11. RON MARK (NZ First) Link to this
to the Minister of Defence
What is the hourly base rate of pay for New Zealand’s Special Air Service soldiers, given that they are contracted with the Army to be on duty 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week?
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Defence) Link to this
Special Air Service personnel, like other Defence Force personnel, are not paid hourly rates; they are paid salaries, and those salaries vary according to rank. The base rate of salary for Special Air Services personnel is between $39,000 and $93,000 a year, but when the operational deployment allowance and the other benefits they get are taken into account, those figures translate to between $80,000 and $140,000 a year as their total remuneration package—based on last year’s figures.
Does the Minister think it is acceptable that our elite Special Air Service soldiers, whom the Minister himself described as being “regarded as being among the best in the field by other coalition forces”, are being paid less than the average police officer, nurse, teacher, and mid-level bureaucrat, none of whom are charged with the responsibility of conducting highly sensitive and hazardous covert operations in some of the most inhospitable climates in the world?
Of course I stand by my comments about our Special Air Service being among the most professional and competent special forces in the world. They are, and the member and I have seen recent examples of that. But I cannot go along with what the member has said about Special Air Service personnel being paid less than nurses and police officers. On the figures I have given, the total remuneration package of between $80,000 and $140,000 a year is a good pay rate, and is richly deserved.
Dianne YatesAfter the lean years of the 1990s and the National administration, Defence Force personnel generally have received pay increases in each of the last 5 years, consecutively. That never happened in the 1990s, when the pay rates were miserable and increases were generally not given, at all. I give as an example the fact that Special Air Service personnel, in the last 4 years, I think, have had pay increases of 19 percent, and general Defence Force personnel increases of about 11.6 percent. That is why they are much happier under this administration than they would have been under the past miserable National administration.
Does the Minister not accept that the figures he has quoted are operational, which means they are less than the Special Tactics Group of the police force is being paid; and, further, why do we have taxation law that makes it possible for the ministerial committee, comprising the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defence, and the Minister of Finance, to determine Afghanistan formally to be an operational area—thereby exempting Special Air Service soldiers from income tax whilst deployed on active service in that country—if we are not going to use that law?
The making of base salary non-taxable, I think, has not been the case since the 1950s, but it is true to say that the operational deployment allowance is non-taxable. To give the member an example, I tell him that a lance corporal in the Special Air Service last year, for his or her operational deployment allowance, would have received $22,509 tax-free. Of course, if we looked at the total income of Defence Force personnel and of Special Air Service personnel, we would see that probably about 40 percent of their remuneration package is made up of non-taxable allowances.
Is it not a fact that New Zealand right now faces the problem that the offers of service from international companies to our troopers and corporals are very attractive, and that that undermines our ability to sustain our capability; and, given that pay is an issue for young soldiers with families, what would this Government’s response be to the New Zealand First proposal that an armed forces pay review board be established within the State Services Commission, and that it be tasked with reporting annually to the Minister on pay and conditions—thereby enabling the Chief of Defence Force to advocate more forcefully for his personnel?
To answer the first part of the member’s question, yes. Over the period of 2002-04 particularly, there was a very tight labour market for international private sector security operations. Anyone with the sort of training the Special Air Service personnel have could go to Iraq, if he or she wanted to go to Iraq, and be paid a gold-plated salary. That, of course, does not preserve such people’s lives if they are caught up in a situation—and that could easily happen—so there is a trade-off. Over that 2-year period of time we paid special retention allowances to Special Air Service personnel of $33,000, which did make a difference in terms of holding people in. In terms of the second part of the member’s question, I say that it is really a question for the Minister of State Services. But apart from the Remuneration Authority, which pays higher salaries, the Government mostly does not get into having special boards to work out salaries. Those are determined by market conditions.