Why are so many kiwis leaving New Zealand to go live in Australia?

Question

I just read that over 40,000 left this year. What's so good about Australia anyway?

Answer 1

There are more job opportunities, lower taxes (if you earn under $30,000 pay no tax, sorry correct me if I'm wrong on that figure), warmer climate, less racial conflict (in some areas and esp with the latest terrorist nonsense in New Zealand), nice beaches etc etc.

But did you know that there is a major counterflow of people migrating back to the source area?

Many people dislike the warmer climate, the animals (snakes and spiders), high cost of living (house prices are very high and so are food costs), to many different race groups etc etc.

The cost of living is very similar in both countries but because taxes are lower people think it's cheaper to live in Australia.

Answer 2

Okay, firstly to the person above, no, Australia's minimum wage is NOT $16 per hour, it's $13.47, you're way off. The New Zealand minimum wage is indeed $11.25 an hour. But the gap is closing, as has been for a few years. Labour has been raising the minimum wage each year and there are plans to continue doing so.

I'm living in Australia right now and believe me, it's not all it's cracked up to be. The New Zealand news was right when it said that Australia had "percieved" economic opportunities. The "percieved" part is right, people believe that Australia is a better place to live and work because of higher wages and lower taxes, but the economy is the only thing that Australia can lord over New Zealand; it loses on everything else.

New Zealand has lower unemployment per capita than Australia, is far more environmentally friendly, with a complete nuclear ban. New Zealand is not is a situation of serious drought like Australia is, water is far more plentiful in New Zealand. New Zealand has a less corrupt justice sustem, and less corruption of government, in fact it has been rated the least corrupt country in the world along with Denmark and Finland. (Australia is at 11th). It is rated the second most peaceful country in the world below Norway (Australia is at 25th). New Zealand has higher rates of literacy, higher press freedom, lower suicide rates per capita, less crime, and a lower AIDS rate. Medical care in New Zealand is also free at hospital level, and GP care is heavily subsidised, prescriptions medications also generally recieve far higher subsidy in New Zealand than in Australia.

Besides, Australia is so much more privatised than New Zealand that you will simply end up frittering the extra money away on private health insurance and your monthly ambulance membership designed to stop you from paying some insane fee because the Australian state governments don't subsidise ambulances properly.

In other words, Australia is a money grubbers version of New Zealand. If you want to be happy, rather than rich, New Zealand is the correct country to be living in. Australia has become obsessed with money and the economy in recent years and seems to be starting to think that money can buy happiness. Well, news flash: it can't. I seem to be one of the few people who can see that it's more important for a country's government and it's citizens to focus on social matters rather than economic ones.

Answer 3

Been there done that. Lived in Brissy, Sydney, Melbourne & Adelaide over the course of 9 years. Loved the weather (even in Melbourne - made me miss Auckland); the food; the cultural diversities (far greater than NZ simply due to volumes of people and bigger ethnic pools I guess); the places to visit and the GREAT social life.
But hated the lack of water; the racisim (yes you know it Aussies! it exists in a HUGE way but is not talked about); the kiwi bashing (but that's to be expected ! We are the "little brother" after all); the overly macho sosciety; and the sometimes percieved ignorance to ignore anything that isn't Australian.
I am happy to be home again and even though we have lots of things 'missing' perhaps, we do have a great country and society that deserves to do better. and will once we get rid of the Labour party, PC- Granny State wallies, and Aunty Helen.
For those leaving - good on you. Give it a go. Put your best effort into it, work hard, but don't forget where you come from. And I am willing to bet that many will return - even if it does take a few years. NZ is always home and besides, in a few years you are going to get REALLY thirsty for a drink of water and start to miss fresh, home-grown vegetables (they will be all imported there soon). Oh, and you will get tired of hearing the "oi oi oi" everywhere you go too....(mind you - Aussies do know how to play the games - we don't !)

Answer 4

Far u Aussies are sad to us Kiwis. Just to clear up a few things, the standard of living is BETTER in NZ that Aus, the unemployment rate in Aus is worse than NZ, the US is ahead of Aus in the unemployment scale NZ is officially the worlds environmentally friendly country, we're the world 2nd most peaceful country, Australia is 25th...... We are the Least corrupt country, Aus is 11th. Were officially more literate. we have freer press, your 28th. We are the most politically free country. You have higher suicide rates per capita, you have a higher AIDS rate, you also have higher CO2 emissions, your the worlds 4th highest beer consuming country and whoever is talking about the terrorism stuff here, just remember what u guys did during APEC and the terrorists hiding out in Australia after the airport bombing in Glasgow.

So before you go around saying Australia is better than New Zealand, take a look at the facts.

Answer 5

higher pay rates. and to 'Frantic' as i've lived in both countries and some other countries as well, i would say that new zealand is a very beautiful place and so are the people. in new zealand, if you go shopping or go to the bank and such and you ask to speak to the manager or have to exchange something, they right away do it, with no questions asked. in australia, they don't really have that "the customer is right" mentality.

also, if you've been watching the news about australian hospitals, then you'd know it's turning into a third world health care. you hear on the news of a woman having a miscarriage in the hospital floor after waiting for hours for help and such.

I prefer New Zealand, even though the pay rate are less compared to Australia, the way of life is better. In NZ you don't have the searing heat, or the droughts and you can go camping without fear of snakes or poisonous spiders and such.

Answer 6

I was born and raised in Australia, came to NZ and married a Kiwi. We tried living in Aus together where we had two daughters but my husband got homesick so we came back to NZ.

After being here for 5 years, he is ready to move back to Aus permanently - with no pushing from me (although I would prefer it too).

The reason is that while we were in Australia we bought our first home in Adelaide after a year, and we went on a holiday each year, plus we managed to save money. Here in NZ, we get next to no family allowance from the government even though our earnings are almost half what they were in Aussie, we pay higher tax on every dollar earned (understandable with a smaller population), it's bloody cold all the time (we're in Christchurch) and it took us four years to get a crappy little house in a crappy suburb where we pay 1/3 of our income for the mortgage (compared to 1/5 approx of our Aust earnings in a nice area).

The fact is, as a New Zealander you don't need a visa, your rights are basically the same as an Aussie's are, right from when you step off the plane. The only thing you can't do is claim the dole straight away - you have to be there for 2 years for that. This was because ten years ago there were too many Kiwis arriving in Queensland to live off the dole only (it is about double NZ's Winz allowance).

It does make a difference which city you live in. Sydney, Melbourne and to an extent Brisbane all have a much higher cost of living (Sydney is one of the highest in the world). So even though pay rates are almost double in most industries, a lot of this is eaten up with transport, rent, mortgages or rates. The best value places in Australia are Adelaide, Geelong, Newcastle, Warrnambool, etc. Basically anywhere else really. The pay rates are still the same as the larger cities, in fact better in building, mining and trade industries! There is a huge shortage of skilled workers there at the moment.

Other than these reasons there are the more obvious ones but it all depends on your taste;
more beaches
better shopping with much more range and cheaper prices
cheaper petrol
better roads
more international acts/concerts
more cultures
more food variety (and cheaper)
drive through bottle shops
climates that range from snowy mountains through to desert
very low unemployment rate (around 2% I think at the moment)
etc etc

Hope this helps answer you question. Just a last note - I love NZ, the people and the country! We will always love coming back to visit (which will cost us less to do than visiting Aussie from here).

Answer 7

As the old saying goes ... the grass is greener on the other side ... or is it???

I lived in Sydney, Australia for approx. 14yrs (finishing 5 years ago, when we moved back to good old NZ). Australia is a neat place,don't get me wrong. Among my impressions of Oz :
- sheep jokes (got sick of hearing them pretty quick)
- 40 + degrees in summer (unless you live on the beach)
- believe it or not, I missed the rain. We had so many
fine days I missed a good ole kiwi downpour :)
Right now, living back in NZ, I am at "home". For some reason I always felt a foreigner in Oz (probably because I was, and 'cause of the sheep jokes).
I am glad to be back
where the grass is green
where the pasture is lush
and the air is clean.

I LOVE MY COUNTRY :) ... NEW ZEALAND

Answer 8

A lot of departures are directly linked to the type of politics that Labour and the Greens are continually shoving down NZers throats. A lot of it is Marxism and a lot of it is just plain Orwellian '1984' stuff. My god if you haven't read this book you must. Right now we have govt./Greens making up laws to protect themsleves and at the same time taking away the right to freedom of speech. Departing people also blame low wages for the reason but in fact it's not so much what the employer pays but what the govt. absolutely extorts from the wage earner in taxes. This is what makes Kiwi's work so many many long hours to get a decent standard of living; obscene taxes. It's not because Kiwi's like to work 60-70hrs because they like it; it's because they have to. I could also get into the latest govt. gig of letting the worst of the worst get bail. What the hell does that do to public safety. All done to keep the prison numbers down. And on and on it goes under the current regime. Yeah; last one out turn out the lights. And have a last look at the NZ flag because if the current govt. get back in in 2008 it will have an iron fist holding a banana on it.

Answer 9

I'm not sure mrs Rust but one thing I do know is that I've been here in brissy for 10 years and I'm heading back to nz next year.some people will tell you that its cheaper in oz with better job opportunitys,but I think it all comes down to the individual and how motivated you are.My partner and I have 2 young boys both born in oz who have never been to nz and we are looking forward to showing them some real cultures,I mean I havent seen a single aborigine(full blooded) since I got here.some ozzies have this view that nz resembles once were warriors...does that mean ozzies resemble priscilla queen of the desert.?I'm glad to hear so many kiwis are leaving,now there will be more jobs available,I cant wait to get home and taste some real good kaimoana,and by the way not all the beaches over here are what there cracked up to be,if you want good fishing you have to go miles out..

Answer 10

Having spent 5 years living in Aussie I love it there and could say that Australia is probably the best country in the world to live. Well first equal actually. Its is as good a place as NZ to live. But it is not better. Yes Aust has far less rain which to me amounts to better weather, but they also have no water. Things like watering our gardens or washing our cars we take for granted in NZ are illegal in many places in Aust for large portions of the year. NZ food is better. You just can't compare Kiwi fruit and veg (benefits of water again); our green grass makes our meat and dairy way richer and tastier. Aust does have some of the most amazing seafood - their prawns and lobsters, bugs and craps and amazing. We still have our green lipped mussels, oysters and amazing schnapper though. Yes Aussie is an amazing sporting nation and our sports teams suck this year), but hey - we only have 4 million people and do better than we should. Maybe if the AB's had kicked just one drop goal; maybe the ref might have called that forward pass, and we would all be as happy as Larry (I know him and he is VERY happy).
Aussie has amazing beaches - they are more easily accessible than kiwi ones because they have much more coastline and it is less likely to rain. But they can't compete with our ski fields.
Drugs are becoming an issue in NZ - namely P which instead of relaxing people turns them crazy. This is making NZ less desirable, but our crime rate is still far less than Australia. NZ had 45 murders (4 mill people) compared to Australia's 302 (20 Mill). Australia also has 4 times as many rapes (source nationmaster.com). NZ is still a utopia in terms of our low crime rates, but is fast becoming worse if we don't get tough on our social problems.
Racist??? Hardly. Kiwis generally get on although there are certainly different views on certain issues between different ethnic groups. But go see how the Aboriginies were treated and the social problems that has caused them now. And remember Cronulla.
We don't have cuddly bears in trees, but we also don't have snakes or huge deadly spiders.
The point I'm tying to make: NZ is at least as good a place as Australia to live if not better. But people are leaving NZ in droves because our governments couldn't run a bath let alone a country. And yes all the parties are as bad as each other. We must reward hard workers so they want to work hard in NZ and not in Australia. Maybe we should look to Australia as to why their companies can offer our skilled workers more and make some changes so that in 15 years we still have a country left... Go the Rowers!!!