MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Use Wednesday 18 2001

MARK WELCOMES TROOPS’ PAY RISE: BUT WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG?

New Zealand First has welcomed the announcement of a pay rise for Defence Force personnel but doubts that it will significantly deal with recruitment and retention problems.

“If it only took this much ($18m in the next financial year) to fix, why did it take so long?” spokesman Ron Mark has asked.

“While I am pleased for our service personnel that the government has at last taken action one has to wonder if it is too little too late. An average 5% pay rise won’t solve the personnel problem, 5% of very little is still nothing much, Mr Mark said

“The big defence questions remain unanswered. As long as our country’s defence strategy remains unclear and while our forces are poorly equipped and supported we cannot expect significant improvements in morale, or in recruitment or retention” Mr Mark said.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>