paddy234

Living and working in Christchurch I noticed wages here had risen sharply during the start of the rebuild especially in the construction industry, what followed as you can imagine was the cost of everything went up due to inflation. People had more money in their pockets and the cost of living soon spiked to equalise this. I was wondering how is it that wages in OZ are so much higher in most areas yet the cost of living is the same?

BEVS

You say this but this is not the experience that many have had.

You may be on inflated wages. Word on the ground is that this is not particularly the case. That is why there is a shortage of tradies and so NZ looks to those overseas perhaps discontented with their lot.

People down in ChCh are not finding the CoL worse or better than anywhere else in NZ. What they are finding is the cost of renting is high . That is because some are making hay on the unfortunate whilst the sun shines.

However your question seems to be about NZ CoL v trade wages to Oz CoL v trade wages.

Only Oz tradies could answer that one.

We have certainly looked .

Buzzy--Bee

Not clear about exactly what question you are asking but I just spent 3 weeks in NZ at Easter and found most things very expensive compared to Aus.

eg... Petrol twice as much in NZ, fruit and veg up to 7 times as much in NZ, take away pizza twice as much in NZ.

Ice cream was cheaper in NZ as were cinema tickets.

HTH

BB

Bo-Jangles

It can only be rent / housing inflation that you are dealing with and that's not unique to Christchurch and I haven't seen any evidence to suggest wages have skyrocketed at any time over the past ten years.

I'm not sure either where this is coming from; since RBNZ has been cutting interest rates to prop up this rock'n'roll economy and try to boost inflation and make us all feel better off by putting more money into our pockets. Inflation is running at something like 0.1% and according to RBNZ ideally should be somewhere between 1 to 3%

escapedtonz

Don't share your experience of fuel costs being twice as much here as in Aus.
Looking at the latest prices of unleaded, super unleaded and diesel in and around the Melbourne burbs just as an example :-
91 unleaded approx AUS$1.17 ltr (equivalent of NZ$1.30)
Diesel approx AUS$1.05 ltr (equivalent of NZ$1.16)
95/98 unleaded approx AUS$1.26 ltr (equivalent of NZ$1.40)

Here in the BOP at the moment :-
91 unleaded approx NZ$1.70 ltr (equivalent of AUS$1.53) so nowhere near twice as much.
Diesel approx NZ$0.70 ltr (equivalent of AUS$0.63) so way cheaper than in AUS - possibly because diesel isn't taxed at the pump in NZ and we have to buy road user charges on top ?
95/98 unleaded approx NZ$1.82 ltr (equivalent of AUS$1.64) so again nowhere near twice as much.
Maybe you just filled up at the most expensive petrol station you could find

I'd also like to know what fruit & veg was up to 7 times as much ?

...and as for pizza, man the pizza's in AUS must be cheap as chips cos they aint expensive here. You can pick up value range domino's pizza for like 5 bucks, traditional for 9 bucks or around 13 bucks for a seriously pimped up chef's special. On a pizza night we can get 3 huge traditional pizzas, a few sides and a bottle cokey coley for like 30 bucks and delivered hot to the door....enough to feed 3 adults and a child. It costs near that for 3 people just to have coffee and cake in a cafe so all in all i'm not feeling you are comparing apples with apples ?
Junk food is not that expensive in NZ for what you get which is why there's such an obesity problem all over the country in certain ethnicities....it's cheaper to buy and eat junk food than it is to go the supermarket and make something fresh and healthy.

I agree NZ is expensive, but by as much as you make out, I think not

mickey_d

Looking at Countdown NZ v Woolworths Aus websites, apart from spuds all other fruit and veg looks more expensive in Aus.

Buzzy--Bee

Most Australians don't buy fruit and veg from supermarkets, as they are so expensive.

My observation was based on my local greengrocer in Melbourne vs New World in the South Island of NZ.

Pears here are currently 99c/kilo. They were $7.99 in New World. That's 8 times as much!

BB

LittleGreyCat

As far as we can remember food was cheaper in Australia than NZ around the Christmas period - that is September/October Oz, November/December NZ. Not massively so, but definitely cheaper. NZ certainly more expensive than the UK - and that was with a better exchange rate as well.

I think NZ has a much more limited range, especially wines. I was amazed that I could buy good quality Spanish Cava in Australia more cheaply than in the UK. Couldn't even find it in NZ.

Good bargains to be had in the farmers' market at Paihia for example, so basing a comparison on a local Oz grocer with New World is very misleading. Compare like with like.

Kotare

Why would you drink Spanish Cava in NZ given NZ wine? Agree it is probably preferable to a lot of Oz plonk :-)

escapedtonz

No idea what type of pears you we're looking at but they were damn expensive if they were $7.99 a kilo....are you sure it wasn't a pre-packed bag with 2 / 2.5 kilo's for $7.99 as the price of pears is generally $3 to $3.49 per kilo.

garethwm

The cheapert pears at Countdown NZ are $3 per kg. At Woolworths Australia the cheapest is $3.28 ($3.64 NZ). And NZ towns also have growers markets where you can pick fruit and veg up at bargain prices. Leaving aside wages, the actual prices of things in NZ are less than Oz, overall.

mickey_d

We also have loads of roadside orchard shops (in Hawkes bay anyway). You can sometimes fill a carrier bag for a dollar

escapedtonz

So, as I understand it (and what I've always believed since moving here)...the CoL in AUS is higher than the CoL in NZ, however in general, salaries for comparable occupations in AUS are paid more than in NZ, but there are more deductions taken out of AUS pay and AUS income tax is higher.
...and even if you survive the CoL v salaries debate in AUS you breathe a sigh of relief, mop your brow then find you've been bitten by a spider, shark, croc, frog or snake, or stung by a jellyfish, octopus or some indigenous man eating plant in the bush and you've got minutes to live....and even if you survive that the baking sun will dry you out in to a prune.
Know where I'd rather be....
Har Har....just a little light hearted afternoon humour :-)

Kotare

Where is the bit about poisonous Oz homo sapiens

Normal antipodean approach is; the US is a 2nd rate Oz, the UK a second rate NZ. So decide whether you prefer the States or the UK and pick appropriately.

jmh

So you chose to compare a cheap local supplier with NZ's most expensive supermarket. I bought pears recently for $2.99 kg. I wouldn't normally buy fruit at the supermarket though, because, as in Australia, local greengrocers are cheaper for better quality. Ditto meat.