Comments by "Matthew Nirenberg" (@matthewnirenberg) on "The WORST Countries to Escape the USA" video.
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Regarding Australiastan - stay well away, its NOT worth the trouble. Once you're there you ain't leaving. Why? They will throw everything at you to stop you leaving. Here's how:
1. Their primary weapon is Jury Duty. They have 2 levels of it and thus can throw it at you each year (alternating between the two levels). To make it even worse, they'll send he 'Notice of Selection' in the November the year just before the period they're calling you for. This effectively ensures that you can't leave near the end of the year and the jury duty period is always set so that you're either only free at peak tourism times overseas (i.e. can't book as you require an 'activated'/non-frozen passport to do so - being selected for jury duty freezes your passport so you can't book), or you're only free during an election (basically an annual event due to the levels of govt, councils and by-elections) and thus can't leave.
2. Their secondary weapon is elections. There are elections for every level of govt, councils and by-elections for all of that. The period before an election (2+ months), till 2 months after an election, the electoral rolls are frozen - this means you can't change your details or be removed because you've moved abroad. This forces you to stay to vote - being overseas isn't a reason to not vote and the fines are very large and repeat offenders now face jail time - thus the only answer to to be removed from the electoral roll by moving abroad when the electoral roll isn't frozen so you can be removed.
3. The tax system is becoming rapidly more impossible to escape from. They can declare you tax resident if its now in the 'public interest' simply because they believe 'you're of value, or are aligned with Australia'
4. They can stop the travel exemption at any time they like resulting in the closure of the National Border. During the '2020 thing' they closed the border, not under emergency powers which would end with the emergency, but with a law. That law remains in force and the only reason travel is currently permitted is because there is a broad exemption from the ban to permit travel. That can change at the discretion of the minister. This also allows the minister to without needing to give a reason, the ability to ban individuals from the country.
I've been trying to leave the damn place since 2020, and have been stopped by the regime every time - they really want to stop me from leaving. The travel ban made it impossible during the whole '2020 thing', then its been elections, Jury Duty, licence related reporting issues (can only be dealt with whilst in-country), elections, and now Jury Duty again - and elections immediately after Jury Duty.
Oh and then there's the whole - can't get the visa needed due to the required passport having too little duration for a 5yr visa (passport only has 5yrs left on it) - can only renew when passport is down to 2yrs left. The earliest I'll have any hope of leaving is 2030 at this rate, and that's assuming they don't keep throwing the same Jury Duty rubbish at me.
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