Max Bradford National Defence Spokesperson

18 April 2001

Miserly pay rise for defence staff

"Today's pay rise for defence staff has already been ravaged by the inflationary policies of this Government," National's Defence spokesperson Max Bradford said today.

"As welcome as the package will be to lower paid defence force personnel, it is far from the generous increase the Government's spin machine would have us believe.

"For a start, there hasn't been as increase in the Defence Force for 22 months, which is a far longer period than those between increases granted under National.

"Under National defence force pay rose by an average of 4.8 percent between March 1997 and June 1999. This was well above the 1.4 percent increase in inflation during the same period.

"Today's announcement has barely compensated for the significant rise in inflation under the Labour-Alliance Government. The average 5 percent rise is only just above the inflation rate of 4.4 percent between July 1999 and March 2001.

"This pay increase might look good on paper, but it isn't going to buy as much as it used to.

"Today's pay package isn't likely to do much to stem the outflow of defence force personnel, or to counteract the loss of morale in the air force, navy or army as a result of this Government's defence policies which will see the dumbing down of the country's defence capability," Mr Bradford said.

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