Why this Kiwi couple left New Zealand behind and moved to Australia for good – in a trend that worries the Prime Minister

New Zealand couple Tim and Eva Mitchell are in the middle of a year-long trip around the world, but the adventurous Kiwi couple say the only thing that made it possible was leaving their home country to live in Australia.

In 2019, the pair followed the path of thousands of Kiwis across the Tasman in search of higher wages and more career opportunities.

After living in Melbourne for just 16 months, where Eva, 28, worked as an IVF pharmacist and Tim, 33, worked for the same engineering company that employed him in New Zealand, the couple had saved enough to spend a year in to travel abroad.

“If we had stayed in New Zealand we probably wouldn’t have been able to travel, we wouldn’t have been able to save enough,” Eva told Daily Mail Australia from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

“Everyone around the world is struggling, but in New Zealand I think they’re falling behind.”

Better money for Kiwis moving to Australia

She said by moving to Australia the couple earned 30 percent higher wages than at home, and discovered there were many other financial benefits such as tax deductions for work costs that simply didn’t exist in New Zealand.

In their Earn money from traveling blog Eva writes that the couple ‘knew that moving to Australia would mean we could save more money AND save money faster than if we just stayed in New Zealand by securing higher paying jobs’.

“What we didn’t realize were the many other ways that living in Australia could facilitate our savings goals,” she writes.

‘For starters, having to pay less income tax.’

‘For an average Australian full-time salary of $95,000, you would pay approximately $21,300 in income tax per year.’

“In New Zealand, on the same salary (if you can find a job that pays the equivalent) you would have to pay about $23,200 in income tax per year.”

However, that wasn’t even the best part.

“In Australia you have the right to claim back tax on all kinds of work costs,” she said.

‘This includes professional fees, costs for working from home, tools, conference costs, work clothing and much more.

‘We eventually discovered that Australia not only pays better; you keep more of what you earn.’

Eva recalled when the couple moved to Australia that ‘everyone said make sure you get your tax back’.

“As far as we knew, we could never reclaim the same costs in New Zealand, not in normal jobs, maybe if you had a business,” she said. ‘The grass is definitely greener!’

More career opportunities

Both Eva and Tim enjoyed career opportunities in Australia that they would not have had in New Zealand.

Eva went from being a pharmacist in a public hospital in Christchurch to working for a private IVF clinic, a private sector pharmacy job that she said didn’t exist in New Zealand.

“My new job came with a raise, bonuses and a small team where I felt valued,” she wrote in the blog.

Even if she had returned to community pharmacy, the pay increase in Australia would have been significant.

Despite working for the same company, Tim was also given ‘a significant pay rise to move to Australia’, which would have taken ‘years’ in New Zealand.

“Shortly after moving to Australia, Tim was able to secure a role with a higher authority, which is a testament to the career opportunities that Australian companies can offer to New Zealand professionals looking to move to Australia,” Eva wrote.

“In addition to a pay increase, Tim’s transfer deal provided us both with flights to Melbourne and a month of free accommodation in an apartment in Melbourne’s CBD until we could secure our own rental property. Not a bad deal, if I say so myself!’

A better balance between work and private life

As if getting paid more wasn’t enough, Tim and Eva discovered that Australians work shorter hours than Kiwis and that supermarkets are cheaper.

‘The standard working week in New Zealand is 40 hours (compared to 38 in Australia), so over a full year the difference is about 100 hours,’ says Eva.

‘It doesn’t seem like much, two hours a week, but it is, and we found it useful because it gives you time to visit the banks when they are open.’

She also said that in Victoria, ‘seasonal cashbacks on dining out, activities and electricity bills are offered to all residents’.

“Thanks to these cashback schemes, we were reimbursed hundreds of dollars during our time living in Melbourne,” she wrote.

Another non-financial aspect that Eva and Tim enjoyed about Melbourne was living in a city that was four times the size in population of New Zealand’s largest metropolis, Auckland.

“If we want something close to the size of Melbourne, the only option is Auckland, but it’s obviously quite expensive to be there,” Eva said.

“It’s probably similar to Melbourne, but in Melbourne you get better wages.

‘You just don’t get the same opportunities. There’s always something to do in Melbourne, there’s always events going on.’

After a 10-month stint in Europe, the couple plans to spend a few more months in Southeast Asia before heading home, which won’t be New Zealand for the foreseeable future.

“I don’t see us going back to New Zealand,” Eva said.

‘Payment is a big problem. If we could get the same pay, we might go back, but we’re still missing out on the city lifestyle.”

Eva said that at times she and Tim felt bad about leaving New Zealand.

“We feel guilty for leaving, we miss our celebrations at home, so we feel guilty for missing that,” she said.

But in most other respects they were happy to be expats.

Eva said they wouldn’t have done thatleaving their country when they could have ‘taken care of us’.

“Australia has given us opportunities that we just wouldn’t have in New Zealand,” she said.

“People can call us unpatriotic, but we just have to do what’s best for us.”

The New Zealand Prime Minister raised concerns about Kiwis moving to Australia

The exodus of working-age New Zealanders to Australia has become such a concern that it was raised in newly elected Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nation address in February.

“The average full-time worker in Australia now earns $20,000 more per year than someone in New Zealand,” Mr Luxon said.

“It’s no surprise that Kiwis voted with their feet. A record 44,500 net New Zealanders left the country last year.”

The higher wages Australia offers have been cited as a factor in New Zealand’s nurse shortage.

Last year it was reported that 5,000 New Zealand-based nurses registered to work in Australia over a six-month period, while fewer than 200 Australian nurses migrated the other way.