26 July 2007

Making a Move

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I was chatting to a friend the other day; he has lived in Canberra two years, yet still has his car rego, driver’s licence, electoral enrolment, pretty much everything registered in NSW. Even most of his mail goes to his mum in Sydney. The same day, I was leaving the gym where the Raiders train and saw them leave and get into their cars, three of which had non-ACT plates (2 NSW and 1 QLD).

Why are so many people reluctant to make the complete move? Why do they still hold on to their past address? Are they ashamed to admit they live here? Or is it sheer laziness?

I think if you move, do it properly. Especially change your electoral enrolment – if the electoral commission saw how many people really live here we might get a third federal seat. And do it now before the election is called.

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They were driving a red car, a white car and a grey 4WD 🙂

Some good points, especially re car rego being more expensive here. I still think they should change their electoral enrolment – then again, I can see the appeal of being enrolled in a marginal seat so your vote actually counts.

what sort of cars do the raiders blokes drive?

I’m from Perth (over here for a while) and in Perth it costs me $191.50 to register my car and $235 for CTP. A grand total of $426.50 as opposed to the $650+ it would cost me in the ACT….

Over there they charge $14.75 per 100kg for rego of a regular car, plus $20 or so in admin fees.

When we moved, we weren’t sure whether we were staying. (We’re staying in the region but we don’t think we can afford to buy in Canberra – it’ll probably be Yass or Queanbeyan). When I told the ACT rego people this, they refused to transfer my rego, saying it was for permanent residents only (even though we don’t have a NSW home to go back to). NSW said we weren’t entitled to a registration there either, and when I asked then if itinerant Australians weren’t allowed to drive, they said if we could come up with a NSW postal address they’d let us keep our licenses. So that was what we did for a long time (my partner still hasn’t changed his, because he can’t spare his car for the week it would take to get the repairs done to make the transfer). And that meant officially we had no presence in Canberra whatsoever. I’m proud of being a Canberran and I did switch the rego and everything else later, but they don’t make it easy.

I keep telling hubby we should move to SA…but there really isn’t a navy base there. Bugger.

Indeed it is 3 months to change both your licence and registration to the ACT when moving from interstate.

Also astrojax, your car is still registered and insured even if you live in another state and haven’t transferred your registration, as long as the premiums are paid, there’s no conditions from what I can see for residential addresses.

You may be fined for not transferring your rego though, but they would have to prove it, and means catching you twice in more than 3 months and proving you are living in the ACT.

Anyway all the reasons have already stated above why people don’t transfer, basically cost.

Cost of ACT renewal 4 cylinder: $652.60
NSW: $262 + $330 CTP approx: $592
QLD: $251 + 290 CTP approx: $541
VIC (Metro Melb): $575.40
TAS: $518.50
SA: $92 + $382 CTP $474

Now where would you want keep your car registered if you had the means?

I’m the opposite, evening up the odds. except I changed my electoral enrolment, as I want my vote to be one of the most valuable in the country, rather than taken for granted. And now it is.

Anyway, wherever I go, I’m still a Canberran.

Ruby Wednesday6:09 pm 26 Jul 07

astrojax, I’m pretty sure the time period is three months, not two weeks or a month.

The garage of our block of flats is pretty amusing. There’s WA plates, QLD plates, NSW places, VIC plates and ACT plates.

astrojax, try being told by the registration clerk to come back when the rego is due to expire in the following year.

What do you do then ? Follow the instructions of a Government official, or Follow the instructions of the motor traffic regulations ?

apart from all these comments, as far as i am aware, it is in the motor traffic regulations that registration, licence etc must [must] be transferred within a set time (about two weeks, mebbe a month) of becoming a permanent resident.

technically, an insurance co. could nullify a claim if the driver was ‘unlicenced’ and the car ‘unregistered’, which would technically be the case, even though you had paid up in another state. more fool you, then…

but you have to get caught first.

all this talk of ‘inconvenience’ etc. these are the things, up front, you know about that are entailed with vehicle ownership. if they are too onerous, sell the car and catch a bus, or ride a bike.

a tedious conversation, this one. and a predictable one…

Absent Diane3:52 pm 26 Jul 07

that will never happen under fed liberal party. I don’t know how the states would like it either – they generally don’t like being told what to do.. plus it probably generates a lot of their revenue.

Apart from that makes perfect sense.

There is also the inconvenience if you own a modified car. I changed my rego to ACT then 12 months later moved to Queanbeyan,and tried to change my rego back.

In NSW my car needs to almost stock to pass a Blue Slip (interstate) inspection but is fine for the yearly pink slip inspection. The end result was that I needed to raise my suspension for 1 day, then lower it again and swap out my brakes for stock ones only to change them back the next day.

Needless to say, If I move back into the ACT, my car rego will stay in NSW this time.

Rawhide Kid No 23:29 pm 26 Jul 07

Why cant they make rego a national thing and road rules and vehicle third party would be the same. Then the Commonwealth can run the show and look after all the transport infrastructure. And the States and Territory’s would not be able to use these Taxes or charges other than for roads. Not that the States & Territory’s do that now..Do they??

Ruby Wednesday3:03 pm 26 Jul 07

Dealing with the ACT Government Shopfront to change the rego over was a nightmare. We waiting until our Queensland rego expired. Even then, it took two trips because the person on the phone told me something completely different from the witch at the shopfront, which necessitated extra paperwork.

As for the electoral roll, I changed it ASAP, ’cause I didn’t want to have to vote in the Queensland election. I was eligible to change it two days before the rolls closed, so I just squeezed in.

Someone I know uses his Vic address where he has property interests, works in ACT and sleeps week nights in Qbn NSW. He lives in Australia who care about these state boundaries?

Ingeegoodbee2:07 pm 26 Jul 07

I’d say dealing with the ACT government would be the single biggest turn-off. When I moved here years ago I went to change my car rego. I stood in a queue for ages, finally got to the counter and had some vacuouse jerk-off tell me I’d have to come back the next day because it would take about 8-10 minutes and therefor he couldn’t get it done before 4.51pm when he knocked off. I walked away stunned and needless to say it was a few years until I could be arsed doing anything about changing the rego.

la mente torbida1:40 pm 26 Jul 07

Laziness? Perhaps. Tight Ar$ed? Probably.
Just don’t whinge about ACT roads etc, when you aren’t contributing towards them.

MissUnderstood1:38 pm 26 Jul 07

We should aslco acknowledge that it also happens the other way around i.e. the arrangements that some residents of places just out of Canberra have in claiming to be Canberrans….

Case in point: my significant other has been a resident of Queanbeyan for the last 2 years, yet still maintains his residency paperwork in the ACT (using his parental’s address). So I suppose these situations can go some of the way to offsetting the converse scenario.

I guess what also helps him is the fact that he doesn’t have to worry about the cost of rego (work car). That is something that could well sway his decision.

ACT Government Shopfront is all I’m going to say on the matter.

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt12:57 pm 26 Jul 07

/ dons flame suit /

VYBerlinaV8 now_with_added grunt12:56 pm 26 Jul 07

People don’t change their rego for 3 reasons:
1) ACT rego is more expensive than NSW
2) Transferring rego is a pain, and involves dealing with the ACT govt
3) New South Welshmen don’t want to be identified as idiot yogies who can’t drive.

(If you don’t know what a yogi is, you are one).

it may be cheaper to keep the car rego in where ever…
it may only be a short term move.. if i moved for 12 months, i’d leave most of my details here.

As far as I know, people don’t change over their rego from other states because it’s more expensive in the ACT.

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