[Cynos]

What I love is how commentators on this tend to blame NZ's taxation policies while simultanously ignoring two facts a) Our over-all taxation rate is lower than Australia, certain edge cases when you earn bog-all excluded, b) Australia happens to be having a major economic boom due to world demand for minerals.

A) is always contentious, but basically, people seem adverse to comparing apples with apples - in this case, New Zealand's income tax covers social security also, while Australia's income tax doesn't, that comes from payroll taxes which are usually not factored in.