17 December 2001 Media Statement

$7 million pay boost for court staff

Government will provide $7 million new funding to bring court staff salaries up to the public sector average, Courts Minister Matt Robson announced today.

“Court staff carry out a complex role vital to the delivery of justice and the continued peace of our society yet have been neglected by previous governments, unwilling to invest in their remuneration and training, says Matt Robson.

“A detailed remuneration review carried out over the last 12 months by departmental officials and the Public Service Association shows that court staff are paid on average 12 percent below the public sector average for comparable jobs.

“The new funding will enable the implementation of a new pay structure based on skill and competence, and boost funding for training. In practical terms, low paid staff will benefit from a new minimum salary of $25,200, up from $20,000.

“People who perform public service roles are often taken for granted. I would hope that as we enter election year, New Zealanders will think about the work our public servants do. In order to pay them what they deserve, people like me need to pay more taxes,” says Matt Robson.

“This pay boost is not a wage round, it allows court staff to catch up to the rest of the public service.

“It also shows the Partnership for Quality agreed between the PSA and the Department for Courts, under which the old ‘them and us’ style industrial relationship was replaced with a co-operative relationship of open discussions around key issues, is the way forward in the public sector.

“The department will be implementing the new pay levels in the New Year, effective from 1 January 2002,” says Matt Robson.

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>>