Law & Order: National Party 1, Police 0, Public -1
Government wins in long standing pay dispute with police
What happened?
Media is reporting that police have lost in their pay dispute with the Coalition Government.
Some of you might remember that the police rejected Labour’s previous offer in September, 2023, possibly looking forward to be taken care of by the self-touted ‘Party of Law and Order’ - National.
If you look at the numbers, Labour had been able to re-grow police force ranks from 1 for every 544 New Zealanders under John Key, to 1 to every 480 in 2023.
1800 additional frontline police were added over two terms of government.
For their pay offer, Labour had offered police a $4000 increase to base salaries backdated to April 3, and a 4% increase in salary from April 2025.
At the time, the Police Association received 7893 votes, with 67% of officers voting to reject the offer.
In March 2024, National made their pay offer.
It was effectively lower than the Public Service Pay adjustment from the last Government.
Officers reported feeling abandoned. It clearly took them by surprise. Association president Chris Cahill called it “a kick in the guts”, “insulting” and “demoralising.”
Cahill also called out the National Government, saying the offer didn’t back up their lofty plans for law and order. The offer was flatly rejected.
A second offer from National in April 2024 was rejected by more than 75% of Police Association members.
The matter went to arbitration and the police today lost - which means they have to accept whatever offer the Government put on the table.
What is at stake?
Besides the matters of human dignity and living costs, there are other risks.
The latest police newsletter, before the arbitrator made their decision, included tips and tricks for police to find side hustles to earn extra income.
Police have reported going to WINZ and being told to go to food banks (The Coalition government has slashed funding for food banks too, forcing many to close or significantly scale back capacity.) Photos of collection baskets around police stations have made the rounds, and in Canterbury, water coolers were removed from stations as part of the government’s cost cutting drive.
Australia is offering huge bonuses and better pay structures for police. $20,000 cash. In May 2024, in one week alone, we lost 20 to Oz at a time of 250+ vacancies.
The most obvious risk is losing experienced police overseas. Policing is a profession, and you only have to look at the United States, to realise how important it is that there are decent, moral and professional cops on the beat.
There’s a risk of corrupt practices seeping into the police force, which is an insipid, dangerous practice.
The third risk is we have people who aren’t well trained or experienced to do a good job. The force is not a place where you just find people off the street, or lower recruitment or training standards, in order to fill the ranks. Experience is important, but so are soft skills like de-escalation, conflict resolution, problem solving, creativity and integrity.
Other risks include a demoralized work force, already under stress and under capacity.
All these lead to the ultimate point that enforcing law and order in a professional, responsible way requires cops who want to do their job, and do it well. i.e. Besides the stress on cops and their families, the government will need to look at ways to bolster morale, and help officers feel like they weren’t losers in this process - or we might all pay the price.
This is a more general reply to our current situation in NZ. That the police of all public services are treated like this is another symptom of a wider malaise in the country, caused by this government. Hence the rest of my post.
Is it just me or is our government actually trying to attack ordinary citizens? NZ has an awful road toll, so they increase urban speed limits against all the evidence. We have known the country has an aging boomer population for at least 30 years, so we refuse to address the healthcare implications. Evidence is clear, the longer people are able to stay in their own homes, the less expensive it is for the healthcare system, so funding is reduced in Public Health and for social care.
The evidence is clear that effective, wrap around services for youths and other young offenders stops them becoming life long criminals, so we underfund the wrap around services, increase sentencing and set up boot camps that the evidence shows don’t work.
We are desperately short of GP’s, hospital doctors , specialists and nurses. So we refuse to fund wages and conditions which leads to people leaving healthcare, leaving for overseas and stopping recruitment. I know from personal experience how bad our local hospital recruitment is becoming.
The evidence is that cost of living increases is in part being driven by profit gouging by supermarkets. The evidence is the duopoly needs to be broken up and wholesaling separated, so the government sits on its hands and does nothing.
Around the world, integration of transport is both good for the environment and the economy, so we cancel ferries, stop major refurbishment and plan for new roads with no evidence these will become cost effective improvements.
I could go on but what’s the point. The government is not listening to, the media concentrates on individual MP’s problems and the opposition is…….., where is the opposition??
So I totally agree with Tony. It does seem like this government for some weird reason is on a hate with New Zealanders - and more importantly, where TF are the public on all this. No-one seems to give a toss. I have some elderly friends who I lunch with regularly (staunch Nat supporters) who when I mentioned the other day they need to make the most of the warm homes allowance this year because the likely hood of them ever getting it again is nil to zero - they looked shocked! And if they do get it then all it will mean is that they can continue to eat next winter.
We've been told recently that inflation is coming down, and that big ol' story that interest rates will start coming down soon! Why then did over 60% of the items in my shopping trolley cost me more this last week than it did the week before?
They can spout all the words they like, tell all the BS they want, but unless people feel a difference every week no-one is going to believe them.
Edit: I'm really keen to know how the Government won this one. The other thing that happened, is Police will start to be paid overtime again - from next year I think - that's a very weird concession from this Govt.