Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "Demographics Part 3: The Xer Cut" video.

HEY PETER You have completely missed an aspect of New Zealand and that's Australia. Way back in history when Australia first looked at becoming an independent nation the first meetings INCLUDED New Zealand. That didn't happen for many reasons but it also made Australia and New Zealand very close. Until recent times nobody needed a passport to travel between Australia and New Zealand. Things like healthcare, education and unemployment benefits ($$$) were available in both countries. Australia being larger and having more industry and more resources (like mining) has always provided more opportunities for younger New Zealanders and they came by the boat load and then the plane load. Even when we stopped providing unemployment benefits to them they still kept coming. So you CAN'T look at New Zealand's and Australia's demographics separately. In fact you need to consider some of the pacific as well, because New Zealand has an open border policy with several island states in the pacific. Most of all you need to realise that Australia drains many of the best & brightest out of New Zealand and the rest of the South Pacific the same way America and Europe takes many of Australia's brightest. Plus like Canada we have many Asian and Indian university students and many of them stay on in Australia (like they do in Canada) after they graduate.
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@davidsteed7278 I'd pretty much agree to that. Look at the boat building people New Zealand has and don't get me started on aerospace as I am an aerospace engineer by degree. Your probably right we don't take many of the very best of New Zealand but we do take a staggering number from among the better people. I actually work in industrial control systems and automation and in that I encounter a staggering number of Kiwis across our industries - engineers, sparkies, machinists,... etc. For example your dairy industry is actually better developed than ours in some ways and a lot of Kiwis are now in our dairy industry, especially in the processing area where you need food technologists. And you are quite right we have lost a staggering number of our better people to America and Europe, especially in technology areas like aerospace and computers. I did my degree in America and should never have come back. On those occasions I wanted to go back I couldn't for a variety of reasons. Your also right on the unskilled New Zealanders in Australia. Its one thing I wished as many Australians do is that we should never have allowed New Zealanders automatic unemployment benefits through the 70s, 80s & 90s. That's caused no end of issues, that still linger to this day. But overall the drain Australia has put on New Zealand has to be seen in the same light as the drain American has put on Australia. And similar (as far as I know) New Zealand is draining talent from the the pacific islands.
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