{"id":281433,"date":"2026-02-13T02:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T02:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/281433\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T02:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T02:07:08","slug":"treasury-ceo-iain-rennie-warns-nz-is-losing-too-many-of-its-best-and-brightest-as-the-countrys-top-firms-arent-attracting-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/281433\/","title":{"rendered":"Treasury CEO Iain Rennie warns NZ is losing too many of its best and brightest, as the country\u2019s top firms aren\u2019t attracting talent"},"content":{"rendered":"He noted migrants plugged the gap, but said one couldn\u2019t get away from the fact a large portion of Kiwis were spending some of their most productive years overseas. <\/p>\n
New Zealand lost 40,030 more citizens in 2025 than it gained, according to Stats NZ\u2019s latest estimates. <\/p>\n
The net loss of Kiwis was similar following the Global Financial Crisis, but not as bad as in 2011-12 after the Canterbury earthquakes and when the Australian economy was booming.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a net 54,205 non-New Zealand citizens arrived in the country in 2025.<\/p>\n
Rennie noted there wasn\u2019t a single solution to the problem of departing Kiwis.<\/p>\n
He credited the Government for improving the education system, resource management law, and tax settings, but said a \u201csustained and predictable path will be needed to build the confidence that helps New Zealand to attract global investment and talent\u201d.<\/p>\n
He singled out New Zealand\u2019s top 10% \u201cfrontier\u201d firms for not operating in the same realms as other countries\u2019 most productive and innovative firms to attract talent. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn other OECD countries, the gap between frontier and lagging firms has been widening. But New Zealand\u2019s distribution is relatively flat and stable, indicating our frontier firms are not driving productivity growth,\u201d Rennie said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd this connects directly to our capital and innovation challenges. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrontier firms typically invest more in capital, adopt new technologies faster, and employ more high-skilled workers. Without strong frontier firms, we struggle to create the demand for skills and capital that would justify higher returns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jen\u00e9e Tibshraeny is the Herald\u2018s Wellington business editor, based in the parliamentary press gallery. She specialises in government and Reserve Bank policymaking, economics and banking.<\/p>\n
Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He noted migrants plugged the gap, but said one couldn\u2019t get away from the fact a large portion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,95,27299,806,74186,3390,23738,138,3500,1887,157438,8473,2949,25337,138233,185,302,11556,5829,130,9812,111,139,69,1118,12968,138234,22309,312,3045,5824,223,8229,6173,3010,25187,8218,2963],"class_list":["post-281433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-and","tag-arent","tag-as","tag-attracting","tag-best","tag-brightest","tag-business","tag-ceo","tag-countrys","tag-domestically","tag-done","tag-finding","tag-firms","tag-iain","tag-is","tag-its","tag-losing","tag-many","tag-more","tag-needs","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-opportunities","tag-rennie","tag-retain","tag-says","tag-secretary","tag-talent","tag-the","tag-they","tag-too","tag-top","tag-treasury","tag-warns","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}