Kiwi earning $34k more in Australia says New Zealand’s economic woes sad to watch

Traffic outside Flinders Street Station which is the busiest station on Melbourne's metropolitan network.. Photo / 123RF

As new statistics reveal record numbers of Kiwis are leaving the country, an expat living in Australia has confessed her concerns for the local job market.

Kate Shuttleworth told news.com.au that the career opportunities across the Ditch were too good to pass up, with Australia offering a larger market and greater prospects for growth.

Stats NZ reported the loss of 72,700 New Zealand citizens in the September 2025 year, most of whom moved to Australia hopeful for a better standard of living.

After moving to Melbourne in 2017, Shuttleworth said her salary increased by A$30,000 ($34,393.29), enabling her to get on the local property ladder.

“For me, it’s always been the quality of the work, the issues I get to work on and the people I get to work with.”

The communications professional said she has no plans to move back to New Zealand in the near future, describing her adopted city as “home”.

“I could see myself returning one day, most Kiwis probably feel that pull, but at the moment I’m really settled here,” Shuttleworth said.

“Each time I go home to visit, I feel the gap widening a bit, which I admit comes with some sadness. I find it really hard to see New Zealand going backwards”.

The state of the local economy is a key reason many are choosing to escape to Australia, which 9 News reports boasts an average weekly salary of A$2011.40 ($2314.34).

Comparatively, Stats NZ set the average weekly Kiwi wage at just $1688.

Political commentator Matthew Hooton weighed in on the so-called “brain drain”, telling news.com.au the current Government is failing to correct the “deep malaise” developing in New Zealand.

His adjustments to Hanke’s Misery Index have set the nation’s level of “misery” at 9%, making the current sum of inflation and unemployment “the worst they have been this century”.

“It’s obvious the answers that have done a good job over recent decades are failing to answer the problems that are emerging,” Hooton said, “yet no one has come up with what the new answers might be.”

He thinks the index would likely need to drop below 6% for the current Government to be re-elected, a percentage decrease he said there is not much sign of currently.

It’s not all doom and gloom – Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said there are “signs of stabilisation” despite rising unemployment and falling immigration.

Eaqub is hopeful the Reserve Bank’s interest rate cuts will encourage more momentum in the economy, estimating the effects will be realised in 12 to 18 months’ time.