Well, i’ve been living abroad away from Australia for several months now. I am still in tune with Australian affairs often from web contents and newspapers.
When i lived in Sydney, a third of my news reading would consist of issues such as transportation, education, health and other local issues in Sydney. The rest would be federal and international issues such as politics, domestic economy and what’s happening in upcoming Australian election.
Now, it’s February and about half the news content would be Australia issues and the rest are international leaving local issues to a bare minimum. I kept my interest in Australian politics since the November election and see how the new government goes well in terms of governance and global affairs. Naturally, i have been more keen in European affairs as it is intertwined with some courses i have been undertaking since September.
I do make consistent comparison between Australian and European policy differences such as public infrastructure projects, governance and foreign policy. My recent interest was on high speed rail projects in Europe such as in Spain. There isn’t a high speed rail in Australia and so i am all for the project to be proposed in linking Eastern Australia cities.
It is great living abroad for a year and having to adopt to issues which are different to Australia. Gives greater perspective in what happens outside of Australia, which can only be beneficial in self-projects such as character building and experiences.
