New Zealand has suffered a net migration loss of 27,000 people to Australia in 2023, the highest figure in a decade.
More than 44,500 Kiwis tried to escape the post-pandemic economic crisis, compared to 17,500 Australians who went in the opposite direction.
While the number of Australians heading to New Zealand has remained broadly stable since 2021, the number of Kiwis in departure lounges is increasing.
Since 2013, never before have so many New Zealand citizens sought to make Australia their home.
New Zealand has generally experienced a loss of citizens to Australia each year in recent decades.
The exception occurred in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, when border configurations resulted in a net migration gain with Australia.
These gains were attributed to the COVID-19 homecoming factor and favorable economic and living conditions in New Zealand during the pandemic.
However, the restoration of normality at the borders and the slowdown of the economy have pushed Kiwis to leave the country.
Last year, 5,000 New Zealand-based nurses registered to work in Australia for a six-month period, while fewer than 200 Australian nurses migrated in the opposite direction.
From a net increase in trans-Tasman migration of 7,500 in 2020, New Zealand lost 5,500 citizens in 2021, 14,500 in 2022 and now 17,500 in 2023.
New Zealanders can live and work in Australia, and vice versa, through specially created visas.
Recent changes in Australian policy have sweetened the deal for potential Kiwi immigrants.
In 2023, Australia improved the pathway to citizenship for migrant Kiwis, allowing them to apply after four years of residence.
Citizenship brings a range of benefits, including a social safety net, access to student loans and work in a variety of public service and advocacy roles reserved only for Australians.
Australian employers seeking workers in key industries, including policing and nursing, have also invested in campaigns to attract workers, including signing bonuses and covering moving costs.
Higher salaries offered in Australia have been cited as a reason for New Zealand’s nursing shortage.
However, the departure of many New Zealanders across the Tasman Sea has not reduced the population, as internal migration is also increasing.
It has received more than 10,000 migrants every month since the beginning of 2023, in a record boom.
Migrants from India lead the way, with 51,000 arriving by 2023, along with many from the Philippines (36,000), China (26,900) and Fiji (11,100).
Kiwis moving to Australia by 2023 are slightly younger and more foreign-born than the general population.
More than a third (36 per cent) of trans-Tasman migrants were born overseas (27 per cent of the general population), and 52 per cent of half were aged between 20 and 39.
The record for brain drain in a single calendar year was 2011, when a net figure of 43,000 people left the country: more than one percent of the population.
Why a working couple from New Zealand decided to leave New Zealand to live in Australia
New Zealand couple Tim and Eva Mitchell are in the middle of a year-long trip around the world, but the adventurous Kiwi couple say the only thing that made it possible was leaving their homeland to live in Australia.
In 2019, the couple followed the path of thousands of Kiwis across the Tasman Sea in search of higher wages and more career opportunities.
After just 16 months of living in Melbourne, where Eva, 28, worked as an IVF pharmacist and Tim, 33, worked for the same engineering firm that employed him in New Zealand, the couple had saved enough to fund a year of overseas travel.
“If we had stayed in New Zealand, we probably wouldn’t have been able to travel – we wouldn’t have saved enough,” Eva told Daily Mail Australia from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“Everyone is struggling to get ahead, but in New Zealand I think they are falling behind.”
New Zealand couple Eva and Tim Mitchell (pictured in Melbourne) said moving to Australia was “the best thing that ever happened to them”
Better economic conditions for Kiwis moving to Australia
She said that by moving to Australia, the couple earned 30 per cent higher salaries than at home, plus they discovered there were many other financial advantages, such as tax deductions for work expenses that simply did not exist in New Zealand.
In its Make the most of your travels Eva’s blog writes that the couple “knew that moving to Australia would mean we could save more money AND save money faster than if we stayed in New Zealand, solely by getting higher-paying jobs.”
“What we didn’t realise were the many other ways living in Australia could make our savings goals easier, starting with having to pay less income tax,” he writes.
‘An average full-time Australian salary of $95,000 requires paying approximately $21,300 in income tax per year.
‘In New Zealand, on the same salary (if you can find a job that pays the equivalent), you would have to pay around $23,200 in income tax per year.’
However, that wasn’t even the best part.
“In Australia, you are entitled to claim tax back on a variety of work-related expenses,” he said.
‘This includes professional fees, work-from-home costs, work tools, conference costs, work clothes and much more.
‘In the end, we found that Australia not only pays better, but also allows you to keep more of what you earn.’
Eva recalled that when the couple moved to Australia “everyone was telling them to make sure they claimed their tax refund.”
“As far as we knew, we could never recoup the same expenses in New Zealand, not in normal jobs, maybe if you had a business,” he said.
‘The grass certainly is greener!’
More career opportunities
Both Eva and Tim enjoyed professional opportunities in Australia that they would not have had in New Zealand.
Eva went from being a pharmacist at a public hospital in Christchurch to working at a private IVF clinic and a job in a private sector pharmacy which she says did not exist in New Zealand.
The adventurous Kiwi couple have been travelling the world for a year (pictured in Cappadocia, Turkey)
“With my new job came a raise, bonuses and a small team where I felt valued,” she wrote on the blog.
Even if she had returned to public sector pharmacy, the pay increase in Australia would have been substantial.
Despite working for the same company, Tim also got “a significant pay rise for moving to Australia” – something that would have taken him “years” to achieve in New Zealand.
“Shortly after moving to Australia, Tim was able to secure a more senior position, demonstrating the career progression opportunities that Australian companies can offer to New Zealand professionals looking to relocate to Australia,” Eva wrote.
‘As well as a pay rise, Tim’s transfer deal provided us both with flights to Melbourne and a month’s free accommodation in an apartment in central Melbourne until we could secure our own rental property. Not a bad deal, if I do say so myself!’
Better work-life balance
As if earning more wasn’t enough, Tim and Eva discovered that Australians work fewer hours than Kiwis and that supermarkets are cheaper.
“The standard working week in New Zealand is 40 hours (as opposed to 38 in Australia), so over the course of a whole year there is a difference of approximately 100 hours,” Eva said.
“It doesn’t seem like much, two hours a week, but it is, and it’s convenient for us because it gives you time to visit the banks when they’re open.”
She also said that in Victoria, “seasonal reimbursements on meals out, activities and electricity bills are being offered to all residents.”
“Thanks to these cashback programs, we were reimbursed hundreds of dollars during the time we lived in Melbourne,” she writes.
Eva and Tim also enjoyed living in Melbourne, which has a population about four times larger than New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland.
The couple said they would return to Australia when their travels in Europe and Asia were over.
“If we wanted something like the size of Melbourne the only option is Auckland, but obviously it’s quite expensive to be there,” Eva said.
‘It’s probably on a par with Melbourne, but Melbourne has better salaries.
“You don’t have the same opportunities. There’s always something to do in Melbourne, there are always events.”
After a 10-month stay in Europe, the couple plan to spend two more months in Southeast Asia before returning home, which is no longer in New Zealand.
“I don’t think we’ll be going back to New Zealand,” Eva said.
“Salary is a big problem. If we could earn the same, we might come back, but we still miss out on city life.”
Eva said she and Tim had some regrets.
“We feel guilty for leaving, we miss our celebrations at home and we feel guilty for missing them,” she said.
Eva said they wouldn’t have done it.“they abandoned” their country “if they could have taken care of us.”
“Australia has given us opportunities that we wouldn’t have in New Zealand,” he said.
“People may call us unpatriotic, but we simply have to do what is best for us.”