Why Australian paramedics are swapping higher pay for New Zealand jobs
Hato Hone St John paramedics Camara Cosier, left, and Sarah Guy are two of more than 50 Australian-trained paramedics who have swapped higher pay at home for broader skills and a better lifestyle across the Tasman. Photo / Mike Scott
Australian paramedics are bucking the well-established transtasman migrant flow and choosing New Zealand jobs for opportunity over higher pay at home.
And it is confounding the locals they are treating.
“All the Kiwi patients we go to, they’re like, ‘Wait, that’s an Australian accent. What are you doing here?’,” Hato Hone St John paramedic Sarah Guy, 25, told the Herald.
The patients’ confusion is because it counters the long-term trend of Kiwis flocking to Australia for better jobs and pay.
In 2024, 30,000 more people left New Zealand for Australia than arrived from there, with young adults aged 20 to 39 driving much of the outflow.
Four years ago, Guy went the other way, arriving in Aotearoa to work as an emergency medical technician – a step below paramedic – for Hato Hone St John in Huntly on a six-month contract.
She had two friends already working in the Waikato ambulance service who raved about working in New Zealand.
Despite having six months left of her paramedicine degree at Charles Sturt University, she took the chance to get hands-on experience while completing the qualification by distance study.
“It started as just a holiday and then we just keep extending it and then you take a permanent contract and then all of a sudden you’re here two years later, then four years,” Guy said.
She has since worked at three stations across the Waikato – Huntly, Hamilton and now Te Awamutu, where she has been based for nine months as a qualified paramedic.
The pull is not money – Australian paramedics earn more at home.
“It’s common knowledge that it is higher pay across the board in any industry in Australia,” Guy said.
“We did take a pay cut coming over here.”
What draws her and her colleagues is the scope of practice – the range of medicines and interventions New Zealand paramedics can utilise without requiring oversight, she said.
“Compared to Australia, that is really wide. We can do a lot of treatments [here] compared to what a New South Wales paramedic could do.
“I think it’s fair to say that St John ambulance is really innovative with their treatments and their medicine.”
Jono Cash, workforce experience – effectiveness manager, said in the past 17 months, Hato Hone St John had hired about 13 Australian-trained graduate paramedics through its Tertiary Employment Pathway.
It accounts for 17% of total hires through the pathway, he said.
“New Zealand‑trained paramedicine graduates remain Hato Hone St John’s priority, with most recruitment occurring through local pathways.
“However, there continues to be interest from Australian‑trained paramedics.
“The graduate job market in Australia is highly competitive, with more graduates than available roles in some areas, prompting some to look to New Zealand for opportunities.”
Besides the graduates, a number of experienced Australian paramedics also join through other recruitment channels attracting international applications.
“Currently, 52 of Hato Hone St John’s emergency ambulance staff hold an Australian degree, and they are deployed across several regions, including Auckland, Waikato, the central North Island and Canterbury.
“Our scope of practice and work-life balance are also factors that make working here attractive.”
Some Kiwi paramedics do make the switch to Australia however not in great numbers according to figures supplied by the Kaunihera Manapou Paramedic Council, Ambulance Operations general manager Stuart Cockburn said.
“We estimate fewer than 2% of our frontline staff have moved from New Zealand to Australia in the last year.”
This is certainly the case for Camara Cosier, also working as a paramedic in Te Awamutu.
She grew up in Wellington in New South Wales – a town on the edge of the outback, six hours west of Sydney.
Te Awamutu is a very different scene.
“I love it. There’s no desert, there’s not much drought.
“If it’s a drought [in New Zealand], it’s three weeks. I had a six-year drought back home, so I’m quite happy having greenery everywhere and lovely mountains and hills everywhere. I like all the dairy farms with rolling hills.”
Cosier also studied at Charles Sturt University at its Bathurst campus before moving to New Zealand four and a half years ago.
She estimated about 20 of her ambulance work colleagues in the Hamilton region are Australian.
Most arrived through the same recruitment pathway before or shortly after graduating, Cosier said.
“A majority of people when I first started working in Hamilton were Australian.”
Colleagues who returned to Australia after a New Zealand stint found the ambulance work less demanding but the pay better, Cosier said.
“They’ve had a skill downgrade, and with that comes a responsibility downgrade.”
Going home for a visit is not a huge deal. Cosier heads back to Wellington, NSW, every handful of months to see her family and Guy heads back across the ditch yearly.
St John’s four-on, four-off roster – two days, two nights, four days off – is something both women liked.
“We can go to the South Island for a week and just pop around,” Guy said.
About 80% of Australian paramedics remain with St John after two years and some do settle long-term.
Others gain experience and return home or head to other parts of the globe – ambulance officers experienced in New Zealand are well-regarded around the world.
For now, neither woman is going anywhere.
“I do know it won’t be forever, because at the end of the day I miss my family and all of them are back in Australia,” Guy said.
However, she does have a partner and a dog.
“I’m very tied down now – it’s a bit embarrassing.”
Mike Scott has covered stories across New Zealand and internationally for more than 20 years. His work spans writing, photography and video and has won numerous journalism awards.
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