Matua Kahurangi
Just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes.
Kiwis are leaving in record numbers, but can you blame them? New Zealand has become a broken, over-regulated, culturally fragmented mess. The numbers don’t lie. In 2024, 47,300 people left for Australia, while just 17,300 came back the other way. That’s a net loss of 30,000.
This place used to be somewhere people wanted to stay. Now it’s a country you escape from.
Housing is unaffordable, wages are laughable compared to what Australia offers, and the streets feel less like home. Why? Because mass immigration has transformed New Zealand beyond recognition, and not for the better.
We now have a prime minister with a spine made of mango lassi. Christopher Luxon isn’t leading. He’s pandering. He seems more interested in importing a never-ending wave of Rajs, Deepaks and Rakeheshes than looking after the Kiwis who are struggling to afford rent and groceries. The same voters who handed him the keys are already regretting it. He is, without question, in my humble opinion, one of the weakest leaders this country has ever seen. No wonder his nickname is Cindyboy.
New Zealand has been aggressively Māorified to the point where our national identity is buried under layers of forced bilingualism, performative culture, and separatist policies. The average Kiwi is made to feel like a stranger in their own land. When they speak up, they’re labelled racist, silenced, or told to get used to it. Well, I guess that’s why so many Kiwis are leaving for Aussie.
In the year to May 2025, 124,500 people fled New Zealand. That is the highest number ever recorded. Meanwhile, immigration continues, mostly from India, China, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. It’s becoming clearer by the day that this government isn’t building a nation. It’s replacing one. The Great Replacement is already underway.
ASB’s own economists admit the economy is flatlining. Wages are stagnant, inflation is crippling, and people have stopped spending because they’ve got nothing left to spend. The government’s big solution? Loosen immigration rules and beg wealthy foreigners to settle here. How utterly pathetic. I’ve said it before – we don’t need any more Uber drivers.
Until we get real leadership, real national pride, and real solutions, more and more New Zealanders will do what the stats are already showing. Leave this sinking ship behind and start fresh somewhere that still values its own people.
This is not the country I grew up in. It’s a husk of what it used to be. Unless something changes fast, New Zealand won’t just be a place people are leaving. It’ll be a place no one even recognises any more.
This article was originally published on the author’s Substack.
