New Zealand First Defence spokesperson Ron Mark has welcomed
the increase in allowances for soldiers fighting in East
Timor, but says the new rates are still not enough.
He
notes that our Kiwis, fighting alongside the Australians,
will only be receiving half the allowances for the same
fire-fight.
“Unfortunately, this government has not acted
of its own initiative, or out of a sense of duty for our
service personnel, but has only increased allowances because
of the pressure applied by the public feeling on this
issue.
“There still remains the issue as to whether or not
our standard rates of pay are enough. Pay for junior ranks
is so low that many of our Defence force personnel are
having to rely on welfare benefits to
survive”.
If you're using Scoop for work, your organisation needs to pay a small license fee with Scoop Pro. We think that's fair, because your organisation is benefiting from using our news resources. In return, we'll also give your team access to pro news tools and keep Scoop free for personal use, because public access to news is important!
Well that didn’t last long, did it? Mere days after taking on what he called the “awesome responsibility” of being Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon has started blaming everyone else and complaining that he's inherited “economic vandalism on an unprecedented scale” - which is how most of us would describe his own coalition agreements, 100-Day Plan, and backdated $3 billion handout to landlords... More
New CTU analysis of the National & ACT coalition agreement has shown the cost of returning interest deductibility to landlords is an extra $900M on top of National’s original proposal. This is because it is going to be implemented earlier and faster, including retrospective rebates from April 2023. More
“The new Government’s plan to expand oil and gas exploration is as dangerous as it is unscientific. Whatever you think about the new government, there is simply no mandate to trash the climate. We need to come together to stop them,” says James Shaw. More
MFAT's decision to remove te reo from correspondence before new Ministers are sworn in risks undermining the important progress the public sector has made in honouring te Tiriti. "We are very disappointed in what is a backward decision - it simply seems to be a Ministry bowing to the racist rhetoric we heard on the election campaign trail," says Marcia Puru. More