MORE than 600,000 New Zealanders - almost 15 per cent of the Long White Cloud - are living in Australia on temporary visas.

What is the NZ government doing about this mass exodus? To date, seemingly nothing.

Just two months ago New Zealand Prime Minister John Key sidled up to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Queenstown during bilateral talks and delighted in their announcement his country would take 150 asylum seekers from Australia. At the same time, Key tried his hardest to avoid answering questions on why his fellow countrymen and women were fleeing across the ditch in record numbers. Key was eager to explain, rather poorly, why taking asylum seekers was a great deal for New Zealand. He was not so keen to discuss his nation's own departing masses.

When questioned back in February about the ever-increasing number of New Zealanders emigrating here each year, Key gave the distinct impression he didn't care.

But he should. Make no mistake: Kiwis are coming here in droves. Figures show the number of New Zealand citizens in Australia on special category visas jumped 5.4 per cent in the past year, with 54,000 moving here in 2012. That's an average of 1000 each and every week.

Of course, this flight of the Kiwis is nothing new. But the fact numbers are continuing to grow at such a rapid rate with no sign of abatement surely must be cause for concern for a government in a country with a population of just 4.4 million.

Key at first pretty much fobbed off a question in Queenstown about the astonishing numbers of people emigrating, before being pushed again by journalists to respond as to what his government plans to do about it.

The answer: Nothing.

Sounding like a defeatist, he said New Zealand couldn't compete with Australia's mining boom, which was the reason for enticing his compatriots here. And then he joked how he too had enjoyed the rite-of-passage exodus of living and working in Australia for a few years before returning home, stating most would one day return too.

Wrong. I'm married to a New Zealander, who moved to Australia six years ago. He doesn't work in the mining industry. Nor do any of his wide circle of fellow New Zealander friends living here.

They are all here because of the opportunities this country has to offer, irrespective of the mining boom. They abandoned their homeland because they cannot see a future there - or earn anything close to what they earn here. Like most New Zealanders, my husband is extremely patriotic and would prefer to be still living in New Zealand close to his family. He loves a lot of things about Australia: not least having far more Australians in close proximity to ridicule when the All Blacks crush the Wallabies. Again.

But, jokes aside, New Zealand does not offer educated professionals like him a future. On average, New Zealand salaries are about 25 per cent lower than Australian salaries. For women, it is worse, with a further 20 per cent gender salary gap in many professions, including Key's own Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, according to the Census of Women's Participation 2012 Report.

There is no compulsory superannuation, rather a strange voluntary version brought in six years ago called KiwiSaver, in which your employer only has to contribute 2 per cent of your gross salary if you join it.

What would you prefer? Working in a country where your employer must set aside 9 per cent for your retirement or just 2?

The average New Zealand salary is about $NZ47,000 a year ($38,000), leading the OECD Better Life Index to call New Zealand a "low-wage economy". On average, New Zealand households spend 29 per cent of their net disposable income keeping a roof over their heads - the highest level in the OECD. Here we spend 21 per cent.

Key may think it is a clever political move to agree to help his wealthier neighbour by taking 150 asylum seekers out of detention centres and ensure himself a nomination for an humanitarian award, but for someone who has a background in the finance sector it doesn't make economic sense.

Originally published as Kiwis searching for hope