Quick bite: Jarrod Kerr—What Australia gets right

Why are so many Kiwi packing up for Australia? Kiwibank economist Jarrod Kerr says it’s not just better wages—it’s savings, infrastructure, and an economy that’s simply outpacing ours.

From compulsory super to big bold projects, Jarrod compares what Aussie gets right and NZ could improve on.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to a shares. These podcast were the world
champions of comparing ourselves stract to kicker, who's doing it
better than us? Right now? I think Australia is definitely
up performing us at the moment, and that's because they are,
and you know they're Their central bank didn't go as

(00:21):
hard on the rate hikes, so therefore the Aussie economy
didn't slow down as much. They didn't record a technical recession.
They've got a recession in per capita terms, but it's
quite shallow compared to ours. So we just look at
the Aussie economy and go, oh man, it's just growing
nicer than ours. The labor markets tighter, wage growth is more.

(00:44):
They're just more buoyant than we are at the moment,
and that's why we've seen a net forty three thousand
kiwis leave in the last year. People are heading there
then go on to Australia. So we've seen seventy odd
thousand kiwis leave and then some coming back. But that
net forty three is huge. That's a lot of kiwi's leaving.

(01:06):
It goes in cycles and we saw it in twenty
and twelve when the Aussie mining boom was really in
full flight and people were going over driving a truck
and Perth for like two hundred thousand dollars. Not so
much of that these days, not so much of that,
but definitely better prospects at the moment. Otherwise we wouldn't
be seeing the numbers of Kiwi leaving to Australia. How

(01:29):
much of that is off savings and just a stronger,
you know, a better national superannuation structure so that people
are putting more money aside. Oh, I mean that's been
a strength of Australia for a while. Now. They've got
I think the fifth largest sovereign wealth fund on the
planets for an economy, which is less than two percent

(01:49):
of the global economy. To have that sort of savings there,
and you know what, they don't think they've got enough.
They are still increasing their compulsory I think it's gone
up to twelve percent now. It was nine percent when
I was working there. I tell you what, working thirteen
and a half years in Australia, I've actually got this
nice little nest egg sitting there that I wouldn't have

(02:10):
had otherwise. There's no way I could afford to put
nine percent away over that entire period. But it's sitting
there and it's great, and we're doing it here now.
Should be compulsory, should be a much higher rate. But
you know, some things Australians just do do better than us.
They dig holes better than us, I can tell you
that much. But we grow stuff on top much better

(02:33):
than them. One thing they are pretty good at, and
particularly at the state level, is the big infrastructure stuff.
You know, they just seem to get stuff done. And
I use Sydney as a classic example, where you've got
this bridge and it's got heaps lanes, it's got a
train track gone both ways, so trains can go across,

(02:55):
you can walk down one side, you can cycle across
the other side of it. And that was built, you know,
fifty years ago. That's not enough. Their cities grew and
they've got a tunnel going underneath. Now you've got fairies,
you've got plenty of ways to get across the Sydney Harbor.

(03:16):
Right here, You've got a bridge that was built in
the sixties, I think, on the cheap. On the cheap,
it reached capacity five years later, so we tacked on
some clip ons and we've done nothing since. The only
other way to get across is with maybe a fiery
if you're lucky, or a kayak, right, that's your option,

(03:38):
strong strong swimmers exactly. It's I think it just highlights
the difference between us. They can they can deliver these
big projects in Australia and they can think a lot
further ahead for some reason, and I just wish we
would snap out of it. Involves the risk you might
lose the money you start with. We recommend talking to

(03:59):
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