Yesterday, the NZ Herald reported:
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says a ‘productivity problem’ is driving skilled Kiwis offshore
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he has a plan to build a country where Kiwis want to stay, but healthcare, safety and productivity are holding us back. Luxon told Herald Now’s Ryan Bridge that we have a serious productivity problem in New Zealand.
The problem is that keeping wages low isn't going to increase productivity. Luxon’s pay equity overhaul, rammed through under urgency, trashes 33 claims for 150,000 workers, mostly women in underpaid sectors like health and education. By raising the bar for proving gender-based undervaluation, National’s slammed the door shut on fair pay, leaving many New Zealand workers to continue scraping by. Luxon claims this has saved $12.8 billion from ballooning debt, but National’s borrowing has soared regardless. Delaying pay equity hikes isn’t progress, it’s a deliberate wage freeze that pushes skilled Kiwis to better salaries in places like Australia.
Luxon has further eroded wages by ignoring MBIE’s recommended minimum wage increase to $23.60 per hour. Instead, the adult minimum wage crawled from $23.15 to $23.50 in April 2025, a pathetic 35-cent rise. Workers who are starting out or training get a measly bump from $18.52 to $18.80. That’s $14 extra per week before tax for a full-time worker, worthless against years of inflation eroding real wages. Under Labour, minimum wages jumped 7.3% annually; Luxon’s coalition delivers a stingy 2% in 2024 and now 1.5% in 2025. There is no question that the coalition of chaos funnels pay equity savings into tax breaks for landlords and corporates, not workers’ pockets, and not towards paying of government debt.
Luxon’s claim that he’s building “a country where Kiwis want to stay” is pure fiction. Real-term education cuts have gutted schools, with plummeting attendance and achievement. “The key to his plan was ensuring the education of young people,” Luxon said, yet his government starves the system needed to deliver even edible school lunches. How does this entice back the 70,000 Kiwis who’ve bolted over the past year? It doesn’t…it screams a future of low-wages and dead-end prospects that Chris Luxon’s word salad cannot dress up.
Ryan Bridge let Luxon’s propaganda slide, his matey banter failing to probe the 70,000-strong exodus or the wage-killing reality of pay equity cuts. Where were the questions about families crushed by low wages, high rents and the soaring cost of living in New Zealand? Bridge’s softball approach let Luxon peddle his “long-term plan” rubbish unchecked, leaving viewers clueless about the true extent of National’s failures. Luxon’s claim that “in recessionary times, people will go overseas” glosses over how his own policies have fuelled that flight.
This coalition of chaos isn’t bringing Kiwis home; it’s shoving them out the door. With wages frozen, education slashed, and $12.8 billion redirected to the wealthy, Luxon’s out-of-touch government betrays everyday New Zealanders. To stem the exodus, we need fair pay and real investment in people, not austerity and corporate handouts dressed up as progress. And for that we need a change of government.
