Kiwis moving to Australia at 19-year high
1:00PM Wednesday December 19, 2007
By Sineva Toevai
The lure of Australia is proving too hard to resist for an increasing number of kiwis.
The number of New Zealanders shifting to Australia in the year to November jumped to the highest in 19 years as higher wages lured people across the Tasman.
The outflow of kiwis to Australia rose 33 per cent in the 12 months ending November to 27,200, the highest level for a November year since 1988, when it recorded 32,700, a Statistics New Zealand report showed today.
Today's figures come less than a week after the government confirmed in a separate report that the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia had widened and that the equivalent of nearly 10 per cent of New Zealand's population were now living in Australia.
"The pull factor in Australia remains very strong given the income difference and [expectations] Australia will continue to grow faster than New Zealand in the next 12 to 18 months," ANZ economist Khoon Goh told nzherald.co.nz
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