now for a new broker

I am an Australian citizen and have only ever traded with IBFX. Over the past 5 years, I've lived out of Australia, in Japan and South Korea. Today I received an interesting email from IBFX stating I had 5 business days to close any live trades and that my account has been disabled due to some compliance issues. Issues being that IBFX cannot support accounts from anybody residing in South Korea. I had a brief chat with them after hours and was told it's basically an issue with the South Korean government not allowing any citizens to have forex trading accounts based in other countries. Not sure how this works if my permanent residency is Australia.

Nonetheless, I'm not sure where I'll be living next year. Would it be in my interests to plead my long term residency and/or open an account with an Australian based broker such as FXCM Australia?

If I were you I would open an account with an australian based broker. If IBFX doesn't want your business why bother? There are now plenty of them brokers besides FXCM who have set up in australia that you can choose from.

FXCM Australia has in-house seminars at the Sydney office if you would like to visit http://www.forextrading.com.au/sydney-forex-seminar.jsp