Mike's Minute: You can't blame people leaving NZ

If you missed the interview with Marc Ellis in the NZ Herald over the weekend, read it.

One of the great sadnesses around Ellis is he got successful in business and, as a result, disappeared.

I miss people like him in public life.

What made him successful was that he was himself, no matter what he did, whether it was rugby, TV, or orange juice, he was himself.

It's actually a skill. And that’s why too many people morph into what they perceive they should be.

Anyway, he is part of what we saw last week in the immigration numbers, of which there are several concerns.

One is that the surge of arrivals has petered out, which is a shame because we are still well short of the people and skills we need.

Two is that the departure to Australia is now alarming.

And three is the tourism part of the data, which indicates that the holiday maker is not coming back in the way we hoped, or need.

Ellis is leaving the country as well. He is going to live in Italy and he is going because we have lost our mojo.

That’s what I like about him. Others might suggest the same thing in a more PC way, that it's not the place it was, it's being torn apart. These are his words, by the way, not mine.

Although, they are my thoughts as well. And from ongoing correspondence, it's the thoughts of a dangerously large number of New Zealanders.

That’s the trouble with the migration numbers. It's all very well the people arriving, but who are they and what do they bring?

The people leaving to Australia, tragically, will be the bright and adventurous. People like Ellis are needed here. But, to be blunt, who can blame him?

That, in many respects, is what this election will be fought on.

Do you like what we are? Do you revel in what we have become as a country?

That’s why Labour will lose.

Yes, they have buggered the economy and been inept in delivery of basically everything.

But they have also divided us and made us angry and when the Marc Ellis' of this world leave for better places and better days, that division and despair has to be brought to an end.

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