Before it was recalled because its theme music sounded a but too much like a hit by British band Coldplay, John Key's Ambitious for New Zealand DVD made much of the talent flight across the Tasman. From the middle of Wellington's "Cake Tin" stadium, the Opposition leader toldus that the equivalent of a capacity crowd was fleeing west each year.
Knowing that National will make much of that figure in the run-up to the next election, the Government tried to take the sting out of the figures this week, when it released a Ministry of Economic Development report showing that wages, expressed as GDP per capita, are between 13 and 37 per cent higher in Australia. Economic Development Minister Pete Hodgson conceded with disarming frankness that "there is a measured movement" across the Tasman, "including my own son".
Interest rates, which have spiralled under Labour, because it has failed to control residential property investment, are another incentive to escape. But it's worth looking at the fine print. Unimaginable though it seems, measurable traffic congestion is worse in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide than in Auckland. And in "quality of life" Auckland rates ahead of Sydney, and Wellington ahead of Melbourne.
There is nothing new about New Zealanders gazing longingly on Australia as Shangri-La. But those contemplating the leap might like to consider the downside. You will have a cricket team that is not in the habit of consistently engineering defeat. But on the other side of the ledger is the unpalatable prospect of having to live with Australians.
