AUSTRALIA is facing a flood of economic refugees. But the big numbers aren't from the north, they are from the across the Tasman where Statistics New Zealand yesterday announced the biggest exodus to Australia on record.

An extraordinary 53,900 New Zealanders moved to Australia in the year to July - around the entire population of New Plymouth, New Zealand's 11th biggest city.

The number dwarfs the 9607 asylum seekers who arrived in Australian waters by boat.

The record emigration of 53,900 is a dramatic increase from the same period a year before when 46,450 New Zealanders moved to Australia - itself a record at the time.