Welcome to 2023 from Oz Seer – a perspective of 2022 from Australia

Welcome to 1 January 2023 from the Australian Sightseer (Oz Seer)!

What a year 2022 turned out to be. For Australians, it was the first year since the start of the pandemic that no lockdowns were had anywhere in Australia and travel and visiting relatives became the norm. Unfortunately some of our friends overseas couldn’t say the same until the middle or end of this year.

In brief, 2022 has been a big year of things both positive and negative. In Australia, we have seen:

in February, against the odds the Ukrainian forces manage to fend off the Russian forces and now, by the end of 2022, the world have seen the Ukrainians managed to mount several successful counterattacks throughout the latter part of 2022 in several key regions in the Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts
in March, people flocked to see the newest The Batman with Robert Pattinson as the latest caped crusader (and were wowed by the experience)
in May, despite comments suggesting that the cash rate would not change until 2024, the Reserve Government of Australia increase the cash rate from a historic low of 0.10 to 0.35 (and further increases followed every month until it reached 3.10 in December)
in May, the end of the decade of conservative Morrison and Liberal Party Government rule and the start of a new progressive Labor Government under Anthony Albanese (Albo). Six months on and we have a government that has already legislated for 43% climate target, multi-employer enterprise agreements, the establishment of a National Integrity Commission, and more. It’s been rewarding for people who think government should do its job, as opposed to seeing conservative politicians dining on the taxpayers’ credit card
in June, we saw the announcement for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for the first time, along with another trailer for Final Fantasy XVI
in July, we were shocked when former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead due to his alleged connections with the Unification Church
in September, the end of long Queen Elizabeth II reign and the new era under King Charles III. Australians commemorated the passing with a national day off
in October, Australia’s previous overlords in the United Kingdom turn into a farce when Prime Minister Liz Truss was forced to resign after 45 days in the top job
in October, sometimes richest man Elon Musk purchases Twitter and manages to turn the news cycle on its head for several weeks with staff firings, Twitter Blue, impersonation accounts, etc
in November, the Biden Administration and the Democrats managed to hold onto the Senate during the 2022 mid-terms against some colourful characters and candidates, some picked by none other than Donald Trump himself, and only lose the House of Representatives by a handful of seats
In November, we saw the crash of a big player within the crypto world, FTX
in December, Australia managed to get into the top 16 at the Qatar (Soccer) World Cup
in December, James Cameron finally released the sequel to Avatar with Avatar: Way of the Water.