tl;dr
When you sign up and register on the App Hub for Windows Phone 7, make sure you use your Australian LIVE ID.

 

History

I've had a LIVE ID forever - but it is set to United States.  And I can't change that.  Since a US LIVE ID is infinitely more useful for a Microsoft Partner than an Aussie one, I never really needed to bother changing it either.

This all changed with the Windows Phone 7.  To purchase Apps and Video (no music marketplace or Zune Pass), I need to create a Zune account.  Unfortunately, my Phone knows it's locked to Australia.  And it won't accept my US LIVE ID.  After a few fail starts, I made a new Australian LIVE ID, connected my credit card to that, and made that my primary LIVE ID on the Windows Phone.  I then connect my main LIVE ID, Facebook, GMail all to the phone separately.  You get the idea.  It works well.  I get to purchase Apps and do everything else with my previous accounts.  Best of both worlds without the headaches.

 

Browser

Since everything I do on the web involves using my main US LIVE ID, I had my computers and browsers all set to remember my LIVE ID.  Somewhere in the process of registering on the App Hub, things went haywire.  Something was seriously confused, probably by the cookies I had saved on the browser.  As I progress through the sign up screens it'd randomly error, and or throw me back to the initial login screen.  Very buggy.

 

Tips

Here are my final working tips:

1. Use a new browser (no remaining cookies - if you aren't sure, clear cookies)
2. Login to App Hub with my AU live account
3. Proceed with the registration.  Ensuring the URL always had /en-AU/
• If you see /en-US/ then it's gone mad again.  GOTO 1
4. The price screen shows AU$129, whereas previously it had shown US$99
5. If you have a code from one of Microsoft's Australian competitions, use that.