AirAsia welcomes 2010 with a Big Regional Sale!

Skytrax World’s Best Low Cost airline, AirAsia welcomes 2010 with a BIG Regional Sale! The leading airline makes flying more affordable by offering airfares from as low as *RM19 for its domestic and international routes (excluding Thailand domestic routes and London).

The sale will run from 19 – 25 October 2009 for the travel period from 11 January 2010 – 30 April 2010. The incredible low fares offered by AirAsia are available to all of its Asia destinations including the Middle East departing from its hub from Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Bangkok, Bandung, Jakarta, Surabaya and Bali including Penang and Johor.

To make the deal sweeter, Go Holiday, AirAsia’s own online travel portal is also offering attractive holiday packages in conjunction with the 2010 Sale Campaign. Guests can book their packages via http://goholiday.airasia.com, from as low as RM112 per person for domestic packages (with flight, 3 days 2 nights hotel stay inclusive of breakfast) and from as low as RM199 per person for international packages (with flight, 3 days 2 nights hotel stay).

Exciting holiday packages on offer under the heritage sights include destinations to Seam Reap, Hanoi, Guilin, Yogyakarta, and Hangzhou. Those opting for a domestic vacation may book holiday packages to Langkawi, Penang, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and Johor Bahru. For our shopaholic enthusiast, guests may opt for a shopping spree holiday package deals in Bandung, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei and those who are all for city sights, Dhaka, Tianjin, Perth, Melbourne and Abu Dhabi package deals are on offer.

For the Sun-Sand-Sea lovers, dream no more as holiday packages to Bali, Phuket, Krabi and Colombo are also available. Check out our online travel portal as there are more exciting holiday packages to many exciting destinations available.

Promotional seats are limited and available on first-come, first-served basis and made exclusively available online via www.airasia.com and mobile.airasia.com.

Source  :  www.etravelblackboardasia.com

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New citizenship test begins

The new Australian citizenship test which assesses prospective new citizens on their understanding of Australian civics and the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship commences Monday 19 October.

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, said the new test is based on the pledge of commitment that new Australians make when becoming citizens. Topics include Australia’s democratic beliefs, laws and government as well as the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship.

The 20 multiple-choice questions in the new test have been written in plain English and will be conducted in English only. All test questions have been drawn from the testable section of the revised citizenship test resource book, Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, which was launched in September.

The new test is not a general knowledge quiz about Australia,’ Senator Evans said. ‘We want people applying for citizenship to understand the values of Australian society, our democratic beliefs, our rights and our system of law and what it means to be an Australian citizen. ‘All prospective citizens should understand those concepts so all of the questions in the new citizenship test focus on the commitments that new citizens make in the pledge.’

The new test was developed after an independent review of the old citizenship test last year found that it could be improved by focusing on the pledge of commitment. People will now need to answer 75 per cent per cent or 15 of the 20 questions correctly to pass – up from 60 per cent under the old test.

However, the mandatory questions have been removed to make the test fairer. All questions are now equally important and a person can no longer answer 19 out of 20 questions correctly and still fail the test because they answered one of the three mandatory questions incorrectly. A citizenship course is also under development to help a small group of disadvantaged people, who for a range of reasons, such as limited literacy and schooling, are likely to struggle when preparing for and sitting a formal computer-based test.

This will ensure that we encourage people to become citizens without the test being a barrier,’ Senator Evans said. The citizenship test resource book, Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, and practice citizenship test are available online.

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How to become a £10 Pom with a working holiday visa

Get your visa, get registered and get in line for once-in-a-generation fares.                                                                           

To be in with a chance to become a £10 Pom you need to follow these simple steps and you’ll soon be on your way.

1. Get yourself a Working Holiday Visa
The £10 Pom fares are intended for people who are serious about having one hell of an adventure on a working holiday in Australia, so you will need to have a Working Holiday Visa to be eligible. You can apply for a visa at any of STA Travel’s 44 branches, or click here to buy it online.
Eligibility: You must be a UK passport holder aged between 18 and 30 years old inclusive.

A working holiday visa allows you to live and work in Australia for a period of 12 months. You can work for one employer for a maximum of 6 months, so it gives you time to travel around Australia topping up your funds as you go.

There are all sorts of jobs available so you will definitely find something to suit you. Click here to see what kind of roles are on offer right now.

To make it even easier for you to get your working holiday visa sorted in time we’ll also be sending our Mobile Visa Van around the country throughout July. Click here for schedule and pics!

2. Register online
It’s not essential to register online, but we suggest that you do. It means that you’ll be eligible for one of the 5 extra ‘golden tickets’ to be drawn once the first 145 £10 fares are sold out.
Click here to register now.

You’ll also get some exclusive gifts when you book with us on the 5th August whilst stocks last. Be first in the queue to get your hands on the newly released Rough Guide worth £16.99! 
Click here for more info on the exclusive gifts.
 
3. Get to one of our selected promotional branches by 8am on Wednesday 5th August.
There will be eight special STA Travel branches around the country selling the £10 fares on the day. They will be the only branches where you can get them and once they’re gone, they’re gone. So line up, camp out, rent a flat next-door … do whatever it takes to make sure you get there before they are sold out.

The branches are:

Belfast, 92/94 Botanic Avenue BT7 1JR
Birmingham High St, 222-224 Corporation Street B4 6QB
Bristol, 43 Queens Road BS8 1QQ
Glasgow, 122 George Street G1 1RF
Leeds, 88 Vicar Lane LS1 7JH
London Victoria, 52 Grosvenor Gardens SW1W 0AG
Manchester, Albert Square 86 Cross Street M2 4LA
Southampton, 6-8 Civic Centre Road SO14 7FL

Source  :  www.statravel.co.uk

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Schools in Western Australia

 Welcome to Schools Online, a directory of public schools in Western Australia.

Whether you are a parent keen to find information on programs available at your children’s school, or interested in enrolling your children at a school in your local area, you will find a range of information.

We hope you find Schools Online useful and encourage you to visit other parts of the Department of Education and Training website for information on other special events, initiatives and programs that may be of interest to you.

Source  :  http://www2.eddept.wa.edu.au/schoolprofile/home.do

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2009 Tax time is here

The Tax Office today reminded Australia’s 11.8 million taxpayers to start getting ready to lodge their tax returns.                                                                                                

Tax Commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo said the Tax Office has a range of information and assistance available to help people meet the 31 October 2009 deadline.

“From 1 July, people can prepare and lodge their return online using e-tax, which is free, secure and easy to use software which in most cases processes your return within 14 days.

“As well as calculators, help screens and links to rulings, you can also download information from third parties directly into your tax return, including payment summaries, government payments such as pensions and allowances, bank interest and private health insurance details.

“E-tax can be accessed free of charge 24 hours a day, seven days a week from our website at www.ato.gov.au,” Mr D’Ascenzo said.

Government and third party information will be available to download progressively from 1 July. You can subscribe to an alert service within e-tax which will let you know when the information becomes available.                                                                                                                                                                                        

People can still lodge using TaxPack 2009 or the short tax return for individuals 2009.

TaxPack 2009 is available from most newsagents, Tax Office shopfronts or the Tax Office website from 1 July.

If you used the short tax return last year you’ll receive a copy in the mail shortly.

Mr D’Ascenzo also reminded people to contact their tax agent as soon as possible.

“If you’re using a tax agent for the first time or using a different one from last year you need to contact them by 31 October 2009,” he said.

“Only registered tax agents can charge a fee to prepare and lodge a tax return.

“However some people present themselves as tax agents when they are not.

“Registered tax agents are regulated by the Tax Agents’ Board and have the qualifications and experience to handle your tax affairs.”

Visit the Tax Agents’ Board website http://www.tabd.gov.au or call 1300 362 829 to check if your agent is registered.

Compliance focus

We cross-check tax returns against a wide range of data including financial institution data, state and territory revenue and property sales information and Australian stock exchange data.

Help and assistance

If people have questions or need assistance they should visit the Tax Office website www.ato.gov.au or phone the Tax Office on 13 28 61 between 8.00am and 6.00pm weekdays.

The Tax Office can provide you a more personalised service if you provide your tax file number when you call.

source  :  www.ato.gov.au

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Warning: tax refund email scam

The Tax Office is warning people to be wary of a fraudulent email being circulated that claims to offer a refund from the Tax Office.

The email uses the Tax Office logo and the words ‘Tax refund online!’ in the subject heading and the following text:

Tax refund online!After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of AUD 452. Please submit the tax refund and allow us 2-5 business days in order to process it.

There may be more variations to this subject heading and text.

The email asks people to click on a link which directs them to a bogus Tax Office website and asks for credit card and personal details.

Tax Commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo said anyone who receives the email should delete it immediately.

“The Tax Office never sends emails asking people to provide personal information including credit card details.

“People should always be wary of unsolicited emails claiming to be from the Tax Office.

“As an extra precaution we recommend you type internet addresses directly into your internet browser rather than clicking on links embedded in emails,” Mr D’Ascenzo said.

These websites are often set up in multiple jurisdictions making them difficult to trace and to effectively shut them down.

If people have entered their credit card information on the website, they should immediately report it to their credit card provider.

More information www.ato.gov.au

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CommBank cops sustained online fraud attack

Commonwealth Bank customers are being inundated with phishing attacks, some at a rate of several scam emails a day, sent by cyber criminals seeking to steal passwords and credit card details.

The scammers, who are specifically targeting the bank in a sustained assault, are bombarding customers with several clever variations of the email ruse – such as using bogus call centres – in an attempt to hook even tech-savvy web users.

The emails have largely managed to evade spam filters using methods such as images instead of text.

Commonwealth Bank spokesman Steve Batten admitted the bank was losing the war with the fraudsters, despite working closely with the Australian Federal Police’s Australian High Tech Crime Centre.

“As soon as we close them down they are opening up elsewhere,” Batten said.

This is backed up by figures from the Australian Payments Clearing Association, which reported a 33 per cent increase in both the volume and value of fraudulent online payments in Australia for the year ended December 31, 2008.

The scam emails, which look authentic and include the Commonwealth Bank’s logo, try to trick the victim into handing over sensitive information by telling them they need to unlock an account, activate a card, claim a fee refund, update internet banking details, view an important security message or complete a survey in exchange for payment.

When the victim clicks on the link in the email, they are either infected with a password-stealing virus or presented with an official-looking page that asks them to enter their details, which are then harvested by the fraudsters.

Batten said some of the emails purport to come from actual Commonwealth Bank staff members. He stressed that the bank would never ask customers to submit sensitive information over email.

But in a new variation on the traditional “phishing” attack, which usually asks victims to click on a malicious link, one Commonwealth Bank scam email asks customers to call a Queensland phone number in order to redeem a $500 “cashback bonus”.

IT contractor Tom Howard, from the Central Coast, received the email and attempted to call the number just as an experiment.

“It’s an automated system with an American accent that welcomes you to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and then requests an account number or says something’s expired and asks for your credit card number,” he said.

The voice recording then requested Howard’s expiry date and pin number, but he just entered in random digits.

“It actually told me the information was incorrect, which suggests that it’s hooked up to a payment gateway and it’s actually trying to do an authorisation on the credit card right then and there,” he said.

Howard said he was alarmed at the sophistication of the scam and believed the bogus call centre idea would trick a lot of people.

“People have been conditioned in terms of these phishing emails to ‘don’t click on the links’, but not so much to ‘don’t call the number’,” he said.

Source: smh.com.au 

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Online grocery shopping takes off in Perth

Supermarket internet shopping has arrived in Perth, with Coles launching the service a few weeks ago and Woolworths expected to follow its rival’s lead within months.

General manager of online shopping for Coles, Keith Louie, said the use of the service had exceeded the company’s expectations and had created 150 jobs in Perth.

Thousands of orders have been taken in the few weeks the service has been operating.

Rival retailer Woolworths says it plans to go online in Perth by the end of the calendar year.

Spokesperson for Woolworths Claire Buchanan said online supermarket shopping was still very much a niche market.

“We tend to see a lot of people buying their bulky goods online and then shopping for fresh produce themselves. This is even though we tell them that our staff hand pick the goods as if they were buying for their own families,” Ms Buchanan said.

She said the value of online shopping to Woolworths equated to an additional supermarket in each of the cities in which it had been established.

“The market is still very small,” Ms Buchanan said.

“But once people try it they tend to come back. Some people will do a monthly shop online and then top up by visiting their local supermarket each week to get fresh food.

“We have online shopping in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne and by the end of this year will have it in Brisbane and Perth.”

Mr Louie said people were opting to shop online because they wanted more control over their spending.

He said shoppers in Perth could now choose from over 20,000 supermarket products online.

PERTH
JANE HAMMOND http://www.thewest.com.au

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