New Zealanders are heading to live in Australia in record numbers in the past year, at the rate of nearly 1000 a week, the latest figures show.
The number of New Zealanders heading to live in Australia has hit another all-time record, with nearly 1000 people a week crossing the ditch in the past year.
The latest figures show 50,115 people made the one-way trip on a permanent or long-term basis in the year to November - breaking the 50,000 barrier for the first time.
Just 14,357 came the other way, most of them New Zealand citizens, pushing the net loss up to 35,758 - also a record.
Australia's higher wages and better job opportunities are a strong lure.
"I went there recently and in some of the mines they said 90 percent of the workers are Kiwis," Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt told the New Zealand Herald.
"It turned out that a lot of them are becoming fifo workers, and it's a trend I would like to encourage."
"Fifo" workers are those who "fly in, fly out", commuting between New Zealand and Australia for work.
An engineer on $60,000 at the Invercargill City Council was earning $260,000 in Western Australia, Mr Shadbolt said.
His family had stayed in Invercargill and he flew home every three or four weeks, a situation that was hard on families.
"But if you're coming home after three weeks of earning $3000 in the hand, so you're coming home with $9000 in your back pocket, that helps overcome the emotional suffering," Mr Shadbolt said.
NZN