I have never felt the need or had the urge to up sticks and go live and work in Australia. Aotearoa New Zealand is my home, the place I have always loved. I’ve had plenty of holidays in Australia; I’ve got cousins and mates there, and I like the Aussies – more so the battlers who are familiar as people but still different in so many ways – than the slick corporate big dogs wearing suits.
Despite thoroughly enjoying Australia when I’m there, I’ve never been sad to leave it. But for years, hordes of us have made the one-way trek across the Tasman for a shot at the big time, or at least, for a new job or a fresh start. How attractive is it? Well, it’s thought up to 700,000 Kiwis live in Australia which is nearly twice the population of Christchurch, or three times Wellington’s.
Numbers making the move fluctuate. In recent decades, when Labour has taken office, a particularly large cohort of Kiwis have purchased one-way tickets. I suggest a number of them have given the government or this country, the one-fingered salute on their way out.
John Key’s National government slowed what it called the “brain drain”, when around 30,000 people a year from 2004-2013 left NZ for Australia. But by late 2013, it slowed to a trickle with just 3000 leaving annually.
Four years later, it picked up again under Jacinda Ardern’s government. Once Covid restrictions lifted and our borders re-opened, Kiwis fled in record numbers. In the year to October 2023, NZ citizens leaving the country bound for any destination was 44,500, just shy of record levels. In just the first three months of 2023, 17,500 New Zealanders left for Australia.
For such a short period of time, it looked like the brain drain had blown open to become a sinkhole. We’d never seen so many Kiwis leave in such a short time. You can blame it on “pent-up demand” but there are other pulls.
More pay, relocation cash and free accommodation
It remains fairly obvious why most workers go: Aussie pays better, and it appears in some areas the gap is widening fast as certain hard-to-staff industries offer huge relocation packages and free housing for at least three months and maybe longer.
Naturally, taking away the cost of a move and accommodation upon arrival makes that transtasman trip all the more attractive. We simply can’t compete with these offers, especially those directly targeting specific industries.
The Aussies make no apologies for it. Indeed, there are the head-hunting Aussie companies who will outright either target sectors online with hard-to-turn-down bonuses or pop across to NZ for a weekend expo-type event to show what’s on offer.
So, it’s little wonder that people who feel like they can’t get ahead here view Australia as the quick pathway to progress. Add in all the sideshows, distractions and grumbles over race relations that we’re facing and more Kiwis may yet flee.
It’s a trend that could be hard for the new National-led government to quickly turn around.
Latest wage comparison statistics show the average wage in Australia has broken six figures and is now equivalent to $102,500 (NZD); our average wage using the same comparison is $77,880.
During summer, I’ve heard plenty of anecdotal stories about large groups of nurses, teachers and police officers leaving for Australia. Five nurses I know left late last year while a senior police officer told me more than 100 officers winged it to Australia in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
It’s not just the $20,000 or $30,000 more a year they earn, add in their partner and it’s more like $60,000 a year in salary difference. Then there’s those relocation payments, sign-on bonuses and, possibly, free accommodation while you get settled.
Given that, I think you’ll find queues at our departure gates stay busy for some time to come. To me, that seems like a waste of talent and a poor investment from us. We pay to train these professionals over a number of years, then once trained and with a few years’ experience under their belts, we lose them and have to start again because we can’t or don’t pay them an extra $20,000.
It makes no sense. How much will we spend recruiting the future generations who also might flee our shores? Isn’t it best to meet the market now? Is our National-led government likely to do this? I doubt it, but I hope so.
Yes, we’re still an attractive base – more than 100,000 migrants arrived here in the past year, but we need to ask ourselves how many of them will settle permanently and is there anything we can do differently so we aren’t just a feeder system for Australia?
But it’s not just wages - the weather is better, the sport scene is amazing, and if you’re into the arts, dance and theatre – the Australian government just backed it with a five-year strategy and a real plan for growth. Their optimism is obvious, we appear more pessimistic. They have confidence, we seem to have lost our mojo.
‘Land pilots’ can earn $100k
My 60-year-old cousin, who is Australian, has worked everywhere and done everything, set up businesses, advised companies, run his own business. But he’s now a bus driver, or to be more accurate, he calls himself a “land pilot”. He’s likely to earn around $100,000 annually, he says.
Australia is looking for hundreds more drivers and will pay up to $6000 as a sign-on bonus. Last year, our government pledged more funding to lift bus drivers’ wages but that takes it to just $30 an hour in cities and $28 in the regions.
After two weeks of training, my cousin is now driving the double-deckers across Sydney Harbour Bridge.
And last weekend, as my son’s mates gathered to farewell a friend whose parents are relocating to Newcastle, I got talking to the father. He tells me he’s going to earn $130k a year to upskill as a train driver for two years and $170k-plus after that. Our train drivers average about $94k.
All this makes me think, “I could drive a bus or train, couldn’t I?” The idea starts messing with me. Here I am in the middle of setting up my small media business in an industry that’s struggling and an economy spluttering, but I could fly to Australia where it’s worth it to drive a train or bus.
I start sending invoices – as you do as a contractor – and it confirms I’m being paid a fraction of what I used to earn. So, I’m putting myself out there: I am a journalist, broadcaster, writer or podcaster for hire. I can emcee functions where I may or may not cross the line; I love getting out and meeting people, and I fancy myself as an auctioneer but I’m not sure if others do.
I can work night and day piecing together an income, or should I go to Aussie to chase a train-driving job and income, which may well end up being a lot more than I cobble together here?
My twin sister fled 20 years ago to Queensland for better and brighter opportunities and has done well. Both her girls have now bought houses. In Queensland, $500k gets you a new house - not here. I doubt they could have achieved home ownership on Kiwi wages with NZ house prices or with our government’s lack of support for first-home buyers, compared with the more generous approach in Australia where there’s a number of schemes set up to help folks get on the property ladder.
I’d say that here, for decades our governments have done virtually nothing but made it nigh-on impossible for first-home buyers and I think it’s a disgrace.
But here’s the thing. I can’t go. My youngest started college last week. I need to be here. End of story. Maybe in five years’ time, when my lad finishes high school and the gap between our two countries may have widened even further. I certainly can’t see it closing any time soon.
