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I think the additional liquidity of having the money on call is well worth the difference; or rather, I don't think not having access to it, or to future interest rate rises, is worth the extra.
I suspect that the AU$ is a less volatile bet - but don't quote me on that.
I don't think so, not in a period of high inflation. Possibly in real terms they might, but when things are getting stormy property is not a bad bet - people will always need homes, and there some some decent tax advantages over income from interest, say. Whatever the papers say - there's plenty of dough around at the moment, no question - people have cash. And onto that economy they're about to throw a massive tax cut in July.....