Buzzy--Bee

Agree entirely.

My nephew, who is a roofer, moved from Christchurch to Brisbane 3 years ago because he could earn double what he could in Christchurch.

BB

BEVS

I will add briefly to this. My husband is a tradie here on the South Island of New Zealand. He is a highly qualified tradie at that.
Actual hourly wage rates have hardly risen in the past 12 years. Average is around $28NZD per hour.
If we moved to OZ then he would definately earn far more & I find t hard to imagine the CoL being worse than it is here in our Nelson area unless we were to pick Sydney.

Yes. I will have to agree with Amazulu to an extent. Artisans and quality tradespeople here in NZ will not work in Christchurch . They avoid it. The rates are too low and payment can be untimely. We also know two chaps that owned ground and buildings in Xch CBD pre-quake and who have given up on rebuilding there but have moved their business interests to Auckland instead. Said Xch ground remains just that. Ground.

It is attractive for those looking for a way into NZ from overseas. However even those need to take a care with the contracts offered.

( I should perhaps add that he could be self-employed or run his own business but at this stage of his life has chosen not to do this again)

garethwm

I guess all those people currently moving to NZ from Aus complaining of the high cost of living there must be deluded. Lol. Much of what has been said in this thread is huge exageration IMO. I can back up my opinion with facts if I need to.

Buzzy--Bee

It's not just the cost of living in NZ though, it's the low wages. NZ used to be a low-cost, low-wage economy. Now its a high-cost, low-wage economy and while costs in Australia are also high (although I think day-to-day living in Australia is actually more affordable than NZ, even if housing isn't), the wages in Australia are considerably higher which offsets it a lot.

I am off to NZ for our annual holiday there in a few days and will be interested to see, for example, if I can get petrol at 89c/litre as I did in Bendigo this week.

BB

paddy234

As a roofer in Christchurch it depends where you go, what i'm on it is definitely better in places like Perth (not too sure how it would be now due to the mining collapse) cities like Sydney offer pretty much the same which is a more expensive place to live. I somehow doubt he is earning 50-60 dollars an hour in Brisbane unless he is self employed. The fact that for the first time more people are coming from Australia to NZ than NZ to Australia should also prove the confidence in the economy here. Migration here is at an all time high

Buzzy--Bee

....see above posts about the "type" of people migrating!

BB

paddy234

I find this highly insulting, i can tell you that the Irish and British migrants who come here come for the lifestyle, granted it's not a lifestyle where you are partying every weekend from Friday to monday drinking and snorting lines up your nose like the heavy party scenes of migrants in the likes of Sydney but migrants are comfortable here otherwise they would move somewhere else. As i said it's the outdoor lifestyle of surfing, skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking etc and the climate to match that does it for people here. Also the fact that it doesn't take an hour or hour and a half generally to get to work is also nice. As for money from what i seen with Job Addverts Brisbane offers a few dollars an hour extra to here and Sydney is pretty similar in regards to many construction trades. Cost of living is still high here though i would say this is true for Both OZ and NZ

garethwm

Buzzy, after youve filled up with petrol, you could then make a cheap mobile phone call or attend a cheap latest release movie. Nationmaster : Australian Consumer Price Index 2014 = 109.34. NZ = 104.32. Prices are higher in Australia. As far as immigration goes, NZ employs a similar criteria to Australia for entry does it not? You either have to have skills that are in shortage here or be highly qualified or have lots of money or a qualifying family member.

BEVS

Or be an NZIS accredited employer who has paid to be able to bring in overseas people as employees. These do not have to be in occupations seen as skilled & being accredited means the labour market test is not applied. For instance Canstaff . Tasked with sourcing trade workers for Christchurch.

Geordie George

You feel insulted about a sweeping generalisation and then go on to make one of your own about migrants in Sydney.

As one of those migrants, I'm off to find a supplier of something to snort.

garethwm

I presume Australia would have a similar system in regards, say, the mining industry, but I dont know.

DC10

All 200 of them every one of which generates an excitable story on the 6pm NZ news


People can get excited all they like over the margins but the reality is that there are 500,000 Kiwis living more or less permanently in Aus: ten percent of the entire population (and generally, though not exclusively, these are the higher-skilled workers)! Extraordinary really. As far as I'm aware there aren't 2.5 million Aussies living in NZ... try 20,000 if you are lucky.


There was a story recently about tradies working on the Tullamarine Freeway widening earning A$160,000+ a year. While I am sure that is at the top of the scale (!) you would need to be CEO of a major company in NZ to have any chance of earning that. The same (just about) goes for your average barista or supermarket worker earning around A$50 an hour to work weekends or anti-social hours. These numbers are just unheard of in Sulland.

garethwm

NZ 2013 Census Country of Birth : NZ 2,980,827 UK 256,164 China 96,441 India 67,167 Australia 62,712 Sth Africa 54,279

paddy234

lol I'm merely generalizing the hard partiers who go to OZ for not much else and we both know it is an accurate one. The Idea that all migrants in OZ are highly prestigious individuals compared to NZ migrants is laughable. OZ will see more Migrants who are much more diverse in their reason's for moving there than NZ due to it being much larger and extremely backpacker friendly and in which it's cities has a lifestyle that suits many in terms of job prospects, entertainment and climate. OZ is no longer the dream for so many it once was as wages are not increasing with the increased cost of living, house prices are a joke in every city and unemployment is rising and migration there is slowing meanwhile migration in NZ increasing as well as a better performing economy at the minute. All these things change however but one of the reasons why migration is increasing in NZ is due to the increased wages

DC10

A significant chunk of that 63K will have been NZ citizens at birth. Few will be Australians with no original connection to NZ