The election campaign is under way

Well done National, a good billboard merging those who will get a tax cut and the too many who won't.That's because the ones who won't have left the country because they're not better off under Labour.

National will build on Labour's planned October tax cuts.We will treat those as the first tranche in our tax cut programme. There will be further tax reductions on 1 April 2009, and again on 1 April 2010. "The billboard also highlights Labour's failure to stem the tide of people voting with their feet and leaving New Zealand.
"The figures are sky-high. Recent statistics show that more people than ever are leaving. In the year to July, 80,872 people packed their bags and headed overseas for good.

That's the highest loss for a year ended July since 1979, and the second highest loss ever. That’s a whopping 1,555 people per week. Or 222 people per day. Or one every six and a half minutes. The greatest loss since 1979 and the second highest since records began.

The largest beneficiary, as always, was Australia. 40,971 headed across the Tasman - that's 879 every week. Or 126 per day. Or more than one person every eleven and a half minutes.