Say Goodbye to New Zealand (Part 3)

I am loving Australia, I really am and to be honest I cant see us going back to New Zealand in the foreseeable future. Its possible that Sydney may not remain home forever, but I think Australia will be. Don't get me wrong, I love NZ, its a beautiful country and has a lot of really good things going for it, but at the moment we just cant afford to live there. I'm not pointing the finger at any one political party or politician as the blame needs to be laid across all of them.

For the last 20 years, pretty much as long as I have been working full time, all I have heard from NZ politicians is that we need to keep wages low to compete with Asia/keep inflation down and that the "Trickle down" theory will work, we just have to let corporations make even bigger profits. Now like me you can probably see the holes in this argument.

1. Corporations don't pass profits down to workers. They just don't work that way.
2. Even if corporations wanted to raise the workers wages (this will occur when the snouted ones become airborne) the government has a policy of keeping wages low. Corporations cant raise wages as it will lower profits and raise inflation.

To make a long story short, this has led to en extended period of New Zealand workers getting the shaft. If you are getting a wage rise which simple grants you cost of living increases you are doing really well. On top of the wages issue is the problem of massive immigration and a large immigrant student population fuelling a house prices boom. So the NZ worker is making very little money to allow NZ to compete with Asia. Meanwhile the Asians are moving into NZ in huge numbers and bringing all their money with them.

So now NZ workers, whose real wages have risen something like 20% in the last 15 years cannot afford to buy property in their own country as property prices have increased on average by 200%. Meanwhile corporate profits have increased 300% and politicians salaries by 100%. The cost of living in NZ is massive. They have screwed up, they have created a system whereby they cannot raise workers wages, but if they don't raise wages they will lose all their educated, experienced and skilled workers to other countries.

Ignore all the politicians and accountants and what they will tell you; this is my experience as a New Zealand worker.

1. The cost of living in Sydney (one of the most expensive places in Australia) is lower than it is in Auckland. I pay less for food, power, transport, petrol, gas, water, clothing, shoes and going out.
2. I get more money in my pocket at the end of the month in Sydney than in NZ. I pay less tax, and what tax I do pay I can claim back and end up with a cash bonus at the end of the year.
3. I make 30% more NET in Sydney than I was making in NZ.
4. One of the politicians arguments for staying in NZ is that its a beautiful country. I can assure you that Australia is also beautiful. we have done a lot of driving in NSW and I can assure you there are some fantastic places to see.
5. The weather. You don't realise just how much it rains in NZ until you don't live there. I hate rain, I love warmth.

I saw a statistic recently that 40,000 New Zealanders a year are leaving the country. I cant believe that the Politicians don't look at numbers like that and ask themselves where they went wrong.

Having said all of that, there is a place in NZ that is my little piece of Heaven. If I had my choice this is where I would love to be.

Manganui Harbour.
'Manganui' is a Maori word meaning "Big Fish"

The view south from the deck at Coopers beach

2 minutes from Manganui.

The view North from the deck at Coopers beach
2 minutes from Manganui.

Coopers beach is my little piece of Paradise and always will be. In order to ever be able to afford to live there, I will have to spend the next 20 years working in Australia. There is something wrong with that.