Jacinda Ardern’s New Zealand: a socialist paradise so kind that tens of thousands are clamouring to leave.
For going on three years, the legacy media narrative has been that Ardern is a world-beater at handling the Covid pandemic. New Zealand has sailed along on a long, red cloud of kindness and empathy, serene and untouched by the pandemic which devastated the world. Even now, New Zealand’s legacy media are still trying to beat up the narrative that it’s a deadly world of new variants, out there.
If that were really the case, then surely New Zealanders would never want to leave their Covid-free paradise?
Government officials have estimated 50,000 New Zealanders will leave the country over the next year to head off on an OE or for work as the borders reopen after two years of Covid-19 restricting travel.
The estimate was included in a February paper to Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
It estimated that at the very most up to 125,000 New Zealanders could leave in the next year, although it was likely to be less and its “ballpark estimate” was 50,000.
This is, it should be remembered, the same government whose “expert advice” was that 140 Kiwis would be pegging out every single week, even with a near-fully vaccinated population.
However, that could be higher if demand for the traditional OE (overseas experience) resulted in an exodus – about 120,000 young people had missed out on heading off on an OE over the Covid-19 period. It could also be lower if people were still concerned about Covid-19 uncertainty.
NZ Herald
If travel agents are any guide, it seems as if demand is likely to be at the higher end.
Rotorua Galaxy Travel Director Joanna Corbett described how busy it had been as a “feeding frenzy”.
“It’s like it was in the 1990s, before the internet.”
Back then, travel agents were the major recourse for overseas travel for punters without the means of shopping around for themselves. The internet changed all that: now it’s easy to book airfares for ourselves. So, if travel agents are busy, then the total demand is probably even higher — although the post-Covid regime has given travel agents a new edge.
You Travel Bethlehem managing director Kay Rogers said […] the biggest issues for the industry were a lack of experienced capable staff who were qualified to provide the level of documentation, tests and declarations that are now mandatory because of airline and Government Covid-19 requirements.
“Travel agents are spending a lot more time completing documentation and declarations that many people are finding confusing and difficult.
NZ Herald
Which is at least some small compensation for an industry that was all but flattened by Ardern’s imposed isolation on New Zealand. Joanna Corbett’s business went from a turnover of $4 million-plus, to $100,000 in the red, from paying refunds.
So it seems that the travel industry can look forward to something like a new boom, while New Zealand faces the likelihood of a bust of population fleeing the very socialist government they voted back in.
Act leader David Seymour said the cost of living and wage gap in New Zealand would do little to keep people here.
“Labour’s chickens have come home to roost. By locking the economy down and borrowing $50 billion they have left us with a mountain of debt and rising prices. Kiwis are finding it difficult to make ends meet and are heading offshore for a better chance of getting ahead in life.
“Rents are up, mortgage rates are on the rise, the cost of food is up, petrol is up, but wages aren’t keeping up. What is Labour doing to make this a more attractive country for young New Zealanders?”
NZ Herald
There’s always, um… co-governance?