Quotes of the Day

March 7 was census day for 4 million New Zealanders. While much of the talk around Auckland last week was about ethnic identity and a festival of sport, there was also bright buzz around news of a business deal. The $NZ700 million purchase by Australian media company Fairfax of local online auction site Trade Me had a number of sweet elements. Founder Sam Morgan, 30, a university dropout, was about to become one of the country's wealthiest people. Fairfax's new Sydney-based boss, David Kirk, is a former captain of the All Blacks. And if it seemed almost every computer owner in New Zealand had a personal stake in Trade Me, it wasn't far from the truth: the site has 1.2 million members and gets 63% of the country's Web traffic. It's a digital monopoly that would make even the Google guys go gaga.

A jubilant Michael Cullen, the Finance Minister, said the sale represented "700 million votes of confidence in the New Zealand economy." Gosh! Aside from questions a visitor might have about the economic value of the Kiwi cult of selling second-hand stuff to each other, it's also tempting to ask whether the sale would have happened without the involvement of expatriate Kirk. Did the connection help Morgan get in the door or secure a great price? Did Kirk see something in Trade Me that his Australian competitors (or his Fairfax predecessor) missed? You can't help wondering if this deal isn't the first of many in which the global Kiwi network will make a difference. .

There's little doubt that the idea of a "brain drain" verges on a national neurosis. In the year to January, the number of New Zealanders permanently departing the country exceeded by 25,000 those returning home; two years earlier the gap was 11,200. About 90% of the dynamic comes from the pull of high-wage Australia. During last year's election campaign, Don Brash, leader of National, the main opposition party, argued that the exodus was caused by his country's miserable growth in incomes (which are one-third below Australia's, on average, after tax) despite a good economic performance under successive governments led by Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark. National, which lost narrowly, still believes that lowering taxes across the.

board will bring both new businesses and skilled workers to New Zealand. In a small, remote country, the attraction of studying or working elsewhere - especially for high achievers - is strong. The overseas experience (OE) is a rite of passage, particularly for men. During the past 25 years, the outflow of young men has become a deluge. For thirtysomething Kiwi women, finding a mate has never been more difficult - they outnumber blokes in the 30-39 age group by 25,000. The differential stalls birth rates and has serious implications for the sustainability of the country's tax regime and generous social welfare system. But before Australians say tough, trend spotter Bernard Salt believes his country could be headed down the same path. "Australia needs to ensure that globalization does not lead to the plundering by others of our youth, our energy, our intellect and our men," he writes in The Big Picture (Hardie Grant Books). .

Around 1 million New Zealanders - almost another Auckland - are thought to be living overseas. Ross McConnell, chief executive of the not-for-profit Kiwi Expat Association (KEA) is trying to get his fellow citizens to think of New Zealand as a "globally connected nation of 5 million people, rather than as an isolated country of 4 million people." Last week McConnell launched an online global census (www.everyonecounts.co. nz) to find out more about those missing Kiwis. "Knowing more about this community will have practical benefits, and will help us better define ourselves as a nation," he says. Since 2002, the KEA network has gathered 5,000 expats and "friends of New Zealand" to its database; by Friday, 14,000 Kiwis living in 128 countries had completed the survey. .

McConnell says KEA, which operates like a university alumni organization, can help the country's smaller exporters find their way to major or distant markets and also take some of the psychological strain off successful expats, who are often accused of abandoning their country. The brain drain can be a huge opportunity, if it's managed properly, keeping those who leave feeling connected. Some Kiwis, like McConnell, are changing their minds about where the focus of immigration policy should rest: less emphasis on attracting immigrants who are offshore, and more on tending to the needs of former expats and new migrants in New Zealand. Australia faces different challenges, but the days of thinking the world's skilled workers are busting to get into the "Lucky Country" are coming to an end. As Salt argues in his new book, Australia needs to pursue defensive migration strategies to retain skilled workers. "We need to protect against the possible 'Kiwification' of Australia," he writes, "to ensure others do not do to us what we have done to New Zealand."

• Tom Dusevic
• A small country's "brain drain" is a condition of modern life. Get ready world