Kiwis feeling the boomerang effect

Nick Hawkins says prospects in New Zealand have grown since he left for his OE. Photo / Greg Bowker

More New Zealanders are coming home — or staying here — as the Australian dream turns sour for many. Geoff Cumming examines why life suddenly seems better on this side of the Ditch.

After a year on the skiing and mountain bike slopes of Canada and Europe, Nelson-born engineering graduate Nick Hawkins weighed up his options: go back to Australia where he'd made quick money to finance his OE, or settle down in New Zealand?

"I could have earned more money there, for sure," the 24-year-old says.

Instead, Hawkins chose to come home, joining a growing wave of New Zealanders forsaking the higher wages available overseas to return to a country they perceive as having a lot more going for it than a few years ago.

Like many New Zealanders, Hawkins was drawn to Australia's mining industry - in his case, a Queensland coalmine - after completing an engineering degree in earthquake-damaged Christchurch. But money in the mines is hard-earned - Hawkins and other Kiwis would fly in and out of the Bowen basin mining area in three-to-four week rotations, working six days a week in the extreme climate. It wasn't an appealing lifestyle, long-term.

"A big factor for me [in coming home] was friends and family and the lifestyle available here." Hawkins loves the outdoors and hunting, fishing and mountain-biking are all within easy reach here.

He also sees reliable work prospects down the road, unlike in Australia where mining, construction and other industries have slowed considerably in the wake of weak prices and the global financial crisis.

Hawkins quickly landed a job as project engineer with CMP Construction on an apartment and retail development in Albany, one of the fastest-growing suburbs in rapidly expanding Auckland. With the Christchurch rebuild and Auckland infrastructure and housing projects getting Government backing, he sees more construction opportunities opening up and is eyeing a future in project management. "You can see the levels of foreign investment coming in ..."

Though not every sector of the New Zealand economy is growing, construction and IT are booming and face massive skill shortages, especially in Auckland (where 80 per cent of job growth is concentrated) and Christchurch.

In contrast, life's been tougher in recent years for many New Zealanders who moved to Australia, North America and Britain - economies hit harder by the global financial crisis and whose recovery has been slower than New Zealand's.

Migration figures for the year to October 31 show New Zealand had a net migration gain of 47,684 - an all-time-high by a distance. Our net population loss to Australia - the main destination of Kiwis departing for longer than 12 months - was "just" 5311, the lowest since the early 90s.

An upsurge in New Zealanders returning from Europe and America began in 2012; those in Australia began drifting back last year and this year's incoming of 15,206 New Zealand citizens from across the Ditch was 6000 higher than two years ago.

At the same time, numbers leaving for Australia have nearly halved - from a record high of 53,700 just two years ago.

"We are seeing this reverse flow instead of a brain drain which is great to see," says Paul Robinson, New Zealand director of recruitment firm Randstad. "We've been through several years at the bottom of the curve in terms of business growth and employment but we can expect to see five to six years of confidence and growth."

Hays Recruitment managing director Jason Walker says the turnaround is as much due to rare negativity in Australia as the equally unusual optimism here. Walker says there's a strong media focus on Australia's economic woes; employers nervous about upcoming state elections and tax increases are not hiring. New Zealanders who lose their jobs have no access to Australia's benefit system and cannot withstand unemployment for long.

Our comparative rude health - and serious skill shortages for upcoming Auckland housing and infrastructure projects, the Christchurch rebuild and the expanding IT sector - have fuelled talk that the statistics might not be a blip but a trend: that the vast numbers who've decamped for higher wages and opportunities in past decades may start coming home in larger numbers.

"New Zealand has become funky and cool," says Rod Drury, chief executive of cloud-based software firm Xero. "There are good things going on here - good music, great coffee and food. It's a more international world and New Zealand is not so far behind anymore. There's a noticeable increase in interest in working here - skilled IT workers no longer feel they have to compromise. It's also the lack of people; it's seen as a great place to bring up children."

There's even a reversal of the recent spectre of Australian employers recruiting here to plug workforce shortages. An employment expo in Perth last weekend, arranged by our Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, attracted strong interest, says Auckland Chamber of Commerce chairman Michael Barnett, who was there with regional economic development agency Ateed. "We added about 400 people to our database across the spectrum of construction - welders, builders, civil engineers, project managers, plumbers, electricians, drivers." Barnett found strong awareness of upcoming projects including the Christchurch rebuild and Auckland's housing targets, Waterview link and other roading projects and the SkyCity Convention Centre. "People are looking at Auckland and saying 'it's not a rebuild, it's growth' and it's got certainty to it." A further expo, in Sydney today, is aimed at the IT sector.

Australia's woes have forced many New Zealanders home with their tails between their legs but not every industry is being flooded with inquiries from disillusioned expats.

"We are seeing it but it's not a massive flow, just a steady movement from Australia," says Mike Huddleston of construction sector recruiters Allied Workforce (AWF). "There's still an issue with pay - many have been earning $80 to $100 an hour and having to accept $25 to $40 an hour if they come back is hard to swallow.

"Hopefully, they've had a chance to save some money and accept that the good times are over and there's plenty of work here."

Even Australians are beginning to look at New Zealand more charitably. When NSW couple Aaron and Natalie McKeown told friends and family they were off to new jobs in Wellington, taking their two young children with them, there was disbelief. "They said, 'people don't move to New Zealand, they move from New Zealand to Australia'," Aaron says.

The IT manager for a Hunter Valley mineral services firm found the sector's contraction depressing.

"The company I worked for had shrunk by about three-quarters. I wasn't at risk of losing my job but I was losing motivation because I wanted to work in an industry that was expanding."

He accepted a job with Xero as a platform architect; Natalie works in its customer services team, handling inquiries from Australia.

"It was a massive change," he says. "We've got two boys, aged 6 and 9. Having them leave their schools and friends, and leaving our families, was a monumental decision."

But Natalie says Wellingtonians are very friendly, the boys are coping well and New Zealand is an appealing place to live.

"We keep pinching ourselves living in the capital and being able to run into the city to work. It's very compact."

The couple, aged 40 and 41, are among 7500 long-term arrivals from Australia in the past year who are not New Zealand citizens, up 50 per cent on two years ago.

It's not all gloom over there, however: an HR manager who is returning to Auckland after eight years in Sydney, bringing her Australian husband, says the NSW economy is "going great guns and there's lots of work for those who want it. I have [Kiwi] friends in Brisbane and they have landed on their feet and love the lifestyle."

Academics warn that we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. AUT professor of migration studies Richard Bedford expects normal service to resume shortly - with many more New Zealanders leaving to work overseas each year than coming home. That diaspora began with baby boomers in the 1970s and, since the 1990s, New Zealand has replaced its departing population largely through immigration.

Bedford cautions that a good proportion of the record number of "permanent and long-term" arrivals who account for our huge migration gain this year are on student and work visas rather than long-term migrants or returning Kiwis.

Though everyone agrees fewer New Zealanders departing for Australia and more coming home represents a welcome reversal, there's considerable ground to make up. New Zealand lost a net 256,000 people to Australia in the past decade (though some will have moved on to another country before returning to New Zealand). These stadium-sized annual losses will take some replenishing. And the current reversal may last only as long as it takes the Australian and British economies to re-gear.

There are hopeful signs, however, that workers may be lured by more than monetary considerations and job security.

Work culture and lifestyle gains may compensate for lower pay for some - and that's where New Zealand employers can make progress, say leading recruiters.

"Young people are actually forgoing salary for these qualitative things they feel are more important than the extra $40,000 or $50,000 they may be getting offshore, particularly in the UK," says Debbie Francis, a partner in PWC's consulting practice.

"They are seeking employers whose values are aligned with their world view. They don't expect a job for life - if they like the culture they will stay. They want meaningfulness. With more-senior people, it's about wanting to give children a more Kiwi childhood experience. And though we may think housing is unaffordable, it is affordable compared to Sydney or London."

Robinson agrees that factors like work-life balance, interesting job content, variety and promotion opportunities are important though salaries remain "by far the number one consideration"

.There are already signs of recovery in Australia's construction sector and in Britain, he says, so employers need to move fast.

"They need to be aware of what's on the horizon and mindful of what people are looking for. But it's great that we're seeing talent returning, because in the last few years we've lost of lot of people offshore."

Realities of life ease return across Tasman

After 12 years in Melbourne, 2014 seemed the right time for Airdre Knox to move home to Wellington. She returned mainly for family reasons: her father had died and her mother is now 82.

"It was time to come home and spend time with her. I really missed New Zealand; I missed the ocean and the culture. New Zealanders are so friendly."

A lawyer, Knox left New Zealand aged 30, after finishing a big project for a Government department. She wanted to experience life in a big city and was looking for a change.

"I was intending to go back to university but got there and discovered everything was very expensive and it wasn't easy to become a student over there."

She moved instead into the then-emerging field of knowledge-management and worked in the public and private sectors.

"Melbourne's an awesome place where there's always something on but it's definitely an expensive place to live in. You find you get caught up in your job and don't experience the city the way you think you might. I find now if I go back to visit I enjoy it more."

She has taken a job with tech firm Xero and says Wellington has become much more vibrant. She's also more aware of the lifestyle benefits here.

New Zealand is no longer the "slow and sleepy country town of old", she says, and there's more of an entrepreneurial spirit. "There's this fantastic 'can-do' attitude and culture. It's a really invigorating and positive place."

Knox urges anyone contemplating moving to Australia to research things very carefully.

"I was retrenched out of one of my roles and was unwell for a time and effectively was in hardship because I couldn't access support I was entitled to.

"I don't think New Zealanders fully appreciate what the special category visa [introduced in 2001] really means. Australia is very tough. People go over there thinking it's what it was like 20 years ago but [it's] not anymore. We are really second-class citizens now."

Teacher Gabrielle Moros learned that the hard way when, aged 24, she headed for the Gold Coast early last year.

"I'd heard they loved Kiwis. My aunt's a teacher there and I thought it would be easy to pick up work. But there was a lot more paperwork than here and teaching was much harder to get into." She ended up working at a pre-school but found the money no better than in New Zealand.

They lived in the heart of Surfer's Paradise where "there was always a party. There were lots of drugs around and incidents with bikie gangs - it wasn't a good place to live."

Her boyfriend couldn't find work and moved to Brisbane to a job at the port before being laid off. "We really struggled on one income. Then he went off to the mines."

The couple went their separate ways and, after losing her job, she returned to Auckland where she immediately found work. "It just shows you how beautiful home is."