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June 13th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Updated
Thousands of Australian jobs are being shipped across the Tasman to New Zealand as firms chase lower wages and less restrictive labour laws.
Off-shoring – or ‘near-shoring’ – positions to New ZealandZ has intensified as firms realise they can get the same quality output for at least 30 per cent lower cost.
Last month ANZ announced plans for 70 jobs to be transferred across the Tasman.
Auckland-based Telnet has so far lured four Australian companies in a range of industries from media to cosmetics and aviation to join its ranks.
The ASX-listed film-streaming business Quickflix is among them.
“We have an opportunity to help them achieve that,” Telnet managing director John Chetwynd said.
With an unemployment rate at an 18-year high of nearly 8 per cent, Wellington is welcoming Australian businesses with open arms.
Melbourne-based CallActive has secured three floors of commercial real estate in central Wellington for what will become a 1,000-seat call centre.
“The company tax rates are lower, salaries are a little bit lower, superannuation is only 3 per cent … utility costs are a little bit cheaper,” CallActive’s Justin Teippett said.
Contact Centres Australia opened its first New Zealand call centre earlier this year.
In April, Unity4 also announced plans to transfer jobs to New Zealand.
New Zealand’s finance minister Bill English says call centres are not the only Australian industry setting up shop in the country.
“What we are finding is that the effect of off-shoring is not just in call centre jobs, but in high tech jobs and in IT jobs,” he said.
Fairfax media began off-shoring last year with 40 production jobs, earlier this year it announced another batch of editorial jobs as well as most of its call centre work would shift to New Zealand.
Some businesses making the move argue the New Zealand lifestyle is a key selling point for those workers given the opportunity to relocate.
Topics:
business-economics-and-finance,
regulation,
government-and-politics,
new-zealand,
australia,
pacific
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Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-13/australian-jobs-near-shoring-to-nz-as-companies-cut-costs/4752728
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