New Zealanders are leaving the country in record numbers, mainly to Australia
Max was earning more as a dishwasher in Australia than as a university-qualified environmental monitoring technician back home in New Zealand. He is among a record number of people leaving the country.
A businessman-cum-conservative leads the country since 2023, in coalition with far-right populists.
After two terms of Labour government.
Pretty much the same happened in my country, and yes, the effects are palpable, esp. if you work in the public or social sector.
In the 1970s, when the NZ Prime Minister Robert Muldoon was asked about the high numbers of New Zealanders leaving for Australia he replied:
"It raises the IQ of both countries".
Just brilliant!
He stole that from a comedian BTW, it wasn't his joke. Still funny though.
I'd love to move to NZ but your immigration laws are insane...
I'm austrian and it's basically impossible to move to NZ for me
I promise you you wouldn't like living there as much as you think. I agree our immigration laws are really shitty though, and you should be allowed to come find out for yourself what a crappy country we are.
You already have austriankiwi at home. No need to emigrate.
Here are some raw official statistics: https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/international-migration-july-2025/
After having a look at the graphs: The data looks pretty normal and is within the previously observed boundaries.
On a side note:
A local economics podcast gave me an interesting point, which was that post covid Australia had one of the better unemployment rates, and it 100% came down to government funding jobs in the care sector. Now I do understand some of those aged/disability care programs got ripped off (like NDIS), but the guests claimed that countries relying on private sector jobs to bounce back basically have worse numbers. Food for thought in the role of government intervention in markets
The NDIS scam claims are far overstated from what I understand speaking to people in the system.
The biggest scam recently was the payouts to businesses during Covid. Just to scratch the surface for example we paid $13bil to businesses that increased their profits during 2020-21 covid crisis, under the guise of Jobkeeper. I know many businesses that took payment despite knowing they had not had 30% downturn, because there were no clawback methods in the legislation. Free money from the taxpayer.
there is no cause for alarm, noting that global workforce flows continue to bring skilled migrants into the country
Hey USA, this is the time. Not next year, right. This. Minute.
NZ is technically allowed to join Australia anytime they want.
I gladly welcome New Zealand into the third world.
Something to remember when reading these headlines, is that Australia is a ridiculously wealthy country, in large part due to mineral wealth, and anyone in NZ can just go there and get a job.
It has almost nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with making more money.
If that's the case why is it record numbers now?
Australia has had mineral wealth for a very long time, that's nothing new.
New Zealand has had a constant outflow of people to other countries that ebbs and flows for at least 40 years. I left during a previous surge. Home prices are too high, wages are too low, and better opportunities can be found abroad. When other economies start slowing down, a lot of people return to NZ.
Many Kiwis came home from other countries during COVID and this bump in people leaving is partly just returning to normal.