Australian authorities don't seem terribly clear about how many New Zealanders have settled in the sunburned country. A 2009 estimate on the website of the Immigration Museum said 521,000; an update in March by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs suggested the figure was "more than 700,000".
It's an understandable disparity since the border is so porous now and the flight not much longer than an Auckland commmute. The distinction between short-term visitors and long-term residents can get a little blurry when it's so easy to move back and forth.
What is certain is that there are plenty of us over there. New Zealanders are the second largest immigrant group after the Brits, who - albeit reluctantly - got a head-start when the First Fleet dropped anchor in Botany Bay. Now, one New Zealander in nine lives across the Ditch, and Australia is the destination of choice for almost 90 per cent of Kiwis who settle abroad.
As a report in our Insight pages today makes clear, many of them still regard this country as home, but they don't have plans to come back any time soon. And that's a problem for this Government.
John Key made much during the 2008 election campaign of the number of New Zealanders emigrating to Australia, calling it "a vote of no confidence" in the Labour-led Government. He's conspicuously silent on the matter now, even though the average annual outflow has been higher on his watch than at any time during the years of the Clark administration.
