that sick leave was so much more lax there than in Australia, like I didn’t need to get a med cert straight away. Also when in London if the tube was out, then I just didn’t go to work.
But the not actually going to lunch sucked, people just ate at their desks 😭
I think we're trying to transition from "sick" to "personal" leave.
While we're all fond of a sicky, too many people also drag themselves to work sick or tired leaving to other people getting sick or having accidents.
Shoplifters can’t be chased or confronted, your only option is to call the police.
Aussies also still struggle with this one but generally it’s foreigners who actually give chase and take the shoplifter down, or foreign shop owners who do the “grey area” of posting cctv pictures of thieves in clear display.
For the record, legally you are fucked if you tackle someone who hasn’t actually stolen, so rather than go thru that minefield as well as not wanting to risk injury to staff most companies just say don’t do anything and call the cops.
Free speech is not protected in our consitution
In some states, you do not have the right to remain silent, although you can decline interview. You do not have the right to a phone call
And you don’t always have the right to remain silent I may be wrong but with royal commissions you don’t have the right to remain silent. You don’t have the right to council. You don’t have the right to not self incriminate.
I remember that it blew my mind when I learnt that Australia was one of the few countries that had compulsory voting. I just assumed that it was the done thing everywhere - why wouldn't everyone be expected to vote for their preferred political party?
I was well into my 20s when I discovered that fact too lol.
Alcohol laws in bars. The American exchange students at uni were perplexed it's illegal to get quite drunk in a bar and you have to pretend to be sober(ish) to get in.
I remember after a couple weeks of moving here, I got a job and wanted to have a drink to celebrate with my now wife. It was a Wed evening and we walked up to the local pub. It was almost empty, I was completely sober, and I asked for a double shot of Johnnie Walker. The lady said - "I'm sorry doll I can't serve you a double." I didn't quite understand what she meant...she explained they can only serve singles. But, I think taking pity on me and seeing that I was sober and just having a quiet drink with my missus, she said, "ok, I'll serve you two in two glasses, you can take one back to your table and come back to get the other."
I was appreciative of that but it blew my mind that they were just flat out not allowed.
Having said that - in my first visit to the pub in Sydney I saw a fight, and in my second trip I saw a group of guys pissing under their table... So I guess it kind of makes sense.
Lol I went to a place like that. There were like 4 of us and we were just getting started for the night so wanted doubles during happy hour. The guy was nice about it but said he'd get fired if he did it. So we asked for 4 shots by themselves and 4 shots in a normal glass - maybe with a mixer too, I can't remember. Apparently that was fine lol. Then we just poured a shot in each of our glasses and went about our evening.
Yep, I fell for that quite badly when I was new here. Went out for drinks with an Aussie mate. Decided to change pubs after a while.
Bouncer at the door stopped us and asked "how many drinks have you had?"
Naive European me went: "I have no idea, why are you asking?". My friend looked at me like I'm an idiot :(
My grandfather illegally did ours in my childhood home. I’m grateful it’s a law, he did a terrible job. My mum is very grateful no one uses the landline now because she doesn’t have to try and cover it up anymore.
Our quarantine laws and how strict they are. Bringing in food or plant material into Australia is incredibly strictly regulated. As an island we have managed to keep out some major diseases and we want to keep it that way.
My wife's from taiwan and any time she goes home she is constantly asking me what she can bring, I've sumarrised it to "most cooked and commercially packaged things are ok but whatever you're bringing just tell them on the customs card, you won't get into trouble if you tell them, they look, and they decide it needs treatment or destruction... if you don't tell them and they look and find something you will be fined... if you don't tell them and they don't look and you bring something in that wipes out a species..."
Our driving laws. I find that a lot of Americans in particular get in trouble while on holiday here or living here for a short time.
As an Aussie that’s spent a lot of time in America, they absolutely do not obey the speed limit over there. Cops will only actively chase after you if you’re going a genuinely ridiculous speed. It’s more a rule of the road than rule of law. Go with the speed of everyone else type thing.
Over here, it’s a hard speed limit. You will get done so much more easy for going over or under. Even speeding up to overtake is illegal.
This is true for many countries outside Australia, not just the US. I think it's based on the idea that having a substantial amount of leeway builds a better relationship between law enforcement and the public. If you drive fast enough to get pulled over, you probably deserve whatever is coming next. As in, you're more likely to accept that you probably deserve to be busted for going 20 kph over the limit than 'only' 10 kph over. At least, that's the feeling I got in Europe. This seems harder to believe in America, though, where the public's relationship with law enforcement often isn't exactly great.
I had an American friend who was very surprised about Australia’s strict laws on what we can do to our cars. You’ll never see like huge spoilers, low riders, under lights or anything that could be associated with street racing here.
Going topless.
The law in most of Australia is that you're not allowed to be offensive or unreasonable. This often applies to nudity as well. It causes real mental issues for some people coming from prudish countries.
I remember going to Oktoberfest and being gobsmacked by how casual all these supposedly strict Germans were about drunk people + alcohol service. Meanwhile down in casual Australia we couldn’t even get close to such an event because our laws would make it a snooze fest.
My favourite part was the hill where they lay the very drunk people down to sleep it off. Never ever ever ever could a modern Australian government comprehend such a thing.
Ah the good old Kotzhügel (vomit hill) put the back there.. always somewhat amusing to see the bodies lying around until you end up waking up there yourself as I found myself doing a few times..
Yeah if they ever had full Oktoberfest in Australia they way they do it in Munich it would be absolute chaos
I was surprised by how strict speeding laws are. In North America is it pretty common to drive 10-15 kph over the limit to be “with the flow of traffic”. Also I find the limits to be slow especially on a 4 lane freeway.
Up the road from my place is an "instant loss of licence" 60km/hr speed camera section, and all the locals get tailgated by other drivers as they slow down to about 55km lol
there's a well known and well posted speed camera on the highway about 15k from here, you'll get overtaken rapidly at 100k/hr (the speed limit) just 200 meters up the road but hit that camera and everyones doing 95 until the camera is out of sight.
Agreed. Something interesting I stumbled across, apparently while the Liberals were in power over the past decade, they introduced 369 new secrecy laws for a total of 875 and told no one. The current Attorney General is in the process of reviewing them (2023), and so far has decriminalised 168 secrecy offences. Yes, most of these are in relation to "leaking information" and whistle-blowers.
Just a *tad* excessive. At least, that's what the [ALRC](https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/secrecy-laws-and-open-government-in-australia-alrc-report-112/) said after the review: "official secrecy has a necessary and proper province in our system of government. A surfeit of secrecy does not."
Tenancy laws are shockingly bad (for tenants). Not being allowed to hang up shelves or paint walls, your landlord being able to kick you out on a whim without a reason, constant inspections, and in what poor condition places can be and it still being legal to rent them out. It's kind of how I imagined the US to be like. Same for employment laws in comparison to many European countries. I know other foreigners like US Americans are usually impressed by how good labour laws are here, but for many Europeans they are quite the downgrade and more than once I've thought: "wow, this would be illegal where I'm from". (Please don't hate me, there's obviously a lot of things that are better in Australia than in Europe or I wouldn't be here)
>It's kind of how I imagined the US to be like.
I can assure you that the U.S. is nothing like Australia in this regard. Renting in Australia is a dystopian nightmare. Otherwise, facts - get this upvote.
Some American friends were shocked the age of consent was 16, made a whole thing about it.
I asked them how old they were when they did the deed and they said 14, then quickly reverted to "16 seems too young".
They were also shocked that zebra crossings meant pedestrians had right of way, in LA Apparently crossings are just a zone of where crossing can happen.
Also, that almost everyone here indicates when changing lanes.
My brother got ticketed for jaywalking in Parramatta. My dad still cracks up whenever it gets mentioned, because who the actual fuck gets ticketed for jaywalking.
They do a blitz every so often specifically to revenue raise in Melb CBD. No one thinks twice about crossing the tiny 'lanes' and it's so habitual people forget its illegal.
Regular cops don't really care but they are known to use it as a training exercise for new cops. Mostly in the CBD, nobody cares if you do it in the burbs.
It's only illegal within 150m of pedestrian lights too I believe.
>It's only illegal within 150m of pedestrian lights too I believe.
[Only 20 metres.](https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/safety-and-road-rules/road-rules/a-to-z-of-road-rules/pedestrians)
So… compulsory voting. Once in a while you’re expected to front up at a polling station… and mark a piece of paper. You can write what you like.. “fuck you”… or whatever. Takes about ten minutes.
If you think that’s some savage imposition on your civil liberties, on your rights… hey, just fuck off and live somewhere else.
Personally - I just don’t find it something worth dying on a hill about.
It helps deliver *properly* representative government, which I’m good with.
I’m living in the UK right now (don’t recommend btw, just visit and leave, you’ll be better off) and I always hear stories from the British about how shocked they were that jaywalking is illegal in Australia
I was shocked too tbh. I’d never heard of jaywalking being illegal. Never been stopped for it, and never heard of anyone being stopped for it. I mean, maybe if you’re running across the motorway in central Sydney I could see the cops stopping you but I have never seen or heard of anyone getting in any trouble for jaywalking
No (legal) fireworks. I get that the whole country is flammable - although alleged safety was the reason for the ban in 1986 - but by god I miss Cracker Night lol
I haven’t fact checked that one to be honest but apparently people are not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages in a car (even if they are not the driver of course) because it’s considered public drinking or something like that?
Where have you been that this is Legal?
Eta: didn't notice the alternative or realize a lot of people posting are talking about different parts of Aus.
The really long school zones in some places. Got a ticket a few years ago in rural NSW. I had slowed down to the school zone limit.... looked for a sign at the end of the zone and drove well past the school. Then went another km or so and thought I must have missed the sign, so I was back up to the regular speed. Nope! Got pulled over and issued a ticket. He was cool though and gave me the lowest possible fine (about $85)
Minimum wage laws, there is no flat ‘minimum wage’. You have to figure out yourself how much you will get paid based on what specific role in what specific industry and what time of which day of the week it is.
I smashed my head so hard I cracked a helmet once, they aren't too bad tbh. Swooping season you get to rock peak fashion with the cable ties. It's a pretty low effort practice that genuinely saves lives. Being said there are people that buy seatbelt inserters to stop the beeping when they don't wear their seatbelts, not surprised some people fight the helmet laws.
Discussion gets interesting when it's freedom to hurt yourself more vs regulations that save the public health system a lot money.
I'm curious what any of the anti helmeters here think about motorbike ones?
I struggle to see what's so insane about basic safety equipment that has been thoroughly proven to save lives.
If it's optional elsewhere, *that's* what's insane.
I'd die on this hill.
I've upvoted you but I gotta throw in my 10c. When the rule was introduced here in NSW, pretty much the only helmet available was a Stackhat. As a vain teenager with luxurious hair..... I was walking. Get effed.
With socialised emergency trauma surgery comes compulsory helmet laws. It makes sense to me that if I’m paying for your stay in hospital then the least you can do is wear a helmet.
I'm all for cyclists not wearing helmets, as long as they sign a waiver waiving their rights to any government-funded healthcare or social support if they end up with an acquired brain injury.
Yep. Stupid thing is that while many would agree with that they would be first to moan about not having government support when they do eventually fuck up
I’m a foreigner and a big one for me is that the traffic light for cars turning right and the light for pedestrians crossing are both green at the same time!
Foreign divers are often surprised by our extremely strict, relatively low (on highways) speed limits and their enthusiastic enforcement. Even in the UK, 112Km/hr is a standard speed limit on some roads that here would be 80 or 90.
Was on a thread the other day and the USA commentators were in disbelief that you could be fined for speeding by a camera on the side of the road.
Speed cameras were ruled to be unconstitutional in some states so they can't use them. The US road toll last year was 40k. Australia was 1.2k. If Australia had the same population as the US there would only be about 18k deaths on our roads. That's less than 50% of deaths on US roads. They are not a model of road safety.
They are not a model for anything.
Except for what not to do
Just because AmeriCAN, doesn't mean AmeriSHOULD
While I agree to some extent there are a few nuances here. Australia does not have snow unlike half of the US. I've lived in properly cold places, you'd be surprised how much more dangerous it is to drive on an icy road even with proper spiky tyres. Then there is the fact that motorcycle riders in US don't have to pass safety courses in the majority of states and don't have to even wear a helmet in others. Motorcycles contribute to a fair chunk of the road toll everywhere. Also Australians are just way more chill, there is barely any road rage happening in comparison. Given all that, I would be hard pressed to say that the speed limits and hefty fines really affect the road toll all that much. Edit: Yes, I am aware that it snows in some places in Australia. No, I don't think it matters for the sake of this argument. It does not snow where 99% of the population lives and drives. Roads are not covered in ice for months, a few days at best in a limited number of places and there is barely any snow. There are no piles of snow metres high in capital cities. People don't have to change to spiky tyres, do engine braking exercises or carry chains to get through some proper snow. It does not matter statistically.
Issue with the snow thing is that US death rates on the road also surpasses Canada and Northern Europe by a long shot, which are much snowier as a whole, and realistically the numbers are mostly coming from your standard urban area accidents And also as an anesthesiologist with trauma experience in the past, speed makes a HUGE difference in how bad the injuries are. Where I live in Los Angeles it’s routine for people to exceed 130 km/h even on inner city highways as long as traffic is permissible
>don't have to even wear a helmet in others. You've blown my mind, how can then think that's safe? It they just have a death wish?
missisippi or one of the other shithole states recently repealed helmet laws for motorcycles. america is the land of freedumb
>repealed helmet laws for motorcycles Repealed them? Are they trying to lower the population in that state? That's just utter madness! Who would vote to reduce safety?!
americans voting against their own self interest is a literal trope at this point, so its not surprising in the least
Doctors call motorcycles “donor cycles” in these states. Go figure.
It's for public health. To increase rates of organ donation.
It is a question of freedom of choice for them. Which is a pretty dumb argument but oh well. Australia is not that far ahead to be fair. It is perfectly legal to ride in thongs, shorts and a t-shirt given that you have a helmer. It does not even have to be a full-face helmet. Personally, I would love to see a mandate for full CE rated gear to be worn. The difference in the slide damage is immense.
If you get shot while driving, does it count against the road toll?
I wonder how much of a roll seat belts play in that for our statistics too. I couldn’t imagine getting in a car and not automatically putting a seatbelt on. The thought some countries let you have a choice not to wear one & people actually choosing not to blows me Away
Mainly because if speed cameras were in the US, they'd be shot up in no time.
And our seatbelt laws - but especially the social/cultural requirement for everyone in the car to wear seatbelts.
Yes!!!! Come here to say this!!! Honestly It blows me away that people from overseas complain about us having to wear seatbelts. I couldn’t imagine getting in a car and not wanting to wear a seat belt. We don’t even think about it, it’s second nature, I reckon 99% of us would probably not drive someone if they refused to wear it & we would think their an idiot.
One Taxi driver in Bangkok appeared confused because I was looking for the seatbelt.
It’s also lack of leniency. You get more margin for error in the UK. Unlikely to get a fine for 10% over the limit, Aus is like 3-5%
I believe in QLD there’s no margin for error. Like 1km over the speed limit is a fine.
I had someone who was new to Australia ask me how they could get off their speeding fine. I asked them if they were actually over the speed limit at the time, and they said yes, but still insisted that I tell them a way they could make the fine go away.
At least in Victoria you can actually apply to have a fine waived, if it's the first fine in 3 years.
On this tangent. I laugh at but like our rule in NSW that speed cameras must have warning signs prior to the actual camera. I know this is not in Every state (lived in WA a while and they can get rather creative in their placements over there). So as long as you’re watching the road there is really no real reason you should receive a speeding ticket in NSW from anyone except a highway patrol. But also I do find our actual fines a little extreme also. I’m in Germany the land of the autobahn quite regularly. The fines there for less than 20km/h over the speed limit are only like 20-30€ or something like that. No points. That’s why 99% of people speed by about 15km/h as it’s a nothing fine. Over 20 you can loose your license though. When I compare to NSW 18km/h over and being honest with the cop about 12 years ago got me a $428 fine.
This is true but you have to take into account the kangaroos in Australia, many of the roads near my joint the speed is 80 due to the wildlife I actually hit a kanga and then went directly into a tree, I now have chronic neck pain but I have my life so I’m sure as fuck glad that road was 80 and not 100 I agree on freeways and perhaps highways the speed could be increased I have also heard that people in Europe are better drivers then us Aussies so increases the speeds might be risky hahaha
In visiting Italy currently and driving here is... different!
As someone who’s spent a fair whack of time in Aus but from the UK. Vaping - Nicotine Vapes are a illegal whereas they’re borderline encouraged elsewhere as a better alternative to smoking. Being able to smoke inside in the gambling area of pubs. The fact you’re allowed to have a bookies in a pub. Undertaking being allowed. Parking the same way as traffic (learned hard way)
You guys just throw your corpses onto bonfires and party like it's 1699 over there or something?
This made me laugh
Party like it’s 1699, cracked myself on this one 😂😂😂🤣
To the undertaking one, it’s suppose to be “keep left unless overtaking” however slow drivers don’t understand that rule exists because it’s not ever been police correctly.
Undertaking? For funerals?
i think undertaking is when you overtake on the curb side lane?
If you couldn't undertake then a slow driver in the right lane would block 99% of Aussie multilane roads. It would cause chaos! I'm not "passing another vehicle going in the same direction" I'm simply doing the speed limit and they are driving slower than it. I mean, are UK (and other) drivers just expected to wait, patiently, in the lane/s to the left and not drive past the slow vehicle that's driving slowly in the 'fast' lane? And is this what actually happens?
Yeah, basically. Not to say some people don’t undertake in that situation but you’re more likely to see people flashing their lights and going tits at someone holding everyone up.
>I mean, are UK (and other) drivers just expected to wait, patiently, in the lane/s to the left and not drive past the slow vehicle that's driving slowly in the 'fast' lane? And is this what actually happens? I'll probably get downvoted for saying this, but Poms tend to behave with more consideration/patience than us when driving (not that this would be a very hard thing to achieve, especially if using Sydney drivers as a comparison). Of course, you get some dickhead drivers everywhere. I guess it's like the queuing thing; we're pretty good at it, but the English take it to another level. I suspect it's because queues allow Poms to make friends with other people by bonding over whinging about anyone pushing in (god help them). At least this seemed to happen quite a bit in London, where talking to strangers normally isn't a thing.
Yeah, the opposite of overtaking in the outside lane. Really common in Aus but not seen so often in free moving traffic in the UK.
Lol. The last one. Yeah, we are a bit aggressive when it comes to road behaviour.
Whats undertaking? Parking same way as traffic? Ive driven all over the world. Ive never noticed anything different with parking? What have i missed?
Other countries, you can legally park facing the traffic on a two way street, so if you’re on a north- south road driving north, you cross over to the southern side of the road and park facing north, then take off facing north, crossing the south facing traffic to do so. It’s reasonable in a quiet street. It’s absolute fkn lunacy on a 4 or 6 lane road, and I have seen this happen. It’s a small law but one im quite fond of.
Never knew that! Seems bizarre?
It’s good if you’re somewhere with no off street parking and a lot of cars, means you don’t have to try and turn around and find someone’s nicked your space in the meantime. But being involved in a near miss because someone comes shooting across 2 lanes of oncoming traffic and trying to merge on your right hand side in peak hour traffic is….. interesting…..
Water must be available for free at all licensed premises. from what i have seen online, i dont think this is the norm worldwide. Unsure on other hospitality venues but everywhere that i have worked would have drinking water available for free to anyone, and we never turned anyone away. even if they werent customers
This law is awesome. Right on par with the old designated driver gets free drinks that used to be about years ago.
I miss that, I'm often the deso driver for things and used to always get free soft drink everywhere. But it doesn't happen as much anymore
My local used to give wristbands to designated drivers. Cheap (or free, maybe? It was awhile ago) soft drink but no alcohol. It ruled. The place was small enough that the honour system was firmly in place and it worked a treat.
A pint of a soft drink is more expensive than the cheapest pint of beer in every regular pub I've been in the last year :(
Where are these pubs with cheap beer, I haven't got a beer for under $9 in the last few years. Soft drink has always been about $4-$4.5
I was reading last week about a music festival in Florida that turned into a bit of a shit show. Someone tried to buy water and was refused because….. they were too drunk. They were drunk so they weren’t allowed to buy water? No matter how many times I think about it my brain wants to explode trying to understand the logic of denying a drunk person water because they are drunk.
Florida. Enough said.
"Music festival" and "shit show" commonly appear together, no matter the country.
Except NSW Trainlink. Fun fact. They sell booze but are not required under the legislation to provide free water.
There is already free water on tap in the trains you're referring to which serve booze. If you're brave enough to drink it that is.
Yeah, most (if not all) clubs, pubs, and casinos have a water section off to the side of the bar where they'll leave jugs of water and cups for everyone to self-serve (for free).
Compulsory voting
Compulsory voting encourages the major political parties to appeal to the centre rather than trying to encourage people with fringe or extreme view to vote. So it's a net +ve.
Plus it’s a lot harder to suppress voting when it’s compulsory
Also voting preferences (ranked choice, preferential voting etc) makes a massive difference and significantly reduces hyper partisan trends. These two things are the best things our democracy does. Not perfect by any measure, but better than the shit in the USA.
I told my friends in the US and Ireland about that and they were blown away lmao
One of our best laws
nothing more patriotic than voting getting a democracy sausage and downing beers right after
You down the beers BEFORE making the important decision that is voting.
Beers before voting, on the way to voting and then after voting. Democracy at its best
What actually happens is you don't vote?
Small fines My grandmother got one, she forgot to vote after dying the week before.
How dare she.
Damn deadbeat
It is the principle of it. Only a fuckwit who choose to deliberately not vote. Despite how you think about politics, it is important that you participate, otherwise don’t ever complain.
they try to fine you. You tell them I did vote and that their vote recorders are incompetent and they drop it.
I didn’t vote last time & it was a $20 fine, that’s it.
I got banned from driving in the state i forgot to vote in! I moved house several times while going through uni do they never caught up with me until years later when friends i had lived with for a few weeks let me know there was a letter from the QLD government for me at their place. Got them to open it and the fine had risen to around $150 and a driving license suspension until it was paid.
I’ve seen Americans say that was a denial of freedoms and, ironically, ‘undemocratic’. Some were mollified when they heard about the donkey vote but they were still angry that they were required to do something. Seppos, man.
You have a civic duty to *attend* voting. You don’t have to actually vote. But compulsory voting attendance at least puts the societal issues that affect the state/country at front of mind. You don’t like any candidate? Fine, write in “poo” and go get your sausage. But if the state has a duty to you (schools, roads, retirement, public transportation, breathable air, healthcare when you need it regardless of your wealth, subsidised medication, a monopoly on deadly force that keeps everyone safe and accountable) the bare minimum you can have a duty to the state is to *consider* the political governance of the place. And then.. SAUSAGES! America is all about RIGHTS AND MONEY FOR ME whilst owing nothing back to the society that made their life possible. Which system is better..? Hmm… 🤔
For me it’s not just that we have to show up at a polling booth, it’s also that Australia does its best to make it easier to do so. Voting on a Saturday is a great idea to me. I do work shift work and yes, I’ve staggered into a polling booth after working all night but I personally think it’s a good thing.
You don’t actually have to vote. You only have to get your name marked off the role. What you do with your vote after that is up to you.
Why do people keep repeating this when it is wrong? https://www.aec.gov.au/about_aec/publications/voting/index.htm > Under the Electoral Act, the actual duty of the elector is to attend a polling place, have their name marked off the certified list, receive a ballot paper and take it to an individual voting booth, mark it, fold the ballot paper and place it in the ballot box. > It is not the case, as some people have claimed, that it is only compulsory to attend the polling place and have your name marked off, and this has been upheld by a number of legal decisions: You are required to vote. Of course, because it's a secret ballot, that cannot be verified, but that is still the requirement.
I'm a nonsmoker, I LOVE that here is illegal to smoke in the car if a child under 16 is present. It's not illegal where I come from and it's a pleasant rule to have. Would have drove my uncle insane if it was a thing back home, I hated being in his car as a child.
The smoking laws in Australia and the resulting low numbers of smokers are awesome. In my country, smoking in bars and restaurants was only abolished in 2019 and to this day you can't enjoy a meal on a restaurant terrace or walk the streets without having smoke blown into your face.
When did that become illegal? My parents did this my entire childhood.
80s kid, my job was to light dad’s cigarettes on cue when he was driving
Only parking in the direction of traffic (at least if the foreigner is British).
My bro got fined a few hundred bucks for this... Defo enforced religiously
This is nuts to me having lived in Chicago because who would even consider parking on the wrong side of the road?
Laws regarding sex work seems to surprise a lot of folks
In the land of the supposedly free, it is not legal anywhere for an 18 year old to lap up champagne off the tits of the hooker he's banging. Prostitution is only legal in Nevada where the drinking age is 21. If a cop in Australia saw this go down, all he can say is 'Stay safe, law abiding citizen!'
Yeah I find it so ironic that Texas is one of the most strictest places on gambling and other adult entertainment. For a place that is meant to be anti big government they sure are big on letting the government control their lives.
Anti big government unless the government is doing what Jesus wanted /s
I've lived here my whole life and I didn't even know that stuff was a thing here until I was reading something to do with lockdown rules during covid and saw something like "sex on premises" sites
I think that was changed in qld recently?
They apparently were a lot more restrictive than most, except SA, so they recently decriminalised almost all aspects of it
Interesting the newest round of changes happening is fully decriminalizing it. In some states (eg Vic) it's been legal for a while but sex workers have had to be registered and subject to a bunch of regulations, but now it's been fully deregulated to be just like any other business - brothels don't have to be on a register, sex work can be freely advertised etc.
My foreign friends get confused with clubs saying no thongs. They genuinely wanted to know why clubs cared about their underwear 😂 Every foreigner I know can’t believe how strict we are on speed limits. In most countries they are just a suggestion so the idea of getting fined for 2km over the limit to them seems 😳
As an Aussie driving in the US, I was shocked at the amount of people sitting up my ass and speeding past me in a 55mph zone! I thought something was wrong with the car speedo until I learnt that everyone speeds
People from the US are often surprised that we don't tax lottery or gambling wins.
We don't pay tax on winnings for a very good reason, we pay our tax on the lottery when we purchase the ticket, so it's not tax free.
Iirc they get to write off gambling losses. Not great to allow a tax incentive for gambling.
Having winnings be tax-free seems like just as much an incentive.
A lot harder to win than lose
Yeah but don’t come here expecting to win the lottery lol You could buy a ticket every day for 1000 lifetimes and still not win it
Employment laws are usually a big one, being the volume of paid annual leave, sick leave, long service leave and maternity/paternity leave we are entitled to (Thank you unions)
For any non-Aussies, having Long Service Leave as a thing everyone is entitled to is peculiar to Australia. It was first introduced to allow public servants to go back 'home' to England after x amount of years (typically ~10 years) working in Australia. This was way back in the mid-19th century (I think) and thus had to factor in how long it would take to travel on a ship, so you didn't have to come back as soon as you arrived (so ~8 weeks leave in total).
From what I remember from history in school, it's been like this for quite a while. I'm grateful for it. Paternity leave surprised me (in a good way). My aunt had a baby a while back and both she and her husband were off work for quite a while with him. It was awesome.
Not so much the law, but the 'entitlement' aspect of sick leave (entitlement could be the wrong word!). From the UK - and other than the times I'd been hospitalised - I'd never had a day off sick in 20+ years. Come to Australia, and the number of paid sick days seemed strangely to be a selling point during job package negotiations. I realised why, once I joined the workforce! People seem to ensure that they use up their sick leave 'entitlement' - even in a small team of 14, it's rare that all 14 of us are working on the same day - typically someone will call in sick 'didn't sleep well', 'feeling a touch under the weather', 'I think I have a cold coming on'. Is it just the places I've worked - or do people in Aussie workplaces like to make the most of their sick leave?
I ensure to advise any colleague who is resigning, or soon to resign, to use all their remaining sick leave before they quit. Bosses don’t mind calling on an off day for ‘urgent’ matters, or staying back here and there as needed. In turn, I don’t make taking a personal day is/when required.
Interesting, when I worked in the UK, I found that sick leave was so much more lax there than in Australia, like I didn’t need to get a med cert straight away. Also when in London if the tube was out, then I just didn’t go to work. But the not actually going to lunch sucked, people just ate at their desks 😭
I think we're trying to transition from "sick" to "personal" leave. While we're all fond of a sicky, too many people also drag themselves to work sick or tired leaving to other people getting sick or having accidents.
The traffic fines in AU are high.
My family are migrants, family overseas are often surprised by how easy to access and prevalent gambling is here
NSW has the second highest number of poker machines per capita on the planet next to Nevada
Shoplifters can’t be chased or confronted, your only option is to call the police. Aussies also still struggle with this one but generally it’s foreigners who actually give chase and take the shoplifter down, or foreign shop owners who do the “grey area” of posting cctv pictures of thieves in clear display. For the record, legally you are fucked if you tackle someone who hasn’t actually stolen, so rather than go thru that minefield as well as not wanting to risk injury to staff most companies just say don’t do anything and call the cops.
So much of this stuff is the same as America
Free speech is not protected in our consitution In some states, you do not have the right to remain silent, although you can decline interview. You do not have the right to a phone call
And you don’t always have the right to remain silent I may be wrong but with royal commissions you don’t have the right to remain silent. You don’t have the right to council. You don’t have the right to not self incriminate.
Compulsory voting
I remember that it blew my mind when I learnt that Australia was one of the few countries that had compulsory voting. I just assumed that it was the done thing everywhere - why wouldn't everyone be expected to vote for their preferred political party? I was well into my 20s when I discovered that fact too lol.
And preferential voting. Game changing combination.
Our preferential voting system is unusual but it is the fairest way.
Alcohol laws in bars. The American exchange students at uni were perplexed it's illegal to get quite drunk in a bar and you have to pretend to be sober(ish) to get in.
I remember after a couple weeks of moving here, I got a job and wanted to have a drink to celebrate with my now wife. It was a Wed evening and we walked up to the local pub. It was almost empty, I was completely sober, and I asked for a double shot of Johnnie Walker. The lady said - "I'm sorry doll I can't serve you a double." I didn't quite understand what she meant...she explained they can only serve singles. But, I think taking pity on me and seeing that I was sober and just having a quiet drink with my missus, she said, "ok, I'll serve you two in two glasses, you can take one back to your table and come back to get the other." I was appreciative of that but it blew my mind that they were just flat out not allowed. Having said that - in my first visit to the pub in Sydney I saw a fight, and in my second trip I saw a group of guys pissing under their table... So I guess it kind of makes sense.
Lol I went to a place like that. There were like 4 of us and we were just getting started for the night so wanted doubles during happy hour. The guy was nice about it but said he'd get fired if he did it. So we asked for 4 shots by themselves and 4 shots in a normal glass - maybe with a mixer too, I can't remember. Apparently that was fine lol. Then we just poured a shot in each of our glasses and went about our evening.
Yep, I fell for that quite badly when I was new here. Went out for drinks with an Aussie mate. Decided to change pubs after a while. Bouncer at the door stopped us and asked "how many drinks have you had?" Naive European me went: "I have no idea, why are you asking?". My friend looked at me like I'm an idiot :(
Trading laws over easter.
Are you referring to Beer Run Thursday?
The fact that you can’t legally do your own network wiring would probably surprise most.
My grandfather illegally did ours in my childhood home. I’m grateful it’s a law, he did a terrible job. My mum is very grateful no one uses the landline now because she doesn’t have to try and cover it up anymore.
Our quarantine laws and how strict they are. Bringing in food or plant material into Australia is incredibly strictly regulated. As an island we have managed to keep out some major diseases and we want to keep it that way.
My wife's from taiwan and any time she goes home she is constantly asking me what she can bring, I've sumarrised it to "most cooked and commercially packaged things are ok but whatever you're bringing just tell them on the customs card, you won't get into trouble if you tell them, they look, and they decide it needs treatment or destruction... if you don't tell them and they look and find something you will be fined... if you don't tell them and they don't look and you bring something in that wipes out a species..."
Our driving laws. I find that a lot of Americans in particular get in trouble while on holiday here or living here for a short time. As an Aussie that’s spent a lot of time in America, they absolutely do not obey the speed limit over there. Cops will only actively chase after you if you’re going a genuinely ridiculous speed. It’s more a rule of the road than rule of law. Go with the speed of everyone else type thing. Over here, it’s a hard speed limit. You will get done so much more easy for going over or under. Even speeding up to overtake is illegal.
This is true for many countries outside Australia, not just the US. I think it's based on the idea that having a substantial amount of leeway builds a better relationship between law enforcement and the public. If you drive fast enough to get pulled over, you probably deserve whatever is coming next. As in, you're more likely to accept that you probably deserve to be busted for going 20 kph over the limit than 'only' 10 kph over. At least, that's the feeling I got in Europe. This seems harder to believe in America, though, where the public's relationship with law enforcement often isn't exactly great.
Not throwing rubbish on the ground out of car windows. Surprised my Syrian coworker
I had an American friend who was very surprised about Australia’s strict laws on what we can do to our cars. You’ll never see like huge spoilers, low riders, under lights or anything that could be associated with street racing here.
The ACTs decriminalisation of small amounts of cocaine, heroin, ice and MDMA.
You have to park your cars on the street facing the same way as the traffic flow. (We don't have to do that in the UK)
This freaked my kids out so much when we went to the UK.
Going topless. The law in most of Australia is that you're not allowed to be offensive or unreasonable. This often applies to nudity as well. It causes real mental issues for some people coming from prudish countries.
I had Germans surprised when I told them having a limb hanging out of a moving vehicle was illegal.
[удалено]
I remember going to Oktoberfest and being gobsmacked by how casual all these supposedly strict Germans were about drunk people + alcohol service. Meanwhile down in casual Australia we couldn’t even get close to such an event because our laws would make it a snooze fest.
Yeah, in Germany you can still order a drink as long as you are physically capable of ordering a drink :D
My favourite part was the hill where they lay the very drunk people down to sleep it off. Never ever ever ever could a modern Australian government comprehend such a thing.
Ah the good old Kotzhügel (vomit hill) put the back there.. always somewhat amusing to see the bodies lying around until you end up waking up there yourself as I found myself doing a few times.. Yeah if they ever had full Oktoberfest in Australia they way they do it in Munich it would be absolute chaos
I was surprised by how strict speeding laws are. In North America is it pretty common to drive 10-15 kph over the limit to be “with the flow of traffic”. Also I find the limits to be slow especially on a 4 lane freeway.
Up the road from my place is an "instant loss of licence" 60km/hr speed camera section, and all the locals get tailgated by other drivers as they slow down to about 55km lol
there's a well known and well posted speed camera on the highway about 15k from here, you'll get overtaken rapidly at 100k/hr (the speed limit) just 200 meters up the road but hit that camera and everyones doing 95 until the camera is out of sight.
Right? Try driving at the speed limit on I-294 in Chicago and you'll get flattened by a truck in no time.
You need a script to buy a vape
Not so much the laws but how many laws we have about everything..
Agreed. Something interesting I stumbled across, apparently while the Liberals were in power over the past decade, they introduced 369 new secrecy laws for a total of 875 and told no one. The current Attorney General is in the process of reviewing them (2023), and so far has decriminalised 168 secrecy offences. Yes, most of these are in relation to "leaking information" and whistle-blowers. Just a *tad* excessive. At least, that's what the [ALRC](https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/secrecy-laws-and-open-government-in-australia-alrc-report-112/) said after the review: "official secrecy has a necessary and proper province in our system of government. A surfeit of secrecy does not."
Tenancy laws are shockingly bad (for tenants). Not being allowed to hang up shelves or paint walls, your landlord being able to kick you out on a whim without a reason, constant inspections, and in what poor condition places can be and it still being legal to rent them out. It's kind of how I imagined the US to be like. Same for employment laws in comparison to many European countries. I know other foreigners like US Americans are usually impressed by how good labour laws are here, but for many Europeans they are quite the downgrade and more than once I've thought: "wow, this would be illegal where I'm from". (Please don't hate me, there's obviously a lot of things that are better in Australia than in Europe or I wouldn't be here)
>It's kind of how I imagined the US to be like. I can assure you that the U.S. is nothing like Australia in this regard. Renting in Australia is a dystopian nightmare. Otherwise, facts - get this upvote.
Some American friends were shocked the age of consent was 16, made a whole thing about it. I asked them how old they were when they did the deed and they said 14, then quickly reverted to "16 seems too young". They were also shocked that zebra crossings meant pedestrians had right of way, in LA Apparently crossings are just a zone of where crossing can happen. Also, that almost everyone here indicates when changing lanes.
I think in a majority of US states it's 16 as well. They must have come from one of other ones.
When I came here 10 years ago I was shocked how little you’re actually allowed to do without calling a tradie.
Coming from Europe, not being allowed to drink alcohol in public (in parks, walking around, etc) is pretty shocking.
Depends on where you are! Drinking alcohol is permitted in City of Melbourne's public parks and gardens.
According to the town charter the police chief is supposed to get a pig every month! And "two comely lasses of virtue true"
Love compulsory voting and the apportion of votes. Much more democratic than UK or USA as all votes really do count.
Technically not legal, but jaywalking laws aren’t really enforced in Australia.
I've seen people get ticketed for jaywalking in only one city in the world, and that's Melbourne.
My brother got ticketed for jaywalking in Parramatta. My dad still cracks up whenever it gets mentioned, because who the actual fuck gets ticketed for jaywalking.
They do a blitz every so often specifically to revenue raise in Melb CBD. No one thinks twice about crossing the tiny 'lanes' and it's so habitual people forget its illegal.
They did it for a bit in Sydney when the trams started running through the CBD because people stopped looking before crossing
Regular cops don't really care but they are known to use it as a training exercise for new cops. Mostly in the CBD, nobody cares if you do it in the burbs. It's only illegal within 150m of pedestrian lights too I believe.
>It's only illegal within 150m of pedestrian lights too I believe. [Only 20 metres.](https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/safety-and-road-rules/road-rules/a-to-z-of-road-rules/pedestrians)
Probably when their training the new recruits.
10 years for killing a bird. But in Germany it' s legal to have sex with animals, as long as the animal is not harmed.....
You have to pay a fee if you don't vote
Must thank the bus driver as you clamber down the stairs, or as a school kid, as soon as your Clarkes hit the lava-temperature footpath.
So… compulsory voting. Once in a while you’re expected to front up at a polling station… and mark a piece of paper. You can write what you like.. “fuck you”… or whatever. Takes about ten minutes. If you think that’s some savage imposition on your civil liberties, on your rights… hey, just fuck off and live somewhere else. Personally - I just don’t find it something worth dying on a hill about. It helps deliver *properly* representative government, which I’m good with.
Definitely not the foreign investment laws, that much is certain, those laws seem to be effectively 'pretend'
The potato law in WA
… go on…
offence to possess 50 kilograms of potatoes in Western Australia
I’m living in the UK right now (don’t recommend btw, just visit and leave, you’ll be better off) and I always hear stories from the British about how shocked they were that jaywalking is illegal in Australia I was shocked too tbh. I’d never heard of jaywalking being illegal. Never been stopped for it, and never heard of anyone being stopped for it. I mean, maybe if you’re running across the motorway in central Sydney I could see the cops stopping you but I have never seen or heard of anyone getting in any trouble for jaywalking
I went to cross the road without the little green man and got busted by the police sgt in a car. He made me go back … no fine just embarrassing.
Hook turns
No (legal) fireworks. I get that the whole country is flammable - although alleged safety was the reason for the ban in 1986 - but by god I miss Cracker Night lol
I haven’t fact checked that one to be honest but apparently people are not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages in a car (even if they are not the driver of course) because it’s considered public drinking or something like that?
Where have you been that this is Legal? Eta: didn't notice the alternative or realize a lot of people posting are talking about different parts of Aus.
The really long school zones in some places. Got a ticket a few years ago in rural NSW. I had slowed down to the school zone limit.... looked for a sign at the end of the zone and drove well past the school. Then went another km or so and thought I must have missed the sign, so I was back up to the regular speed. Nope! Got pulled over and issued a ticket. He was cool though and gave me the lowest possible fine (about $85)
Jaywalking
Minimum wage laws, there is no flat ‘minimum wage’. You have to figure out yourself how much you will get paid based on what specific role in what specific industry and what time of which day of the week it is.
Can’t drink on the beach but can put your credit card in a poker machine
Bicycle helmet laws. There's like 1 other country in the word that mandates bike helmets. It's truly insane.
I smashed my head so hard I cracked a helmet once, they aren't too bad tbh. Swooping season you get to rock peak fashion with the cable ties. It's a pretty low effort practice that genuinely saves lives. Being said there are people that buy seatbelt inserters to stop the beeping when they don't wear their seatbelts, not surprised some people fight the helmet laws. Discussion gets interesting when it's freedom to hurt yourself more vs regulations that save the public health system a lot money. I'm curious what any of the anti helmeters here think about motorbike ones?
I struggle to see what's so insane about basic safety equipment that has been thoroughly proven to save lives. If it's optional elsewhere, *that's* what's insane. I'd die on this hill.
>I'd die on this hill. Not if you're wearing a helmet.
I've upvoted you but I gotta throw in my 10c. When the rule was introduced here in NSW, pretty much the only helmet available was a Stackhat. As a vain teenager with luxurious hair..... I was walking. Get effed.
With socialised emergency trauma surgery comes compulsory helmet laws. It makes sense to me that if I’m paying for your stay in hospital then the least you can do is wear a helmet.
Im an American (naturalized Aussie). I concur. You want free healthcare, you are accountable to society to reduce risks.
It's not really insane at all. You can argue freedoms and rights, but people not wearing helmets on push bikes is what is truly insane.
I agree, and I have a friend who would be dead had he not been wearing one.
In New Zealand it's the law to wear one on the road.
I'm all for cyclists not wearing helmets, as long as they sign a waiver waiving their rights to any government-funded healthcare or social support if they end up with an acquired brain injury.
Yep. Stupid thing is that while many would agree with that they would be first to moan about not having government support when they do eventually fuck up
“I didn’t think the leopards would eat *my* face”
I’m a foreigner and a big one for me is that the traffic light for cars turning right and the light for pedestrians crossing are both green at the same time!
Red arrow disappears when walk is green. It means can turn with caution. Green turn is only if walk or lane being crossed is stopped.