A New Zealand professor has predicted Kiwis will flock to Australia to reap the benefits of the country’s minimum wage increase promised by Anthony Albanese.
On Monday, Albanese was sworn in as the country’s 31st prime minister, becoming just the fourth person to lead Labor into government from opposition since World War II.
The Liberals’ crushing defeat was good news for millions of Australians who will receive a pay rise after Albanese promised to back a 5.1 per cent increase in the minimum wage to keep up with rising inflation if elected to the can.
But the director of the Institute of Public Policy at the University of Auckland, Jennifer Curtin, says the new regime will also incentivize Kiwi workers to cross the ditch after Jacinda Ardern warned that local wage growth will not exceed inflation until 2023.
The current minimum wage in Australia is $20.33 (NZ$22.43), $1.23 higher than New Zealand’s $21.20.
Anthony Albanese was sworn in as Australia’s 31st prime minister on Monday. A New Zealand teacher says the move will encourage Kiwis to move to Australia for work after he promised pay rises.
“We know that Albanese promised a real injection of funds into the health sector and the aged care sector, and we also know that he is keen to see the minimum wage rise by at least 5 per cent,” Professor Curtin said. . AM.
‘The challenge for New Zealand will be to try to make sure we look as lucrative as Australia.
‘We have seen our people, our professionals, cross Tasmania before. “We’ll probably start seeing it again.”
However, Professor Curtin noted that Australia is also suffering from a cost of living crisis, with annual wage growth currently at 2.4 per cent, almost half the inflation rate of 5.1 per cent.
Although the minimum wage in New Zealand has been growing annually under the Labor government, Ardern announced on Monday that wage growth would remain locked in for at least another 12 months as the nation grapples with skyrocketing goods prices.
NZ Herald property editor Anne Gibson said the cover podcast He says rising wages aren’t the only thing drawing Kiwis across the ditch.
“Australian companies offer much higher salaries, some cover moving costs and will even move the cat if you wish,” says Gibson.
‘They also offer a better and cheaper lifestyle, especially when it comes to houses.
‘ANZ has predicted that 20,000 Kiwis will leave in a year for Australia and other parts of the world. It’s very worrying,’ he explained.
He explained how his friends moved to Queensland and were making a lot more money in Australia.
‘Where they are now, they’ve got the Gold Coast on their doorstep, they’ve been to Australia Zoo before, they like the warmer weather and they love having a Costco there. These are the kinds of things that make 20-year-olds happiest.
“(One of them) makes about $30,000 more,” Gibson says.
‘When you’re 20, that’s pretty significant. I mean, that’s about half the average salary in New Zealand, so that’s a big draw.”
‘Since 2017, wages and wage growth in New Zealand have been growing at a faster rate, at a rate higher than the cost of living and until this year. Then it will change again next year,” Ms Ardern said on Monday.
‘In the budget forecasts we will see that we return to that situation in which salaries grow faster than the cost of living (in 2023). “We are simply in a difficult time here and now.”
In recent months, some New Zealanders have cut their grocery bills by purchasing items in Australia and shipping them to New Zealand, as the cost of living in the country soars.
New Zealanders are saving up to 35 per cent when ordering food from Australia, even including shipping costs.
Wellington resident Steven Hobman told Daily Mail Australia that New Zealand’s two big stores, Countdown and Foodstuffs, are charging more than they should.
“There is nothing being put in place to drive prices down; there should be stricter regulations and encourage more competition,” said the retired engineer.
“There’s a duopoly there… there’s only two working together, driving up prices, and the profits have been much higher than they normally would be for the supermarkets.”
Hobman said the country doesn’t have “cheap” stores like Aldi to go to.
“People come from abroad and ask, ‘Why are your prices so expensive?'” Hobman said.
New Zealand supermarkets have come under scrutiny, with the country’s competition watchdog finding that “competition is not working well for consumers”.
The NZCC’s March report on the grocery retail sector said that “if competition were more effective, major grocery retailers would face stronger pressures to offer the right prices, quality and variety.”
Poor quality retail practices were also questioned, with an imbalance in bargaining power between retailers and their suppliers.
Hobman has the luxury of not feeling the pressure as much as other low-income people in the country, and she orders products like milk and toothpaste directly from suppliers.
An Otago woman saved 35 per cent off her bill last month by ordering long-lasting items from Australia such as pasta, nuts, rolled oats, shampoo and toothpaste.
The buyer said she ordered the products through Amazon and received them in five days.
New Zealand’s opposition party blamed Jacinda Ardern’s government for the sharp price increases.
But the Government responded by saying the rising cost of living is what “almost every country is facing” due to supply chain issues related to Covid and the war in Ukraine.
Albanese attended Government House in Canberra on Monday to be sworn in, accompanied by incoming Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.
Jacinda Ardern has warned that wages will struggle to keep up with inflation in New Zealand
His proposed changes will benefit the approximately 180,000 workers currently receiving the minimum wage, as well as 2.6 million workers in 121 allowances that will also be adjusted.
“You should be able to pay your rent, buy food, survive, and the Fair Work Commission should take that into account in the decision they make,” Albanese said in Melbourne last week.
“The Labor Party has a plan to raise wages and that is what we will do.”
The Fair Work Commission reviews the minimum wage and the national minimum wage annually.
The two are generally linked, and last year the commission applied the minimum wage percentage to all other award wages.
Currently, the minimum wage of $20.33 per hour is equivalent to $772.60 in a standard 38-hour week.
Millions of Australians will receive a pay rise after the ALP leader pledged to increase the minimum wage by 5.1 per cent to help tackle the cost of living crisis (pictured, Australians queue outside Centrelink in Melbourne)
The pledge came after a submission by the Australian Council of Trade Unions to the Fair Work Commission backing a 5.5 per cent increase in the minimum wage.
But economists have warned that if wages rise significantly, interest rates will also have to rise to stop inflation.
The CBA’s Head of Australian Economics said: “In short, 5.1 per cent wage growth, all things being equal, means higher interest rates than otherwise and the pain falls on those with a mortgage.”
The ACTU wants an increase in the minimum wage from $20.33 to $21.45 an hour, or $42,384.84 a year.
Albanese said it was important that wages did not go backwards.
‘We have a government that has low wage growth as a key feature of its economic architecture. They have said that.