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[wet_blanket]

If the super is your retirement scheme, then that would be like asking why a US university's TIAA-CREF payments don't get paid to you as a bonus. Not gonna happen.
[/quote

But, if you spend the entire time you are in Oz on a temporary visa (i.e. don't get permanent residence) and you're not a citizen/PR of a country with automatic rights to immigrate to Oz (New Zealand and a couple of Pacific nations), you can cash in your super when you leave the country permanently.

[totoro]

But, if you spend the entire time you are in Oz on a temporary visa (i.e. don't get permanent residence) and you're not a citizen/PR of a country with automatic rights to immigrate to Oz (New Zealand and a couple of Pacific nations), you can cash in your super when you leave the country permanently.

This is true.

[sockdolager]

could somebody say something about the Living Away From Home Allowance (LAFHA)? Would it be possible to negotiate this in "fixed term" contracts from universities? (or until you apply for a PR).

Yes (or it used to be possible - not sure whether this changed in the last budget?) You have to meet certain criteria, essentially proving that your permanent "home" is not Australia. Ask HR - I don't think you have to negotiate it in your contract, they will give it to you if you are eligible. I don't think it matters to the university, since they still pay you the same amount - but you pay less tax, so you get more take home pay.

[totoro]

could somebody say something about the Living Away From Home Allowance (LAFHA)? Would it be possible to negotiate this in "fixed term" contracts from universities? (or until you apply for a PR).

Yes (or it used to be possible - not sure whether this changed in the last budget?) You have to meet certain criteria, essentially proving that your permanent "home" is not Australia. Ask HR - I don't think you have to negotiate it in your contract, they will give it to you if you are eligible. I don't think it matters to the university, since they still pay you the same amount - but you pay less tax, so you get more take home pay.

You'd have to ask because there is no way we would know that you are claiming that some foreign address is your real permanent address otherwise. Again, I've never heard of this for a regular contract of a year or more.

[pintu56]

thanks for the replies about the LAFHA.

At the end I was offered an ongoing position that I have accepted with glee :-) so negotiating about the LAFHA is immaterial now.

[totoro]

Congratulations! Welcome to Australia!

[totoro]

"Mr Swan will also tighten up further on so-called living away from home allowances under which executives hired from overseas or interstate receive large tax-free sums to compensate them for “living away from home”...

From July 1 they will have to have to prove they rent or own a second home to claim such an allowance and it will be limited to a period of one year. Fly-in fly-out workers in the mining industry will be allowed to continue to claim the allowance."