Yesterday
a friend said that “(w)ages are lower with way worse
conditions, many household items and clothes are more expensive, and benefits
are significantly lower.” This was her opinion of New Zealand, so I decided to
do some “real” checks on the difference between NZ and Aus.
Wages and
Conditions
NZ
is on 86% of Australian minimum wages. NZ minimum
wage for adults in 2016 is $15.25 an hour, or $610 for a
standard 40-hour work week. Australian national
minimum wage is currently $17.70 per hour or $672.70 per 38 hour week
before tax.
According
to the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, “All employees in Australia are entitled by law to the terms and
conditions defined by national employment standards. Certain entitlements apply
to casual employees.” On New Zealand, the NZ NOW site says “New Zealand has a comprehensive set of
employment laws that help keep workplaces fair” and that “(m)ost larger companies offer collective
employment agreements that have been negotiated by a union.”
The
Workplace Health & Safety Act 2011 in Australia is administered by Comcare,
who says “The WHS Act and WHS Regulations
promote continuous improvement and progressively higher standards of work
health and safety.” I have personal experience and I know this doesn’t really
apply. Most unions know the same thing.
The
Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council in 2008 completed a 5th
edition of “Comparison of Occupational Health
and Safety Arrangements in Australia and New Zealand”. This is supposed to be every
two years but I can’t find anything after 2008. I went into the SafeWork site
and put the title in their search but still couldn’t find anything closer to
now which had been called the same as this. They compared the law within
Australia and New Zealand – very interesting that NZ has one law but Australia
had 8 different laws from every state and Commonwealth. The Commonwealth law
changed in 2011, but I believe that at least WA has not taken it on board.
The WRMC
also listed comparisons with different work-related Acts. In NZ injury
compensation was covered in the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2001 but it was not even covered everywhere within Australia, specifically
in ACT, Queensland or Victoria. NZ apparently has only one other Act, the
Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 while Australia seems to have
gone completely overboard – for instance, Tasmania has 8 Acts and Queensland
has 9!
This comparison of ‘who had what’ is different
than what my friend said (“way worse
conditions”) but I had worked in Australia WHS for too long, and have seen
articles or reports about too many workers dying at workplaces. I am well aware
that workplace deaths happen in New Zealand as well as Australia, but any
employer should care about their employees and call on their WHS (Aus)/OSH (NZ)
Acts to work. People need to be educated about safety. Australia has,
for too long, provided courses to Grade IV which people of WHS within a
workplace are required to have, even though they have no responsibility. I have
had the Diploma of WHS and the Graduate Diploma of WHS. That should be where all WHS staff should be.
General costs
The
website called Numbeo listed comparisons of costs in different countries (I only
accept the information, do not necessarily believe it.). I searched for Hamilton
in NZ and Brisbane in Aus and got some very interesting reports.
Like,
rent is 21.12% LOWER in New Zealand than in Australia!
Grocery
prices are 2.21% LOWER in New Zealand than Australia!
Consumer
prices are 5.61% LOWER in New Zealand than Australia!
For
property prices, the mortgage as a percentage of income is 55.12% in Brisbane
Aus and 27.43% Hamilton NZ. Disastrous, Brisbane!
Between
Auckland NZ and Sydney Aus, the mortgage as a percentage of income was not much
different: 83.63% in Auckland and 89.49% in Sydney. It seemed that in Auckland
a tenant could pay a lot less than if
they lived in Sydney – 35.52% less!
Traffic
was so much better in Hamilton NZ than in Brisbane Aus, and I know that has to
do with population – Brisbane has more than 2 million, and Hamilton has only
around 150,000. Hamiltonians took 18.50 minutes travelling to and from work,
but Brisbanites spent 41.84 minutes – maybe living in a “small” city would be
better? Out of interest, the population in Auckland is close to 1.4 million,
and in Sydney is over 4.3 million – I don’t really like either city! I also had
a look at Wellington, around 205,000, and Melbourne around 4.1 million – I sure
love Wellington!
Looking
at the difference in cost of clothes lead me to far too many websites. NZers
have the ability that Aussies have – they can but online from anywhere in the
world, and they pay whatever translates to their dollar. The AUD $1 is about 96
cents of NZD and I think that’s pretty close. A few years ago the NZD was only
around 75 cents to the AUD $1 and has gotten better. Maybe NZers are thumbing
their nose at Aussies?
Benefits
The NZ
Work Income benefits have changed a lot since I moved across the ditch. The web
page lists 21 different titles which don’t all look to be benefits. I had a
look at Jobseeker Support and it seems that a single person over 25 can get a
maximum of $263.13 per week which includes Accommodation Supplement, or $388.26
per week which includes “Special Benefit standard costs” and Accommodation
Supplement. It looks like every person is treated differently, depending on
their requirements. The main problem I had was finding what NZ pays me – the Disability
Allowance doesn’t seem to be a benefit. It could be superannuation, which is
$384.76 for a single person living alone. It would be around 50% of that for
me.
Australia
has more than one department and lists 35 different benefits (I thought 21 in
NZ was a bit daft!). Disabled, aged care, families and housing are supported
under the Department of Social Services, while job seekers are administered
under Newstart benefit at the Department of Human Services. Medicare cards and
health care cards are looked after by DHS, so no-one can manage just on one
department. Sounds silly? I think so. It looks like I get around 50% of the
Disability Support Pension – at least that works with what I get from NZ.
The
Newstart payment is $263.80 weekly (payments are fortnightly) or $329 if the
rent supplement is included.
I can’t
see what difference is between Australia and New Zealand: I’m sure I don’t
understand the benefit payments any more than probably 98% of the population
don’t!
General comments
This
isn’t an in-depth look at too many differences but has included information
from government sites and public information sites. The ones I used are listed
at the bottom – look them over if you wish to. In many reports I believe that Aus
costs are far too high and I wonder if that has grown due to the latest
immigrants?
I
read yesterday that the Chinese in WA are the largest property owners in WA. How
do you feel about that?
I
saw so many ads before the recent election which said that you had to put ‘Christian’
on your religion, even if you weren’t, because otherwise Muslims would ‘take
over’. Christianity has never appeared on my census because I am atheist.
Christianity has far too many ‘branches’ but still hangs onto far too much
income. The Pope lives in a Catholic city – where does everyone within this
world who is in poverty live?
Some
countries treat ordinary people much worse than Australia does, some treat ordinary
people much better. Most countries don’t have the same sort of population, and
most don’t have the sort of income. If you have chosen to live here, then don’t
black-mark anyone who wants to leave. If you were born here then don’t
black-mark anyone who is not treated very well. If you work then don’t
black-mark anyone who doesn’t or can’t.
Living
a real life should be what every
person here is living. Australia should provide every living person with a decent income, not poverty. Australia
should stop arguing with so-called
criminals who have lived here for too many years to ever be deported. Australia
should support disabled people rather
than just close the door on them.
Australia
should listen to people.
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