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Moving to Australia

Timeri N. Murari

AUSTRALIA is now beginning to look like a ship on a distant horizon. It is slowly steaming towards us and picking up speed. With Mr. Rupert Murdoch and Mr. Kerry Packer here, can the Australian Prime Minister, Mr. John Howard, be far behind? I met a coup le of political reporters in Canberra who foretold his visit to New Delhi in July this year.

At the same time, Australia's a magnet that is starting to draw talented Indians away from the normal route to America. Australia needs thousands of IT experts as it tries to keep up with that revolution. However, others are heading south too.

By a strange coincidence, when I was travelling back from Chettinad, I shared a compartment with a young couple. They were in their late twenties, with a three-year-old boy. They became very excited when they heard I had just returned from Australia. The y were both engineers, heading for Australia. She worked for the Electricity Board and he worked for the PWD. In other words, they had safe, comfortable jobs for life. But it turned out, as we spoke, that was the crux of their problem. They were disillus ioned with their jobs and also bored.

The disillusionment rose partly from the corruption in their departments. They claimed they worked hard and honestly, while all around them bribery was rampant. Their superiors, and even their peons, were raking in Rs. 20-50,000 rupees a month in black m oney. (I'm sure if they were corrupt too, they wouldn't get off that gravy train). While they both worked hard until late every evening keeping our services going, the bribed ones did little or no work and were promoted over them.

The corrupt, it seemed, thrive in our bureaucratic system. But the disillusionment also came from the working conditions. They were not merely migrating to Australia for better working conditions but also to do higher studies. With their first-class engi neering degrees, they were vegetating in their jobs. As they both complained, their work procedures had not changed since the British laid down the rules.

``Only the colour of the paper has changed,'' they both chorused. Technically, the wife wanted to innovate but was discouraged from changing anything. ``The electricity board prefers to bring in foreign experts while we are just as good as them but they won't give us a chance,'' she said.

The politicians, she said, had to privatise electricity, as the board was bankrupt. ``We give free electricity to farmers but you should see what they're using it for. They run factories on free electricity. The poor farmers don't benefit at all. And in the slum areas, we supply free electricity to run one 40-watt bulb. But you go into those homes and you find televisions, fans, music systems and mixies running on free electricity.

``If I complain, I'm threatened by the farmers or the slum-dwellers, so I don't say anything.'' They were a cautious couple. They had obviously stuck to their jobs as long as possible but their minds were vegetating and they had to get out. They looked a round and decided on Australia as he had a brother there. So they sat for their Australian engineering exams in New Delhi and passed them well enough for the Australian government to give them their `Permanent Residence' visas. Australia obviously had a need for good engineers.

Of course, they wanted to know everything about Australia. She was the more nervous. She was giving up a safe job to leap across an ocean into a strange land. I figured she had spent months on thinking should she, shouldn't she. I told her it was a huge, empty land, populated around the fringes. The cities were extremely clean and orderly, and after six in the evening, they'd be lucky to see anyone on their street. In fact, they'd be lucky to see anyone at any time if they were in the suburbs, as few pe ople walk.

They would have to buy a car to get around and cope with rush-hour traffic. In Melbourne, anyway, the rush hour lasts from 5.30 p.m. to 5.45, p.m. and even then they complain. They would meet some prejudice but every country had prejudice, especially Ind ia. Australia was certainly becoming more multi-cultural. The supermarket chains stocked nearly every requirement an Asian family would need for cooking.

What about schools? They were concerned for their sleeping son. Education is compulsory, I told them, and the public schools are free. The private ones are expensive. Australia certainly does need them as, with all western countries, ageism is fast over taking the population. This year six people work to support one pensioner. If there's no immigration, then by 2020, three people have to work to support one pensioner.

But they still were a bit hesitant. Should they go? Sadly, after all that I'd heard from these two talented people, I told them to get on the next plane out. And wished them good luck.