Clark tips pay rise for junior soldiers

By VERNON SMALL

Lower ranks in New Zealand's defence forces are first in line for a pay rise, Prime Minister Helen Clark indicated after visiting peacekeeping troops in East Timor.

"Everyone concedes that the pay of junior ranks - and we are talking across the board - is low," Helen Clark said from Sydney yesterday. "When you get to officer level it is not too bad, but for junior ranks it has slipped.

"There has been a pay and conditions review under way, and something has to be done."

She said no final decision had been made, but a broad range of options were being considered, including the rates of base pay and allowances.

"It would be unlikely for the review to lead to a decrease."

At the moment, troops in East Timor are paid various allowances totalling $102 a day before tax.

The rates have been widely criticised, especially in comparison with the tax-free $A125 ($165.40) a day paid to Australian troops.

Helen Clark said tax breaks for NZ soldiers would have to be examined as part of a complete review, but they had not won favour in the past.

Defence officials had put forward a range of options for a pay rise, with a variety of price tags.

All the options would cost much less than $100 million, but they were "not cheap," she said.

The Government had not yet considered if it would make more money available to help fund any pay rise.

The Herald understands that defence chiefs have told the Government that pay scales need to be brought closer to comparable market rates but there is no room to move within hard-pressed budgets.

Defence Force staff received across-the-board pay increases of 2.4 per cent in 1998 and 2.27 per cent in 1999. Army privates earn from $20,000 to $24,000 a year.

Helen Clark said she had been impressed by the morale among New Zealand's 660 peacekeepers during her visit, which included Suai and a forward post within 800m of the border with Indonesian West Timor.

She found little opposition to the possibility of a further rotation after May, involving a redeployment of some troops who went with the first battalion a year ago.

A third deployment is due to go to East Timor next month.

The cabinet is likely before Christmas to approve a fourth contingent, which would stay in East Timor until after elections scheduled to be held in August.

On her visit, Helen Clark talked to East Timor independence leader Xanana Gusmao, members of the transitional East Timorese Administration and UN representatives.

Herald Online feature: the Timor mission

UN Transitional Administration in E Timor