The exodus of people from New Zealand to live permanently or long-term in Australia continued in February, with net departures across the ditch hitting a new annual record of 39,112, figures released by Statistics New Zealand show.
A total 53,003 departures to Australia in the year to February 2012 - itself a record high - was offest by 13,891 arrivals of people coming back to New Zealand, Stats NZ said. In both directions most migrants were New Zealand citizens.
Meanwhile, New Zealand's seasonally adjusted net loss of migrants continued in February 2012, when departures exceeded arrivals by 400 people. Net losses have been recorded in 11 of the 12 months since the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, Stats NZ said.
Unadjusted figures showed 1,200 more departures of New Zealand citizens compared with February 2011, including 1,000 more to Australia. There were also 300 more arrivals of non-New Zealand citizens on work permits.
New Zealand had a net loss of 4,100 migrants in the February 2012 year. This was the largest net loss since the August 2001 year (4,400), Stats NZ said.
There were net gains of migrants from most countries other than Australia, led by the United Kingdom (5,300), India (5,000), and China (4,800) in the February 2012 year.
Auckland was the only region with a net gain of international migrants (5,400) in the February 2012 year. The largest net loss was from Canterbury (3,700), which included a net loss of 2,900 from earthquake-hit Christchurch. This compared with a net gain of 900 migrants to Christchurch in the February 2011 year, Stats NZ said.
Net long term migration
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65 Comments
Most of the govt's pieces and pawns are now gone. Who was it promised to stop the exodus?
What about the 170ooo new jobs. Tax revenue is heading in which direction. Building sector activity across the country but for parts of Auckland...what activity!
And if the aussie property mart does what we expect...most who left might rush back...to what?...to join the line outside winz.
And as the commodity prices slide away..."oh dam there goes Bill's Queen".
Where is the data by region to be found?
"Auckland was the only region with a net gain of international migrants (5,400) in the February 2012 year. The largest net loss was from Canterbury (3,700), which included a net loss of 2,900 from earthquake-hit Christchurch. This compared with a net gain of 900 migrants to Christchurch in the February 2011 year, Stats NZ said."
I cannot find any reference to regional data in either of the two Stats NZ publications:
http://www.stats.govt.nz/~/media/Statistics/Browse%20for%20stats/IntTra…
http://www.stats.govt.nz/~/media/Statistics/Browse%20for%20stats/IntTra…
I do find the Stats NZ site difficult to use.
Every arrival and departure in new zealand has to fill in an arrivals or departure card. That card contains a lot of information. Name, age, occupation, address, passport number, ethnicity, country of birth, where you are going to reside, where you have been residing etc etc. The information held is sufficient to provide a full analysis of departures by age, occupation, location even by region, province, city, suburb, even by street if you wanted.
Go to one of the links above. The explanation of the information is a direct copy of the customs departure and arrival cards. Maybe they dont want to frighten the horses.
Roger: There is an enormous volume of migration data released by StatsNZ each month. It is all available in their Infoshare service. There you can find a full set of data referring to "permanent and long term migration" from NZ by "arrivals / departures / Net" for every "NZ area" (ie towns, cities, districts).
StatsNZ's problem is how to summarise this in their regular releases. They can refer to the interesting bits in their press release, but some of those details are often buried in that Infoshare resource, rather than the high level summaries (usually MSExcel) accompanying the release. They explain all to the journos who go to their lockup media briefings. Without those briefing and the related media releases, it would be very hard indeed to find the interesting bits.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/infoshare/ (and look under Tourism [?!]).
Thanks David. I got around to actually sending Stats NZ an email and it seems the data is buried here
http://www.stats.govt.nz/infoshare/
under Tourism
then under International Travel and Migration
then by choosing a data series and a town
So, I finally found what I was looking for but I will need to see if I can get a more useful way of choosing the data to display, it is all rather clunky.
Who would think to look for Migration data under Tourism? I guess it must seem obvious once you know where to look.
Out of the mouths of.... and they would move to the provinces and that would rid Auckland of the need to splurge on roads and other stuff...and all it would take is a simple removal of GST theft on new builds and reno work in the provinces....simple really...a no brainer....any chance of it happening....not a hope in hell.
I think that once GST gets over a certain percentage like all taxes it starts to really change behaviour. GST is a really bad idea compounded by the fact that Governments keep on raising it. The UK now has VAT at 20%, sounds bad but it excludes food, books, childrens clothes. We have 15% across the board. Being so high is a really bad idea. Needs to get back to 10% or lower. But what government could/would actually do this?
Funny howin NZ we tax the heck out of working and trading but ignore any mention of tax on speculating/capital gains, land owning (excluding rates), financial transactions.
Seems to me we have made a choice and we have chosen to tax those that 'do stuff' and not tax those that don't do anything.
Labour should go with reducing GST back to 10%- it is a percentage afterall- so if the economy is bigger then the govt gets more- they do not actually need to muck about with the percentage.
Introduce a small land tax
Do the stuff that Gareth Morgan said re no tax on the first 10,000 or there abouts
Brig back progresive taxation
Stop taxing people who get educated through the student loan tax- it is really a tax by the way , not a loan. It is much better to get the money spent on education back through progressive taxation rather than saddle children with debt and then go around blaming them.
Expect this trend to continue. There is nothing for the young and middle aged in NZ other than getting whacked wtih low wages, increasingly exorbitant costs of living and taxes to support the 12% or so of the population who bludge off benefits.
I have been back in Australia working for 4 weeks, earning about 90% more (after tax) than I had been in NZ. A friend's husband is earning double. Everyone says the wage differential is +40% but I think for professionals closer to double in Sydney. I see jobs for my profession advertised in NZ at the same salary as what they were 7 years ago (probably supports the recent NZIER comments that NZ went backwards to 2005 levels after the GFC). What would be motivation to stay ? - especially as all my family live overseas in Europe
Things are slowing down a bit here (at least in NSW - so the job agents say) but still heaps more opportunities than in NZ. Donkey and Blinglish are hopeless and doing nothing at all to stimulate any real economic growth or jobs in NZ.
Agree BTA...any young well qualified Kiwi with positive work ethics would be daft to remain over here facing a future life as a serf to a bank or landlord...The govt and puppet RBNZ will forever continue the farce of protecting the property bubble for the banks...
Same is true for young Kiwi planning on a farming career...stay here as a serf or go west and prosper.
The scariest thing in NZ is the driving ability of New Zealanders.
Check out the relative death rates for spiders, snakes, crocs & sharks Vs Car deaths in NZ....
The death rate from the nasties in Aus is so low its news worthy when it happens.
The poor standard of driving in NZ is so commonplace that its not newsworthy. Guess which hurts more people
"The scariest thing in NZ is the driving ability of New Zealanders. " Quite true actually. I warn every visitor we have and have myself only narrowly escaped mad-looking drivers clearly prepared to go to great lengths to knock me off my bike on more than a few occasions. Still here to tell the tale though :)
Reality is you don't really seem them much. I lived in Sydney for 3 years and travelled quite extensively in Oz and never saw a single snake or shark whilst here.
Only saw crocs as we went on hoiday to WA.
Main menace in Sydney is spiders but we had redbacks & funnel web spiders living in our garden and they never bothered us
Come on Elley! You've fallen into the good old lame kiwi habit of Australian bashing! It's a bit tired really.
Youv'e also fallen for the stereotype about the creep crawlies too. Sure, if you live in the countryside or the outer suburban edges of the cities. Most of my workmates have never seen a snake in Adelaide, I've seen one of two spiders that are slightly bigger than what you get in NZ but not monsters!
The whole thing is totally exagerrated
I'd say if only there weren't so many natural hazards threatening all of NZ!
When I lived in Brisbane I went to close my curtains one night and there was a huntsman on the outside of the window that was as big as my hand. My hands aren't small either, 24cm across if I stretch my fingers out. Redbacks were everywhere and you had to check your shoes before you put them on, but not really a problem. I only saw one snake in 2 1/2 years. But bull ants are right little bastards, the bite is like a wasp sting.
Matt, re-the Australian bashing, my comment was light-hearted and meant to make you smile. That said, my husband and I have had the opportunity to work with Australians on numerous occasions and can't say we have been too impressed, in particular with their attitude of looking down on Kiwis and obviously thinking they are far superior to others. It's particularly funny when the way the projects had gone had clearly shown that they were anything but.
I'm sure there are lots of nice Australians - I know a few - but wouldn't cross the ditch just because of the attitude of what seems to be the majority.
As for the creepy creatures, well I'm an ocean swimmer who can't resist the calling of nice surf and I don't relish the thought of lethal jelly fish that you can't even see or great white sharks who seem to have surfers/divers/waterskiers for lunch on a regular basis (as you can see, I'm kinda risk-adverse!!). My kids spend heaps of time outdoors and reading headlines about a little lady who died from a spider bite while gardening also kind of spooks me a little.
The number of people heading over there is getting somewhat mental!
Can't blame them though - I know heaps of people who have moved across the ditch (I'm starting to take it personally it's so many!) and without exception, they are all significantly better off in Australia than they were here.
Not just a little bit - significantly. It's not all milk and honey over there obviously, but let's put it this way - none of the people I know are coming back any time soon.
Economist Robin Clements is correct , we need to get the earthquake insurance monies into Christcurch as soon as possible , and get on with the re-build .
....... why are we waiting ? ..
.. repeat " why are we waiting " a quadrillion times , until Nanny Key and Major Bob get the message !
Forced into the arms of the librarians ( and one of them is a mega-hottie ! ) by Telstra !
..... Never complain aboot Telecom again , my friend , Telstra are just ornery galoots to tangle with ..........
I get one hour's allowance per day : How're you at , all hunkadory ?
Where's Walter ....... where's Wolly .......
...... is steven still rattling on about peak summit , or financial armageddon ?
Can Hickey remember if property is meant to go down 30 % this year ........ or up ?
....... is PDK bleeeeeeeeeeeep .......
Walter's in good fooling today ..see 90 at nine...but sadly Nicks hit the skids....Wooly, as you can see has awoken from a moonshine induced coma to find , he really is living in a housetruck.
yeah my man...plenty going on today I tell you....anyhoo...Have you noticed Bernard getting a tad on the snobby side of late....I mean what with Corrin Dann now quoting him(BH) like he's the Messiah of lets print, I can understand his new celebrity may be causing a morph in his persona....but to forget where you came from is just a no-no...got to keep that connectivity with your peep's Big B.
Any hoo must shuffle on ...GBH GET a NEW POOTER,... no don't wait for insurance...get it now.
This truely is a two speed economy , Count .... and people overstate the " benefit " of the mining boom . Only 2 % of the nation's workforce is directly or indirectly employed in the mining . And it only accounts for 10 % of the nation's GDP ........
..... but the mining is having a disproportionate affect upon the $A ......which is pushing the manufacturers to the wall ........
.... sorta 'like the dairying industry in NZ , I guess ..
Why such a big difference between NZ and Australia. Population growth in Australia is soaring again, heading back up towards pre-GFC highs (see below)...
Surely with lower house prices and lower interest rates in NZ, people should be moving the other way!
Jay.
.... clearly you're not reading Uncle Ollie & Big Daddy's articles closely enough ....... property can only go up from here , not down .....
Oh course , now that Bernard has swapped sides , and believes that property threatens to go up ........ I'd be bailing out ... lickety splick !
Didn't Stats NZ last month claim that the exodus to Aus was slowing and would begin reversing???... my goodness that was a terrible prediction... certainly all the young and talented that I work with are ALL looking for and extended OE to Aus to continue their career and get ahead in life. Too tragic...
Except for those leaving Dunedin. They've already paid their share of the $15 million tax-payer money, then their Regional rates, then their DCC rates, then they pay more for their 'services' via their self-owned companies, because those have return a 'dividend' to help pay for the white elephant too. Quite a dump-truck the Key opened, when he started that ball rolling.
They call it a Student Loan!!
Compare my younger brother - BCom Otago in Accounting, offered NZ$ 50k ($42 after tax) a starting job in Wellington vs. AUD$ 65k ($52 after tax) in Melbourne (Both top tier accounting firms). Both equally great cities - Melbourne probably has more going on, better public transport, but more crime/social issues and limited rugby (rebels).
Accomodation - crappy room in a Newtown villa room for NZ$150/wk vs new Richmond townhouse AUD$ 175/wk. Other major costs are about the same.
Winner will always be the big lights of the city with significantly more pay.
Thank godness, NZ gets his replacement another aging chinese woman to buy property in Auckland or another Indian taxi driver/dairy operator...
NZ has changed so much in the last 30 yrs - for the worse. The corporatisation of govt at all levels has done this. When the only job really worth hanging in for is a govt job - then the whole system is stuffed. Everyone is getting screwed by fiscal and monetary policies. The new mantra seems to be "this is such a great country that all Kiwis should be proud and willing to pay thru the nose to live here. If you don't like that, then piss off, we've got millions knocking on the door with big bucks, and we'd rather have them here than you anyway, because they pay us good bucks for our shitboxes".
The LAST thing Auckland needs is more international migrants.
Housing our own citizens should be first priority and allowing migrants to stop "within one day's walk from Auckland Airport" is creating not only an exacerbated housing problem but the dangers of ghettoisation.
We may well be getting a reasonable number of net migration numbers but the concentrations alone will cause problems that we do not need.
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