Why I'm joining the post-Covid brain drain from New Zealand & More News Here

Mikaela Wilkes is a life-style and leisure reporter with Stuff.

OPINION: I spent the final week hauling bed room furnishings out of a flat and into storage at my guardian’s home. I refuse to promote it, “in case” I return to Auckland in the subsequent 5 years to settle.

But I doubt it.

I’ve a one-way flight to Sydney booked, a job to go to, and a flat organized. The evening I land, I’ll be assembly my new housemates at their native Surry Hills pub, and one in all my finest pals (who’s just lately ditched his high-flying publicity gig to be a Qantas flight attendant).

READ MORE:
* The nice OE exodus: Is there one good cause why younger Kiwis ought to keep?
* The Australian dream by the numbers: Would you be higher off throughout the ditch?
* The reality about post-Covid life in Australia in keeping with the Kiwis who stay there
* ‘Everyone is itching to go’: Kiwis’ lust for journey is hurting the economic system

I’ve moved international locations twice earlier than as an change scholar (France, and the US), however with a lot organized from this aspect of the ditch, I anticipate this shall be my best transfer.

I used to be horrified to be taught that my new employer, The Daily Telegraph, pays their college graduates a wage about $10K larger than what I’m on now. Plus 10% superannuation on prime.

Journalism, like educating and nursing, will not be a profession famend for its pay – as many a well-meaning highschool trainer warned me.

But it’s an immensely fulfilling one.

And one I hope to be in all my life, supplied that life additionally entails a home and a barely much less anaemic financial savings account.

My righteous 15-year-old self would all the time inform these lecturers that cash didn’t matter. But having just lately celebrated my twenty sixth birthday, my perspective has shifted.

I’m quick approaching my fifth anniversary as a full-time member of the labour pressure, with $10K in scholar debt nonetheless to repay, and nonetheless no hope of affording a heat, dry rental in inner-city Auckland.

The rundown Grey Lynn villa I’ve simply moved out of price me $245 every week earlier than payments (with three others). Setting foot inside, my Gen X father knowledgeable me I used to be fortunate I hadn’t fallen by means of its rotten flooring.

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment officers have forecast that as much as 125,000 Kiwis might go away the nation in the subsequent 12 months, however mentioned a determine nearer to 50,000 is extra probably.

Anecdotally, these numbers stack. I don’t learn about you, however I’ve misplaced rely of what number of farewell playing cards I’ve signed and leaving drinks I’ve attended in the final six months.

It’s true Australia’s larger wages, higher profession alternatives and hotter local weather have lured Kiwis throughout the ditch for many years. Stats NZ figures present the common weekly revenue for full-time employees in New Zealand is $1406, whereas Australians earn a mean of $1807, in keeping with their Bureau of Statistics.

But one thing about this exodus feels totally different. It’s not the conventional booze-soaked OE in London, or post-pandemic itchy ft to backpack Europe.

It’s a era of Kiwis throughout all industries, saying they will’t afford to earn low wages, to pay more and more excessive rents (and different individuals’s mortgages) eternally. Hell, they may not even afford groceries this week.

Both international locations are grappling with hovering residing prices in opposition to a rising world tide of inflation, however there’s proof that New Zealanders are doing it notably robust.

We’re paying nearly twice the Australian worth for the similar block of cheese at the grocery store, and one Otago girl mentioned it was cheaper to order her groceries from Australia and get them delivered.

My possibilities of homeownership aren’t naught in Auckland, the place the median worth is $1.125 million. But even with our home costs forecast to hit their lowest level by the center of 2023, they’ll nonetheless be 32% larger than earlier than the pandemic.

Sydney’s lease costs are comparable, however with a forty five% pay bump, I’m shifting right into a renovated inner-city townhouse with built-in wardrobes, bookshelves, and balconies off my bed room.

I’ll have the ability to stroll to my new workplace and a prepare station in minutes, and take a dip in the shared swimming pool in summer season. I can’t purchase the millennial dream, certain, however I’ll have the ability to lease it.

There’s additionally the promise of recent bars, eating places, and seashores to find, and events to go to. Travel to do. Friends to make. Dates to go on.

Although if I solely wished to hang around with Kiwi expats, there’d be sufficient of them.

Travel-prone Kiwis like me had been all the time going to fly the coop. It’s extra telling that my settled pals, a few of whom by no means had any need to maneuver, are going too.

My publicist mate took a $40,000 improve to maneuver to Sydney final winter, and he’s having the time of his life.

A few newlywed Wellington nurses just lately purchased their dream residence, did it up, and put in a sizzling tub. This week, they informed me they’ve booked one-way flights to Melbourne subsequent January.

Another buddy, working in a authorities position, informed me she will’t preserve workers as a result of the Aussie equal is providing them $100,000 will increase.

I like my life in Aotearoa – my pals, whānau, colleagues, and job are the finest. This will all the time be my residence, and I’ll miss all of them dearly.

However, I don’t wish to survive my 20s (and more than likely 30s and 40s) pay cheque to pay cheque, rental to rental. I wish to thrive.

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