Quote of the Day; Darien Fenton special - 2 August 2013

Here's the story from Radio New Zealand, for context:

The Government has no qualms about Australian companies shifting jobs to New Zealand because of lower wages.
Labour is concerned that New Zealand is becoming a desirable destination for Australian businesses taking advantage of the wage gap.
Several big Australian banks and food producers have shifted jobs to New Zealand in the last two years.
Now call centres are also making the move, mostly because it is cheaper.

Then here comes the Quote of the Day bit:

Darien Fenton MP said the trend is deeply worrying.

What? The Labour Party including Darien Fenton berates the Government week after week after week after week about jobs. But then when jobs are created, Ms Fenton moans because they're not the "right" jobs.

Before Edward the Confessor makes his way here to decry call centre jobs (they seem to be his pet hate; maybe he has one!) here's a little story. A family member of ours was out of work last year. Then they found a job in a call centre. It was hard work, but this person thrived, and is now a supervisor with the same firm. They said to us when they started "It's not what I want to do long-term, but it's a job, it's a reasonable income, and it beats being unemployed. At least I have something to get up for every day."

There are hundreds of people out of work as our family member was who would be more than happy to take a call centre job to get back into employment. And people's self esteem gets a boost when they go out to work each day rather than sitting around at home doing nothing.

New Zealand has a small economy compared to that of Australia, and of our other trading partners. Our economy is recovering from the rigours of the past few years of global economic downturns, and although job growth has lagged a little, that too is happening now. Any new jobs being created in New Zealand should be welcomed, not derided.

And if Darien Fenton wants to worry about "deeply worrying" trends, perhaps she should focus on recent political polls. The trends there are not exactly flattering to Labour, but comments such as the one above by Ms Fenton go some way towards explaining them.