New Zealand is broken - and you’re dumb to stay

Monday, 15 September 2025

New figures show 48% of NZ citizens applying for Australian citizenship were born overseas. With 12,000 nurses leaving last year, unions warn the outflow is accelerating

Verity Johnson is an Auckland-based writer and business owner.

OPINION: There used to be a big, blue, 10ft tall poem written on the wall of the bar opposite the departure gate at Auckland International airport.

It was one of those Kiwi-kitsch tales, written with a Tui in hand, about how it’s a rite of passage to hit 25, put on a backpack, move to London, and live in a bento-box-bedsit in Shoreditch with 7 other Kiwis and spend the next ten years getting drunk on warm beer.

But don’t worry folks, it concluded with a wink to worrying parents, they’ll be back. They always come back. They took that poem down a few years ago.

Good thing too, because it wouldn’t have aged well.

I guarantee that not one person, of the 201 leaving NZ today, is thinking of coming back. They’re looking back over their shoulder, at their families waving the goodbye, and thinking:

“I guarantee that not one person, of the 201 leaving NZ today, is thinking of coming back,” says Verity Johnson.

Thank God, I made it out.

Every day, 201 Kiwis leave. That’s 73,400 in the year up to July (although, as Bernard Hickey reports, we also have a net migration of 13,100 of mostly young, mostly temporary new workers from countries including China, India, South Africa, Fiji and the Philipines).

When Kiwis leave, 58% go to Aussie. Mostly to do exactly the same thing they do here, only for more money, and to pay 10,000 a year less for groceries . But you know what’s sad? They’re not going in search of adventure, they’re going because it feels stupid - no, impossible - to stay.

The idea of a brain drain isn’t new to us. What’s new is that it's gone from being something you can comfortably shrug your shoulders at (“ahh, the adventure of youth!”) to something you shake your head over (“how on earth has it come to this?”)

Basically, people used to leave because they were pulled to brighter, bigger, foreign cities with warm beer and exotic pickled snacks. Now it feels like people are leaving because they’re being pushed out. Or, fact, as my most recent friend to leave put it.

“New Zealand’s broken. You’re dumb to stay.”

I can’t begin to express all the things that are wrong with this statement. Starting with the fact, obviously, that she’s right. NZ does feel broken.

Our post-covid economic recovery has been among the worst in the OECD, and our consumer confidence has not rebounded for three years now. 51% of the country think it’s on the wrong track, and 73% think the economy is poor. 37% think it’ll get worse. Industry leaders are saying its the worse retail environment since the GFC - and even that bounded back quicker, and oh man, I could go on but it’s too depressing.

More importantly, no one thinks this Government can fix it. We’re not even listening to whatever line gets trotted out about “going for growth” anymore. We’re just voting with our feet.

(And to be honest, Luxon gives the distinct impression he’s already planning his own overseas exit. You can see the dreamy, far away look in his eyes when he gets on a plane. It’s the look of a man planning his international-speaking-circuit career. If he lives in NZ after he finishes his PM stint, you can paint me National-blue and call me queen of the smurfs).

But what about those who can’t leave?

What if you can’t afford to? Or you don’t want to? Or resent the idea that you have to leave your own home in order to attain (not even riches) but just a fair crack at a decent way of living? What if you’re old? What if you want to retire here after paying taxes your whole life? What if, for your sins, you just like it here?! It’s home.

New Zealand has always made a promise to its people. Something along the lines of, look, mate, we’ll give you a fair shot at it. You’ll never get the sex appeal of Italy or the history of Britain or the riches of Dubai. But you’ll get a good crack at a comfortable life.

Except now you don’t. Now it feels like you have to leave to do that. It’s fundamentally unfair. (As unfair as the stories of dual income families now visiting food banks for the first time. Or the reality being that you won’t buy a house here unless you have rich parents).

And what an awful reason to be leaving the country. Not in pursuit of adventure. But because you can’t get a fair shot at normal life.