Why do people think you earn more in Australia & are better off there? Not in my recent experience.?

If you check out the job searchers website "seek" in both NZ & Oz, the salary ranges are the same for most jobs. The exceptions are you earn loads in mining & engineering in Oz & labouring jobs pay more but I imagine that's because they'd have to in order to entice people to work in that heat! Accountants, etc are all the same kinds of salaries as NZ. Then we lose 20% of any savings & proceeds of the sale of our home that we take over there due to the exchange rate & the housing prices in Oz for buying or renting are huge in Melbourne & Sydney so how can NZers even afford a decent home? I found the food prices much higher also. The only cheap things were petrol & clothing. Even shoes are cheaper & better in NZ. And as for the weather, give me NZ weather anyday, especially as everyone I know living there has no air conditioning & I imagine if you did it would cost you an arm & a leg.

We're better off here, so I'm happy to stay. And their crime statistics are higher, I checked that out on a world ranking google search as I was curious as Aussies seem to think we're high for crime but curiously it's the other way around.
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Qld Rules - get used to what? Staying here in NZ? Ok.

NudieBoy - you must be kidding, I was just in Sydney for 3 months in an apartment with stone walls in a "posh" suburb & it was rarely below 35 degrees in there during all that time. You call that good? It felt more like prison life, particularly with no airconditioning! I'll have rain over heat & humidity anyday!